ArtBeat: What To See

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Richard Criddle: Compendium @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. Richard Criddle’s work is inextricably linked to the idea of “work ethic,” and the work included in this exhibition celebrates the individual’s ability to effect a difference through craft, planning, design, skill, and application. His near-obsession with the discovery and magic of the sculptural process through the use of tools, machines and materials underpins his creative process. He describes the monumental as being “made possible by directed effort.” Opening reception: Thursday, August 30, 6-9pm. (Through September 23)

Summer All Present @ Collar Works, Troy. Leona Christie’s drawings and paintings explore the pleasure and menace of amusement park rides. Caitlin Foley’s performance piece involves a water ritual and unification ceremony using collected samples provided through audience participation. Kinetic sculptures created by Fernando Orellana animate figures on vacation as they attempt to find exactly the right pose for the viewer’s camera. Long exposure photographs taken by Hiramatsu Tsuneaki capture the mystical energy of nature by marking the luminescent trail of fireflies. Lastly, an audio installation by Misha Volf reveals often overlooked subtleties where sounds of nature and our man made environment intersect. Opening reception: Friday, August 31, 5-9pm. (Through September 21)

Poetic Light @ The Clement Gallery, Troy. Landscape paintings by Mark Tougias. Opening reception: Friday August 31, 6-9pm. (Through September 26)

Jazz Exhibition @ Hudson Opera House, Hudson. Paintings by Wilson McLean and Henk Mommaas. Opening reception: Saturday, September 1, 6-8pm. (Through October 27)

Jane McWhorter and John MacGruer @ The Old Chatham Country Store Cafe Gallery, Chatham, Works by Great Barrington photographers Jane McWhorter and John MacGruer. Reception: Sunday, September 9, 3-5pm. (Through September 26)

Stanley Bielen @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Still life oil paintings by Philadelphia artist Stanley Bielen. Opening reception: Saturday, September 1, 5-7pm. (Through September 30)

Seasons @ Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield. Scenes of Hancock Shaker Village painted earlier this year by Marguerite Bride, Michael Cohen, Ivor Parry and Scott Taylor. Opening reception: Friday, August 31, 5-7pm. (Through October 28)

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Ed Cowley: Then and Now @ Albany Center Gallery. A solo exhibition by painter and stained-glass artist Ed Cowley best known for his landscape paintings of simple houses and scenes in Altamont, which combine nostalgia and tranquility with an appreciation for geometric lines and details. (Through August 31)

Hudson Light and Electric @ J Damiani Gallery, Hudson. Photographer Joan Damiani explores the tonal contrasts of sunlight and twilight on the natural character of the city of Hudson. (Through August 31)

Fence Select and Playland @ The Arts Center, Troy. The artwork in the Fence Select exhibition has been chosen by juror Jim Richard Wilson from the 511 works exhibited in the recent Fence Salon. Playland is a solo exhibition by collagist Niki Haynes, the recipient of the 2011 Fence Salon President’s Award, in which she explores human nature through themes of consumerism, cultural boundaries, and gender roles. (Through August 31)

Brent Green: To Many Men Strange Fates Are Given @ EMPAC, Troy. In a metal frame with wooden phonograph horns, polarized glass and glowing LCD screens, a 12-minute animated film tells the story of the woman who sewed the spacesuit for Laika, the dog launched into space in 1957 by the Soviets. Green’s poetic narration becomes a lament for the disenfranchisement of working people then and now: commonplace people who face toil and hardship, and sometimes, redemption and wonder. (Through September 1)

Thom Kubil: Black Hole Horizon @ EMPAC, Troy. With forms based on a geometrodynamic physics model of a black hole, horns are positioned in a room of white fabric. As each horn generates a tone, inky black bubbles emerge from within, deformed by the energy of the sound. Eventually achieving freedom, each black bubble lingers in space for a moment before bursting onto the white room’s boundaries. Spectators are invited to explore the space by walking along a path through the room and witnessing the transformation of sound into ephemeral sculptures. (Through September 1)

COVET: Art + Objects @ Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield.An exhibition of homage: curators Leslie Ferrin and Sienna Patti invited artists to visit museums, talk to curators, and find inspiration, and then to riff on the works that inspired them. (Through September 2)

Five @ Greylock Arts, Adams. A large, eclectic group exhibition to celebrate the center’s fifth anniversary. (Through September 2)

Maggie Mailer: The Starry Outpost @ Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield. The Starry Outpost is a collection of new paintings and drawings depicting locations, characters, maps, and plots from an imaginary novel in which a group of 18th century aristocrats and end-time enthusiasts prepare for their final moment by frolicking in regal gardens, awaiting deliverance to a distant star paradise called The Starry Outpost. Also on view is Kip O’Krongly: Layered Meanings, a solo exhibition of studio pottern and sculptural objects. (Through September 2)

