Old Lyme based sculptor Gil Boro is one of the featured artists at the Early Summer Show at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery on the Avery Point campus of the University of Connecticut. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. All are welcome.
Along with Boro, the other artists featured in the show are Ron Abbe, Corina Alvarezdelugo and Amy Xie
Boro’s works are a personal response to two events. One of them occurred on Dec.14, 2012, while the other started over 48 years ago.
The most recent was the tragic event that occurred in Newtown, Conn., last December. Boro says in hos artist’s statement, “In memory of the horrific occurrence, I sought to create a work of art which would symbolize the strength and unity of New Englanders, and Americans, during a time of darkness. I carried this out as a resident of Connecticut, a parent and grandparent. I call this “Coming Together”.”
He continues, “I hope this work will become a permanent memorial to the lost children and brave educators from the Sandy Hook community. Its structural components and unifying sphere are intended to represent our common humanity during this dreadfully violent period. The sphere, the most idealized geometric form, also often represents the sun around which our world revolves.”
Boro explains that he continued to develop this work into the series, which is on show at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art. The series commemorates his, “Wonderful 48 years with Emily Seward Boro, my wife, mother of my two sons and grandmother of three beautiful girls. She not only supported me emotionally and at times, financially, in my pursuits as an architect and sculptor, but also forged her own career as a Director of Editorial Operations and Senior Editor at the New England Journal of Medicine and later as the Managing Editor of M.D. Computing Magazine.” Emily Boro passed away on May 18 of this year.
Boro continues, “As the sun represents the center of movement of our world, in our family, Emily has been the center of all that is good, kind and intelligent. I gratefully honor my relationship to my wife, Emily, by dedicating the works in this show to her life and important role in the family we built, over nearly half a century spent together.”
In Boro’s new series of works titled, “Ball, Beams & Curves,” polished steel balls meet brightly painted beams and curves as the artist continues to explore the sphere as an organic element and a generator of visual energy. The beams and curves flow up to an intersection point that provides support for the spheres, resulting in a visual unity.
The most regular of the shapes, a sphere may be seen to represent completeness, and yet, because a ball always seems poised to roll, it also suggests continual movement or change. As a result of the artist’s juxtaposition of these elements, each sculpture in this series benefits from the contrast between its massive metal linear forms and the apparent levity of their spherical counterpoint.
