ArtBeat: What To See

Ordinary Things: When Artists Make Their Private Life Public @ Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson. A photography exhibition featuring works by David Lebe, Harry Wilks, Thatcher Keats, Sabine Delafon and Allyson Levy that revisits the tradition of focusing on the day-to-day life of family members as subjects. (See Sebastien B.’s writeup and photos here) (Through December 12) (Through December 12)

Witness: The Art of Jerry Pinkney @ Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Opening Saturday, November 13, the first major retrospective exhibition of the award-winning children’s book illustrator and designer will feature more than 140 watercolor illustrations spanning his 50-year career, touching on such personal and cultural themes as the African-American experience, the wonders of classic literature and the wisdom in well-loved folk tales. (Through May 30, 2011)

An exhibition of paintings and drawings by Elizabeth Albert and Rebecca Shepard, two artists who use fantasy, history, memories and personal stories to create imaginary worlds where life’s challenges play out. Opening reception: Saturday November 13, 4-6 pm. (Through December 17)

Painter, sculptor, children’s book author and illustrator, game designer…Musho Rodney Alan Greenblat’s vivid and whimsical designs span multiple categories. An exhibit of new and recent work, combining his colorful vision of Buddhist imagery and his Japanese mass-market character and product designs. Also on display will be a selection of work by filmmaker/director John Inwood as well as a group exhibition of gallery artists, including work by Garth Evans, Ching Ho Cheng, Barbara Friedman, Eric Rhein, Martha Lloyd, Philip Howie, Frank Cressotti, Fred Scruton and others. Opening reception: Saturday November 13, 6-8 pm. (Through December 19)

The Strange World of Albrecht Dürer @ The Clark, Williamstown. The strange world of Albrecht Dürer, populated by monsters, witches, hybrid animals, and marauding soldiers, shares spiritual and social preoccupations with our own time. Drawn entirely from the Clark’s extensive holdings, the display will feature approximately seventy-five works by the celebrated German Renaissance painter, printmaker and writer. Opens Sunday, November 14. (Through March 13, 2011)

Peter Acheson: Paintings @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Recent abstract works. Opening reception: Saturday, November 13, 6-8pm. (Through December 5)

Fine Arts Alumni Exhibition @ The Teaching Gallery, HVCC, Troy. Artist Talk: Valerie Rafferty: Novemer 11 3pm. Works in a wide variety of media by seventeen alumni of Hudson Valley’s Fine Arts programs. Opening reception: November 11, 4-6pm (Through December 11)

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Remanere @ The Arts Center, Saratoga Springs. Photographic works by Kevin Gray and Sondra Peron. (Through November 13)

Transformations: Photographs by Nina Bachinsky Gimmel and Recent Work: Drawings & Paintings by David Drake @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. (Through November 14)

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Autobiography @ Photo Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Works by Nicholas Walster and Susanna Bartoldus. (Through November 21)

Charles Steckler: Collage @ Clement Gallery, Troy. Primarily known for his stage designs for theatre, Charles Steckler has also created an elaborate body of work ranging from drawings, photography, painting, box construction dioramas and playful collages, which is the focus of this exhibition. (Through November 24)

Art-Hypnosis Hypnosis-Art @ Upstate Artists Guild, Albany. George Guarino’s installation that offers a new way of hypnotically conditioning yourself in an art gallery setting. (Through Friday, November 26)

A Show of Heads @ The Limner Gallery, Hudson. In this annual thematic exhibition, the gallery is featuring works in a broad range of media by a diverse group of 24 contemporary artists from across New York, the U.S. and the the U.K. (Through November 27)

When Comics Went Underground @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. 50 works of art by such acclaimed comix creators as R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, Art Spiegelman, Harvey Pekar, Trina Robbins, S. Clay Wilson and others. (Though November 28)

Charles Prendergast: In Search of “Innocence” @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibit featuring the artwork of Charles Prendergast, brother of American artist Maurice Prendergast, in the light of the medieval, Indian, folk, and “primitive” art that inspired his career. (Through November 28)

12.25.2009 @ Storefront Artist Project, Pittsfield. An exhibition of photographs all taken within the 24 hour time span on December 25, 2009 by a dozen artists across the globe Artists include Sveva Costa Sanseverino, Barbara Gentile, Richard Greene, Francesca Habe, Barnaby Hall, Drake Higgins, Randy Kato, Kevin Knight, Laura Razzano, Gisella Sorrentino, Monika Sosnowski and Bernard Steffin. Opening reception: Saturday, November 6, 6-8pm. (Through November 28)

Eye Music Portraits No. 3 @ Wesley Gallery, Wesley Health Care Center, Saratoga Springs. With images by world-class photographers Lawrence White, Joseph Deuel and Andrzej Pilarczyk, this exhibition encompasses performance portraits of national and international musicians from all types of music including rock, jazz, folk, blues and country. (Through November 29)

Complementary Contrast @ North Adams Artists’ Co-op Gallery, North Adams. An exhibit pairing stoneware artist Joshua Primmer with Katie Richardson, a sculptor who works primarily in glass and metals. (Through November 29)

Florilegium @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. An exhibit of works by Kim Kauffman inspired by the lush 17th and 18th century Europeans books of flower paintings that documented newly discovered botanical species from around the world. Using a flatbed scanner, Kauffman collages together multiple layers of flowers, leaves, seed pods and other objects of nature to create an rich and detailed abstract visual environment. (Through November 29)

American Impressionists @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Works by David Lussier, John Terelak, John Traynor and George Van Hook. (Through November 30)

Charles Steckler: Boxed Sets @ The Perrella Gallery, Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Johntown. A career survey of Charles Steckler’s perspective boxes – which he calls “dioramas” – and his stage settings for theater presented in production photographs. (Through December 10)