Karen Halverson @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Recent landscape photographs of North and South Dakota. Also on view are portfolios by Stephen Strom and Robin Dana.(Through September 2)

dekorationswut:cornucopia @ Sienna Gallery, Lenox. Works in plastics, steel, silver and glass by Australian artist Helen Britton. (Through September 3)

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Doubles, Dualities and Doppelgangers @ The Center for Photography at Woodstock. “People Photographing Twins” focuses on photographs of twins featuring works by Roger Ballen, Janette Beckman, Elinor Carucci, Annabel Clark, Jodi Cobb, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Rineke Dijkstra, Mike Disfarmer, Louis Faurer, Charles Harshberger, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Schoeller and Hiroshi Watanabe. “Twins Photographing Twins” features photographs created by and of twins and features works by Eileen Cowin, Lynn Geesaman, Colleen Kenyon, Kathleen Kenyon, Christa Parravani and Carrie Will. “Twinning: Dualities as Metaphor” presents works in which the concept of “twinning” is used for the purpose of metaphysical and psychological explorations. Featured here are works by Kelli Connell, Cornelia Hediger, Sarah Moon, and Ruud van Empel. (Through September 9)

Alison Fox, Paintings @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Also on view: sculpture and drawings by Leonid Lerman, paintings by JJ Manford, paintings and mixed-media works by Maria Walker, paintings by Deirdre Swords and sculpture by Stephen Reynolds. (Through September 9)

Contemporary Painters (Who Just Happen To Be Women) @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. New work by seven contemporary female painters in a variety of media: Kathy Burge, Donise English and Ragellah Rourke in the main galleries, and a salon-style selection of paintings in the back room by Patty Neal, Allyson Levy, Jenny Nelson and Kate Butler. Artists’ reception: Saturday August 18, 6-8pm. (Through September 16)

Rocks and Raku @ The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville. Landscape paintings by Teri Malo and ceramics by Jill Fishon-Kovachick. Opening reception: Friday, August 10, 6-9pm. (Through September 16)

The BIG Picture: Berkshire Museum Camera Club 75th Anniversary Exhibition @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. An exhibition of large-scale photographs, covering a wide range of topics and techniques, by members of the Berkshire Museum Camera Club to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the club. (Through September 16)

Robert Schechter: American Fauve @ The Good Purpose Gallery, Lee. A solo show of vibrant, colorful abstract paintings. (Through September 17)

Lost & Found @ LARAC, Glens Falls. Works by Suprina Kenney (sculpture), Alexis Grabowski (drawing and painting) and Angela Newman (drawing and printmaking). (Through September 21)

Con.struct @ Saratoga Arts Center. A group exhibition of artists who use their ideas, concepts and perceptions to build visual realities that otherwise would not exist without their mind’s eye. Curated by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. (Through September 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)

Peter Leue: Deus ex Machina @ Marion Royael Gallery, Beacon. Peter Leue’s “Deus ex Machina” is a larger-than-life installation that explores the complex relationship of play, imagination and invention and the irresistible human impulse to reinterpret our environment. Also on view are oil paintings by Kathleen Erin Lee and mixed media works by Mary Giehl. (Through September 30)

Three Points Determine a Circle @ Kleinert/James Arts Center, Woodstock. Photographer Lucas Blalock, painter James Hyde and sculptor Fabienne Lasserre present works that contain circular forms and/or fragments. (Through October 7)

The Liminal Portrait @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. Richard Edelman’s “Liminal Portrait” photographs reveal transitional moments, combining the actions of a live model and the impressions formed by them on a custom-made pin screen. (Through October 8)

Charles Grogg: Reconstructions @ Galiere BMG, Woodstock. A solo exhibition of fractured photographic images, printed piece by piece in platinum / palladium on handmade Japanese paper, with the component pieces then stitched back together to form a re-constructed image. (Through October 8)

John Van Alstine: Arrested Motion/Perilous Balance @ The Opalka Gallery, Albany. Breathtaking, gravity-defying sculptures of metal and stone. Reception: Friday, September 7, 5-9pm. Site-specific performance by Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company: Friday, September 21, 7:45pm. Guided tour by the artist: Friday, October 5, 6:30pm. (Through October 14)

A Rising Tide; Imagining a Warmer Climate in the Hudson Valley@ Athens Cultural Center. The Center’s first-ever outdoor sculpture festival, mounted at three sites in and near the village of Athens, features 13 artists in a vast array of styles pondering the past, present and future of the Hudson River. (Through October 21)

Unearthed: Recent Archaeological Discoveries from Northern China @ The Clark, Williamstown. A selection of antiquities recently excavated from three separate ancient tombs in the Shanxi and Gansu Provinces. The centerpiece of this exhibition is a monumental fifth-century stone sarcophagus in the form of a traditional Chinese house measuring nearly 8 ft. x 12 ft. and weighing more than 10 tons. (Through October 21)

