On Exhibit at the Garde | Garde Arts Center

Current works on display by:

Blanche Serban, Marvin Espy and Aaron Smith

from November 17 through January 5, 2024

Lobby exhibit available for viewing Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm,
and for the two hours preceding performances and film screenings.

Blanche Serban

I look to paint the air between things that holds the shape of seen and unseen, the transient beauty of changing light, the passing hours and seasons, the fragile balance between the wealth of material world and the simplicity of formless. Impermanent, understated, imperfect things shine for a moment full of life, and encourage the artist and the viewer to connect and share their personal interpretation.

Art is a thread that binds humanity and opens us to appreciate the fragility and uniqueness of our environment with its signs of the past marching away to inevitable passing and the marks of the future yet to take shape. In a world of unraveling environmental balance and social fabric, art becomes again relevant to heighten our sensitivity and bring us back together to focus again on what is important for all of us as human beings.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Blanche Serban studied painting at the School of Arts in Bucharest with master painter Nicolae Iorga. After getting a B.A. and a License in Psychotherapy from the University of Bucharest in 1996, she completed a M.A. in psychology at Syracuse University.

Blanche lives in Storrs, Connecticut, with her husband and their two daughters. Her paintings are in collections in the United States, Romania, France, Germany, U.K., South Korea, and New Zeeland. She is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society, Artists Open Studio of Northeastern Connecticut, and Lyme Art Association.

Follow BLANCHE SERBAN on Instagram and Facebook to see her newest paintings.

blancheserban.com

Marvin Espy

Originally from Cincinnati, Marvin was voted most talented of his senior class at Princeton High School (1982). He went on to study oils under the late Henry Koerner at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh earning a degree in Visual Communications. He then spent the next 28 years in Business Development and Sales.

In 2013 he was offered a solo exhibition based on nothing more than ballpoint sketches drawn on office copier paper. Soon his works were featured in a number of venues around Charlotte, North Carolina including winning “Best of Show” at the Hart Witzen SHOWDOWN EVENT in 2013 and again in 2015. Since his premier in (2013), Marvin has been featured in the Charlotte Business Journal – Book of List (2013, 2016), and in (2018) his work adorned the cover, SouthPark Magazine (2018), Charlotte Post (2018), Charlotte Magazine (2020), The Day (2021), The Day (2022) to mention a few. Marvin was 1 of 20 selected from more than 200 entries to ArtPop Street Gallery, earning his place on billboards displayed throughout the Charlotte Region. In 2023 his series titled “Context” depicting Black and Brown people in surprising and non-traditions imagery was selected as the Charlotte Magazine’s (Best of the Best (BooB Award) Best Solo Exhibition. Today, Espy as a multi-award winning artist, showing nationally with collectors from LA to New England has just announced the opening of the Marvin Espy Gallery of Fine Art.

Marvin and his wife Tracy (President, Mitchell College) live in Connecticut and have a daughter Sydney who resides in the Boston area where she earned her Masters Degree in Social Work.

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artbyespy.com

Artist Marvin Espy to open gallery in New London