ArtBeat: What To See

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SUPER: Heroes and Hotties @ Romaine Brooks Gallery, Albany. A solo exhibition by Dave Abbott that features suggestive, idealistic male physiques and superheroes, sometimes in a line art pinup style, other times colored digitally with real photographic elements. Opening reception: Friday, April 6, 5-9pm. (Through April 30)

Stanley Whitney: Six Paintings @ Art OMI, Ghent. Geometric forms, both formal and playful, on exhibit at The Charles B. Benenson Visitors Center and Gallery. Opening reception: Saturday, April 7, 1-3pm. (Through June 3)

Essence of Pose @ LARAC, Glens Falls. Photography by Paul Lange, ceramics by Randi Kish and paintings by Doretta Miller. Opening reception: Friday, April 6, 5-7pm. (Through May 4)

Anda Styler @ Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Acrylic paintings of landscapes. Opening reception: Saturday, April 7, 5-7pm. (Through April 30)

Cryptoecology + Transcendence @ SCAC Arts Center, Saratoga Springs. Sculptor Ruth Standford’s Cryptoecology presents imagined ecological scenarios, while Kimberly Witham’s images in Transcendence are inspired by Victorian post mortem photographs. Artist dicussion: Saturday, April 14, 5pm. Opening reception: Saturday, April 14, 6-8pm. (Through May 26)

Canstruction: Zoo Can Do It @ New York State Museum, Albany. Using only canned goods, Capital Region architects, engineers, contractors and students have created more than a dozen sculpture of zoo animals. At the close of the exhibit, each structure will be de-canstructed and every can donated to the Food Pantries for the Capital District to help families in our region. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned goods to the Museum as contributions to the Food Pantries and to use when casting ballots for their favorite animal in the zoo. (Through April 26)

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Material Occupation @ UAlbany University Art Museum, Albany. An examination of the concept of Modernist abstraction as eight artists transform everyday materials such as house paint, thread, old and newly woven fabric, industrial tape and other media into poetic abstract forms. Artists include Caetano de Almeida, Sarah Crowner, Josh Faught, Elana Herzog, Marietta Hoferer, Sam Moyer, Anja Schwörer and Melissa Thorne. (Through April 7)

This Land @ BCB Art, Hudson. A group exhibition of landscapes in a broad and atypical sense: Lynn Breslin’s paintings channel the little boxes and oddly manicured hedges of a “Levittown” like community, while Peter Seward’s paintings point out our ridiculous attempts to hide technology doting the landscape. Julian Opie taped his camera to the dashboard of his car, and took random snapshots while driving to Calais. In 1966, Ed Ruscha documented “Every Building On The Sunset Strip” in panorama. Eric Rhein’s “Heathcliff” has the feel of an Arcadian environment akin to the paintings of Thomas Eakins. John Foxx’s photographs portray cities as a place to find anonymity, Patti Smith records fragments from homes of her poetic ‘mentors’ such as Arthur Rimbaud, while Erik Hanson and Frank Cressotti’s paintings focus on landscape fragments depicted as a playful surreal archaeology. (Through April 8)

Outside In: The Art of the Garden @ Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield. A large group show featuring Walter Pasko, Scott Taylor, Carole Clark, Tracy Levesque, Hoogs and Crawford Glassworks, Ardith Truhan, Nina Evans, Monika Pizzichemi, Lorraine Klagsbrun, Julianne D Bresciani, Peggy Braun, Pam Johnson, Uli Rose, Hotchkiss Mobiles, Eliza Ryan-Sinopoli, Mario Calouri, Dodd Holsapple, Resa Blatman and Zel Brook. (Through April 14)

Extensions of the Eye: Three Women Photographers @ The Tang, Saratoga Springs. Photography by Barbara Morgan, Naomi Savage and Kunié Sugiura from the Tang Collection. Using the body as a point of departure, these three artists explore issues of identity, process, and space. (Through April 15)

