Hygienic Art Opens Two New Exhibitions
Hygienic Art opens two new exhibitions Saturday, August 29, bringing photography, sculpture, glass, painting, and mixed-media work together for an evening of new art in downtown New London.
Both opening receptions begin at 6 p.m. at Hygienic Art’s Bank Street galleries. The annual f-Stops Here Juried Photography Exhibition runs from 6 to 9 p.m., while E Pluribus Venus celebrates its opening from 6 to 8 p.m.
With the receptions happening simultaneously, visitors can move between two very different exhibitions during the same Saturday night.
The f-Stops Here
The f-Stops Here is Hygienic Art’s recurring juried exhibition devoted entirely to photography.
The exhibition has a long history at the New London gallery, providing both emerging and established photographers with an opportunity to submit work for consideration by a juror rather than participating in an open-entry exhibition.
That distinction changes the show.
A juried exhibition begins with a larger pool of submissions, with works selected for inclusion based on the juror’s evaluation. Previous editions of f-Stops Here have attracted photographers working across color and black-and-white photography and have included awards recognizing standout work.
The result isn’t intended to represent one photographic style or subject.
Instead, the gallery becomes a snapshot of what photographers are seeing, documenting and creating through the camera.
E Pluribus Venus
The second opening takes an entirely different approach.
E Pluribus Venus brings together five female artists working in dramatically different media: Catherine Gibson, Serena Bates, Diane Brown, Heather Lusk and Kira Seamon.
Even the title plays with the idea behind the exhibition.
E pluribus unum, the familiar Latin phrase meaning “out of many, one,” becomes E Pluribus Venus, shifting the idea toward five women whose individual approaches come together within a single gallery.
And their work doesn’t look remotely alike.
Five Artists, Five Ways of Working
Catherine Gibson works with fused glass, using heat to transform individual pieces of glass into larger compositions.
Serena Bates brings sculpture into the exhibition, including substantial three-dimensional work that changes how visitors physically experience the gallery space.
Diane Brown works with an unusual combination of wax and oil, creating mixed-media pieces that occupy another territory altogether.
Heather Lusk moves in the opposite direction of monumental sculpture with miniature realist oil paintings, where scale forces viewers to come closer and pay attention to small details.
Kira Seamon completes the group with kaleidoscopic, dreamlike photography.
Glass. Sculpture. Wax and oil. Miniature realism. Photography.
The differences aren’t something the exhibition tries to hide. They’re the point.
Two Shows in One Night
Putting E Pluribus Venus alongside f-Stops Here makes Saturday’s opening especially interesting.
One gallery exhibition starts with a single medium and asks how many different things artists can do with it.
The other starts with five very different media and looks for the ideas and human experiences that can connect them.
Visitors can spend part of the evening looking at work selected from regional photographers, then walk into another exhibition where molten glass can share a room with bronze, oil paint, wax and experimental photography.
You don’t need to choose one.
Both open Saturday night.
An Arts Institution Built Around Access
Hygienic Art has occupied a particularly unusual place in New London’s arts community for decades.
Its name comes from the former Hygienic Restaurant, a longtime Bank Street gathering place that became closely associated with the city’s artists. When the restaurant closed, the building eventually became home to the nonprofit arts organization that carries its name today.
Hygienic has since developed into a combination of galleries, artist spaces and the outdoor Hygienic Art Park.
Its best-known tradition remains the annual Salon des Indépendants, where artists can exhibit without a judge or jury.
Saturday’s f-Stops Here flips that formula by putting the selection process back into the hands of a juror.
E Pluribus Venus does something different again, assembling a deliberately selected group of artists around a shared exhibition concept.
On Saturday night, visitors get both approaches under one roof.
Event Details
Event: Hygienic Art Openings: f-Stops Here and E Pluribus Venus
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2026
Location: Hygienic Art
Address: 79 Bank Street, New London, CT 06320
f-Stops Here Juried Photography Exhibition
Opening Reception: 6–9 p.m.
Medium: Photography
Format: Juried exhibition
E Pluribus Venus
Opening Reception: 6–8 p.m.
Featured Artists: Catherine Gibson, Serena Bates, Diane Brown, Heather Lusk and Kira Seamon
Media: Fused glass, sculpture, wax and oil mixed media, miniature realist oil painting and photography
Hygienic Art Openings: f-Stops Here and E Pluribus Venus give visitors two exhibitions to explore during the same Saturday evening, from a juried photography show to five female artists working across dramatically different media.
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.
