What Is This? An Evening of Art, Music & Big Dreams at Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery

On Thursday, July 23, HAUS of HITE joins artist Jennifer Perlmutter and singer-songwriter Anne Sibley for an intimate evening celebrating the creative impulse, the courage to follow it, and the enduring power of the Carmel Art Colony.

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There is a question that artist Jennifer Perlmutter returns to again and again.

What is this?

It is a deceptively simple question, yet within Perlmutter’s practice, it opens an entire world.

“What is this?” is the question a visitor might ask upon encountering an abstract work for the first time. It is also the question Perlmutter asks herself in the studio. What is this feeling? What is this color? What is my relationship to the landscape, the ocean, a tree? What happens when an experience passes through the artist and emerges again through paint, material, gesture and form?

For Perlmutter, curiosity is a driving force. She describes painting as a way of responding to the world, of entering the studio without necessarily knowing the answer and allowing the process of creation to reveal something along the way. “Why do you paint?” she asks. Her answer: “I want to see what happens.”

On Thursday, July 23, that spirit of curiosity will extend beyond the canvas as HAUS of HITE presents Anne Sibley in concert at Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery, bringing art and music together for an intimate evening in the heart of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

The evening begins with a 6 p.m. reception, with refreshments provided by Village Corner Bistro, followed by a conversation with Jennifer Perlmutter about her recent works, the ideas currently shaping her practice, and what lies on the horizon.

Perlmutter’s newest creative chapter finds her exploring ideas of transition, uncertainty and letting go. She speaks of life as a series of thresholds, moments when we step into unfamiliar territory before clarity has fully arrived. That sense of moving through the fog has begun to enter her paintings, along with an interest in what remains from the layers that came before. Rather than erasing the past, Perlmutter sees the possibility of carrying its remnants forward, adding another layer to the surface and to the story.

There is also a new question emerging in the work: how quiet can a painting become?

Known for richly layered compositions and an expressive visual language, Perlmutter is increasingly curious about restraint, subtlety and the vulnerability of allowing a work to breathe. She wonders whether a quieter canvas might ultimately become an even bolder gesture, inviting the viewer to move closer and discover the nuances of texture, color and mark that reveal themselves slowly.

And perhaps that brings us back to the beginning.

What is this?

For Perlmutter, the answer is never entirely fixed. The painting becomes an inquiry. A response to a life being lived. A place where curiosity is given permission to remain unresolved.

That same willingness to enter the unknown can be heard in the music of Anne Sibley, whose performance will anchor the evening.

Sibley arrives at Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery during a defining chapter of her own creative life with Big Dreams, her first album in a decade and a deeply personal step into her individual voice as an artist.

After releasing seven albums with her husband, Sibley spent years imagining this next record before finally stepping into the studio. Making Big Dreams required something beyond writing songs. It required trusting herself.

“I really had to find my own voice,” she says of the process. The album became an exercise in moving through self-doubt and accepting the responsibility, and freedom, of making her own creative decisions.

The result is a body of music that feels deeply connected to the very questions unfolding on Perlmutter’s canvases: Who are we becoming? What do we carry forward? What happens when we trust the voice within us enough to follow it?

On “Ruby,” the album’s opening track, Sibley turns that encouragement inward. The song became a reminder that she was “right on time,” words she returned to on her first day in the studio as she confronted the vulnerability of taking the lead on her own album. Another deeply personal song, “You’re the One I Want,” emerged through loss, completed at the piano on the day her mother-in-law passed away.

At the center of the album is its title and its declaration: Big Dreams.

For Sibley, this chapter represents an uncaging, an opportunity to sing and speak with greater freedom and to step more fully into the voice that has been present since childhood. She describes the album as part of a larger journey toward expressing herself more openly, creating space for what wants to come through.

BIG DREAMS - Available on Spotify now!

It is difficult to imagine a more fitting setting for these songs than a gallery built around the work of an artist asking, again and again, What is this?

On July 23, perhaps the answer will exist somewhere between a painting and a song.

Between the layers of a canvas and the resonance of a voice.

Between where an artist has been and the moment she decides to step toward what comes next.

The evening will also celebrate the creative community surrounding both artists. Guests will receive a complimentary copy of the recent HAUS of HITE Guide to Carmel-by-the-Sea, featuring Jennifer Perlmutter alongside many of the artists whose work continues the legacy and evolution of Carmel’s historic artist colony.

Jon Hite, Founder and Creative Director of HAUS of HITE, will share a glimpse into what comes next for the publication and speak to the ethos behind HAUS of HITE: a belief in the importance of recognizing, documenting and bringing together the people who create beauty, culture and a sense of place.

The evening ultimately becomes a celebration of something Carmel has understood for generations: creativity becomes more powerful when artists gather, when disciplines intersect, and when a community creates space for ideas to be seen, heard and experienced.

A gallery becomes a concert hall.

A painting begins a conversation.

A song becomes permission to dream a little bigger.

And for one evening, surrounded by art and music, we are invited to ask the question ourselves:

What is this?

Perhaps the most interesting part is discovering where the answer takes us.

HAUS of HITE Presents

Anne Sibley in Concert

Thursday, July 23

Reception begins at 6 p.m.

Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery

Refreshments provided by Village Corner Bistro

Featuring a conversation with Jennifer Perlmutter,

remarks from HAUS of HITE Founder & Creative Director Jon Hite,

and a live performance by Anne Sibley.

Only a few seats remain. Reserve your place for this special evening of art, music and conversation at Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery, and join us for a celebration of creativity in the heart of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

SOLD OUT