Category: art and exhibitions

The Art of memory walking

Debra Priestly has a one-person exhibit, memory walking, at 11 Jane Street Art Center in Saugerties through December 13. Priestly’s art is held in prestigious collections including Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Sandor Family Collection and Petrucci Family Foundation. This exhibit shows the breadth of Priestly’s artmaking, including installation, painting, and drawing that examines memory and generational links through the backdrop of history.

Many of the objects featured in Priestly’s work are ordinary domestic objects found in every home. Priestly commented, “For many years, I have been interested in the way common rituals, such as the preparation and consumption of food, and the everyday objects used in these rituals can spark a dialogue.” And this is part of Priestly’s oeuvre – to honor the mythology that grows from the ordinary rituals that we practice in our daily life.

Immediately on entering the gallery visitors can view “looking glass 8,” a collection of mismatched teacups fashioned into a large wreath. Decorative imagery on the cups mingle with hand-painted portraits and photo transfers from the artists’ family photos. Priestly commented; “The conversations about the cups, sometimes over tea, always lead to a conversation about ancestry.”

copyright Debra Priestly, 1999 | looking glass 8

The ubiquitous canning jar is seen frequently in her work where we can understand the symbolism of preserving history. While most of the artworks spring from personal stories, in “strange fruit 2” Priestly has collected historic drawings featured in newspapers, advertising flyers for slave auctions and anti-slave meetings, and imagery of the 1800’s Black heroes, such as Sojourner Truth and Nat Turner. The 40 images encapsulated in canning jars and presented together in one piece create a strong statement about the history of America and the memories that all American Black families have in their lives.

copyright Debra Priestly | strange fruit 2

Priestly has several delicate drawings and paintings on exhibit: in one, she has traced points on a map and painted zodiac constellations that recall migrations to new lands. In another, a simple line drawing in the shape of a canning jar holds imagery within – sometimes a portrait of an ancestor painted from a photograph, or a rendering of the rack that fits inside of the pot when making preserves. These common objects are painted with reverence, acknowledging the place they hold in life’s order.

Proceeding ahead to Gallery North, see the installation, “somewhere listening,” where Priestly pulls together all the themes seen in her work weaving together family stories and memories that trace their histories. The portraits of Annie Laura Denny Priestly and William Henry Priestly at the far end of the gallery depict the artist’s ancestors beautifully rendered in vine charcoal. Three soup tureens are placed strategically on the path to the portraits where visitors will hear murmurings of recordings emanating from Priestly’s relatives recounting migration stories, songs and prayers. Altogether the sound and artworks create a shrine to family – the memories, stories, and the implication that every day we create our own history that will be remembered in the future.

North gallery installation by Debra Priestly | somewhere listening

Debra Priestly, memory walking is at 11 Jane Street Art Center through December 13, 2020, located at 11 Jane Street, Saugerties, NY.

Hours: Friday-Saturday: noon-6:00 p.m. and Sunday: noon-5:00 p.m., and by appointment: (508) 241-0273 or email: jen@11janestreet.com

www.11janestreet.com | https://www.facebook.com/11janest.artcenter/

This was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Lifestyle, November 15, 2020.

The Art of Ransome

The Barrett Art Center mounted the one-person exhibit Ransome: The View From Here, showing a recent body of work from James Ransome. The spare exhibit encompassed 12 paintings, most of them of a generous size where it was advisable to stand back and take in all the details of the artworks before moving in close to examine details.

Outside the gallery entry Ransome provided his artist statement that stated that: “One of the things though, that has always afflicted the American reality, and the American vision, is this aversion to history. History is not something you read about in a book – history is not even the past – it’s the present. Because everyone operates, whether or not we know it, out of assumptions which are produced, and produced only by, our history.”

Ransome has created a narrative history of life grounded in being a Black person in America. Bounded by the past, but looking at the future, Ransome makes paintings that revere the artistic brilliance of Black persons that have taken this path. He references the work of Kerry James Marshall, a Black American artist that has dedicated his art career to depicting the lives of Black persons in their everyday life, as well as the quilters of Gee’s Bend, a collective of Alabama quilters who went on to exhibit their work at the Whitney Museum of American Art and beyond.