A Promising Venture: Shaker Photographs from the WPA @ Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield. Nearly 200 black and white photographs taken by Noel Vicentini in 1936 to document Shaker furniture, architecture and craft for a Works Progress Administration project of cataloging important American art. (Through October 26)

Sports! A Rockwell Celebration @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Though not necessarily a sportsman himself, Norman Rockwell was frequently called upon to create images celebrating our national love of athletics, from baseball, the Great American Pastime, to football, fishing, basketball, boxing and bicycle-riding.(Through October 28)

Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Paintings, drawings, prints, and archival materials make up this first comprehensive, critical assessment of the influential artist who is often referred to as the grandfather of American illustration. (Through October 28)

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.) Open seasonally May through October.

All Utopias Fell @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Michael Oatman’s ambitious vision re-purposes an Airstream trailer into a crashed satellite, complete with parachutes and solar panels.(Through October)

Liz Whitney Quisgard: Kaleidoscope @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. In this exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures and fiber wall hangings, Liz Whitney Quisgard uses an exuberant palette to produce intricate geometric patterns comprised of marks placed in a mesmerizing array of triangles, spirals, lines and circles. (Through October 21)

Power Runs in Man Channels: Diversity in Nigerian Art @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibition that highlight the artistry of the Igbo and Yoruba people, the most populous ethnic groups whose artwork is widely collected by American museums, as well as artworks by smaller, less well-known cultures such as the Mumuye and Jukun peoples. (Through October 21)

All Those Vanished Engines @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. A layered sound installation by sound artist Stephen Vitiello created especially for the MASS MoCA boiler house, a relic from the industrial past of the site that was once used to heat the factory buildings that now make up the museum. (Through November 4)

Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. The figures inhabiting Laylah Ali’s works in The Greenheads Series are enigmatic round-headed beings of indeterminate sex and race who inhabit a regimented, dystopian world where odd and menacing, though sometimes strangely humorous, encounters prevail. Gallery talk: Tuesday, August 21, 2pm. Season opening celebration: Friday, September 28, 5-7pm. (Through November 25)

Terry Adkins: Recital @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. a selection of work from the past thirty years by artist and musician Terry Adkins, who stages installation-based experiences that activate architecture, sculpture, video and photography with live happenings. Also on view is Dance/Draw, a large group show that examines the blurring of formal distintions between media. (Through December 2)

The Fields Sculpture Park Annual Exhibition Opening @ Art Omi, Ghent. Ten new works by noted artists join the nearly 70 contemporary sculptures on view throughout the sculpture park.

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)

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. (Through January 1, 2013)

Making Room: The Space Between Two & Three Dimension @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Works by an international group of artists who combine two- and three-dimensional media in a single work using a marriage of new technology with more hand-crafted or out-of-date processes. By using traditional or analog media, these artists reflect a shared yearning for deceleration in the digital age and nostalgia for simpler technologies. Artists include Daniel Arsham and Jonah Bokaer, Dawn Clements, Inci Eviner, Claire Harvey, Laleh Khorramian, Kakyoung Lee, Chloë Østmo, Laura Riboli, and Luke Stettner.(Through January 2, 2013)

Rethink! American Indian Art @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Contemporary works in a range of media and techniques, from video installations, contemporary basketry, and beadwork to ceramics, sculpture, and glass, by accomplished artists Marcus Amerman, Jeremy Frey, Teri Greeves, Diego Romero, Preston Singletary and Bently Spang. The exhibition also will include historic Native American art objects from Berkshire Museum’s permanent collections. (Through January 6, 2012)

Seneca Ray Stoddard: Capturing the Adirondacks @ The New York State Museum, Albany. Works by Adirondack photographer and conservationist Seneca Ray Stoddard, who was instrumental in the establishment of the “forever wild” Adirondack Park, including over 100 of his photographs, an Adirondack guideboat, freight boat, camera, copies of his books and several of his paintings. (Through February 24, 2012)

Invisible Cities @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Titled after Italo Calvino’s beloved book – which imagines Marco Polo’s vivid descriptions of numerous cities of a fading empire to Kublai Khan – the exhibition features the work of ten diverse artists who re-imagine urban landscapes both familiar and fantastical, exploring how our perceptions of place are shaped by personal influences as diverse as memory, desire, and loss, as well as by cultural forces such as history and the media. The show includes work by Lee Bul, Carlos Garaicoa, and Sopheap Pich, as well as major new commissions by Diana Al Hadid, Francesco Simeti, Miha Strukelj, and local artists Kim Faler and Mary Lum. (Through March 1, 2013)

Oh, Canada @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. The largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside Canada, this show features work by more than 60 artists who hail from every province and nearly every territory in the country, spanning multiple generations and working in all media. (Through April 1, 2013)