This Girl Bends: Art and Feminism Since 1960 @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. A group exhibit that explores the connections between art and feminism through sculpture, video, photography, and prints spanning the past 50 years. Artists include Lynda Benglis, Patty Chang, Ed Kienholz, Glenn Ligon, Ana Mendieta, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Carolee Schneemann, Kiki Smith, Kerry Stewart and Nancy Spero. (Through December 12)

Richard Merkin: Paintings and Drawings @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. An exhibit of vivid, Modernist works by the late painter and illustrator. The cartoonish works, rendered in a sure hand, reflect Merkin’s fascination with pop culture, baseball and vintage pornography. Concurrently in the backroom is an exhibit of both large and small abstract paintings by Meg Lipke. (Through December 12)

African American Abstract Masters @ Opalka Gallery, Sage College, Albany. A group exhibition by 14 artists born between 1914-1937 who have enlisted a variety of approaches and aesthetic influences over the span of six decades. The show, which travels up from from the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York City where it exhibited this past spring, features Robert Blackburn, Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, Bill Hutson, Harlan Jackson, Norman Lewis, Sam Middleton, Joe Overstreet, Thomas Sills, Merton Simpson, Alma Thomas, and Frank Wimberley. (Through December 12)

BATTLESIGHT: Dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan @ The Arts Center, Troy. Three internationally renowned photographers, Cheryl Diaz Meyer, Balazs Gardi and Teru Kuwayam, in a powerfull collection of wartime images that depict the realities of life for combatants and civilians in lands far from most Americans’ view. (Through December 19)

Critical Stitch @ Mandeville Gallery., Schenectady. Fiber arts are finally beginning to outgrow the crafts/feminine ghetto, as witnessed by this broad-ranging exhibit that examines and offers social commentary on modern life. Read more about it here. (Through December 19)

5+5: New Perspectives and The View From Here @ Storm King Arts Center, Mountainville. Storm King celebrates its 50th anniversary with two new exhibits. 5+5: New Perspectives features new or recent works five artists already in the Storm King collection (Alice Aycock, Chakaia Booker, Andy Goldsworthy, Mark di Suvero and Ursula von Rydingsvard) as well as five new artists (John Bisbee, Maria Elena González, Darrell Petit, Alyson Shotz and Stephen Talasnik) The site specific works will remain on view through 2010 and in many cases through 2011. Also opening is “The View From Here,” an exhibit in the Museum Building that documents Storm King’s history and evolution through archival documents, photographs and videos. (Through December, 2010)

Leonard Nimoy: Secret Selves @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Large-scale photographs revealing his subjects’ hidden “secret selves.” (Through December 31, 2010)

The Imaged Word @ Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany. An exhibition of artwork that responds to the material qualities of books and the passages contained within them. Artists include Fern Apfel, Gabe Brown, Gayle Johnson, Paul Katz, Scott McCarney, Amy Podmore, Fawn Potash, William Ransom, Aaron T. Stephan, Robert The and Barbara Todd. (Through January 9, 2011)

Paper and Light @ The Berkshire Museum. Henry Klimowicz has transformed the Wider Window Gallery with a site-specific installation extending vertically across the gallery’s two-story window composed of disused cardboard that has been carefully re-configured and arranged to highlight the interplay between natural light and the artwork. Also at the museum is a small exhibit of historical items from its own collection and from the Crane Museum of Papermaking presenting a practical history of the work of Crane & Co. through the years. Part of The Housatonic Paper Trail. (Through January 16)

Material World: Sculpture to Environment @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Site specific installations using elements not typically thought of as artistic materials. Artists include Michael Beutler, Orly Genger, Tobias Putrih, Alyson Shotz, Dan Steinhilber, Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen. (Through Feb. 27, 2011).

The Jewel Thief @ The Tang Teaching Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. Abstract art by over fifty contemporary artists from the Tang’s collection, including Kathy Butterly, Dorothy Dehner, Bill Komoski, Michael Lazarus, Charles Long, Allan McCollum, and Ann Pibal, alongside recent works by artists including Cheryl Donegan, Roy Dowell, Rico Gatson, Joanne Greenbaum, Liz Larner, Virgil Marti, Carrie Moyer, Richard Rezac, and John Torreano, among many others. Artist reception 10/9 (Through February 27, 2011)

Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge @ MASS MocA, North Adams. This sentence says it all: “Her innovative use of materials includes dead fish, mud, sticks, black sand, old car parts, wax, satin ribbons, artificial flowers and birds, birdcages, and most recently, taxidermy animals, Madonna statues, and horsehair.” ($6 | Free for members) (Through February, 2011)

All Utopias Fell @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. A long-term installation that will be open seasonally, Michael Oatman’s ambitious vision re-purposes an Airstream trailer into a crashed satellite, complete with parachutes and solar panels. (Ongoing)

In a Labyrinth: The Dance of Butoh @ The National Museum of Dance, Saratoga Springs. Photographer Michael Manheim’s exhibition of professional Butoh dancers – a dance genre stemming from post-war Japan. (Through March, 2011)

Suzanne Bocanegra: I Write the Songs and Paula Hayes: Understory @ The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs. Helping to launch the Tang’s 10th anniversary year, Suzanne Bocanegra is exhibiting walls works, sound and video installations and a new work that combines live dance and recorded sound (through January 2, 2011). Paula Hayes has transformed the Tang’s Payne Room into an immersive environment brimming with life, including a forest of large silicone planters housing small trees, a series of her hand-blown grass terrariums and new custom-designed wallpaper and dinnerware. (Through April 17, 2011)