Gee’s Bend Quilter, Ransome

In a nod to this history, Ransome has used the design thinking of quilts as collage in many of these works. In the painting, “Quilt Folks,” the artist has composed the painting into three horizontal strips – the top two contain various papers collaged to create the feeling of a variety of quilt designs as seen in the work of the Gee’s Ben quilters. At the bottom of the artwork is what appears to be a parade of Black people, perhaps signifying that in that small Alabama community of Gee’s Bend, nearly everyone was a master quilt maker. Ransome uses scraps of papers, some that have been overpainted, to mimic the quilter’s bold designs. The gallery contains several paintings on corrugated cardboard, in a nod to the quilters who made their quilts out of worn everyday clothing.

Who Should Own Black Art, Ransome

In the painting, “Who Should Own Black Art,” viewers will see two figures posing proudly besides a large replica of Kerry James Marshall’s painting, “When Frustration Threatens Desire.” The painting within the painting has been slightly altered, with the black cat jumping into the foreground with the living humans. Ransome has referenced the question that has become key to the dialogue of art – who should be able to own original artworks? And in this particular instance, who gets to own artwork created by Black artists who have achieved fame?

The Ransome exhibit, “The View From Here,” was on exhibit October 10-November 14, 2020 at the Barrett Art Center: 55 Noxon Street, Poughkeepsie
845-471-2550 | info@barrettartcenter.org.

This article is an edited version originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Lifestyle, Sunday, November 1, 2020.

Photographs were courtesy of the artist Ransome, who reserves all rights over the images.

The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place)

Jan Sawka was a world renowned artist with artwork held in collections of 60 museums. Originally from Poland, his life took on unexpected direction when he was exiled from his country during the Cold War. He landed in New York and eventually made his home in High Falls, where he continued to make art from 1985 until his death in 2012.

Currently, the Dorsky Museum has a one-person thematic exhibit of Sawka’s work, The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place), curated by the artists’ daughter, Hanna Maria Sawka and Dr. Frank Boyer. The artworks clearly show Sawka’s love for his new country and especially the Hudson Valley. This is seen in the large four-panel painting depicting the Ashokan Reservoir, a place that reminded Sawka of his home country. Hanna Sawka, the artist’s daughter, commented: “This was a favorite place for my parents to take walks. The Hudson Valley was a place tied to my father’s memories.”

Sawka, his wife and daughter would travel for summer vacations to Asbury, New Jersey. Sawka felt the urban decline of Asbury Park reminded him of the conditions in Soviet-dominated Poland. The painting, “Asbury Notebook,” contains a multitude of small sketches and paintings that describe one detail about the place. Together, the images create a symphony of visuals.

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Jan Sawka, Asbury Notebook, 1981 Acrylic, graphite, mixed media on Masonite Courtesy Jan and Michael Solow

An entire gallery space is devoted to Sawka’s series, “Post-Cards,” which includes 36 drypoint prints of places around the world that were meaningful to the artist. What is especially exciting about this exhibit is a recent discovery of a letter from Sawka to Elena Millie, who was the Fine Prints Curator at the Library of Congress, where he described the inspiration and memories that he associated for each print in the “Post-Cards” series. Visitors will find these descriptions available in the gallery to guide their exploration.

Sawka-Postcard #32
Jan Sawka, Post-Card #32 (from the series “Post-Cards”), 1987-89, printed 1990, collection Samuel  Dorsky Museum of Art, gift of the Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs

Each of the artworks was created using drypoint, which is a scratching tool to create line on thick sheets of Plexiglas. Hanna Sawka provided this memory of visiting her father’s studio: “The persistent sound of a steel needle scratching Plexiglas is a part of my earliest childhood, it was a sound that I would hear well into adulthood.”

Artists scribe lines into the Plexiglas to create the imagery for a finished print. Lines that are deep and thick will print darker when put through the printing press. Hanna Sawka explained, “The length and the rhythm of the scratches would change with the length of the lines or hatchings. It was not a quiet scratch, but a determined, loud sound as my father scratched hard to create lines deep enough to hold ink for the printing process.” The exhibit includes a glass vitrine that contains two Plexiglas plates for the printing process as well as Jan Sawka’s drypoint scribing tool.

