Kershner Gallery Opening Reception: "Fused"

The public is invited to attend the opening reception for Fused, an exhibit of encaustic art by Nash Hyon, Deb Kouzoukian, Bonnie Michell, and Phyllis Ruffer in the Bruce S. Kershner Art Gallery at Main Library. The reception will be held from 5:30-7:30pm, and the artists will speak at 6:00pm. Light refreshments will be served. Nash Hyon has studied painting in Florence, Italy, and received her MFA from Vermont College. Nash's paintings address the intersection of art and science, the abstract and the figurative; she enjoys the transformative nature of the encaustic medium as well, as heat is used throughout the painting process. "I call my paintings 'narrative abstraction," as many may look basically abstract but there is an underlying story that has to do with nature and the sciences. The challenge lies in combining the two in a painting that...encourages the viewer to take a closer look." Deb Kouzoukian is a Fairfield artist and beekeeper who uses wax from her hives in conjunction with various pigments and collage materials for her multi-layered encaustic paintings. Deb fell in love with the encaustic process after seeing Nash Hyon working with a heated palette at the Silvermine Art Center in Norwalk. She says the 'dashes' in her current paintings represent bees in a swarm, an exciting and disruptive natural behavior that she has observed in spring or when her hives are getting too crowded. Bonnie Michell's love and respect for nature is evident in her artwork. She says her extensive travels in Alaska have heavily influenced her work, including its breathtaking mountains, the Kenai River, the receding glaciers and disintegration of Alaskan landscapes, which all appear in her compositions. Phyllis Ruffer studied at the Washington Studio School in DC as well as in Israel and Ireland. Before that, she spent 25 years as an attorney and land conservation professional with The Trust for Public Land, an involvement which influences her work. She uses her own photographs as collage elements and says that her interest in encaustic painting is a direct outgrowth of her use of transparent washes and collage elements in her oil and acrylic paintings. Her subject matter varies but she has a particular interest in the interaction of the landscape and the geometry of the built environment. Fused will be on display during regular Main Library hours from July 11 through September 5, 2026.