NEW LONDON, CT .- The Lyman Allyn Art Museum announces the opening of Catch the Butterflies, on view through January 4, 2015. This exhibition, an exhilarating holiday season experience for the whole family, features the bold and playful work of local artist, Brian Keith Stephens.

For the next three weeks, Lyman Allyn highlights the work of Brian Keith Stephens, a resident of Old Lyme. Over 100 scrolls hang densely together in the Glassenberg Gallery, creating an enchanted forest of colorful larger-than-life butterflies. The silkscreen scrolls (14’ tall x 2’ wide) are silkscreened on metallic Mylar and illuminated by ultraviolet black-light, creating a fantastical experience of light and color. The resulting effect of magical wonderment, like a visit to a butterfly sanctuary inside a house of mirrors, is not to be missed.

Throughout history butterflies have fascinated people across the globe; this exhibition brings that history to life for the young and old alike. “We are excited to see the public take joy in Catch the Butterflies and its accompanying programming, said D. Samuel Quigley, Director of the Lyman Allyn. Brian has created an immersive environment in which the viewer almost becomes part of the exhibition. There is no doubt in my mind that visitors will be captivated by the beauty, the fun and the enchantment of this installation.”

“My inspiration for Catch the Butterflies is a result of visiting butterfly houses,” said Stephens. “If as a child or as an adult you had the experience of going to a butterfly house at a zoo or nature sanctuary, you can recall the magical feelings of excitement, hypnosis, and wonderment. Standing in an enclosure full of butterflies has an electrifying energy, because your sense of space and depth condenses as the creatures flutter closer to you. This is precisely the feeling I wanted to conjure with my butterfly forest - a sense that the energy, the butterfly, the artwork, is so close to you that you could touch it or walk through it. One can’t help but want to immerse themselves further into the density as if searching for a treasure deep inside.”

From butterfly house to fun house, this room of vibrant, floor to ceiling scrolls will lend an unforgettable air of celebratory magic this Holiday season to New London, and beyond.