This article was originally published in the Hudson Valley News Weekend, February 26, 2020

Special Events: Planned symposiums were canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic. An online symposium is planned for Saturday, May 2, 2020. https://www.newpaltz.edu/museum/programs/specialevents.html

Symposium: Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place): A two-day symposium co-hosted by The Dorsky Museum and The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City including panels of scholars who will help illuminate aspects of Jan Sawka’s practice, his biography, and the social and historic context of his art. Speakers will include Peter Schwenger, Tom Wolf, Beth Wilson, the exhibition curators and others.

YouTube video exhibition views of Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place) Curated by Hanna Maria Sawka and Dr. Frank Boyer at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.

View the catalogue:

Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place) is up through July 12, 2020.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art is located at State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive (75 S. Manheim Boulevard for GPS), New Paltz, NY.

Call or email to check gallery hours: 845.257.3844 | sdma@newpaltz.edu

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Featured image: The Letter #3, 1979 Acrylic, watercolor, ink, varnish on board. Courtesy Jean Feiwel | Gallery photo by Linda Marston-Reid

 

The Art of Collecting

Gallery view with Carrying in the foreground.

One of the most important milestones in the career of an artist is to have their work included into a permanent museum collection. The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art has established an annual purchase award and acquired artwork over the past 12 years through the Alice and Horace Chandler Art Acquisitions Fund. The exhibit, Collecting Local: Twelve Years of the Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award is a rare opportunity to see selections of the collection together.
Entering the gallery, it’s apparent that the collection has been built with a discerning, yet diverse eye. The exhibit includes video, sculptural installation, paintings, photography, mixed media and ceramics, yet all these artworks together create a vivid picture of the work of contemporary Hudson Valley artists.
Many of the artworks included in this exhibit turn the mirror back onto our culture as they examine climate change, violence in our society, and displacement. Curt Beishe and Lise Prown collaborated on the installation, Carrying (Pistol Packing Pupils) 2010, an artwork that makes a statement on our gun culture and gun laws in schools across the United States. Seen in a context of when the sculpture was created, we have seen ten additional years of gun deaths in our schools.

Libby Paloma creates wall hung multi-media pieces that memorialize her Chicanx and queer culture. In Chingona AKA Libby, she remembers her family roots while she claims her own individuality. The piece is embellished with seed beads and tiny objects that depict her world.
Several paintings are featured using a variety of style and approaches to working with paint. Nestor Madalengoitia’s work, Simon Bolivar – Hero 2, uses the artists’ trademark signature of portraiture with lettering and designs that feel inspired by Incan civilization from centuries ago. Thomas Sarrantonio’s small paintings on paper show us the birds eye view of forests with waterways from his series, Forest Paintings. Charles Geiger’s works are not only beautiful, but also a statement on the environment as shown in his painting, Out of Sight, inviting the viewer to search within the jungle of flowers and plant-like objects. In Stephen Niccolls’ painting, Strapat, the artist has pared down shapes to explore the essence of painting. Looking closely at the artwork, you will see the deliberate brushstrokes and placement of color.

 

Strapat – painting by Stephen Niccolls

There are several fine examples of photography in the exhibit from François Deschamps series, Available, where the artist places an image of a person alongside an empty storefront, to Richard Edelman’s dramatic piece, Rebekah Creshkoff in Search of Matilda, a study of shadow and light.
Several artists use existing materials to reconceptualize the work, such as Barbara Leon’s Homo Naturalis, where the artist has taken an existing poster and painted over the images. Don’t pass by the grouping of steel engravings; look closely to see how Jean-Marc Superville Sovak has inserted images that change the perception of these formerly bucolic landscapes.
As you depart this exhibit, pause a few moments at the gallery entrance to enjoy Patrick Kelley’s ethereal video, 175 Rome Churches.

The exhibit Collecting Local: Twelve Years of the Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award is on exhibit until July 12, 2020 at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, (75 S. Manheim Boulevard for GPS), New Paltz, NY. Phone: 845.257.3844 Email: sdma@newpaltz.edu

This essay was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal, February 28, 2020.

 

In Pursuit of Color

The Lockwood Gallery is one of the latest galleries to the Hudson River art scene and they finish off the year with a flourish with their exhibit In Pursuit of Color. Michael Lockwood, owner of The Lockwood Gallery and curator Alan Goolman organized the exhibit that includes 24 of the Mid-Hudson region’s extraordinary visual artists. Visitors can explore the smaller galleries organized around colors that showcase a variety of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and mixed media.

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Andrew Lyght’s artwork, Painting Structures 645C

Andrew Lyght’s artwork, Painting Structures 645C, is prominently situated in the first gallery. Lyght created the three-dimensional piece with red oak and plywood, building negative and positive spaces that were informed by his observations of built structures during his early life in Guyana. The piece is embellished with drawings that may remind viewers of the Peruvian Nazca Lines. In the same gallery Stephen Pusey’s lively abstract painting, Nexus, is executed with colorful lines that dance on a rhodamine red background.

Enjoy Joseph Conrad-Ferm Cornu
Cornu, by Joseph Conrad-Ferm

Joseph Conrad-Ferm’s painting, Cornu, was inspired by music. The artist stated, “My mood picks the music that drives my spirit in the studio: Monk, Coltrane, Davis, Parker, and others were in the studio with me.”

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Congruence by Stephen Niccolls

In the same gallery space, see three of Stephen Niccolls’ exquisite paintings including Congruence, where the artist has created an abstract composition that quivers with energy using color and design.

David Provan’s petite sculpture, Primary Structure, is big on presence. The sculpture is created from rods painted the three primary colors; yellow, red, and blue, that crisscross forming interactions with the colors. Provan also exhibits Trance Stance, a painting with color gradations that suggest states of meditation and consciousness.

Enjoy-Susan Spencer Crowe Floating on Blue, 2019
Floating on Blue by Susan Spencer Crowe

Susan Spencer Crowe’s work is informed by early training and work as a sculptor. Floating on Blue is a recent work where she has created a three-dimensional wall-hung painting by cutting and folding the artwork. As viewers walk around the artwork, each angle brings a fresh view of this complex work.

Enjoy-Talya Baharal
Untitled by Talya Baharal

 

Talya Baharal’s painting practice has evolved out of her work as a studio art jeweler and sculptor. Her paintings bring unlikely colors together on one surface. For instance, in Untitled, pink and goldenrod yellow intertwine with an organic black line. The work is overpainted with layers and the surface bears markings where the artist has added and subtracted color, adding to the depth of the work.
Laura Gurton’s work explores patterning and color, as does Ralph Moseley‘s One-Over-One color field abstract landscapes.
Several artists depict the human form including Angela Voulgarelis’ delicate study, Portrait of a Young Woman, and D. Jack Solomon‘s diminutive abstractions of the female form. Don’t miss Mike Cockrill’s collage paintings that present the humorous side to art school.
In this exhibit, the exuberant use of color is the focus until you approach Carole Kunstadt’s mark-making drawings that showcase color in a subtle way. The line of the pencil is the star of these drawings and the introduction of small bits of color teases the viewer, who may try to read the markings as a centuries-old text.

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine November 13, 2019

The artists retain all rights to images in this post.

The Lockwood Gallery is located at 747 Route 28, Kingston, New York.
In Pursuit of Color was on exhibit November 2019 through January 4, 2020.
Phone: 845-532-4936
Webpage: https://www.thelockwoodgallery.com/

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Every year the Wassaic Project hosts a summer festival, an artist residency program, ongoing arts education for youth and the annual summer exhibition. This year’s exhibit, Ad Astra Per Aspera, references the Kansas state motto, which translated from the Latin means “to the stars through difficulty.” Curated by the Wassaic team including Bowie Zunino, Will Hutnick, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Eve Biddle, the exhibit is complex and thought-provoking with surprises awaiting visitors on each of the seven floors. The curators stated; “The artists in this year’s show seem to be asking of us, the viewer, to reconsider that which we think we know using different lenses, or perspectives.”

