ArtBeat: What To See

Andrea Hersch: Flora & Fauna @ The Arts Center, Troy. A solo exhibition of new drawings and collage focusing on the precarious hold nature has on humans and humans have on nature. Opens January 21. Reception: Friday, January 28, 2011 (Through February 26)

In the main gallery at The Arts Center, Vignette is a group show presenting different approaches to narrative painting ranging from abstraction to realism. Artists include Joel Griffith, Ingrid Ludt, GG Roberts, Ann Wolf and Rebecca Shepard. Reception: Friday, January 28, 2011 (Through March 20)

M.C. Escher: Seeing The Unseen @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Wrap your brain around one of the 20th century’s most popular artists including an up-close look at several rarely displayed original woodblocks, watercolors, drawings and prints. The exhibit kicks off on January 22 with a full slate of events and activities from 1-5pm, and an opening reception from 5-7pm with free museum admission after 5pm. Opens Saturday, January 22 (Nonmembers: $13 | $6 Members: free) (Through May 22)

Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450–1850 @ The Clark, Williamstown. Representing the range of styles and themes in Old Master portraiture as practiced in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, and France from the late fifteenth century through the early nineteenth century, the twenty-nine paintings and one sculpture in the exhibition include works by Memling, Cranach, Parmigianino, Ribera, Rubens, Van Dyck, Greuze, and David as well as other extraordinary works by lesser-known painters. Opens Sunday, January 23. (Through March 27)

Paper Arts @ Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill Gallery. A group exhibition centered around paper: folded, cut, molded and cast paper, as well as handmade pages and books. Also on display is Diana Bryan’s “Cut Paper Universe” of cut paper and steel constructions. Opens January 22. Opening reception: Saturday January 22, 5-7pm. (Through March 5)

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The Strange, The Surreal And The Sentimental @ Davey Jones Gallery, Albany. Group show featuring Euna Goh, Laura Holmes, Amanda Kates and John Stack. (Through January 21)

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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Under The Influence @ Upstate Artists Guild, Albany. Group show featuring works inspired by famous paintings or created in the style of a famous artist. Featured artist: Wren Panzella. (Through January 28)

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)

Daughters of Aspasia: Photo Artistry of Jeri Eisenberg & Gail Nadeau @ The Photo Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Aspasia was the very influential consort of Pericles during the Golden Age of Greece, about 440 BC, during which the Parthenon was built and the arts and economies flourished. This exhibit is the first of a series of shows designed to showcase the creative works of regional women artists. Artist reception: Friday January 28, 5-9pm. (Through January 30)

Vincent Ciniglio: Paintings @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Figurative oil paintings, sometimes whimsical, sometimes foreboding. (Through January 30)

Gracia Dayton @ Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Colorful, virbrant watercolors of nature scenes. (Through January 31)

January Invitational featuring Luke D. Yocum @ Varga Gallery, Woodstock. (Through February 6)

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God @ UAlbany Performing Arts Center. In November, 2004, Frank Warren handed out 3,000 postcards to strangers, inviting them to write down a secret anonymously and mail it to him. Each secret had to be true and something that had never been shared with another person. To date, Warren has received more than 450,000 postcards and they continue to come in at the rate of 1,000 per week. This show, compiled by Warren, exhibits more than 270 artfully cratfted postcards and their accompanying secrets. (Through February 11)

China Jorrin @ Hudson Opera House, Hudson. A photography exhibition of panoramic prints showing abandoned buildings from the Hudson River Psychiatric Center in Poughkeepsie. (Through February 12)

Eco Primitive / Eco Surreal @ Albany Center Gallery, Albany. Two self-taught regional emerging artists who have been generating quite a bit of buzz: Thomas D’Ambrose uses vintage wallpaper and found canvases to create colorful, stylized primitive representations of jungle animals, while RADICAL! works primarily in drawing and assemblage to create surreal works of social commentary. Reception: Friday February 4, 6-8pm in congruence with Albany First Friday. (Through February 12)

