Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery
Hours: Saturdays from 10:00am to 12:00pm and by Appointment
EXHIBIT:
“Broken Homes”
Allison Pillari and Secondary
ON DISPLAY SATURDAY, MAY 2 - SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2025
Opening Reception - May 2nd - 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Curated By EC-CHAP
Artist Statement
Every place can be a home, Broken Homes is about those places. Whether it be through landscape or portrait these works represent life and their ever changing states. The work created by Allison Pilari and Secondary represents different perspectives of time and transformation. Landscapes frozen in time and works of art transforming over multiple years to communicate change.
Artist Allison Pillari creates portraits of abandoned architecture. These places once had people walking in them and were full of life. She captures these places in their stillness and old age where they are no longer occupied- after their life is over.
The Secondary artist uses childlike expression to describe their experience of grief. These works build a narrative of common family struggles. Using paintings from their youth, Secondary continually transforms the works as the artist themselves grows to understand the potentials of visual art.
About the Artist
Allison Pillari is an artist working in a variety of mediums, with a strong focus on architecture and structure. She is a graduate of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme,Ct and teaches art in educational settings currently with mentees. Their work explores form, perspective, and detail, using different techniques to deepen their understanding of visual composition. With a hands-on approach, they continue to refine their skills as both an artist and educator.
Working under anonymity, Secondary uses painting as a means of translating their internal world onto the canvas. With only brief formal training in painting, they approach their work instinctively, letting emotion and curiosity guide each brushstroke. For them, painting is less about structure and more about surrender—following the pull of color, form, and texture wherever it leads. Each piece is a reflection of feeling, a moment captured in pigment, a conversation between the seen and the unseen.
The Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery represents a platform for local and regional visual artists to display their original works for public viewing at no cost to the artist. This unique collaborative model allows for artist participation in show design, installation, and supervision.
The Community Gallery derived its name from its historical roots. The physical space that houses the Gallery was once the ground floor of the Dye & Bleach House for the Gardiner Hall Jr Company from 1916 to 1954.
It was here where millions of yards of cotton thread were processed and colored before being spooled for domestic and international distribution.
Each show in the Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery will be on view for the duration of 4 to 8-weeks. Artists are chosen by EC-CHAP and curated to pair with the work of other artists or groups of artists whose work complements one another. We welcome submissions by students or community groups and encourage everyone to visit the gallery. We hope for this Community Gallery will bring awareness to the talent within our regional communities.
If you are interested in learning more about the Dye & Bleach House Gallery, and opportunities to display your work, please contact us. Email: info@ec-chap.org or call: 518-791-9474. The Dye & Bleach House Community Gallery is located at The Mill Works, 156 River Road, Willington, CT.