The main floor features work by Margot Bird, who creates sculptures with gold leaf embellished with kitschy ceramic poodles, merging polar opposite ideals in the decorative arts. Moving towards the back of the gallery visitors can follow the sounds and explore several installations, including work by digital collage artist, Anna Cone. Anna ConeHer work references Baroque furnished rooms seen in museums. Cone commented that “By visually employing a Baroque extravagance with Kitsch undertones, I want to democratize these opulent, elitist, and once inaccessible spaces.”

Moving up the stairs to the second floor, you will come upon Saki Sato’s installation, “The Icebox,” an immersive environment that provides an opportunity to think about our food sources. The room may remind visitors of walking into the refrigerated section at the supermarket, where it is uncomfortably cold. Decorative cans of food are sparsely arranged on shelving creating a feeling of scarcity, while a video plays promoting foods we casually buy at the market as rare and precious. Saki SatoAs you continue up the stairs you will note the vertical installation inside the shaft of the grain elevator by Tatiana Arocha, providing visitors a glimpse of a rainforest, including sounds of howler monkeys and a thunderstorm.

On the 4th level wall, you’ll find a fine exhibit of abstractions by Eleanor Sabin and Anthony Sullivan. Delano Dunn’s works on wood with resin coating represent research-based facts of deeply held beliefs. The interior of the room features Amber Heaton’s “Rites of Spring,” an installation referencing natural systems with patterns of light and time. Don’t overlook the immersive environment by Jeila Gueramian, where visitors can sit and contemplate the crocheted limb-like growths and observe the world outside of this shelter.

The climb to the top floor rewards visitors with a birds-eye view of the Wassaic village. Susan Hamburger has filled this small room with “Birds of New York,” an installation that features pigeons, sparrows, and starlings perched on stacks of shipping boxes. Susan HamburgerThe floor is littered with strips of newspaper as if the birds had opened the boxes looking for treasure. Looking closer, visitors will notice the birds are all individually made from newspaper paper mâché.

Many alumni of the Wassaic Artist residency program are featured in this exhibit. If you time your visit right, you can meet current artist residents during Open Studios and see what they have been creating.

The Wassaic Project is located at 37 Furnace Bank Rd, Wassaic, NY.

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! section, August 23, 2019.

Photos by Linda Marston-Reid

The Art of Color Field

Peter A. Bradley has led an enviable life as a successful artist and curator and was at the forefront of the contemporary abstract painter’s movement in the early 1970s. For the past few decades, Bradley has resided in Saugerties where he continues to create new work. For the month of June, Emerge Gallery in Saugerties has mounted a one-person exhibit of Peter Bradley’s paintings.

Enjoy © Peter Bradley_On a Clear Day_45.25x35.25
“On a Clear Day” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

As a young man in the 1970s, Bradley developed his contemporary painting style. His work began to be known in what art critic Clement Greenburg called “color field” painting. Other painters using this style included Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. As Bradley continued to work as a painter during this time, he made connections while supporting himself through work as a gallery salesperson, handling such artists as Picasso and Calder. These contacts led to Bradley being invited to exhibit his work at The Whitney Museum in the “Contemporary Black Artists of America” show. Bradley wanted his work to be considered with other contemporary artists and not simply as a black artist and declined to show. The criticism among the black community was that there was little black participation in organizing the Whitney exhibit and in response, the Menil Foundation planned to fund an exhibit that would place black artists and curators at the center of organizing an exhibit of contemporary art. Bradley was invited by the Menil Foundation to curate “The DeLuxe Show” in Houston, which he organized integrating some of the most well-known contemporary artists in 1971 with no regards to race. This was a turning point for black artists that began to change the dialogue about which artists get representation. In today’s contemporary art world, black artists have been recognized for their contributions to American culture and their work is now featured more frequently in group exhibits and increasingly in one-person shows.

Bradley continued to work through the decades and his work is held in the permanent collections of museums across the United States including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, The New York City Museum of Art, African American Museum in Dallas, The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, and Johannesburg Art Foundation in South Africa.

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Peter Bradley abstract paintings at Emerge Gallery: “We Should be Heroes” included in the exhibit. Copyright Peter A. Bradley. 

