JGK Gallery Featured Artist: Brittany Ryan

A bit off the beaten path but worth the venture is the one year-old JGK Galleries. Especially through October 27, which is the end date for a solo exhibit featuring the sculpture and paintings of California artist Brittany Ryan.

The feminine aspect of Ryan’s work is immediately apparent, yet the expression is understated and pensive, elegant and fresh. The bronze sculptures, none more than 14 inches in height, are evocative of Rodin and Degas, as if they had merged into one artist in the 21st century. Ryan’s paintings are reminiscent of John Singer Sargent’s portraiture but created with a brighter, more modern palette. What is appealing here is the nod to art history that the contemporary artist’s work makes, while staying true to the immediacy of her present.

Ryan holds her BFA and MFA from Laguna College of Art and Design, as well as the Florence Academy (Italy), where she obviously perfected her technique in two very traditional mediums: bronze and oil.

JGK Gallery: Daniella

Working in clay, Ryan employs the additive method to produce a surface that, when cast in bronze, still reveals the artistic journey of the piece. Like Degas in his most beloved “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” (Little Dancer of 14 Years), Ryan utilizes this surface texture clothed in textiles most successfully in “Little Smoker,” an 8 x 8 x 13-inch statuette mounted on a wooden base. In her artistic statement, Ryan writes of “creating a woman who has agency, a sense of self, and is in a moment of openness.” Steven Huff responds to “Little Smoker” in an ekphratic poem, calling this moment of openness “…an arrangement that she’s made with Death that she grudges its approach with every flick of her lighter…” and, indeed, there is a poignancy in the portrayal of the demure figure gowned in taffeta and tulle, as it gazes downward casually holding a cigarette in her left hand.

JGK Gallery: Little Smoker

Huff is among the 16 poets who were invited by Writers & Books and managing director of JGK Galleries, Maria Lauriello-Klein, to respond to Ryan’s work. The resultant writings and images were expedited to Big Pencil Press and then quickly published in a volume titled “1 x 8 x 16,” referencing the one artist, eight works, and sixteen poets. On September 14, at a fee-charged reception, the public was invited to meet Ryan, view the exhibit, and listen to the poets (Tricia Asklar, Sally Bittner Bonn, Jan Wenk Cedras, Charles Coté, Anne Coon, Sarah Freligh, Anthony Gill, Huff, M.J. Iuppa, Kitty Jospé, Jennifer Litt, Wendy Low, Clara O’Connor, John Roche, Taylor Rugg, and G.E. Schwartz). This is an example of crossing disciplines to the benefit of both.

JGK Gallery: Gray Jacket

Speaking of “both,” JGK Galleries creates visually-interesting pairings of Ryan’s paintings and sculptures, including “Waiting in the Club,” a 30 x 40-inch oil installed near the 18 x 9 x 9-inch bronze statue “Daniella.” While the fabric-upholstered chair is a bit too literal, it does logically support the ungraceful lounging of “Daniella,” about whom poet Wenk Cedras asks “So what do we make of this renewed interest in silence?”. “Daniella,” with propped head and eyes gazing toward “Waiting in the Club,” suggests that a dialogue could ensue between her bronze self and her oil-painted counterpart. If only the two-dimensional Daniella had not turned her back on her three-dimensional persona. One can almost see the thought bubble in “Waiting in the Club,” with the words “So what?” inserted. Conversation thwarted.

The pairings continue: “Gray Jacket,” a 5 x 5 x 14-inch bronze stares slightly upward but away from its 30 x 40-inch oil-painting muse in red jacket, “Diagonal” who, in turn, stares slightly off stage and downward. Intentional avoidance? Ryan states that “each painting informs my next sculpture” and that the “process begins with a correspondence” between the two, but it is as if the works have only intellectualized each other, never vocalizing outwardly their inward thoughts. It is a delicate balance that Ryan negotiates between the warm and the cool.

JGK Gallery: Law of Sisters

In the context of the exhibit, the two 11 x 14-inch still lifes of sugar bowls, “Ironstone 1″ and “Ironstone 2,” are anthropomorphized into feminine vessels with lids that shall never be pried and handles that shall never be embraced. Unlike the slouching or smoking figurines, these inanimate objects do not exude attitude and thus provide a visual balance in the show. The largest painting (48 x 48-inch), “Law of Sisters,” is also the most complex. Featuring three pubescent girls on a settee, the viewer is introduced to the awkwardness that accompanies youth on the cusp of young adulthood; white-gloves, white hat, high heels, properly-crossed hands in laps, but with knees and ankles awry. Ryan allows a glimpse into the future – perhaps a decade or two – via the oval mirror mounted above the sofa. Here, the sisters converse around the dining table, wine glass and cigarette in hand; expressions reflecting their younger selves. It is the most colorful and involved of her paintings; perhaps the most engaging, although a personal favorite is “Diagonal” for its strong compositional elements and for what is left unspoken.

