
Joy Brown installing work for her show at the Tremaine Art Gallery at Hotchkiss.
Natalia Zukerman
Joy Brown installing work for her show at the Tremaine Art Gallery at Hotchkiss.
This year, The Hotchkiss School is marking 50 years of co-education with a series of special events, including an exhibition by renowned sculptor Joy Brown. “The Art of Joy Brown,” opening Saturday, Feb. 22, in the Tremaine Art Gallery, offers a rare retrospective of Brown’s work, spanning five decades from her early pottery to her large-scale bronze sculptures.
“It’s an honor to show my work in celebration of fifty years of women at Hotchkiss,” Brown shared. “This exhibition traces my journey—from my roots in pottery to the figures and murals that have evolved over time.”
Co-curated by Christine Owen, Hotchkiss ceramics instructor, and Joan Baldwin, curator of special collections, the scale and scope of the exhibition was inspired by a recent Ed Ruscha retrospective in Los Angeles. “I thought it would be incredible to showcase all these different aspects of Joy’s work,” said Owen, who has known Brown for over 30 years.
Brown’s father, a Presbyterian missionary and medical doctor, opened a hospital in Japan where Brown grew up and cultivated her love of clay. Her first apprenticeship was in Tomba, a region in Hyogo Prefecture known for its ancient pottery kilns and Tambayaki pottery. “There are thousands of years of continuous history of clay there and I was working with a 13th generation potter.” Brown recalled that as part of her early training, her teacher handed her a sake cup and said, “make these.” With no extra instruction given, Brown proceeded to make thousands of copies of the cup. Never fired, she realized that the pieces were an exercise. She explained, “You’re not really making something, you’re participating in a process that these things emerge from.” From there, she embarked on an apprenticeship with master potter Shigeyoshi Morioka. As part of the process she learned from Morioka, Brown has built a 30-foot-long wood-firing tunnel kiln on her property in Kent, Connecticut, where she fires her work once a year in an intensive month-long process. The fire’s natural interaction with the clay creates unique earth tones and ash patterns, highlighting the raw beauty of the material.
Natalia Zukerman
“I learned not just pottery but a whole way of life,” she recalled. “The work is a continuous process—like practicing a signature until it evolves into something uniquely yours.” Her figures, initially emerging as playful puppets, have since evolved into large-scale sculptures now found in public spaces from Shanghai to Broadway to Hotchkiss’s own campus.
Brown’s seven-foot “Sitter with Head in Hands” was installed near Ford Food Court in October, followed by “Recliner with Head in Hands” near Hotchkiss’s Main Building in November. She welcomes interaction with her sculptures, encouraging visitors to touch them and even dress them with scarves or hats. “These figures transcend gender, age, and culture,” Brown noted. “They’re kind of like when you’re 4 years old and you didn’t know or care what you were, you know? All of us meet in that field and I think people resonate with that.”
In conjunction with the exhibition, Hotchkiss will host a screening of “The Art of Joy Brown,” a documentary by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, followed by a panel discussion with the artist and filmmaker on March 6 in Walker Auditorium. Brown will also serve as an artist-in-residence, collaborating with students on special projects.
On being part of the celebration of women at Hotchkiss Brown said, “Fifty years ago, I was deep in the mountains of Japan, immersed in clay.” With a soft spoken and almost childlike quality, Brown spoke about and interacted with her pieces with curiosity, reverence and wonder.
“The practice of working with clay for all these years is grounding and centering for me. It challenges me,” she said. “The work forces me to put myself out there. It’s not just the making of the pieces that make me more whole, the pieces themselves become more present.”
Brown reflected on the retrospective nature of the show and shared that putting it together has been like looking at a family album. “It’s kind of like I’m seeing my whole life in front of me,” she said. “It’s humbling and makes me think about why I do what I do. It comes back to the idea of those thousands of sake cups, you know? We’re just here, being as present as we can be. We’re not making things, we’re participating in a process of being more present, and all that spirit is reflected in the work.”
