Upcoming Exhibition
“Whatever the Weather”, 2016. Collograph, ink, watercolor by Bonnie Rose Sullivan.
Winter Arts Festival
Exhibition runs December 13-January 17.
Opening Reception for the Student Art Exhibition
Friday, December 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Vocal and instrumental performances by MCC students.
Current Exhibition
Joshua Abelow and William King
Exhibition runs October 31-December 4, 2019.
Opening Reception
Thursday, October 31 at 5:30 p.m.
“A man in a well-tailored suit will always shine brighter than a guy in an off-the-rack suit.”
– Michael Kors
This was directly quoted to me by a 15-year-old named Leander. I worked with his mother. Back then I was the director of a mid-sized museum on a college campus and tried to dress the part. Inevitably this kid and I would end up talking about tie bars, monograms, and two buttons vs. the three-button Ivy League suit. He was a curious character; always accompanying his parents to visiting artist lectures, at the bar after chatting up painters from NY while sipping a club soda and lime. We didn’t have kids like this where I’m from. He was distinguished by his spindly frame, uneasily standing in a tall arc like a Giacometti walking into the wind. I never saw Leander not in a tie. He was a miniature adult. His style was somewhere between a disaffected polymath and a clear-eyed troubadour, a tweed clad surrealist complete with a shaggy Britpop bob haircut.
My confusion stems from where I was at that age: sun fatigued and half-crazy running around in fields, wearing dirty sweatpants, playing soccer in the fall and lacrosse once the snow melted. My sartorial sensibilities stemmed from a biannual trip downtown where I’d get new t-shirts, sweats, and shorts from Sears or TJ Maxx. Until I turned 17 and won a classmate’s Ralph Lauren raincoat off him in a World Series bet, every stitch of my clothes was functional. (The kid I won the coat from was Ronald Byrne. He came into school the next day and said his mother was going to kill him, as it was a birthday present. On principle, that coat still hangs in my childhood closet today).
Then I grew up and became a curator. I dressed as though I wanted to be a bookish teenager. Very natty, often checked sport shirts, worn under a semi-coordinated scruffy sweater, along with a slender tie from the Barney’s Warehouse clearance bin, bright-colored patterned socks, and a bright pair of white-walled Jordans. Spidery arms and legs protruding from outlandishly boxy and breezy clothing–the geometric equivalent to David Byrne’s square suit in the Stop Making Sense documentary. At one point the Portland Press Herald named me one of the best dressed men in the city. Yet, that damn kid always one-upped me.
At the college holiday party, I asked Leander what he wanted for Christmas. He beamed and nonchalantly took a step back. With a twinkle in his eye: ‘You’re looking at it.’ Like any proper child he was done with ‘off the rack.’ For three years his Christmas wish list consisted solely of a bespoke suit. The request was accompanied by an evolving list of acceptable couturiers in New York and Boston. They settled on Drinkwater’s, a haberdashery in Cambridge. Walking in they gave him a glass of orange juice with a splash of champagne and began combing through a book with 10,000 fabric swatches available. He opted for a fine-looking 13oz British worsted, minimal sheen, peaked lapels, single-breasted, two-button cut, with slanting flap pockets, and no vent. After three years of dreaming, he could clearly see the suit before stepping foot in the shop. He matched it with a contrasting windowpane wool trouser. It took three trips down to get the alterations just so. Here he was standing 10-foot tall. It was sharp. The intricacies didn’t reveal themselves all at once. Leander was most proud of the high armhole paired with the slim sleeve, his own decisions based on the tailors of Savile Row. He vowed to wear it to his junior high school every day.
After moving out of town I did not keep in touch with Leander because he was 15.
– Daniel Fuller
Writer and curator based in Atlanta, Georgia
Joshua Abelow (b. 1976) lives and works in Harris, New York and New York, New York. Abelow received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (1998) and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (2008). Abelow has exhibited work at several galleries both nationally and internationally. Freddy was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 2014. In 2016, Abelow moved Freddy to Harris, New York where he has, to date, presented nineteen exhibitions in his renovated church. Find out more about Freddy at www.freddygallery.biz. Additionally, Abelow is known for his blog, ART BLOG ART BLOG, which was updated on a daily basis for five years (2010-2015).
William King (1925-2015) was a contemporary American sculptor born in Jacksonville, Florida. His work spanned countless media and usually revolved around the figurative portrayal of human figures. After attending the University of Florida, King moved to New York in 1945 and graduated from Cooper Union in 1948. His style was mostly abstraction and pop art. During the years of 1994 to 1998, he served as the president of the National Academy of Design. In 2007, King was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award given by the International Sculpture Center.