While at JGK Galleries, do enjoy the adjoining two gallery spaces where 14 out-of-state accomplished and emerging artists are represented on a rotating basis. Currently, three local artists – Gareth Fitzgerald Barry, Scott Peters, and Goded Geier – who participated in Greentopia also have works included. JGK Galleries is located at 10 Vick Park A, Rochester, NY 14607; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 11am-3pm; Wednesday, 4:30-7:30pm, and by appointment; 585-734-6581; www.jgkgalleries.com.

JGK Gallery window

Two Seated Figures with Children, Henry Moore; Print (47/50)

Henry Moore …well, at least his art…has singularly and silently executed a British invasion in Rochester. With the Olympics in London and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the world’s eyes are focused on all things British. Anyone who has visited the RIT campus or the Memorial Art Gallery is familiar with his bronze sculpture: Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 1 and Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae, respectively. What may be unbeknownst to many is just how many Henry Moore pieces Rochester can claim as its own.

For example, Yousuf Karsh (Canadian, born Armenia, 1908-2002) captured the artist himself in a 1949 silver gelatin print, Henry Moore, Sculptor; which Karsh gifted to The George Eastman House collection. RIT’s 1962 bronze, Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 1, 4-1/2 x 9 x 5 feet in dimension, is free for the viewing on the Eastman Quad as the piece belongs to the Public Art on Campus Collection.

Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 1, Henry Moore

Maquettes, as well as full-scale models for Moore’s ideas were cast, among them the MAG’s 1968 bronze Working Model for Three Piece No.3: Vertebrae, 41-5/8 x 93 x 48 inches, located in the Vanden Brul Pavilion, also free for the viewing during MAG hours. The Gallery’s collection does not end there: it includes two other Moore sculptures, the 1962 Knife Edge, 28-1/8 x 20 x 12-1/8 inches, and 1945 (cast 1952) Study for Reclining Figure, 3-1/2 x 6 inches, in addition to numerous drawings and a print. Neither of the aforementioned sculptures is currently on view at the MAG however.

There is yet another free opportunity to view the hand of the master: a Moore print, Two Seated Figures with Children (number 47 of 50 pressings), is on view during August in Pittsford’s International Art Acquisitions located at 3300 Monroe Avenue. Hours are Monday-Friday, 10 am-9 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm, and Sunday 12-5 pm. It is installed just above a Miro and to the right of a Chagall, Renoir, and Matisse. All of these venues, whether exterior or interior settings, are quite impressive for a city the size of Rochester.

What about the artist himself? Henry Moore, 1898-1986, was a native of Castleford, Yorkshire, England, and celebrated as a sculptor in his time. His early years are noted as including a happy childhood, a brief stint teaching elementary school, and service in the Civil Service Rifles during WWI. Following wartime duty, Moore attended Leeds School of Art, then the Royal College of Art in London – with a trip to Italy, both on scholarship. While at the Royal College of Art, Moore worked as an assistant in the sculpture department, and in 1926 held his first solo exhibit. During his career as a teacher of art, the artist pursued direct carving before the more indirect method of metal casting. The United States’ first exposure to Moore’s art was in 1936 in the Cubism and Abstract Art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

It was the sculptor’s drawings of people – especially women and children sheltered in the London Underground during WWII’s Blitz – that garnered wider public attraction when shown in 1940-41. MOMA staged a Moore retrospective exhibition in 1946, which traveled to Chicago, San Francisco and Australia. In 1948 Moore participated in the Venice Biennale, winning the main sculpture prize. As the scale of his reputation and his commissions increased, Moore transitioned from carving to casting. According to Edward Lucie-Smith in his “Lives of the Great 20th-Century Artists,” the official honors bestowed upon Moore helped Modernist art to become “absorbed and accepted by the traditionally conservative British cultural establishment.”

Henry Moore

A personal favorite is a photograph of Moore’s 1971-72 bronze, Sheep Piece, which towers 19 feet above the woolly inhabitants of the field the sculpture occupies in the artist’s homestead, Hoglands, Hertfordshire, England. It is not located in Rochester, obviously, although a casting can be viewed (sans sheep) in Kansas City Sculpture Park, in case you are vacationing there this summer. And if not at this locale, there are 65 additional cities – including Syracuse, Buffalo and Ithaca – that have Henry Moore sculptures on public display. If you find the sheep as captivating as the artist did, the “Henry Moore Sheep Sketchbook” is highly recommended. It can be said that Henry Moore’s British invasion is international in scope, but Rochesterians are fortunate to have so many of his works of art right here in our own backyard. Enjoy!