New Artists @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. Group show of photographic works by new gallery artists, created using a wide variety of both traditional and alternative processes. Artists include Charles Grogg, Andreas Rentsch, Paul Rider, Jennifer Schlesinger and Jessica Somers. Opens Friday, January 14. (Through February 14)

Stillness @ The Sand Lake Center for the Arts, Averill Park. A solo show of Tom Chesnut’s wilderness photography. (Through February 15)

Blind Artists Society 3rd Annual Exhibition @ The Chapel + Cultural Center, Troy. Works by Emilia Beer, Jonathan Beer, Anne Carrabis, Aileen Cinquemani, Bill Edmonston, Joel Foster, Barbara Garro, Ian McKay, Dick Morrill, Barbara Romain and Arlissa Vaughn. Artist reception: February 3, 2011, 6-8pm. (Through February 25)

Nathan Meltz @ Thaddeus Kwiat Projects, Saugerties. Using elements of collage, painting, printmaking, and animation, Nathan Meltz creates cautionary narratives involving mechanical humanoids and animals that investigate the infiltration of technology into every facet of life, from politics and food, to family and war. Also on display are paintings by Jenny Kemp and Doug Holst. (Through February 26)

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 February 27).

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. (Through February 27)

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)

Willie Marlowe: A Survey @ Opalka Gallery, Albany. A recent retrospective (1997-2010) of her trademark colorful and glowing paintings by the noted Albany artist. (Through March 6)

Photography Invitational Exhibition 2011 @ Atrium Gallery, Union College, Schenectady. Timothy Archibald exhibits works from his Echolilia series, a recent project of photographs and a limited edition book made by Archibald of and about his son, Elijah. Also showing: Clarissa Amaral’s Union Faces, a series of close-up portraits of people at Union including staff, students, faculty, and administrators, as well as Raymond Felix: Self-Evidence, a series of self-protraits addressing issues of likeness and identity. (Through March 11)

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. (Through March 13)

Of Weeds and Wildness: Nature in Black and White @ Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady. A large group exhibition featuring work by over a dozen artists that explores, through a wide range of styles and approaches, both the human relationship to the natural world and the richly expressive power of black and white imagery. Artists include Robert Adams, Desiree Alvarez, Arnold Bittleman, Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Harold Edgerton, Robert Gover, William Kentridge, Hedya Klein, Danny Lyon, Abelardo Morell, Margaret Moulton, Michelle Segre, James Siena, Kiki Smith, Charles Steckler and Kate Temple. Opens Thursday, January 13. Curators’ tour: Tuesday, January 18, 12-2 pm. Reception and gallery talk with Desiree Alvares, Hedya Klein, Charles Steckler, Kate Temple, and others: Thursday, Februrary 10, 5-7 pm,. (Through March 13)

Made In Woodstock V @ Center For Photography at Woodstock. The fifth installment of the CPW series featuring work created by recent participants of WOODSTOCK A-I-R, a residency program for artists of color working in the photographic arts. Artists include William Cordova, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Tia-Simone Gardner, Lawrence Getubig, Daniel Handal, Wayne Hodge, Jeannette Louie, Hee Jin Hang, Tarrah Krajnak & Wilka Roig, Emily Hanako Momohara, Ricardo Morales-Harnandez, Dawit L. Petros, Tim Portlock, Justine Reyes, Kanako Sasaki, Lupita Murillo Tinnen and Donna J. Wan. (Through March 27)

Henry Klimowicz: Constructs @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Henry Klimowicz, currently exhibiting his “Paper and Light” site-specific installation in the Wider Window Gallery, now expands into the Crane Room with “Constructs,” centered around another enormous, site-specific installation created from cardboard. (Through March 27)

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)

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)

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)

Katharina Grosse: One Floor Up More Highly @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Katharina Grosse’s new installation fills with massive Building 5 gallery with her largest commission to date. Cool video here showing the ingenious way the MASS MoCA folks managed to get 700 cubic yards of soil into Building 5. (Through October 30)