Gallery Hours
Monday-Friday: 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Saturday: 12 noon–4 p.m.
Location
SBM Charitable Foundation Building, First Floor
Submissions
The Hans Weiss Newspace Gallery reviews work on an ongoing basis. Materials (images, resume and statement) can be forwarded to:
Susan Classen-Sullivan
Hans Weiss Newspace Gallery
Manchester Community College
Great Path, MS#19
Manchester, CT 06040
or via email to:
sclassen-sullivan@manchestercc.edu
Previous Exhibitions
- Connecticut Fellowship Artists – September 12-October 17, 2019
- Spring Arts Festival, May 17-August 15, 2019
- Fabular Objects, Hirokazau Fukawa – March 28-May 7, 2019
- Fine Art Faculty Exhibition – February 7-March 20, 2019
- Student Art Exhibition – December 14, 2018 to January 15, 2019
- Tell Us A Story – November 1 to December 4, 2018
- A Suspension of Stereotypic Perception – September 13 to October 16,2018
- Student Visual Art – May 11 to August 15, 2018
- MONSTERS among/within – March 29 to May 3, 2018
- Wash With Like Colors – February 8 to March 22, 2018
- Winter Arts Festival – December 15, 2017 to January 16, 2018
- Further On – November 2 to December 6, 2017
- the daydreaming SEA – September 14 to October 23, 2017
- Student Fine Art Exhibition – May 12 to August 7, 2017
- ABSTRACT – March 30 to May 2, 2017
- Break It Down Shake It Up – Fine Art Faculty Exhibition – February 2 to March 8, 2017
- Winter Arts Festival – December 16, 2016 to January 16, 2017
- Women’s Work – October 27 to November 30, 2016
- Object Lessons – September 15 to October 18, 2016
- Spring Arts Festival – May 20 to August 23, 2016
- Tom Hébert – April 7 to May 4, 2016
- IN OUT (works of the body) – February 11 to March 16, 2016
- Winter Arts Festival: Student Fine Art Exhibition – December 18, 2015 to January 20, 2016
- Rashaad Newsome: Shade Compositions – November 5 to December 10. 2015
- Just Imagine, September 10 to October 22, 2015
- Spring Arts Festival, Student Fine Art Exhibition – May 15 to August 30, 2015
- Sol LeWit – February 19 to April 29, 2015
- Fine Arts Festival, Student Fine Art Exhibition – December 12, 2014 to January 20, 2015
- Fine Art Faculty Exhibition – October 23 to December 3, 2014
- Winter Arts Festival – December 14, 2013 to January 14, 2014
- Habitat – October 24 to December 4, 2013
- Newly Minted – September 12 to October 16, 2013
- 2013 Spring Arts Festival – May 17 to August 8, 2013
- Esther Solondz – Retrospective – April 4 to May 9, 2013
- Fine Art Faculty Exhibition – February 7 to March 25, 2013
- Winter Arts Festival – December 14, 2012 to January 14, 2013
- It’s Your Nature – October 25 to December 4, 2012
- Beyond Borders: Works by 10 Self-Taught Artists – September 6 to October 16, 2012
- Spring Arts Festival – May 11 to June 20, 2012
- Faculty Exhibit – March 29 to April 25, 2012
- PRESENT: Works by Chotsani E. Dean and Howard el-Yasin – February 2 to March 12, 2012
- Winter Arts Festival – December 16, 2011 to January 19, 2012
- Zbigniew Grzyb: A Retrospective (1995–2011) – September 8 to October 20, 2011
- MCC Spring Arts Festival – May 13 to June 24, 2011
- Adolf Dehn – March 17 to April 27, 2011
- Faculty Exhibition Artists – February 3 to March 7, 2011
- Winter Arts Festival – December 17, 2010 to January 2011
- Quilts by Ed Johnetta Miller – October 28 to December 2, 2010
- New works by Cat Balco and Matt Towers – September 9 to October 15, 2010
- Pasha Radetzki – March 11 to April 28, 2010
- Heart Gallery – February 4 to March 4, 2010
- Art/Work – Oct 29 to Dec 8, 2009
- Go Figure – Sept 17 to Oct 20, 2009
- Chris Hausbeck – Feb 5 to March 12, 2009
- Feed the Beast – Oct 16 to Nov 26, 2008
- Drawn – Sept 4 to Oct 9, 2008
- Paint – March 27 to May 1, 2008
- The Toy Show – Feb 7 to March 12, 2008
- Out of Thin Air – Sept 6 to Oct 17, 2007
- Loneliness & Melancholy – March 29 to May 1, 2007
- The Love Show – March 16 to May 1, 2006