FEBRUARY EXHIBIT

In Unmuted — The Return of Color, Beatriz Olson presents a body of work that traces her journey back to voice, embodiment, and the full spectrum of color that once lay quiet beneath the demands of culture, profession, and expectation. As a Cuban immigrant, physician, and woman shaped by systems that reward discipline and invisibility, Olson learned early to mute aspects of herself in order to navigate the world. These paintings reveal the moment of reversal—when inner wisdom rises, when color becomes medicine, and when the feminine body and spirit reclaim their place as sources of knowing. The exhibit will be on view from February 6 - March 1, with Opening Reception and Artist Talk on Saturday, February 7, 2–5 p.m. A Closing Reception and Artist Talk will be held on Sunday, March 1, 2–5 p.m.

Across three interwoven series, Olson explores the architecture of womanhood, the atmospheric spaces of interiority, and the luminous power of abstraction. Anatomical echoes, meditative figures, and fluid portals of color invite viewers into a space where the body is sacred, intuition is intelligence, and spirituality emerges as a form of healing. Her palette—at times bold, at times tender—maps the emotional terrain of a life spent caring for thousands of women, listening to their stories, and witnessing the resilience held in their bodies.

In these works, color becomes a conduit for transformation. Through abstraction and symbolic form, Olson creates pathways for reflection, stillness, and generative discomfort—the kind that expands rather than contracts, that illuminates rather than obscures. Unmuted is both personal and universal: a declaration that the feminine, in all its complexity, radiance, and depth, deserves to be seen, honored, and held in the light.

Beatriz Olson is Cuban immigrant who evolved to be an artist, physician and author. Her work involves holistic approaches to healing the body mind and soul distress by using color, form and lack thereof to process emotions. Art has a way of soothing us and giving language to that which we cannot name consciously or unconsciously but affects us deeply. She has been a performance artist at Pechkucha Events in New Haven, and been part of CWOS for more than a decade.

The Unmuted exhibit is free and open to the public. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.

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MARCH EXHIBIT

Shooting Fast & Slow, A Photography Exhibit by William Frucht

Discover how photographer William Frucht captures a world that is simultaneously a “slow evolution” and “an infinite mad dance,” in his exhibit Shooting Fast & Slow. The show will be on view from March 6 to March 29, with Opening Reception on Saturday, March 7, 2–4 p.m. The event and exhibit are free and open to the public.

Frucht’s photography follows two distinct paths. One path — the slow path — is photographing abandoned or distressed places with a big medium-format film camera and a tripod. “The images that emerge are meditations on the slow evolution of the world,” he explains. “I am in a dialogue with the past, photographing events that unfold not over seconds and minutes but over years and decades.”

The second path — the fast path — is street photography using a small digital camera. “I immerse myself in the moment,” he says, “trying not to think but simply flow, reacting to fleeting gestures, expressions, and chance arrangements of light and shadow that flicker into existence like virtual particles and then as quickly vanish. Yet even when the world is an infinite mad dance I try to work slowly, as if slowing time itself, to wait for the moment when forms, colors, expressions fall into place.”

“Recently,” he reports, “a third path has emerged, in which I try to capture fast moments with slow processes, like an excursion into an imaginary universe that crosses reality at an angle.” Curious? Come to the City Gallery exhibit in March to how these creative paths diverge and converge. 

The following bio appears on his web site.  City Gallery does not guarantee its accuracy:

William Frucht is only the second person in U.S. history to win the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, the Nobel Peace Prize, and the National League Most Valuable Player Award all in the same year. Just a few years older than the city of Danbury, Connecticut, where he currently resides, he still works as an acquiring editor at Yale University Press, although his colleagues increasingly think of him as semiretired at best. In his spare time he devotes himself to remaining inconspicuous, failing upward, and using his powers for good and not evil. He is also a photographer whose work has been exhibited in multiple states as well as in private collections here and abroad. He has been a member of City Gallery since 2015.

Shooting Fast & Slow is free and open to the public. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.