Images courtesy of RIT, MAG, Art Acquisitions websites:

http://www.rochesterpublicart.com/public_art/

http://artoncampus.rit.edu/artist/95/

http://artoncampus.rit.edu/art/18/

http://internationalartacquisitions.com/?s=henry+moore

http://www.henry-moore.org/works-in-public/world/united-states-of-america/kansas-city/kansas-city-sculpture-park/sheep-piece-1971-72-lh-627

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500280720.html

Benitez, Redden photos

Upstairs in the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education is the “We Are Ten” exhibition of cool black and white photographs – silver gelatin prints to be exact – that marks the culmination of the inaugural after-school program of Wilson Commencement Academy Photo Club. “Ten” refers to the number of high school students (eight of whom are former participants in the middle school program, Studio 678) who one day a week ventured into the community with camera in hand, and then developed their images in the Community Darkroom.

In a digital age, it is both refreshing and encouraging that the cameras employed by the Photo Club are SLRs. Pentax ZXM-based single-lens reflex cameras loaded with Ilford HP5 film; for camera buffs, this is good information to have on hand. Teaching artists for this project are Melanie Couch and Michael Parks; Advisor is Maureen Loveless. Participating Photo Club artists include: Jadé Benitez, Kristina Chomiak, Emily Cook, Amanda Dillman, Amber Dillman, Mayasia Elliston, Allana LaBarge, Leean Porter, Rianna Redden, and Jahaad Simmons-Herrera. These young photographers do not shout at their audience; they whisper. By lowering the decibels, they capture our attention.

Sunken Room

On a 90-plus degree day, it is admittedly welcoming to discover air conditioning on the second floor of the Genesee Center. My initial impression of the tenor of the main gallery photographs include such descriptors as isolated, subdued, solitary, and emotionally distant. The mid-range tonal values of the photographs lend themselves to their chosen subject matter (almost all of which are untitled): Dillman’s unpeopled construction site, Benitez’s fenced alley, Redden’s detritus-strewn beach, Elliston’s decaying plywood, Porter’s “4650″ building seen through a chain link fence, and Simmons-Herrera’s stark city street. Even Cook’s male subject gazes with unfocused eyes into the urbanscape we know as Rochester, while Chomiak’s solitary geriatric actor plays his scene on the Highland Bowl stage to an absent audience. However, it is not a sense of despair that these young artists impart, but an objectivity that originates with an inanimate glass lens and seems to extend to the photographer’s anatomical lens.

Don’t miss stepping into the Sunken Room, an adjunct exhibition space that doubles as gallery and conference/classroom. The photographs here are generally peopled: Cook’s collector of recyclables from a public trash can; Porter’s businessman at the crossroads of Exchange, State and Main streets; Chomiak’s skateboarder streaking by; and Elliston’s festivalgoers. The only image that appears staged is Simmons-Herrera’s sole figure on the Ontario Beach pier, yet, the mere choice of composition automatically “stages” an image. What lies on the periphery, what is absent, impacts every photographic selection. “We Are Ten” continues through Friday, August 31.

Pincus

Lindstrom

Downstairs in the Firehouse Gallery is a hot exhibition featuring student work in the 5th annual “College Clay Collective,” continuing through July 23. Juried by Matt Metz of Alfred University, the “Collective” is a national showcase of ceramic work from emerging artists – freshmen, to MFA candidates, to graduates 2 years out.

Genesee Pottery Director, Kate Whorton, comments that the variety of ceramic and pottery in an exhibit such as the “Collective” reflects the particular aesthetic of each school. For example, the organic, earth-toned “Beekeeper” by third-place winner Sarah Teasley, University of Mississippi-Oxford, is the product of a vapor-firing process (wood, salt, or soda kiln), utilizing sgrafitto, i.e., incising an outline drawing to an unfired ceramic body with two layers of contrasting slip. The choice of elements – firing, slip, sgraffito – all work together to create a piece at one with itself and literally buzzing with energy.

Teasley

Second-place winner Kwok-Pong Tso, University of Iowa, creates multimedia work evocative of architecture and thus more conceptual. Tso’s “We Alter, We Change, and We Call it Our Own” is an assemblage of metal, plaster, wood, plexiglass, sand and clay, resembling a maquette of a full-scale industrial building yet clearly an intentional sculptural piece.

