Sunday afternoon in Paradise

The weatherman called for a rainy afternoon, but that didn’t diminish what seemed like an afternoon in paradise, as the smart and beautiful contemporary art set gathered for the opening exhibition of Karen Kiliminik’s residency at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center.

Visitors entered the home stretch when they passed the monumental Jeff Koons Puppy, a 43-foot topiary sculpture that stands sphinx-like on Peter Brant’s sprawling Connecticut estate.

A shuttle service brought them across the street to the Art Study Center, a two-story structure where Karen Kiliminik presented an exhibition including a wide variety of paintings, sculptures and installations, some new and some old. On the lower level, Napoleonic imagery was mixed with candles, ballet scenes, and drawings resembling fan art from an obsessed teenager. Chinoiserie furnishings of all sorts were drawn from Mr. Brant’s own collection.

The result was a complex world of feminine and juvenile symbols, highlighted by the new installation on the top level of the Art Study Center entitled Fountain of Youth. It features an indoor garden of boxwood hedges, a stone fountain and a grass lawn that is festooned with a variety of soaps and perfume bottles. This aromatic display had a confectionary quality, reminiscent of an installation by the Turner Prize nominee Karla Black at the BALTIC Center in Gateshead last year.

Upon exiting the Art Study Center, guests enjoyed cocktails and buffet lunch on Mr. Brant’s sprawling polo grounds, under the shadow a massive, gun metal grey sculpture by Urs Fisher.

The Karen Kiliminik exhibition continues through September 2012.