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Media arts showcased in DerbyDERBY, Dec 06, 2012 (New Haven Register - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Downtown will soon be home to a media arts gallery with the arrival of Gallerie Chartier. West Haven resident Russell J. Chartier and his wife, Jill Treadwell, have been reviving a vacant storefront next door to the Valley Arts Council's Gallery@37 on Elizabeth Street. Gallerie Chartier, at 35 Elizabeth St., will display experimental video art created by artists from around the world. It will also provide space for performance art. "We feel like video is not represented in the New Haven area, so we are (going to be) the ones to bring top, cutting-edge video artists to this area," Treadwell said. Chartier said he plans to create "an ongoing loop" of an archived collection of international video artists to display in the window. He has already played a video loop in the window, causing comment and sparking the imaginations of passers-by, Treadwell said. She and her husband majored in moving image arts at Santa Fe University of Art and Design in New Mexico. Treadwell has worked in marketing and advertising and at several galleries, both in Sante Fe and in Connecticut. Chartier studied broadcast engineering in addition to video art, and works as a broadcast operations supervisor. Chartier experiments with his video art. His biographical information says "many of the images in his works are distorted and manipulated." The gallery's co-owner is composer and musician Paul Botelho, an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. The two have worked together since 1996. Valley Arts Council President Rich DiCarlo said he's thrilled the video art gallery has moved into Derby. "The arts council always welcomes artists and their ideas," he said. "Russell, Jill, and Paul are taking things to a new level with Gallerie Chartier. Artists who work in the digital medium don't have a place to reach the public unless they do a show," DeCarlo said. He suggested those unfamiliar with video art should "visualize an abstract painting that moves. It's like a moving canvas, a montage of images." "A video arts movement, much like the experimental film work that swept Europe in the 1920s, is happening in Derby." Artists such as Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel and Sergei Eisenstein played a part in that avant-garde film scene, mainly in France and Germany, DiCarlo said. A grand opening celebration for Gallerie Chartier will be held 8-11 p.m. Dec. 15. For information, contact Treadwell at 203-826-6262 or [email protected]. ___ (c)2012 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) Visit the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) at www.nhregister.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |