ArtBeat: What To See

Alyson Belcher: Self @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. Photographic self-portraits using pinhole photography and Improvisational performance. As Belcher states,

The element of time in pinhole photography allows something to arise that might never be revealed by modern photographic technology. The long exposure times give me an opportunity to explore the space in front of the camera. I may have the impulse to move, or I may choose to remain still-although the body is never completely still, and even the smallest movements leave traces on the film.

Reception: December 3, 6-8pm. (Through January 11)

Nick Patten @ Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Working from photographs, Hudson Valley artist Nick Patten creates dreamlike paintings that focus on light, surface and emptiness. Artist reception: Saturday, December 4, 5-7pm. (Through December 31)

Also noted:

The Strange, The Surreal And The Sentimental @ Davey Jones Gallery, Albany. Group show featuring Euna Goh, Laura Holmes, Amanda Kates and John Stack. Opening reception: Friday, December 3, 6-9pm. (Through January 21)

Annual Members’ Exhibition @ The Arts Center, Saratoga Springs. Opening reception and holiday potluck: Saturday, December 4, 6-8pm. (Through January 1)

6th Annual Members Show @ Albany Center Gallery. Opening reception Friday, November 3, 6-8pm. (Through December 23)

99 Cents and Up: Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. Photographs, photocopies, digital media, jewelry, pottery, and a variety of printing methods will all be available for purchase between 99 cents and 99 dollars.

Eleventh Annual 5 by 7 Show @ Kleinert/James Art Center, Woodstock. This highly popular exhibition will feature over 200 original 5 inch by 7 inch works by prominent artists living in and around the Hudson Valley area and beyond. Each piece sells for $100 and is anonymous until after purchase. From December 19-31, all unsold works will be priced at $50. All proceeds support the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s exhibition programs and events. (Through December 31)

UAG Marketplace @ Upstate Artists Guild, Albany. Featured artist: Erik Laffer, plus works by Tom d’Ambrose, Jorge Diaz, Robyn Diaz, Ketura Khai, Radha Krishnan, Thomasa Dwyer Nielsen, Natalie Paquette, Rebecca Schoonmaker and Nina Stanley. (Through December 23)

Dreams and Vessels @ NAACA Gallery, North Adams. A large group show by this coop gallery, as well as a large selection of gift items. Each Thursday of December, the gallery along with other Main Street, Eagle Street and Holden Street merchants will feature special events, as part of “Hometown Holidays” and will stay open until 8 pm. (Through January 24)

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

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)

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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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)

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)

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)

Photobook!! 2010 @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. A celebration of self-published photobooks by 20 photographers, with both books and prints available for purchase. Opening reception Saturday, November 20, 6-8pm. (Through December 19)

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)

“The Frustration of Expression” @ The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Centered around Gary Hill’s “Wall Piece,” a multifaceted installation which features the artist hurtling himself against a wall, uttering a single word from a prepared monologue, the group exhibition also features newly commissioned video installations by Marilla Abrahamsen, Will Lytle, Anthony Morelli, Kaela Smith and Taima Smith both in response to Hill’s work and focused on addressing “the frustration of expression,” particularly in connection to having grown up in Woodstock. Also, “Piranesi,” a solo exhibition by Brookyn-based artist Lothar Osterburg, who uses photogravure, an intensive photographic process known for producing rich blacks and infinite grays through printmaking. Opening reception: Saturday, November 20, 4-6pm. Artist talks: 2:30pm and 5pm. (Through December 23).

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

Small Works and Print Fair North/West @ Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield. Small Works is a group show of affordable small art and sculpture by Molly Hatch, Maggie Mailer, Ven Voisey, Greg Scheckler, Joseph Wheaton and others, while Print Fair North/West is comprised of selections from Zea Mays Printmaking. (Through January 1)

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)

Uncertain Spectator @ EMPAC, Troy. A group show that grapples with the feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, unease and apprehension that currently permeate our culture. Featuring Graciela Carnevale, Anthony Discenza, Claire Fontaine, Kate Gilmore, Tue Greenfort, Susanna Hertrich, Jesper Just, Marie Sester, Superflex and Jordan Wolfson, the exhibit includes works spanning the genres of video, installation, sculpture, and interactive media. (Through January 29)

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)

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)

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)

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)