Utilizing a unique process, first-place winner Peter Pincus, Alfred University, creates his cast porcelain “Scotch Glass” by throwing, molding, cutting the resultant elements into pieces, reassembling, sanding surfaces smooth, and finally achieving his impeccable surface design via colored slips. Pincus is Genesee Pottery’s studio manager, who also has one of his students juried into “Collective.”  While Pincus’s forms manage to be simultaneously retro and contemporary as well as self-contained, the work of student Andrea Tutino, Roberts Wesleyan, demands a presence via boundary-stretching. For Tutino, form emerges as an accumulation of smaller units, as in “Slow Show,” a heart-shaped large-scale vessel comprised of outstretched organic fingers (think Chihuly in clay).

Tutino

Other represented artists hail from Edinboro University-PA, Mary Bough, Kristen Muscaro, Travis Winters; University of Mississippi-Oxford, Lee McCarty;  Ohio University-Athens, James Tingley; and closer to home: Buffalo State, Stephanie Dukat; Syracuse University, Zach Dunn; RIT, Ian Bassett; and Nazareth College, Alyssa Lindstrom. While Bassett, McCarty, and Dunn offer beautiful utilitarian works, others present painterly wall reliefs, sculptural vases, and whimsical objets d’art. Lindstrom’s “House Series: Fear, Stress, Instability” is well positioned in the Monroe Street window as an eye-catcher, snagging passersby. Let yourself be snagged, step inside, and leave the clay beneath your feet to enjoy clay transformed.

The website for both the Darkroom (for more info, contact Marianne Pojman, Associate Director, darkroom@geneseearts.org, 585-271-5920) and the Gallery (pottery@geneseearts.org, 585-244-1730) is www.geneseearts.org; both are located in the former firehouse at 713 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607. Darkroom hours: Monday, 9am-9:30pm; Tuesday-Thursday, 9am-6:30pm; Friday, Noon-5pm; and Saturday, 10am-5:30pm. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm; Saturday, Noon-4pm.

Blossom, Sepia Pears

The ambient air created by 15 female watercolorists exhibiting in the 1570 Gallery beckons the viewer to walk in their gardens, share their favorite landscapes, and reminisce over their Mother’s sewing box. While “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary” is an ambitious title conjuring great expectations, the actual 1570 Gallery experience is more one of familiarity, where the artists have turned our attention to the illuminating quality of the ordinary.

The artists – Karen Blossom, Kathleen Bobb, Karen DeSantis, Lois DeWitt, Gwen Coleman, Virginia Kaufer, Linda Keefer, Jeanne Leasure, Kathy Lindsley, Marilyn Monkelbaan, Jean O’Brien, Ginny Palumbos, Bea Rosenbloom, Terry Schwartz, and Lois Zebelman – share a common passion for watercolor, a similar palette, and a common inspiration: their teacher M. Wendy Gwirtzman. In the more than 50 works, craftsmanship shines, subject matter is accessible, and the scale is residential-friendly.

DeSantis, Fresh Air

Watercolor is a medium that appears easy but requires mastery of technique; practice, practice, practice. It appears that Gwirtzman’s students are doing just that, applying paint with deftness and fluidity. The majority of the paintings focus on plant life and flowers, but these are not flowers as seen through Georgia O’Keefe’s lens, where botanical anatomy is probed, magnified, and abstracted. These flowers are more akin to the French Impressionists: Monet, Caillebotte, Renoir.

DeSantis’ “Hibiscus” successfully combines the formal elements of composition, value, and color to create depth, as does O’Brien in her small format  “Japanese Anemone,” and Monkelbaan in “Sunflowers.” A small work by Keefer, “Tulips,” showcases an outcropping of flowers whose height is accentuated by a backdrop of vertical siding, while scumbling of the blush-pink petals softens and dissolves the edges into the white background. It is sfumato meeting simplicity, refreshingly so. In DeSantis’ “Fresh Air,” it is texture that trumps the other formal elements; the rough deteriorating exterior wall, the peeling paint on the window frame, the  terra cotta-boxed red geraniums, and the crisp white cotton eyelet curtain wafting in the open window.

Zebelman, Snowy Day Central Park

However, not all images herald warm weather. Zebelman’s “Snowy Day in Central Park” reveals the power of restraint, of using the paper to one’s advantage by leaving it untouched to depict the negative space (snow), of limiting color to an almost monochromatic palette, and of accentuating the gesture of the trees via a heightened play of values. Kaufer’s “Blue Barn” is an edge-of-winter scene where snow and sunlit colored landscapes coexist, but it is not the faded indigo barn that captivates the viewer, it is the dance of the tree cast shadows. O’Brien’s “Street in China” shows yet another season: a one-point perspective cityscape populated by umbrellaed pedestrians, a street drizzled in reflective rain, out of focus, and a perfect subject for employing the wet-on-wet watecolor technique.
Several still lifes round out the exhibit: Monkelbaan’s “Cut Crystal,” an impersonal yet proficient study of light, reflective glass, and drapery; O’Brien’s “My Mother’s Legacy,” an aerial view of translucent eyelet trim and sewing notions, a  personal trip back in time and memory; and, one of my personal favorites, Blossom’s “Sepia Pears,” the value study of a fruit triad that can easily be described as lustrous and luscious.