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Out of the Box: Historic Photographs from the LGBT Movement @ Schacht Fine Arts Gallery, Troy. As a young photographer, Dona Ann McAdams bought one of her first rolls of film from the man who owned Castro Camera: Harvey Milk. Ever since that first encounter in what would become Milk’s campaign headquarters, the award-winning photographer has fiercely explored the nexus of photography, politics, and gay and human rights. (Through April 17)

Richard Merkin: On Literature and Film @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. Works by the late Modernist painter and illustrator that focus on the written word and moving pictures and depict a cafe society of movie stars, directors, producers and writers. (Through April 19)

Lorraine Gessner and Diane Golden @ Lake George Arts Project, Lake George. Lorraine Glessner begins her work with layers of fabric that have been subjected to processes such as burning, rusting, decomposition, burying or simple exposure to the elements; Diane Golden creates box constructions from found objects in the tradition of Joseph Cornell. (Through April 20)

Canaries: Photographs by Thilde Jensen @ Center for Photography at Woodstock. A solo exhibition of photographs that tells the story of individuals like Jensen who struggle with a debilitating condition known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and who have sought to decrease their symptoms by living on the outskirts of modern civilization. (Through April 22)

Paul Hamann: Photography @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Self-taught photographer Paul Hamann has been making images since 1968, exploring aspects of the natural landscape through various camera formats and printing techniques. (Through April 22)

Photography Now 2012 @ Center for Photography at Woodstock. Works by Bobby Davidson, Juan Fernandez, Martha Fleming-Ives, Jesse & Jason Pearson, Katie Shapiro, Jon-Phillip Sheridan, Motohiro Takeda, and Terri Warpinksi, juried by Natasha Egan, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. (Through April 22)

34th Annual Photography Regional Exhibition @ Opalka Gallery, Albany. Exhibiting artists: Justin Baker , Tim Davis, Barbara Ess, Tara Fracalossi, Kyra Garrigue, William Jaeger, Nicholas Kahn, Carlos Loret de Mola, Margaret Saliske, Robert Selesnick, Georgia Wohnsen and Allen Yates, curated by Danny Goodwin. Opens Monday, March 12. Reception: Friday, April 6, 5-9pm. Panel Presentation: Sunday, April 15, 5:00pm with William Jaeger, Nicholas Kahn, Melissa Stafford, Danny Goodwin, moderator. (Through April 22)

Pop Up! The Magical World of Moveable Books @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. From the collection of Barbara and Bernard Shapiro, this exhibition of the history and wonder of pop-up books features diverse genres, from whimsy and fantasy to the worlds of art, history and science. Published books by the Munich-based illustrator Lothar Meggandorfer (1847-1925), multi-media artist Red Grooms, and pop-up masters Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart will be on view with selected original illustrations. (Through April 22)

African Americans and the American Scene, 1929-1945 @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibition exploring the role of African Americans in the visual and performing arts during the Great Depression featuring Thomas Hart Benton, Walker Evans, Robert Gwathmey, Dorothea Lange, Aaron Siskind, and Marion Post Wolcott. Artwork by African American artists Samuel Brown, Jacob Lawrence, and William H. Johnson will highlight the ways that black artists engaged with the American Scene movement. The visual art from the 30s and 40s will be paired with Barbara Morgan’s photographs of African American modern dancer Pearl Primus and artistic storyboards from the film Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson. (Through April 22)

Strange Soup: Wayne Hopkins & Cathy Wysocki @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. Opening reception: Thursday, March 29, 5-7pm. Visually striking, politically charged paintings and sculptures by North Adams-based artists Wayne Hopkins and Cathy Wysocki. (Through April 22)

Tiny Stories @ Clement Art Gallery, Troy. New monotypes and drawings by Jeff Wigman. (Through April 25)

