From left, Rita Valley and Lydia Viscardi, at the CAMP Gallery’s opening reception for “The Not So Silent Witnesses,” January 24, 2023. —Madelia Hickman Ring photo

WESTPORT, CONN. — The Contemporary Art Modern Project (CAMP) Gallery has announced its latest in gallery exhibition featuring artists Lydia Viscardi and Rita Valley in “The Not So Silent Witnesses,” which is on view through February 28.

Both artists take on many areas of social behavior and dress up these qualities through their artistic language with the sole objective of asking that we accept culpability for the world we all both create and inhabit. Focusing on Capitalism, Consumerism, History, Human Behavior, Language, Pop Culture, Universal Memory and Women’s Rights, Valley and Viscardi’s artistic approach the arena of social discontent, something greatly inflamed in this current era and bring forth realities which are found in their work.

Rita Valley, deeply political and confrontational in her work, tackles all social trends, morality and political behaviors and turns them all around and into art that stands up and will be heard. Valley uses fiber and the mixing of fibers to create multilevel patchworks of statements that draw one in with their unabashed taunts, but that also get softened by fringes, sequins and the like. Valley seems to have no discomfort in calling us all out — whether one is wealthy and living on the brink of destruction along the coasts, whether one is trying to live their best life, exhausting every moment, or the reduction of the art world and those involved. Her art asks that we all stop, turn around and look into who we are and what we do, what we aspire to — and are these things good for us all? For anyone?

Lydia Viscardi and Rita Valley, with Valley’s “Art Whores,” January 24, 2023, CAMP Gallery reception. —Madelia Hickman Ring photo

Through her soft touch, Lydia Viscardi looks back to times that present safe vignettes from stylized, even better, moments. Taking, for example, her series “Here and Hereafter,” with connotations towards what lies beyond our existence, the works present a version of what could be heaven above and an inferno below and somewhere “stuck” in the middle are Viscardi’s characters often “caught” in idyllic settings of a life presumably undisturbed. The disturbance permeates the canvas suggesting both a balance but also the limitations of all that lives — lives perfectly packaged and presented not only to the viewer, but also to the artist Her work shows the struggle between the “above” and “below.”

The CAMP Gallery specializes in art advisory and contemporary art with a focus on emerging and mid-career artists with a specific direction of both self and worldly reflection. Looking at art, as a whole, through a reactionary and interdisciplinary approach, the gallery covers the ever populating notion of society and life in general through art and curation, offering a creative space both in the gallery and out — where creativity and reality coexist. The gallery is committed to cultivating connections and relationships between ourselves, the artist, and both the collector and the public, thereby removing the curtain that keeps these spheres separate.

The CAMP Gallery is at 190 Main Street. For information, 203-557-0223 or www.thecampgallery.com.