The exhibit at Emerge Gallery shows Bradley’s recent work that fills the gallery space with their explosive energy. The painting “We Should be Heroes” is a large abstract work that celebrates the relationship of colors to each other. Bradley is a master at the placement of colors and textures that creates a space that brings to mind a topographical map. “Not Quite Here” is another painting with surfaces reminiscent of the earth. The shock of the brilliant spring green at the top of the painting contrasts with the charcoal lava-like color and textures in the body of the artwork.

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“Not Quite Here” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

The exhibit in its entirety is a rare opportunity to appreciate one of the Mid-Hudson region’s internationally-known local artists that have produced a lifetime of important work.

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“Stone House Series” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

This essay was originally published by the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine – May 31, 2019. 

More information on Peter A. Bradley:

Peter Bradley was prominently featured in the New York Times article “Why Have There Been No Great Black Art Dealers?” by © Janella Zara (June 20, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/t-magazine/black-art-dealers.html

Peter Bradley was prominently featured in the Hyperallergic article “How Black Modern Artists Defied a Singular Narrative in 1971” by © Jessica Bell Brown (January 17, 2017)

https://hyperallergic.com/352161/how-black-modern-artists-defied-a-singular-narrative-in-1971/

An Interview with Peter Bradley from © BOMB Magazine (January 17, 2017)

https://bombmagazine.org/articles/peter-bradley-1/

Additional info on The DeLuxe Show: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kld03?fbclid=IwAR1pRcIbCKayXGSdS1cfLtOjqMT01Sm_oMz9Ywz3yd7E5k10nEY8bv6ieLk

Peter A. Bradley, New Work on exhibit at Emerge Gallery, June 1 – 30, 2019

Emerge Gallery is located at 228 Main Street, Saugerties; (845) 247-7515

Hours: Friday, Saturday: 12:00 – 6:00 p.m., Sunday: 12:00 – 5:00 p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/EmergeGalleryNY/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emergegalleryny/

The Art of Photography Now

Every year The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) invites a nationally known curator to create a contemporary photography survey exhibit utilizing their curatorial vision. This year they invited Elizabeth Ferrer, Vice President, Contemporary Art at BRIC, a major New York cultural organization to jury the exhibit Photography Now 2018: Still-Life, representing a variety of styles that contemplate a state of being, or a still-life. In her curator statement, Ferrer wrote: “Still-Life ventures into seemingly distinct territories – the realm of the inanimate, of things, and in tandem, of contemporary lived experience.”

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Rock, 2018; from the series A Place to Disappear by Pablo Lerma – copyright Pablo Lerma – artist website: https://www.pablolerma.com/A-Place-to-Disappear

Each of the thirteen artists exhibits several photographs, providing viewers the opportunity to see their vision and approach to photography. For instance, Pablo Lerma approaches his photographic practice by imagining what would happen if humans disappeared from the earth. His photo, Rock, from the series A Place to Disappear, shows rolling green hills, horizontal striations of the earth strewn with rock, where a single large rock becomes the focus of this landscape. Using a similar viewpoint, Cecilia Borgenstam photographed locations within San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. These photos showcase the natural beauty of the park alongside the detritus that people left behind. For instance, in Perego Stroller. Red Flowers, viewers will see what was once a luxury baby carriage abandoned beneath the dramatic tree branches.

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Perego stroller. Red flowers, 2017; Archival pigment print by Cecilia Borgenstam – copyright Cecilia Borgenstam  artist website: http://www.ceciliaborgenstamphoto.com/

Artists using the urban landscape for their still-life include Ken Dreyfack, who captures the facades of buildings with dramatic lighting, reminiscent of a movie set. His photography series,

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Rear Entrance, 2015; from the series Silent Stages by Ken Dreyfack – copyright Ken Dreyfack – artist website: http://kendreyfack.com/

Silent Stages, is featured in this exhibit and each photo has a narrative quality. Jarod Lew’s works use Detroit’s urban spaces as a stage for the inhabitants to live their lives. Lew’s photo, Belle Isle, is a surprisingly alluring image of a young woman – her direct gaze is softened by a slight smile as she stands in water with the cityscape behind her.