Contemplations and Conjectures: 12 Artist @ Schick Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs. An invitational group show featuring drawings, in diverse media and styles, by twelve contemporary artists: Sadaie Ayuko, Judith Ann Braun, Jeff Feld, Meg Hitchcock, Cynthia Ona Innis, Michael Schall, Charlotte Schulz, Ruijun Shen, Hiroyuki Shindo, Lorene Taurerewa, Antoinette Winters, and Sandy Winters.. (Through May 6)

Transmissions: Work by Katherine Bennett @ Collar Works Gallery, Troy. Four interactive installations, using sound and light, that examine the terrain of memory. Second Reception: Friday, April 27, 5-9pm. (Through May 11)

David Henderson: A Brief History of Aviation @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. A large-scale installation inspired by the complex fan vaulting of the sixteenth-century cathedral called Bath Abbey in England. (Through May 13)

African Photography For Whose Eyes? Constructing and Deconstructing Identities @ Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady. This exhibition hopes to raise questions about cultural and historical assumptions of Africa by looking closely at the work of 15 internationally-renowned contemporary African photographers, including Philip Kwame Apagya (Ghana), Yto Barrada (Morocco), Nabil Boutros (Egypt), Samuel Fosso (Camaroon), David Goldblatt (South Africa), Seydou Keïta (Mali), Boubacar Touré Mandémory (Senegal), Zwelethu Mthethwa (South Africa), Grace Ndiritu (Kenya), Obie Oberholzer (South Africa), Berni Searle (South Africa), Malick Sidibé (Mali), Djibril Sy (Senegal), Guy Tillim (South Africa) and Iké Udé, (Nigeria). Reception and performance by Senegalese drummers and dancers: Thursday, April 12, 6-7:30pm. Lecture with Iké Udé: Thursday, April 26, 5pm. (Through May 13)

Nancy Grossman: Tough Life Diary @ The Tang, Saratoga Springs. For over five decades, Nancy Grossman has created a powerful body of work that combines exquisite craftsmanship with a long-standing exploration of the nature of violence and power. The exhibition will feature a range of work from the artist’s immense oeuvre, including drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, assemblage, and sculpture. (Through May 20)

Rising From the Sea: The Art of Jay Hall Connaway @ The Arkell Museum, Canajoharie. Works inspired by both the coastline of Monhegan Island and the landscape of Vermont by Impressionist painter Jay Connaway . (Through May 22, 2012)

Bryan Nash Gill: Beyond The Landscape @ Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Abstract sculptures, works on paper, and installations inspired by the natural world. (Through May 28)

Everett Raymond Kinstler: Illustrations and Portraits @ The Norman Rockwell Museum. Original illustrations and portraits of celebrities including John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn, Tony Bennett, Tom Wolfe, James Montgomery Flagg, Alexander Calder, and Will Barnet. (Through May 28)

Ryan + Trevor Oakes: The Periphery of Perception @ EMPAC, Troy. A ten year retrospective of the work of identical twins Ryan and Trevor Oakes, who have been in residence at EMPAC this winter. The exhibit, which includes a commissioned drawing of EMPAC’s Concert Hall, examines the nature of visual perception, aiming to discover methods that constitute key advancements in the representation of visual reality. Opens Tuesday, February 21. Panel discussion with Ryan and Trevor Oakes, writer Damien James and photographer Michael Benson: Wednesday, April 18, 6pm. (Through May 31)

Wall Street to Main Street @ Main Street, Catskill. Occupying two blocks of Main Street in Catskill, vacant storefronts come alive with over 50 visual art and design exhibits, performances, workshops and panel discussions scheduled through May 31. A few highlights include Canadian graffiti artist Joel Richardson’s outdoor stenciling workshop using his own collection of copyright free images and symbols; Salt Lake City artist Jorge Rojas’ Low Lives Occupy!, a recorded series of choreography, music and artists’ performances projected at night; and an augmented reality app for smart phones and tablets, developed by Mark Skwarek’s NYU students, enabling one to view an opening day guided tour of Main Street. (Through May 31)

Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein @ The Tang, Saratoga Springs. An original member of ACT UP and the 1980s AIDS activist collective Gran Fury, Moffett has been a persistent and influential presence on the New York art scene; this first comprehensive survey of his work selects from nine important bodies of work that reveal his sustained political engagement and explore how he interrogates and blurs the definition of painting, incorporating nontraditional materials such as video and photography. (Through June 3)

Facing Change: Documenting America @ The Sanctuary for Independent Media, Troy. Facing Change a non-profit collective of writers and photojournalists that aims to pay tribute to and continue the work started by the Depression-era photojournalists, has enlisted artists – including two Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers – to record America’s current struggles. Photographers include David Burnett, Alan Chin, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Stanley Greene, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Andrew Lichtenstein, Carlos Javier Ortiz, Lucian Perkins and Anthony Suau. (Through June 16)

Taking Flight: Audubon and the World of Birds @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. An exhibition that centers on John James Audubon and his passion for birds, which drove him to create The Birds of America, a revolutionary work of science and art that launched his reputation as the world’s most renowned wildlife artist (Through June 17)

Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen: Life Observed Up-Close @ Arkell Museum, Canajoharie. Mark Adams’ large prints present single objects — a glass jar, cigar box or martini glass – at a size much bigger than real life. Beth Van Hoesen’s attention is more often focused on nature rather than manufactured or handmade objects. (Through June 24)

A Shakespeare Accelerator: Experiments in Kinetic Language @ EMPAC, Troy. In this work-in-development for a permanent installation that will open at the Public Theater in New York later this year, New York City-based media artist Ben Rubin transforms EMPAC’s public interior into a laboratory of words and motion, projecting glowing white text from Shakespeare’s complete dramatic works onto walls, walkways, and other surfaces. (Through July 28)

Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1987 @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. The first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Walk-through of the exhibition with curators: Friday, March 2, 4:30pm. Artists reception: Friday, March 2, 5:30-7pm. Symposium: Saturday, March 3. (Through July 29)

Jennifer + Kevin McCoy: Index @ EMPAC, Troy. An EMPAC-commissioned public art installation by Rensselaer Arts alumni Jennifer and Kevin McCoy consisting of multiple sculptures filmed via small, live cameras. Inspired by a J.G. Ballard short story called The Index, the resulting video projection, as well as the models, will appear throughout EMPAC’s public spaces during an extended residency with the artists. (Through September 29)

All Those Vanished Engines @ MASS Moca, North Adams. Inspired by a text commissioned from science fiction author and local North Adams resident Paul Park, Stephen Vitiello’s sound installation in MASS MoCA’s former Boiler Plant (a cavernous early 20th-century brick and steel building that stands separate from the main galleries) reimagines the space as cover for a secret, experimental project exploring the industrial production of sound. The installation includes 20 sources of sound from multiple locations throughout the building using sound recordings from both off and on-site.

Anna Betbeze: New Work @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Using Greek Flokati carpets as a ground for a mix of pigments that range from brilliant to muddy, Anna Betbeze creates unexpectedly textural paintings that verge on the sculptural.

Clark Remix @ The Clark, Williamstown. A salon-style installation of works from The Clark’s permanent collection, including some 80 paintings, 20 sculptures and 300 examples of decorative arts. Visitors will be able to create their own “curatorial remix” of the collection through an interactive project called uCurate, available in the gallery and on the Clark’s website and can then submit them to a gallery that will be featured at clarkart.edu. The Clark’s curatorial team will regularly review the submissions, and will select the best of these for exhibitions that will be presented at the Clark. (Through Jan. 1, 2014)

Jane Philbrick: The Expanded Field @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. An immersive 1.5-acre landscape consisting of a progressive sequence of site-specific elements, including The Asphalt Meadow, which transforms the back access road and disintegrating asphalt lots into a welcoming green space; The Rounds, made of rammed earth and dry stack stone; and The Body Pockets, planted with elfin thyme and cut into the diagonal slope of the three-tiered stonewall (formerly the foundation and retaining walls for a building razed in 2004.)