Westport Book Shop Welcomes Marina Drasnin for July Art Exhibit

The Westport Book Shop is pleased to welcome local photographer and artist Marina Drasnin as the guest exhibitor for the month of July at the Book Shop’s Drew Friedman Art Place.

Marina will be exhibiting a deeply personal and evocative collection titled ad-DRESSING-ing life, featuring her hand-beaded and story-imbued miniature dresses. Each dress represents a meditation on love, loss, and memory, created during her husband’s five-year battle with illness.

Marina shares, “I began creating these dresses as a way to process our time together. Each bead became a meditation on the grace and courage I witnessed during his illness.  Each dress became a reflection on love, loss, and the fragile beauty of life. They carry his memory forward—each one stitched with gratitude and powered by love.”

A recent transplant from her native California, Marina has been enjoying getting to know her new hometown and neighbors here in Westport. She studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and earned her B.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles, Boston, and Paris, and is held in private collections internationally.

The Westport Book Shop will host a reception in Marina’s honor on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Space is limited; please RSVP by calling 203-349-5141 or emailing RSVP@westportbooksaleventures.org.

Marina Drasnin’s artwork will remain on view through July 31, 2025. All works on display are available for purchase. The exhibit is free and open to the public during the Book Shop’s regular business hours:Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.

Westport Book Shop, a nonprofit independent used book store, is downtown Westport’s only source for gently used and antiquarian books, vintage vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks. It is located at 23 Jesup Road, directly across Jesup Green from the Westport Library.

The Book Shop’s Drew Friedman Art Place is a dedicated gallery space within the store that features monthly rotating exhibits by local and regional artists. The exhibits are curated by Miggs Burroughs, Trustee of the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center and a founding member of The Artists Collective of Westport.