Visions of Land and Sea

An Annual Toast to the Coast

by Kristin Nord

The “Visions of Land and Sea” exhibition at Susan Powell Fine Art Gallery, an annual affair now in its 13th incarnation, has become as eagerly awaited as that annual first swim or cookout on the beach.

The Madison, Conn., business has become a must–go place for contemporary art for home owners and businesses, offering its “Whole House Art” for the new art collector, as well as working closely with individual and corporate clients to meet custom needs.

Powell brings to the business a lifelong appreciation of art, kindled as a child and developed as an art history major at Connecticut College. In her early years, she honed her skills by working for the Smithsonian Institution, and later was a hugely successful seller at Doyle Auction House in New York City. Then, in 2003, she traveled to Madison on assignment, and fell in love with this stretch of Connecticut shoreline.

She set up shop on Madison’s charming retail district, and the gallery, coming to represent 45 contemporary artists, has became a valued member of the business community. Powell has aimed from the beginning to make her business a welcoming place. It’s there for the casual visitor as well as the serious collector.

Powell, who is particularly well-versed in 19th and 20th century paintings, credits her ongoing success not to a family upbringing that embraced museum-going as a major family activity, but to her years of working in the business and refining her ability “to discern between what was real and what was fake.”

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