Kaufer, Blue Barn

Only three aspects spoil the totality of the exhibit: two empty wall spots where Zebelman’s work has been removed and not replaced; the self-consciously overlapping leaf from picture plane to mat in Blossom’s “Coneflower”; and Bobb’s blaring “Silk Dyer” which seems out of place both in scale, color, and subject. That being said, the exhibit is a worthwhile gallery outing and a delight to the senses.
“Making the Ordinary Extraordinary” is on view in 1570 Gallery, 1570 East Avenue (entrance also via University Avenue), Rochester, NY 14610; Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm; weekends by appointment, 585-770-1923. Enter Vallery Manor’s lobby, sign in, and receive directions from the concierge; take the elevator to the Gallery on the ground floor, which is located at the end of the hallway on the left, past the dining room and gift shop. To arrange a tour, call Jean Pope Boyle, Gallery Curator. www.seniorsfirst.com/valleymanor/active-senior-living.htm

Miller "Untitled"

By CHRISTINA LAUREL
Written for Artkestry

Mention the word “Brooklyn” and who does not immediately think “Brooklyn Bridge” or “Brooklyn Dodgers”? While a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge graces the program cover for a new show at the Colacino Gallery, it is the 20 exhibitors who are creating a new phenomenon that may instead brand Brooklyn as an emerging artists capital. Rochester’s 1.9 million inhabitants have produced its fair share of artists; New York City’s borough of Brooklyn with its 2.5 million inhabitants seems to have produced more than its share. At least if “Brooklyn Bound” is any indication. Curated by Nazareth College alumni (BS Art Education 2005) and participating guitarist-artist Rob Servo, this intriguing exhibition is on view through May 11.

Diverse, professional, and brilliantly installed, “Brooklyn Bound” showcases street art to sculpture, painting, and video. The roster of artists include: Allison Berkoy, Amy Lincoln, Andrew Hurst, Austin Thomas, Ben Godward, Deborah Brown, Ellen Letcher, Evan Green, GILF!, Greg McKenna, Jason Andrew, Kevin Curran, Kevin Regan, Letha Wilson, Matthew Miller, Rachel Esterday, Rico Gatson, Rob Servo, Robbie Wilkins, Victor Cox.

After the initial impression of spacious and visual, it is the auditory that catches one’s attention. Two works incorporate sound, but it is the laments that lead me to the installation “Swing” by Allison Berkoy, tucked behind a separating gallery wall. What confronts this viewer is a “baby” languishing in one of those wind-up infant devices, complete with butterfly mobile dangling overhead. Although the body of “Queen of the Cuties” – as the bib declares – is clothed in pink, the face is an androgynous back-projected-video that transforms the baby into a creature more reminiscent of Disney’s interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Roses. The adult moaning is interspersed with an audible “Maybe our love is not for this world”; powerful but nonetheless disconcerting.

A welcome antidote is the melancholic music that poignantly and perfectly accompanies Robbie Wilkins’ and Rahul Chadha’s collaborative video “What’s On Your Mind.” Using appropriated Facebook entries (names changed and portraits blurred for obvious protective purposes), 30-year old “Christopher Dibson’s” marital breakup is chronicled from August through December. Such a dramatic life-change edited into FB soundbytes is so reflective of the pervasive nature of this medium in our messaging and in our lives.

While a first impression is that all the work in “Brooklyn Bound” is produced by artists in their 20s and 30s, a little homework reveals that Deborah Brown received her MFA in 1978, placing her on a different rung of the age ladder, which accounts for her more traditional oil on canvas approach to urban landscape “Bushwick sunset #2.” Servo’s painterly 1997 abstract oil painting “Waterfall” reflects an approach that disappears in his 21st century pieces.

Godward and Servo

It is not merely the quality of the work but the installation that makes “Brooklyn Bound” such a joy to experience. The placement of Ben Godward’s resin-foam pop-saturated-color-dripped sculpture “Campfire” placed in the vicinity of Servo’s asymmetrically-framed “Persuasion” conjures a cause-and-effect relationship between the works. Did Godward’s “campfire” perhaps burn and char the negative-space flow through Servo’s wood panels?