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Belle Isle, 2017; from the series, Maybe I’ll See You There by Jarod Lew – copyright Jarod Lew – artist website: http://www.jarodlew.com/

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Jonathan, 2017; from the series The Land of Illustrious Men by Daniel Ramos – copyright Daniel Ramos – website: https://danielramosphoto.com/

Daniel Ramos exhibits four photographs from his series, The Land of Illustrious Men, a family narrative about life experiences between the United States and Mexico detailing vignettes of memory as still-life. As an example, in Self Portrait, 2002, the viewer can experience a room with objects in the artists’ home. A decorative mirror captures a portion of his face as if he is but a small piece of these narratives.

Ferrer also selected photographers using images of people as a way to explore notions of social responsibility. She commented: “Whether in work interrogating social issues or embodying a more philosophical reading of humanity, I am struck by the persistent desire to represent what is real, true, and beloved.” Laurent Chevalier explores self-identity of black men and brings social justice into the conversation. Channell Stone’s photographs strive to reclaim “the Black body as a recognized aspect of humanity.” Soohyun Kim uses traditional family portraiture photography to put faces on families faced with immigration hardships.

This photography survey shows that artists are at the forefront of opening a dialog that validates what is real in their lives from a variety of viewpoints and artistic practices.

This article originally appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal Friday, November 16, 2018. Photography Now 2018: Still-Life was on exhibit through January 13, 2019. Featured artists include Ruth Adams, Keliy Anderson-Staley, Cecilia Borgenstam, Laurent Chevalier, Evan D’Arpino, Ken Dreyfack, Leah Edelman-Brier, Soohyun Kim, Pablo Lerma, Jarod Lew, Daniel Ramos, Niv Rozenberg, and Chanell Stone. 

Artists retain copyright on all photos. 

The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is located at 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498.

 

The Art of Pushing Paper

Paper has been in use for over two thousand years, first as a surface for important writings and then becoming more commonplace for printed materials available to the general public. As the uses of paper have evolved, artists have turned to paper for drawings, prints, and paintings; pushing the medium further by folding and deconstructing paper into three-dimensional objects or using paper pulp. Barrett Art Center’s current exhibit explores the medium of paper as an artistic medium through a national juried show, Pushing Paper.

Paul Wong, master papermaker and former artistic director of Dieu Donné, served as the juror for this national exhibit selecting 45 artists from 700 submissions. Wong described the process in his juror statement: “I looked at the intent of the exhibition and didn’t want to exclude in my selection any media that was submitted, hoping to represent the best of what I found exemplary, albeit attractive to my vision.”

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Memory is a Ghost, Leah Hamel’s paper re-creation of a bed and coverlet; copyright Leah Hamel – website: https://www.leahmariehamel.com/

As you enter the first room in the exhibit, you cannot miss Memory is a Ghost, Leah Hamel’s paper re-creation of a bed and coverlet; or Emanuelle Schaer’s, paper mâché sculpture, An Isolated Perspective. Thom Williams repurposed folded photo paper for Catch The Wave. There are also a number of smaller pieces exhibited salon style that deserve attention, for instance, Christine B. Miller’s narrative graphite drawing on paper featuring skulls and hands, brings to mind outsider artworks.

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Thom Williams, Catch The Wave – copyright Thom Williams – 

In the next gallery room, Michelle Samour’s piece, Eye Aggregation, was created using pigmented abaca fibers. The sculpture features layers of the fibers bound together in circular shapes, resulting in an object that appears feminine, including the glass case that could belong in a boudoir.

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Jessica Elena Aquino’s wall-mounted paper sculpture, Abundance II, copyright Jessica Elena Aquino

Jessica Elena Aquino’s wall-mounted paper sculpture, Abundance II, was created with recycled paper towels. The organically shaped piece rises up the gallery wall like a cyclone.

Tayler Allen-Galusha received the Juror’s Award for Boundless, an installation that takes over the far gallery wall. What appears to be a castle door and brick archway has been created with a set of deconstructed National Union Catalogs. The door is shut and locked, perhaps to safeguard the secrets held within. In his artist statement, Allen-Galusha commented that “books are much more than just the paper and glue that makes them, they are places to be, puzzles to solve and portals to knowledge.”

