OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, AUGUST 2ND FROM 5-7PM.
Jim Whitten behind the art brand, SNFFBX, guest curates this show at Pulp.
"Listening to Chino of Deftones scream, 'Whose side are you on?'. Checking my phone for the title of the song... Combat. This seemed like the right title with the right question at the right time. With the help of twelve artists, I am creating two sides ready to face off."
-Jim Whitten.
Participating artists include:
Gil Scullion is an idea driven artist who produces large, multi-part projects combining aspects of various media. In the past these “Projects” have been devoted to subjects including passive/aggressive behavior, disparity of income distribution, Insomnia, and deep dives into the ties that bind families (personal/intimate) and government (social) and its citizens. These “Projects” have formed the basis of installations at Real Art Ways, Hartford, New Britain Museum, New Britain, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, Chernow Gallery, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO, The District of Columbia Art Center, Washington, DC., and the Soho Center for the Visual Arts, New York, NY.
Gary Jacobs earned his BFA Hartford Art School, 1988, and his MFA Brooklyn College, CUNY, 1991. He taught 3 years at the Corcoran Museum School of Art, Washington DC, and settled and started showing in Hartford, 1994 - present. He has taught at several, prominent, CT Colleges and Universities including 2009 - present at Tunxis Community College in Farmington. His oil paintings have been acclaimed widely with shows, awards, and licensed products throughout the state and beyond. A one-time, staunch, Traditional Realist artist, Gary's mature style is a Post-Modern, Abstract Expressionism featuring rich, glowing colors, depth, and movement.
Douglas Degges (b. Shreveport, LA) is an artist and educator currently based in Utica, NY and Mansfield Center, CT where he is an Associate Professor of Art in Painting and Drawing at the University of Connecticut. Douglas received his MFA from the University of Iowa and a BA in Studio Art from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. His work has been exhibited in various group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently his work was exhibited at Proyecto T in Mexico City, Mexico, Side Room Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, the Pratt Munson Gallery in Utica, NY, Cleaner Gallery + Projects in Chicago, IL, Whitespec in Atlanta, GA, Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN, and the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College in Shreveport, LA. His work has been supported by several artist residencies including the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Stove Works, the Vermont Studio Center, Casa Lü, and the Millay Colony.
Christa Whitten is a visual artist known for vibrantly colorful, evocative work, often utilizing paper in two-dimensional and sculptural applications. She has exhibited at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Silvermine Art Center (where she is a guild member), ArtWalk Hartford, and the Anchor House of Artists in Northampton, MA. Her work was most recently shown in a solo exhibition at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. In addition, Christa enjoys collaborating with other artists to produce work for publication such as ‘snffbx press’ artist books and illustrations for a children’s book entitled “Reach for the Stars.” She lives and works in northern Connecticut.
Cynthia Cooper cannot remember a time when she was not an artist. Her extensive exhibition list includes international, national, and regional shows along with numerous awards. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Penn State University and The New Britain Museum of American Art. Her subject matter is the search for staying on the right path while looking for the right future. Each piece is an exploration of direction using vibrant color and optimistic energy and ultimately: transcendence. She lives in Connecticut with another human, two plump cats and a 38 and a 37 year old cockatoo.
Todd Colby is a visual artist and poet. Colby has recently presented his visual art at The Met-Cloisters, Hampden Gallery, 1969 Gallery, Andrew Edlin Gallery, White Columns, and The Picture Room. He has given performances at DIA Art Foundation, MoMA PS1, The Public Theater, Hudson Opera House, The Poetry Project, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and Performa Biennial, among others. He is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently, Brilliant Juice (Ethel, 2024)
Sean Greene was born in San Francisco, and from age 7, raised in Connecticut and Vermont. He moved to New York City in 1992, and received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. In 1998 Sean moved to Massachusetts and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2004, where he was awarded a 3 year teaching associateship. He lives and works in Florence, Massachusetts. Exhibition highlights include a solo exhibition at Pulp in 2023, and one at Greenfield Community College in 2024, two person shows with Steve Theberge at Pulp and with Lisa Rybovich Crallè at LAND AND SEA, Oakland, and 3 person shows at Brian Morris Gallery in New York (with Russell Tyler and Matt Phillips), and Geoffrey Young Gallery in Massachusetts (with Gary Petersen and Vince Contarino). In 2014 he was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and has also received grants from the Somerville and Northampton Arts Councils, the Artists Resource Trust. His work is in private collections in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and France, as well as the corporate collection of Neiman Marcus, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art in Amherst.