And who would have flanked female street artist GILF’s spray-painted “White Collar” with Amy Lincoln’s diminutive acrylic portrait “Maid of Honor” and “Tokyo still life #2″?  Lincoln’s style blends that of a Dutch master with that of an American primitive. GILF’s work speaks volumes, with bold graphics and limited palette – gold handcuffs, red-hands, black suit, white-cuffs. Lincoln’s work deftly blends subdued with saturated hues in highly staged compositions. GILF’s imagery of corruption is heightened when paired with Lincoln’s imagery of innocence.

GILF and Lincoln

Gatson

In Rico Gatson’s paintings, “portal” and “crepsaol” it is the black that grabs. Intentionally so. A succinct geometric maze of black, white and gray, the pigments reside side-by-side but always within distinct boundaries. Maximum commentary on race and society conveyed via a minimalist approach. The glitter embedded in the black paint sparkles, but in the rough textural way of asphalt shingles.

There is also subtlety: psychological, emotional. I cannot help but see the hand of Hans Holbein in the self-portrait graphite studies, “Untitled,” by Matthew Miller (image at the top). A glimpse at the finished oil painting is included in the “Brooklyn Bound” exhibition trifold, but the studies themselves are exquisitely executed. The sfumato is so refined while the incised furrows in his brow are so dramatic. Is Matthew looking without or within?

Personally, the weakest links in the exhibit are photographer Rachel Esterday and collagist Andrew Hurst. Esterday’s “Guatemala Girl” and “Ganges River” are almost complete, but travel images that are often pre-composed in design and color demand another level of scrutiny and artistic perspective. Esterday’s photos flank Hurst’s talismanic “Untitled,” where the use of feathers in collage demand more of the viewer than of the artist.

That being said, I agree with Jason Andrew’s comment that “the strength of Brooklyn Bound is in its inclusiveness, its diversity, with its uniqueness in multiplicity.” Andrews is an independent archivist, curator, and producer, whose commentary on the exhibit (copies are available in the Colacino Gallery) compares “Brooklyn Bound” to the 1940s artists who gathered at the Eighth Street Club, eventually spawning Abstract Expressionism. Is Brooklyn creating a new movement? Only time, perception and interpretation will determine this lofty a historic outcome. Judge for yourself; enjoy the exhibition.

The Colacino Gallery is located in the Art Department wing of the Nazareth College Arts Center complex on the second floor. Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-5pm, 585-389-2525. www.naz.edu/art/colacino-art-gallery/colacino-art-gallery

Postscript: Learned a new word “snog” from the Urban Dictionary: heavy kissing. It’s also listed in Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary as British slang originating in 1955-1960. Ellen Letcher’s mixed media piece “SNOG” in “Brooklyn Bound” incorporates just such an image, as well as typeface spelling out “catastrophe.” Check it out.

Spring Show 2012 at Gables

Dear Friends,

Please join us on April 22 at The Gallery at The Gables for the opening of our spring exhibit – In & Out. Curated by Artkestry, the show features elegant black & white prints, vibrant photographic sculptures, and stunning local water-scape images printed on a wide variety of media. Meet the artists and enjoy an ‘artful’ afternoon, sampling hors d’oeuvres and wine.

To RSVP, schedule a private tour, or purchase an art, please contact Aida Zilbergleyt at 585-415-8514 or aida@artkestry.com.

Bridge Art Gallery hallway

A well-intentioned gallery is tucked into the University of Rochester, showcasing the art of familiar as well as unknown local artists. In fact, the Bridge Art Gallery was designed with a twofold mission: display local art while creating a therapeutic environment for Strong Behavioral Health patrons. Cognizant of the continued stigma associated with mental health issues, the Office of Mental Health Promotion within the Department of Psychiatry has invested in a simple act of beauty: rotating artwork on hallway walls. Three times a year. The current exhibit, “Balance,” was juried by Department volunteers and two members of the Community Art Committee – Rachael Baldanza of the Memorial Art Gallery and Luvon Sheppard of Joy Gallery.

McMonagle's Balanceas Patience & Humility

While digital color photography dominates, the interpretation of the theme “Balance” runs a conservative but interesting course in other media. The pen and ink drawing, “Balance as Patience and Humility,” garnered Mark McMonagle best in show. Of all the pieces in the exhibit, it offers the most on which to ruminate: an Atlas in khakis, shouldering an alchemy of influences, somehow balancing in an eggshell canoe with surrealistically-melting oars. Read into it what you will; the concept and appropros usage of hatching, cross-hatching and stippling saves the illustration from its less than-well-rendered human anatomy.