BAC_Lennox_Commissiong_2pacalypse
Lennox Commissiong’s portrait, 2pacalypse | copyright Lennox Commissiong | website: https://wizardhandsart.com/

The back gallery continues the exploration of paper. One of the standouts in this space is Lennox Commissiong’s portrait, 2pacalypse, made with mosaic-size color aid paper. The artist on this series: “These African-descended men lived by strong ideals, faced great adversity, and refused to bend to the demands of societal power structures… My homage in small dots of color represents the many lives they have touched across various races and cultures and their political legacies.”

Curator Paul Wong commented on this exhibit: “Paper can be a material we take for granted in our daily routine; something that is becoming invisible; or at best, where we appreciate and collect it in the form of these aspiring artistic expressions.”

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine August 24, 2018.

Pushing Paper was on exhibit at Barrett Art Center through September 22, 2018.

All artworks are courtesy of the artists and copyright remains with the artists.

 

The Art of Eco Materialism

Unison Arts Center and SUNY New Paltz students have collaborated to create installations responding with ephemeral sculptural installations using an Eco Materialism theme. Inspired by Linda Weintraub’s forthcoming book, What’s Next? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art, this exhibit responds to the urgent environmental neglect we witness in the world today. The exhibiting artists present their artworks as thoughtful responses, including the selection of materials.

The exhibit, What’s Next, also provides an ideal opportunity for a summer stroll with time to pause and consider each of the 29 stations where work has been constructed onsite, many times with items sourced from the Unison property. Michael Asbill, Visiting Lecturer at SUNY New Paltz involved students in his Collaborative Constructions course in this exhibit. Amanda Heidel, participated as a student and commented, “Starting with reading and interpreting Linda Weintraub’s text to form a proposal, to developing a list of artists to invite to respond to the text, contacting artists, reviewing of proposals, preparing the site at Unison, and assisting artists with installing their work, students were involved in every aspect of mounting this exhibit.” Visitors to the site will experience artworks that are about process, while some project a utopian viewpoint of beauty. At the gateway to the installation pick up a walking guide to get additional information on the artists’ process in approaching Eco Materialism in their pieces.

Enjoy! Moira Williams Matters of Care
Matters of Care an installation by Moira Williams. See more about her work: http://www.moira670.com/about 

Moira Williams exhibits Matters of Care, featuring a stack of cannon-ball size soil filled with positive bacteria. The artist has researched Mycobacterium vaccae, known as the ‘happy bacteria’ living in soil and invites all who pass to take one home to share. Beth Haber’s installation To Be Written shows four paired slate tablets placed on podiums supported by the remains of four ash trees in a compass formation. Visitors have the opportunity to write messages, which will then be wiped clean by the natural process of rain, wind, or over-writing, suggesting that we have the power to start a new movement that considers nature first.

Enjoy! Susan Togut's Emergent Wisdom (1)
Susan Togut’s Emergent Wisdom: artist website: http://www.susantogut.com/Galleries.htm

As you meander further down the path you might be drawn to the sound of water where Susan Togut’s Emergent Wisdom is installed above the Unison pond. Togut’s statement reads, “this environment seeks to evoke an appreciation for change, transformation, uncertainty, the magic of the unknown as in creativity, and the ephemerality of life.” Most of the pieces in the show focus on the transient, from the materials, used that naturally change over time, to the concepts presented in each piece. Jan Harrison and Alan Baer created Halcyon, a mythical nest-world for endangered and bird-like creatures that floats above in the tree limbs. The artists stated this is a “refuge and a place of rebirth in the global world of the sixth extinction, the Anthropocene.”

Enjoy! Jan Harrison and Alan Baer's Halcyon
 “Halcyon,” Jan Harrison and Alan Baer, (Birdlike porcelain sculptures in a human-built nest) More info on artist website: https://www.janharrison.net/news-exhibitions-publications 

 

Ecomat2
“Trees our Silent Companions” Copyrights: Ilse Schreiber-Noll, 2018. Artist website: http://www.ilseschreibernoll.com/

Exploring the exhibit heightens our sense of awareness towards the natural world. Perhaps this will extend our views on Eco Materialism as a life practice and new art movement that could change our world for the better, ensuring that we have a say in what’s next.

All photos in this essay by Linda Marston-Reid. All copyrights remain with the artists described in this essay.

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! section July 27, 2018.