WITHIN THESE WALLS: A Sculptural Installation at New Haven’s City Gallery

City Gallery invites you to experience WITHIN THESE WALLS, a sculptural installation by artists Meg Bloom and Howard el Yasin on view from September 6 - September 30, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, September 8, 2-5pm at 994 State Street in New Haven.

“We began with thinking about the ‘wall’ as a contemporary ideological construct, but this project has become an extended meditation on walls as boundaries, structures, barriers, surfaces, and globalization to name a few,” explains Bloom. “The reclaimed materials, for example, call attention to our complicity with cultural production and environmental waste.”

For Bloom, finding beauty in the imperfect, acknowledging moments of change, and engaging with the process of transformation often form the basis of her work. “Although primarily a sculptor, I also work in a variety of media, both 2 and 3D,” she explains. ‘I may start with pulp to produce large handmade paper sculptures, or raw Kozo fibers which I cook and peel, then reassemble, or layers of silk and wax and papers which I transform.” Her art often references nature and issues around imperfection and impermanence, including both deterioration and regeneration. “I am committed to trying to integrate social, political and environmental concerns into my work,” she says of her more recent work, including what you’ll see during WITHIN THESE WALLS.

Her partner in this show is interdisciplinary artist Howard el-Yasin, a collector of mundane, and sometimes abject, fragments of human and industrial detritus for their materiality. His intellectual interests include marginality and systems of value, to everydayness and residue. His work is in private collections and has been exhibited nationally. el-Yasin holds an M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art and has attended residencies at Anderson Ranch and Vermont Studio Center. “My art practice investigates everyday perceptions, and the materiality of ’things’ as signs pointing to multiplicities of meaning, including social values that may reference marginalization,” el-Yasin explains. “My methodology interweaves process, spatial awareness, and collecting fragments of ubiquitous materials, which are remnants of cultural production.”

Gallery visitors are invited to engage in conversation with the artists’ work as they move between the unique, creative spaces of WITHIN THESE WALLS. The show and opening reception are free and open to the public. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Thursday - Sunday, 12 noon - 4pm. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.