Among the Jurors’ Top Pick awards are Peter Blackwood’s archival digital print, “earth, moon, sun, song”; John Kosboth’s pigment print, “At Water’s Edge”; Steven Justice’s hand-watercolored Xeroprint (Xeroprint?); and Lois Zebelman’s watercolor “Roots.” Justice’s Xeroprint – about which I could not locate any clarifying information – features a pretzel-twisted Martha Graham surrounded by a halo of grandmotherly busts whom I assume are “Nana.” These four letters are interwoven in the design, albeit not as successfully as the late caricaturist Al Hirschfeld’s hidden tributes to his daughter “Nina.”

Blackwood' "earth moon sun song"

In Zebelman’s watercolor “Roots” new life sprouts from dying onion bulbs gone to seed. Dying while nourishing; a seeming contradiction but perhaps a perfect analogy for emerging mental health. The luxuriant Renaissance-era hues of amethyst and ruby onion skin contrast perfectly with a nubile contemporary spring green.
Photographers on exhibit include: Robert Graham, Tim Peters, Bob Reeves, John W. Retallack, Sheridan Vincent, and Robert Weisman. Digital print artists: Kristine Bouyoucos, and Richard Harvey. There is a mixed-media piece by Cecily Culver, a pastel and paper applique (collage) by Rachael Goldenberg, a watercolor by Alexander Moss, an acrylic by Kim Rowlands, and several giclées of oils by René Simone-Lee. A few entries belie the age of their creators; some are simply more professional or amateurish than others, but the overall tone of the exhibit is excellence. The unifying element of the handsome black wood frames and mats lends an air of professionalism to the presentation.

Zebelman's Roots

“Balance” began its run on February 27 and will continue through June 25, 2012. My mere presence in the Bridge Art Gallery – actually looking at the artwork, taking notes and photographing the pieces – caused employees, patrons, and passersby to reconsider the walls as more than just physical parameters. It is the unfortunate luck of art placed in familiar and practical settings, with inadequate lighting, to be glazed over once the celebratory balloons from the opening have burst. It is the fortunate luck, however, of travelers from point A to point B to experience beauty along the way. Imagine the walls empty, forlorn; no reason to pause, to gaze, or to consider.

Parking is available (same fee as Strong Medical Center’s covered lot, but more convenient to Strong Behavioral Health) in the lot across the street on Crittenden. Strong Behavioral Health is located at 300 Crittenden Blvd., Rochester, NY 14642. 585-275-3571. The receptionist at the atrium desk on the right can direct you to the Bridge Art Gallery, or you can proceed through the atrium doors on the left, walk past the check-in desk, then turn left. Follow the hall to the “blue” elevators (not actually blue but with an indicative sign overhead) and travel to the first floor. Exit the elevator to your right, turn left, and you will enter the portion of the hallway now known as The Bridge Art Gallery. www.urmc.rochester.edu/psychiatry/outreach/omhp/BridgeArtGallery.cfm

Abstractions Loving Color

An antidote to the monochromatic winter landscape can be found at My Sister’s Gallery, through March 1, in the collaborative work of wife/husband team Cheryl Olney and Don Olney. Viewers will be moved to begin dancing alongside the colorfully whimsical mixed-media work in their exhibit “Some Things Old, Some Things New.” Or at least smile.

The mix of their media involves figurative wood cutouts layered with signature spirals and then colored by Don and Cheryl, both self-proclaimed self-taught artists who bring toy-making and social work backgrounds to their craft and their art. Both genres are skillfully blended by the duo, who have been married for more than a quarter century and collaborating for 15 years. “Everything we do is jointly done,” states Cheryl.

While 2-D artists strive to transform surfaces into illusions of three-dimensionality, the Olneys are clear cut (pun intended) in presenting their 3-D material as if it is two dimensional. The artwork begins as a pen-on-paper drawing, scanned and tweaked, then laser cut from 5×5-foot Russian Baltic birch in their Sutter Industrial Park studio, sanded, and finally airbrushed in color. Cheryl notes that sanding creates a feel that is good to the hand but doesn’t raise the grain. The colors are not saturated, opaque or glossy but are applied to enhance and reveal the wood substrate.

Gwendolyn Deborah

Henri Matisse’s cutouts and Romare Bearden’s collages are not referenced, but rather kneaded together to create a new, graphic and contemporary bread. Perhaps while listening to Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington. “We work to make art, peace, joy, amends, and to live like we mean it,” state the Olneys in the exhibit program and on their website. Their work certainly affirms this sentiment, echoed by the predominant themes of friendship, family, fun and community.

