DANBURY, CONN. — Selected painting and illustration works by nine 2009 graduates of the Western Connecticut State University Master of Fine Arts program will be exhibited from June 16 through July 4 at the Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City.

An opening reception for artists featured in the 2009 WestConn M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 18, at the gallery, located on the fourth floor at 530 W. 25th St. in New York. Admission will be free and the public is invited.

The annual show, which previously ran for three weeks during April at Higgins Hall on WestConn’s Midtown campus, marks the capstone of studies in painting and illustration pursued by the 2009 M.F.A. graduates. “The Thesis Exhibition is the summation of two years of intensive creative study, which involves extensive interaction with resident and visiting artists,” the M.F.A. exhibition guide observed.

Artists whose works will be shown at the Manhattan gallery include Jessica Bartlet, of Torrington; Karen Bartone, of Clinton; Bryn Gillette, of New Milford; Janice Nichols, of New Haven; Tracy Powers, of Wolcott; Jennifer Wheeler, of Salem, Conn.; and Carmen Canal, Jim Gabianelli and Perry Obee, of Danbury.

The featured paintings and illustrations reveal a wide spectrum of artistic skills and creative interests, from Bartone’s visually rich still-life images of fruit and Gabianelli’s illustrations of motorcycles’ varied forms and functions to Powers’ exploration of suspended animation against the background of amusement parks. Canal’s ethereal watercolors are drawn from her series on the fairy tale heroine Sleeping Beauty, while Wheeler’s kaleidoscopic paintings offer stark contrasts between bright images and dark content. Works by Bartlet, Gillette, Nichols and Obee present their individual creative perceptions of the complex relationships between interior and exterior reality, and between the real world and the imagination.

The Blue Mountain Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Directions and additional information are available on the gallery’s Web site at www.bluemountaingallery.org, or by phone at (646) 486-4730. For information on the Thesis Exhibition and the M.F.A. program, call the WCSU art department office at (203) 837-8410 or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics
of New England’s best small private universities.