“The Art of Joy Brown” opens Saturday, Feb. 22, and runs through April 6. For more information, visit www.hotchkiss.org.
This story has been updated to reflect a change in the scheduled opening date due to forecast extreme weather conditions.
Dancers from Pilobolus will perform at the NWCT Arts Council spring fundraiser on April 26 in Washington Depot, Conn.
On Saturday, April 26, the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council will host a special evening, Arts Connected, their spring fundraiser celebrating the power of creativity and community. Held at the Bryan Memorial Town Hall in Washington Depot from 5 to 8 p.m., this event brings together artists, performers, and neighbors for a magical night filled with inspiration, connection and joy.
Award-winning designer and arts advocate Diane von Furstenberg and her granddaughter Antonia Steinberg are honorary co-chairs of the event. Their shared love of the arts informs the spirit of the evening.
Antonia Steinberg, above, President of Bucks Rock Camp in New Milford that she first attended as a camper when she was ten years old. Antonia is co-chair, with her grandmother Diane Von Furstenberg of the NWCT Arts Council fundraiser.Provided
“As someone whose life was profoundly shaped by the arts — as a child at Buck’s Rock and now as President of its Board — I’ve seen firsthand the transformative power of the arts; how creative spaces can empower young people, build community, and nurture well-rounded problem solvers. That’s why I’m so honored to co-host the Northwest CT Arts Council Gala. Their work in supporting artists and cultural organizations across Connecticut is essential,” said Steinberg.
Von Furstenberg’s influence in fashion and culture, and Steinberg’s leadership at Buck’s Rock reflect the intergenerational impact of the arts,” said NWCT Arts Council board president Sunday Fisher. “Their participation underscores the power of creative expression as a defining force in our community.” Steinberg is the president of Buck’s Rock Camp, a non-profit performing and creative arts camp in New Milford that she first attended as a 10-year-old camper.
Diane Von Furstenberg, co-chair of NWCT Arts Council fundraiser.Provided
Steph Burr, executive director at NWCT Arts Council, added, “Events like Arts Connected are at the heart of what we do — bringing people together, lifting up artists, and reminding us of the essential role creativity plays in our lives. The Council works year-round to ensure the arts not only survive but thrive across our region.”
NWCT Arts Council is a nonprofit that serves as advocates for the arts. Through regranting efforts, public art support, legislative advocacy, and their regional events calendar, they work to ensure the arts are accessible and celebrated in every corner of their 25-town service area.
Burr continued, “The arts in Northwest Connecticut are vibrant, evolving, and deeply rooted in community. There’s a quiet but powerful creative pulse running through these hills — one that reflects the resilience, diversity, and passion of the people who call this region home. Over the past few years, artists and cultural organizations have navigated challenges with heart and determination, despite ongoing funding volatility. Through our advocacy and collaborative programming, we ensure the arts remain essential and accessible in our community.”
Highlights of the April 26 fundraiser include performances by Pilobolus, Sherman Chamber Ensemble, Ysanne Marshall & the Lotus Blues, hand pan musician Jeremy Driscoll, and a curated art exhibition, NW25 Gallery, featuring local artists. Sponsors Litchfield Distillery, Kent Falls Brewing Company, and Executive Cuisine catering will provide the food and drink.
Ticket prices are $125, open to guests 21 and older, available online at givebutter.com/artsconnected.For more information or to ask about sponsorship opportunities, email Katherine Pelletier at katherine@artsnwct.org or visit givebutter.com/artsconnectedsponsorship.
Arts Connected is made possible thanks to the generous support of sponsors; Antonia Steinberg is sponsoring all the artists for the event and Valiant Energy and Torrington Savings Bank are presenting the event.Additional sponsors include William Raveis Lifestyle Realty, Litchfield Magazine, Housatonic Heritage, Art Bank 7, Harney & Sons Teas, Aquarion Water, The Lost Fox Inn, George Home, NKYV Rituals, and Litchfield Distillery.
