Left to Right: Linda Kourkoulis, Container of the Uncontainable II; Susan Fehlinger, Dumont Street; Rosalind Shaffer, Burning Words.

NEW CANAAN, CT, Feb. 22, 2024—Silvermine invites viewers to explore the power of visual storytelling in Every Picture Tells a Story, a new Guild exhibition that opens on Feb. 28. The works on exhibit imply a narrative, evoke a question, or conjure up a place and time. Accompanying text from the artists provides a glimpse into the original impulse or intention. The Silvermine Galleries will host an opening reception on Sat., March 2 from 2 to 4 p.m., and the exhibition will run through April 4.

The works in Every Picture Tells a Story are complex and varied. Viewers will find themselves enveloped in worlds that are harmonious, discordant, dreamy, realistic, or symbolic. While viewers will bring their own interpretations to each work of art, text from the exhibiting artists brings context and insight into understanding the artist’s intentions and the underlying narratives.

Among the works on view are Joan Wheeler’s powerful fiber artwork, A Question of Morality/Mourning Mahsa; Nancy Breakstone’s photograph of a dark stair and hallway behind one of Havana’s colorful, painted exteriors; Louise Cadoux’s wire sculpture with two vessels conjoined and distorted; and Beatrice del Perugia’s painting of a marketplace bazaar in Kabul, Afghanistan, which includes the shapes of women in chador. In Shattered Copy, June Ahrens reveals meaning through her signature recycled blue glass and her method of direct installation. James Buxton uses the colors of the Black Liberation Flag in his sculpture, How Ya Livin, which is made of a ship’s wheel and a noose spilling from a dense circle of rope. In Sharon Cavagnolo’s Mirror, Mirror, framed mirror surfaces bring disorienting angles to her lush and complex composition. Brigid Kennedy’s painting, inspired by a family photograph, strips away all but one person—the smirking teenager in a patterned dress against a boldly patterned room.

In Octopus Ascending, a ceramic work by Lisa Scroggins, an octopus on a ladder leaning against her family’s house speaks of a nostalgic yearning. Every piece in the exhibition is an opportunity to see how a work of art can both illuminate and transcend any single intention or idea.

The opening reception on March 2 is free and open to the public.