Jarelis Calderon Photos.
Against a stack of green cardboard boxes in Matthew Feiner’s studio, Audrey Hepburn looked out onto the space, her lips pursed. Above and below the portrait, words floated in the air, forming the phrase Whoa There in bold, stenciled letters. In Warhol-esque fashion, she seemed to be multiplying: there was Hepburn in black and white, Hepburn against a rose pink background, Hepburn with a black dress just faded enough to look blue.
Nearby, another Hepburn portrait peeked out with the words Slow Down in bright yellow, so bold it seemed as if the words were screaming.
The hum of conversation and scent of fresh paint filled the air in West Haven last weekend, as 16 artists opened their studios to visitors eager to explore, connect and maybe even take a few pieces of art home. Held across two locations, 14 Gilbert St. and 13 Anderson Ave., the event transformed both spaces into lively showcases of creativity and community. It marked the second year that West Haven has participated in an open studios type of event.
It’s part of a larger effort from ArtsWest CT, and particularly organization President Elinor Slomba, to show West Haven’s place on the region’s cultural map. This year, participating artists included Netra Nagaraj, Bill Enck, Gayle Bessenoff, David Katz, Pietro Spagnulo, Sarah Anne Dionne, Marston Smith, CaRo, Justin Weingartner, and Jessica Lynn Johnson, as well as the artists in this article. All live in West Haven.
Slomba, whose work with ArtsWest CT is making West Haven into a cultural hub.
“I hope people leave dazzled by the talent and proud of this community,” said Slomba, whose efforts to bring attention to the arts in West Haven have included a series of transformative grants, constant and unwavering support of the city’s artists and creative small businesses, and urgent appeals to the West Haven City Council to more more robustly fund and support the arts in the city.
She’s also no stranger to the concept of City-Wide Open Studios: for years, Slomba worked closely with Artspace New Haven to get the annual fall festival off the ground, with an ability to harness talent, coordinate artists and curate site-specific events that remains one of her strongest suits. Saturday and Sunday, her love and care for the arts was on full display as she buzzed from one studio to the next, greeting attendees and making sure artists’ needs were met.
Artists, meanwhile, were equally excited for attendees to get a look at their work, which is often a quiet and solitary activity. At 14 Gilbert St., Feiner welcomed visitors to his studio, filled with mixed-media collages and found objects. A longtime participant in Artspace’s Open Studios—now an artist-led effort across multiple locations—he is best known for his handmade signs, meant to calm traffic with messages like SLOW DOWN and WHOA THERE.
Matthew Feiner: “People started recognizing me, and they’d come up to me and say ‘You’re that fella who made the signs! Thank you!’”
As a cyclist and driver in the city (longtime New Haveners know Feiner as the founder and now an alum of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, which now sits on Chapel Street in the Elm City’s Ninth Square neighborhood), he knows firsthand that drivers are sometimes speedy and reckless, putting all those who share the road at risk. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he installed over 275 signs in New Haven and Hamden urging drivers to slow down.
While the effort is a kind of guerrilla art, unsanctioned by the city, many cyclists and pedestrians (and some drivers too) have stopped to thank him. The signs are bold, standing out in a pop-art-y way that gets people to pay attention.
“People started recognizing me, and they’d come up to me and say ‘You’re that fella who made the signs! Thank you!’” he remembered. “I just loved it.”
Art has become even more central to Feiner's life after a traumatic brain injury 10 years ago ended his career as a cyclist and bike shop owner. Despite lasting physical and cognitive challenges, Feiner continues to create, finding community and purpose through his work.
“I can’t ride anymore, but I can make art,” he said, “And I think that everybody should [shouldn’t] ever stop,” he said.
Clinard with her work.
In a studio nearby, artist Susan Clinard was doing what she does best: using the medium of sculpture to explore connection, emotion, and shared humanity. Inside her West Haven Studio, to which she moved a few years ago, Clinard welcomed attendees to view both old and new works from across a decades-long career.
As a participant in Artspace's previous Open Studios for over 16 years—prior to her move to West Haven, Clinard worked out of the Eli Whitney Barn on Whitney Avenue—she said she’s especially grateful for how Slomba has found a way to connect artists and community. That’s especially true of Clinard’s work, which often intersects with current events. A recent piece, for instance, addresses the cruelty of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who now participate daily in the violent and inhumane separation of immigrant families.
“I was always a maker as a kid, and when I first touched clay in college I just knew it was something I understood,” Clinard said of her career, which has stretched over three decades and multiple cities.
Before moving to Connecticut, Clinard worked in social services in Chicago, an experience that continues to shape her art. “Many stories of people I've loved and mourned that I knew in that vocation and in Chicago find their way into my work here,” she said.
More than anything, she added, Clinard hopes that her work helps others see themselves and one another more clearly. “Art keeps us grounded and it's how we move forward as people,” she said.
Faustin Adeniran and his work.
Surrounded by artwork, artist Faustin Adeniran traced his artistic journey through a decade of transformation, shaped distinctly by the materials he uses in his art. Originally from Nigeria, Adeniran began making art as a child and has spent nearly 20 years developing a practice focused on making discarded materials into art that reflects themes of sustainability and community.
He made his first series, the society series, from everyday aluminum cans cut into letter-like forms, marking the beginning of an ongoing exploration of how materials transform over time. Over the years, that curiosity evolved into multiple bodies of work, including his Transformation and Anonymous series that weave together found objects, sculptural forms, and collage.
This year marks Adeniran’s first time participating in West Haven’s Open Studios, after a decade spent making art at Erector Square in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood. Still, he said, sharing his workspace with the public feels natural.
“Making art makes me alive, makes me feel great and I’m always curious about the ability of making and also knowing well that I have such a great talent of making so pushing it beyond measure to see how far I can go,” he said.
A junior at Wilbur Cross High School, Jarelis Calderon is an alumna of the 2025 summer cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). YAJI is a program in which New Haven, Hamden and West Haven Public Schools high school students pitch, write, edit and publish articles through the Arts Paper. This year, YAJI advisors included Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and reporter and YAJI alum Abiba Biao.