October 30, 2021 – January 23, 2022

This exhibition presents the work of Mary Way (1769–1833) and Elizabeth Way Champlain (1771–1825), pioneering sisters from New London, Connecticut who expanded gender roles for women and pushed the boundaries of portrait miniatures as an artform. They were among the earliest independent women artists working in the United States, producing watercolor miniatures and unique “dressed” paper portraits with fabric clothing between 1790 and 1825.

Telling a story of struggle, innovation, and accomplishment, The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic explores the art of portrait miniatures and the role of portraiture in the days long before selfies, focusing on two remarkable, understudied women artists and their sitters. Organized by the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, this is the first museum exhibition to focus on the work of the Way sisters, with new scholarship and many objects that have never been exhibited to the public.

For questions or comments, please contact curator Tanya Pohrt: pohrt@lymanallyn.org, or 860.443.2545 x2126

Attributed to Mary Way, Dressed Miniature Portraits of a husband and wife of the Deshon family, ca. 1800, mixed media with fabrics and painted paper. Gift of Ursula & Gertrude Grosvenor, 1949.122 a & b.

October 23, 2021 – January 2, 2022

Featuring dazzling paintings that portray a spectrum of vehicles from the first half of the twentieth century to the present, LUSTER is a celebration of mechanical and artist design and style, the combination of which will have great allure with audiences.

This traveling exhibition is comprised of over 50 paintings by 15 realists and hyperrealists who specialize in automobiles and motorcycles as their primary subject of choice, in a range of media and scale. Their collective work embodies the very best of automotive painting being done today. It also encompasses a broad range of car and motorcycle styles and designs from vintage vehicles to classics of the 1950s and ‘60s, to road and track racing, off-road vehicles, exotics, and more.

LUSTER: Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile and Motorcycle Painting, Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C., David J. Wagner, Ph.D., Curator/Tour Director.

For more information visit the LUSTER website.

June 12 – October 24, 2021

Having lived for decades at the edge of a forest, the boundaries between the studio and the land have dissolved for artist Ana Flores. “My intellectual and aesthetic bedrock which was once narrowly focused on art history has shifted, earth stories have become the compelling force for my creative work.” Forest Dreaming is a selection from works that inspired this shift of consciousness and made Flores an ecological artist. During her career, along with gallery and museum exhibitions, she has worked with environmental groups all over the country and designed parks.

The show will include her recent outdoor sculptures, “Forest Dialogue.” These bronze chairs turning back into trees, invite the public to sit and meditate on our connection to the natural world. A series of outdoor events are scheduled using the chairs as an invitation to dialogue and ponder the connection between art and the environment. Stay tuned for more information on when these events will take place.

Ana Flores is an award-winning sculptor, ecologist, writer and curator based in Rhode Island and Nova Scotia. She is interested in how place and geography informs who we are. Her sculptures, park designs, and environmental designs begin with long walks and explorations into each unique landscape.

                                           
Left: Ana Flores, Heart of the Forest, 2017, wood and pigment with carved lines; Right: Ana Flores, Forest Memoir, 2015, drawing. Private collection.

Virtual Exhibit Opening
Held on June 11, 2021