Eddie Hall is a self-taught abstract artist based in Berlin, Connecticut, known for creating vibrant, geometric works using reclaimed windows as his canvas. Drawing inspiration from architecture and design, his art transforms discarded materials into bold visual narratives. Hall is a member of the Kehler Liddell Gallery and the Silvermine Guild of Artists, and his work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the New Britain Museum of American Art, Mattatuck Museum, Hill-Stead Museum, Mystic Museum of Art, Edward Hopper House Museum, Slater Memorial Museum, Scope Miami, and many others. He has received numerous awards, including the Artist Respond grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, and his work is held in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art and currently on display at the Connecticut State Capitol Building. Hall is currently pursuing the impossible goal of exhibiting at every library with a gallery in Connecticut.
Stephen Grossman is a visual artist working primarily in sculpture, painting and drawing in New Haven, CT. He was trained as an architect; receiving his BArch from The Cooper Union. His work focuses on perception and the movement of the human body in relationship to architectural space. He has been exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Drawing Center, Aldrich Museum, Real Art Ways, Artspace New Haven, New York Studio School Dumbo Studio, Weir Farm Trust Gallery, Schweinfurth Art Center, Mt Ida College, Giampietro Gallery, Kenise Barnes Fine Arts, Garage Gallery, Ejecta Projects and other venues. He has been an artist in residence at La Napoule Art Foundation in Le Napoule, France, 2025 Studios of Key West in Key West, FL, Marble House Project in Dorset, VT, 2024, Ballinglen Foundation in
Ballycastle, Ireland, 2023, Streamways in Rockingham, VT, 2022 and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, 1997. In 2006 he was a visiting artist at the Weir Farm Historic Trust. In 2002 he received an NEA grant for his public art project “Fencing”. He has taught visual arts at The University of New Haven and Southern Connecticut State University. In addition, he has curated exhibitions at the (untitled)Space gallery in New Haven including a Sol LeWitt wall drawing installation in 2001. He served on the board of Artspace New Haven from 2002 to 2009 and was president of the board from 2004 to 2007.
Marjorie Sopkin states, "My interest in art began in grade school and solidified in high school due to the strong connection I and many other students had with an art teacher we had for six years. He taught us to draw from life. We had live models, and still life setups – and he talked about his philosophy of life and art, and about some of his favorite artists – Rodin, Matisse, Cezanne, and many others. We flocked to his classroom like groupies. He was our Guru, and is still, to this day, a voice in my head. At Hartford Art School I learned about Conceptual Art from my foundation professors – Jan Groover, Chris Horton and Sol Cicero – who have all, sadly, passed away. For me, this was an entirely new way to think about art, having come from such a traditional introduction, but eventually I embraced it as it made me think creatively, beyond the visual. Having transferred to Tyler School of Art, I spent my junior year in Rome, which was one of my best life experiences. Stephen Greene – also deceased – was my painting teacher whom I remember fondly. I began painting abstractly, beginning with landscapes. Back in Philadelphia, I studied painting with Margo Margolis and Stanley Whitney, both of whom influenced how I approach painting today. I feel very fortunate to have had the time with and the exposure to all those great minds."
Chris Gann is a landscape painter and advocate for artists around the CT area that require assistance with large projects. He lives in the Tobacco Valley of Connecticut with his family and works across the state while painting interior and exterior projects large and small. Chris Gann also does restoration of older homes around the region so transferring skills and tools of this trade have helped the transition from contractor to artist. “My intention with a majority of my art is to invite the viewer into the painting and to see beyond the surface, to revel in the chaos, and to embrace the beauty of human connection through the lens of painterly strokes on canvas or paper.”
Cat Balco is a Professor and Chair of Visual Art and Culture at Bates College in Lewiston Maine, and a New Haven-based artist and writer who has exhibited nationally at venues including Rick Wester Fine Art, NYC; Pulse Art Fair, Miami; The Painting Center, NYC; and Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT. Her writing has been published in Art New England. A visiting artist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Swarthmore College, Pratt Institute at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, and Yale University, Balco has also received numerous awards and residencies including the Lillian Orlowski and William Freed Grant from the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (2021), the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, The Weir Farm Trust, the Albers Foundation, and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her work has been collected by institutions including Credit Suisse, Fidelity Bank, and the State of Connecticut.