Lily Al-Nemri, founder and owner, and artistic director and painter Rudy Vavra at Tyte medispa and gallery in Millbrook.
The painter Rudy Vavra once created floor collages in Texas. You could, in theory, lie on them. Now, years later and much farther north, his work graces the walls of a medispa in Millbrook, New York where he also serves as the artistic director. You can still lie down, just not on the art. Instead, you might be undergoing an EmFace non-surgical facelift while surrounded by twenty-two of Vavra’s paintings.
The space, Tyte Medispa in Millbrook, is equal parts gallery and treatment center, the brainchild of Lily Al-Nemri, a medical aesthetician and now gallery owner. She also owns the nail salon, Bryte, down the street on Franklin Avenue. A few years ago, feeling she was outgrowing that space, she looked to expand and, just a few blocks away, found this rather sprawling maze of rooms with the gallery that now inhabits the grand central ballroom. “This used to be a gym,” she said. “It was way more than I was looking for, but I went for it.”
Vavra, a self-professed “painter’s painter,” has spent decades layering pigment in his barn-turned-studio in Milan, New York. “I find paintings as much as I make them,” he mused. “Some happen quickly, others are slow.” Of this latest collection, he said, “Some people call them busy. I think they’re slow.” His marks accumulate with a kind of devotional persistence, like petals left at a shrine. “A while ago, I saw a photographic image of a shrine,” Vavra said. “I don’t know if it was a Buddhist shrine or what, but there were colors on the ground all around it, and I realized they were the stains of flowers left in the worship. That’s very similar to the way I paint.”
The collection of paintings on view at Tyte — some as large as a shrine — are meditations on color, inviting the viewer to slow down. Or speed up. Whether viewers are activated or soothed by the images is neither Vavra’s intention nor within his control. Still, he said that watching people interact with the work has been a real treat. “Now that I have my paintings here, I get to see them all together,” he said. “It’s only when they’re all together that I see how they talk to each other. It’s interesting to see people come in and go to have a treatment and come out. It’s a very interesting connection.”
And what is the connection? What could be a disjointed pairing — aesthetics and aesthetic medicine — has become, improbably, a perfectly logical continuum. “They’re related in a sense,” Vavra said.
Aly Morrissey
Al-Nemri, a former radiologist who taught for over a decade at Westchester Community College, is no stranger to layering, precision, or the quiet rigor of care. Her incredible menu of services — Botox, body contouring, pelvic floor therapies — are the cutting edge of the industry. Of Vavra, Al-Nemri said, “I fell in love with his work, and we just hit it off.” It’s a kind of kismet that seems to hover over the place. Pilates mat classes take place twice a week in the main gallery space and both Al-Nemri and Vavra have loved watching clients pause, eyes caught by a stripe of cerulean or a vibrating cluster of brushstrokes. “Something will catch their eye,” said Vavra. “They’re looking for something in it.”
So, this gallery-meets-spa (or is it the other way around?) has plans. Vavra will be curating six shows a year. Laurie Adams’s photographs will be hung in June, a group show of local artists will share the space in July and August, and a Fall show will feature twenty women artists, which Vavra is eager to anchor with a piece by Judy Pfaff. “There’s nothing like this on this side of the county,” he said of the light drenched space. “It’s been a bit sleepier here. We want to wake it up.”
He means it kindly; sleep certainly has its place. But here in Millbrook, amid the low drone of machines designed to rejuvenate, something unexpected has emerged. Perhaps that’s what both Al-Nemri and Vavra are really after — not the quick fix or the final image, but the suspended moment, the long look. A face seen anew. A painting revealed slowly, in silence.
As for Vavra’s curatorial process? “I just unpack the paintings, lean them against the wall, and look,” he said. “Eighty percent of the time, they’re already where they’re supposed to be.”