Cynthia Y. Coopers A Show of Strength might conjure a host of associations ocean waves, birds wings, the ceiling of a church. Its all of these things, and at its core, none of them. Its just a pattern of line and color, repeating ideas. We fill the pattern with meaning, as humans do. Sometimes that tendency to find patterns, and meaning in patterns, leads us astray. But, when handled with grace, it also leads constellations in the sky and holidays around solstices and equinoxes. It can be the foundation of building a community.

Coopers piece is part of A Pattern Language, an exhibition running at Perspectives: The Gallery at Whitney Center in Hamden through Jan. 4 and online at the Ely Center of Contemporary Arts website. Curated by Debbie Hesse and Shaunda Holloway who also has an exhibit at Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street, running through this weekend the exhibition features work by Nan Adams, Cynthia Y. Cooper, Will Holub, Aileen Ishamael, Ellen Pankey, Jessica Smolinski, and Ellen Weider.

This exhibition takes its title from the 1977 book by architect Christopher Alexander, the curators write in an accompanying statement. A pattern language, they explain, is an organized and coherent set of patterns, each describing a problem and the foundation for a solution. Intersecting patterns can express deeper wisdom and energy a sense of wholeness, elegance, spirit.

Each of the artists explore how patterns can form a personal alphabet, communicating ideas about human behavior and highlighting ways that communities and environments interact. Drawing inspiration from personal, historical, and cultural iconography such as quilts and folk art traditions, travelogues, structural diagrams these artworks presented together generate a visual vibration and sense of unity.

Of the paintings, Aileen Ishamaels Las Reinas most explicitly uses a sense of repeating motifs to connect with a larger whole, building an image of female strength from a series of naturally occurring shapes.

A Pattern Language runs at Perspectives: The Gallery at Whitney Center, 200 Leeder Hill Dr., Hamden, south entrance. Hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

See original here:
Ely Center Speaks The Language - New Haven Independent