In November, the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village (CT) will host ROUND CORNERS, an exhibition by art students of the New York Educational Program (NYEP) in Manhattan, including Falls Village artist John Hodgson.  Taught by practicing artist and art instructor, Baris Gokturk, the NYEP art class explores art mediums through a step-by-step multi-layered process creating an environment in which the artists can express themselves and interact with each other.  Over the past 10 years, the group has explored elements of portraiture, cityscapes, still life, figure drawing, animation, film, and sculpture while working together in New York City.  Outside of class, the group dines together, regularly visits relevant exhibits throughout and surrounding the city, and travels to NW Connecticut for seasonal artist retreats.  ROUND CORNERS features individual and collaborative works reflecting the group’s shared art-based experiences in and around Falls Village.

The NYEP artists have held 10 group exhibitions, while some in the group have also exhibited work in additional shows.  John J. Hodgson, who has been working with Baris Gokturk since 2008, has had 12 solo shows. To learn more about John and view his paintings, visit parkbenchartist.com.

There will be a reception for the artists, with refreshments, on Saturday November 11 from 4PM to 6PM.  Mr. Gokturk will give an informal art talk about the group at 3PM.  For more about the artists, visit connectionsart.wordpress.com.  David M. Hunt Library, 63 Main St, Falls Village CT 06031.  860-824-7424, HUNTLIBRARY.ORG.

Baris Gokturk, MFA, MFA

Baris Gokturk is a Turkish artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program in sculpture. Recent and upcoming museum projects and exhibitions include SECCA in Winston-Salem, The Jewish Museum in New York, The Frost Art Museum in Miami, and Pera Museum in Istanbul. He also completed public commissions by Columbia University’s Butler Library and The Public Art Fund in New York. His solo exhibition Public Secret was on view at Helena Anrather Gallery, in New York, in the fall of 2021. Gokturk has shown his work in the United States and internationally in Germany, Spain, France, Korea, Turkey and Puerto Rico. His work has been featured in ArtForum, The BOMB Magazine, and The Brooklyn Rail.

Baris also runs the art program for the New York Educational Program (NYEP). The main goal of the curriculum is to enable students to learn not just the fundamentals of art making as a vessel of creative expression but also how to look at and discuss art works of their peers as a collective group. The program aims to nurture the creative individual expression of each student within a peer support system and group interaction. To provide such an educational combination, the class follows an organic set of goals for each project varying for each student based on warm up/conversation sessions and direct dialogue with the students exploring preferences and opinions within an overall project’s framework.

For more on Baris’s work, visit barisgokturk.com.