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artist ✦ new haven
𝗗𝗮𝘄𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘂𝘀 @fjord_ 8/22-9/26
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗶𝗿 @avsgalleryuconn 6/11-10/4

Visit today 1-5pm to catch Dawn Chorus, our 2026 Open Call, and see these Catherine Nelson sculptures up close and personal!

Catherine Nelson takes her material from riverbank clutter and industrial waterways, along with cues from mineral hues, local geology, lumber species, and fishing traps. She arranges made and found objects into vignettes that negotiate agency between hand and material, working with Osage orange, earth pigment, milk paint, and sunlight. Raised in Louisiana and attentive to toxicity and climate change, she turns toward the senses as a way of soothing grief both personal and shared.

Image 1:
Catherine Nelson, The Edge of Things (2), 2023
Steel, plywood, milk paint, oil, wax
24 x 48 x 58 in.

Image 2:
Dawn Chorus installation view

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$ÆMPIRE AGAIN\ Hartford Artspace Gallery Friday 10/10 6-9 PM PARKING AT UNION STATION (train station across street from artspace) ÆMPIRE AGAIN\ The exhibition is titled “ÆMPIRE AGAIN\” and examines the ignored undercurrents that haunt the studios of every artist working in America. By exploring the hidden dynamics of power and control in contemporary art, I hope to delve into a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of the artistic process and its surrounding environment. The title itself, with its blend of classical and modern connotations, suggests a deep exploration of the structures that influence and, at times, constrain artists. The exhibition title, ÆMPIRE\ (“a empire”), is intentionally grammatically incorrect—a strategic error to announce dominion with a disregard for the soft rules that maintain civility and intellectual standards. “A” rather than “An” assures the reader that leaders of an Empire abide by no rules, especially the rules of language. Wrong but legible, confident in its presence. An improper “A+E” ligature elaborates this transgression. This erroneous use of an antiquated symbol under the guise of sophistication, Æ, is often misused in contemporary design, usually for stylish reasons. The symbol Æ is also known as “ash.” There is a grim poetic to beginning an Empire with “ash,” possibly foreshadowing the literal falling ash as it quietly punctuates a catastrophic collapse. The exhibition title ends with an arbitrary backslash, successfully offering an illusion of symmetry and order. A symbol robbed of its meaning and repurposed for aesthetics. The backslash functions to separate descending computer files, placing ÆMPIRE\ at the top of an informational hierarchy.$

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