While “Dancing to the Music” reflects the comical end of their spectrum, with a male and female figure “cutting a rug” together in oversized gestures and shoes, “Gwendolyn Deborah” represents the more refined and stylized end. “Dancing’s” figures are full blown while “Gwendolyn’s” figure is a drawing in space, interior contour lines in red layered on a 3×1-foot silhouette of amethyst. There is power in numbers and thus “Gwendolyn” is replicated twice – once in red on goldenrod and again in cobalt on poppy. The model is imagined as diminutive albeit not in demeanor; her radiating hair declares her feminine presence as nothing less than the rays of the sun itself.

Ladies' Skinny Legs

Most works are unframed; an exception is a personal favorite, a shadowboxed “Ladies with Skinny Legs” whose two female figures lean towards each other in quiet conversation. Among the freestanding pieces are a series of non-figurative “Abstracts in Loving Color” that employ a varied application of layers of the grid and spiral motif. The palette of primary and secondary colors, bright but not overwhelming nor cloying, works here as well as in the figures. The abstractions are often featured pieces in their fine-craft venues. “One day I would like to have a show of just abstracts,” states Cheryl, although she knows the queries about their figurative work will be forthcoming.

Women Color Black & Tan

Unfortunately My Sister’s Gallery falls victim to a pitfall common to hallway galleries: poor lighting, hot spots, and dark corners. Frustrating to this viewer but overshadowed by the exuberance of the work. If you miss this venue, the Olneys will be exhibiting at the Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union on Gregory Street in the spring, and at the Memorial Art Gallery’s Clothesline Festival.

My Sister’s Gallery at The Episcopal Church Home, 505 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620. Admission is free and open to the public, wheelchair accessible. Gallery hours: daily 10am-8pm. For My Sister’s Gallery information: Diane Cotton, 585-546-8400 ext. 3102. For more on Cheryl and Don Olney: http://www.louisesdaughter.com/.

Gallery at The Gables Opening Reception

Join us on February 12 for the opening of Home Sweet Home, the first exhibition at The Gallery at The Gables. Curated by Artkestry, the show features exquisite pieces by Jacqueline Murray, Scott Grove, and Pat Pauly. Meet these nationally known artists whose work will be available for sale through March 25. Wine, beverages and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Download a full flyer (PDF).

Mercer Gallery

Luvon Sheppard’s exhibit is a balancing act of density and levity: dense in imagery and intent, and light in palette and translucency. Sheppard’s world is a place where Christian, religious, and spiritual motifs proliferate – horses, lions, eagles, fish, hearts, crosses, angelic wings, bread, and water. Yet the imagery is not didactic nor proselytizing but imbued with a transparent sense of genuine spirituality-translated-into-humanity.

Rochester’s history and humanity are expressed in downtown scenes and legendary portraits, Sheppard’s tribute to his native city. Well, almost, as the artist moved here with his family at age 5. Revelation II, a 1991 watercolor, appears to be set in the Washington Square Park area. The well-executed cityscape dovetails with the layering of allegory: a stampede of “Marlboro” horses in reflective windows, whose own images are reflected in the water through which they gallop; a chalice and cross tucked into a corner of the commercial building’s window; and a simulated “in God we trust” from the ubiquitous American dollar bill floating prominently across the picture plane. The viewer is left to connect the proverbial “dots” in this visual relationship.

The 4×4.5-foot acrylic on canvas Obama is an example of the co-mingling of sacred and secular. A bust of Barack Obama looks skyward to the bust of his self-proclaimed mentor Abraham Lincoln – a ghostly image floating among the clouds albeit anchored on a 5-dollar bill. The rendering of the “5″ brings to mind Charles Demuth’s Figure 5 in gold and Jasper Johns’ #5, although Sheppard does not cite either of these artists among his influences. Among the other ghost images are the eagle, lion, and horse, conjuring yet another reference: C.S. Lewis’ Narnia. The formal artistic elements of other works, such as the 2006 acrylic painting Bread for Wine or the 2006 Ascending, are overshadowed by their overt religiosity.

Mercer Gallery

Two personal favorites are the 2010 watercolor, Circle of Influence, and the 1996 mixed media, Martin Luther King’s Fence. A “fence” of paper weaving overlays a neighborhood landscape and surrounds a superimposed watercolor comprised of tenebristically-rendered silhouettes of Martin Luther King, Jr., and others. The silhouettes themselves are composed of photo-montage-like images. All of Sheppard’s visual imagery appears purposeful yet occasionally cryptic. Martin Luther King’s Fence bridges the span between the artist’s two-dimensional watercolors and his three-dimensional wood, metal and found-object sculptures. In Circle of Influence, it is the use of graphite and pen, as well as watercolor, that appeals and makes the iconic political and cultural figures - Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, and others - more immediately accessible.