ArtBeat: What To See

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Ansel Adams: Masterworks @ Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. This exhibition of 47 photographs by Ansel Adams (1902-1984), selected by Adams himself to represent the best of his life’s work, includes iconic landscapes and architectural studies. Opening reception: Saturday, February 9, 5pm. (Through June 2)

Nature Magnified: Photographs by Andreas Feininger @ Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Photographer Andreas Feininger, most well-known for his depictions of the city of New York, also excelled at capturing the intricate details of nature. A series of shell images are paired with actual shells from the Museum’s expansive natural science collection. Opening reception: Saturday, February 9, 5pm. (Through June 2)

Those Who Toil Here: Timothy Frerichs and Michael Millspaugh @ HVCC Teaching Gallery, Troy. Works by Buffalo artist Timothy Frerichs and HVCC Fine Arts alumnus Michael Millspaugh, including installations, drawings and mixed media, that depict our ties to the land. Reception: Thursday, February 7, 4-6pm. (Through March 23)

The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit @ Albany Institute of History & Art. An exhibition featuring sixty-four hand-colored lithographs that pays tribute to the popular nineteenth-century printmakers and their role in establishing a form of mass media that was inexpensive and eagerly sought by ordinary people. (Through June 15)

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PhotoEncaustics @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. Works of fine art photography combined with the encaustic process featuring Leah Macdonald’s sensuous narratives of women, Rita Bernstein’s dream-like explorations of the complex mysteries of the human psyche, botanical compositions by Christa Kreeger Bowden, portraits by Hope Kahn and photomontage landscapes by Kara Taylor. (Through February 11)

Viewfinder @ Good Purpose Gallery, Lee. A group photography exhibition featuring Paul Solovay, Charles Steinhacker, Charlie Jacobs, Chris Ray and Dominick Avellino. (Through February 12)

Ambience: The Atmosphere of a Place @ Sorelle Gallery, Albany. New works by painters Wren Panzella and Kathi Blinn. (Through February 14)

Mary Pat Wager @ Sand Lake Center For the Arts, Averill Park. Assemblages of of metal, wood, clay and found objects. (Through February 15)

Passage of Time @ LARAC, Glens Falls. Featured Artists: Marta Jaremko (painting); Karen Koziol (assemblage); Jon Segan (assemblage); Sheri Snedeker (painting/drawing). (Through Feburary 15)

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New York’s Goodwill Moon Rock @ The New York State Museum, Albany. Fragments of moon rock brought back to Earth by Apollo 17. In 1973, President Richard Nixon had fragments of the moon rock sent to all 50 U.S. states and provinces, as well as 135 foreign heads of state; these became known as the Goodwill moon rocks. Some of them are now missing, but New York’s go on display on Wednesday, December 19. (Through February 17)

My America: America as it used to be and other paintings @ Clement Art Gallery, Troy. Paintings by illustrator Herb Rogoff. (Through February 20)

Esme Thompson @ The Courthouse Gallery, Lake George. A solo exhibition of new work by Esmé Thompson, whose paintings, sculpture and art installations are full of bold and colorful patterns influenced by decorative designs as diverse as Renaissance paintings, medieval illuminated manuscripts and the complex patterns of Islamic textiles and ceramic tiles. (Through February 22)

Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Pittsfield. The first museum exhibition celebrating the artwork of Alex Ross features over 130 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures from Ross’s personal collection. The pieces range from a crayon drawing of Spider-Man that he created at the age of four to paintings from his early career on projects like Marvels and Kingdom Come through to his more recent work on Flash Gordon and Green Hornet. This exhibition outlines Ross’s career of redefining comic books and graphic novels for a new generation of followers of Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and other classic comic book superheroes. (Through February 24)

100 Hours in the Woodshed @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. Dozens of artists converge for a five-day marathon of collage-making, beginning Thursday, January 24 with a “Meet the Artists” reception from 5-7pm. During the five days that follow, the galleries will be a flurry of collage of every sort: from paper and glue, to film and sound; the gallery-as-makeshift-studio will remain open to the public 10am-10pm and visitors are encouraged to stop by and watch the work in progress. The exhibition will then be curated by Susan Cross of MASS MoCA and Gallery 51 manager Ryder Cooley. (Through February 24)

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)

Kyle Staver @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. A solo exhibition of new paintings, drawings and reliefs by Kyle Staver. Artist reception: Saturday, February 2, 6-8pm. (Through February 24)

George Van Hook @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Oil paintings by the Cambridge artist. (Through February 27)

Four Seasons @ Studio 21South, North Adams. Landscapes by gallery artists, with the artwork rotating throughout the winter. (Through February 28)

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)

BiPOLAR: Journeys to the Ends of the Earth @ The Esther Massry Gallery, Albany. New York artists Janet Biggs, Elise Engler and Itty S. Neuhaus that features art inspired by and made in the Arctic, Antarctica and Newfoundland, including video, paintings, drawings and a suspended sculpture installation in the Vertical Gallery. In addition, a related display in the Massry Center Atrium Gallery will feature Calcutta-born photographer Subhankar Banerjee’s huge aerial photographs of the Arctic wilderness. Gallery reception: Friday, February 1, 5-7pm (Through March 1)

Gallery Artists @ BCB Art, Hudson. A rotating group show by gallery artists Cynthia Coulter, Musho Rodney Alan Greenblat, Lynn Itzkowitz, Karen Moss, Julian Opie, Scott Reynolds, Lorenza Sannai and others. A highlight of the show will be site specific installation drawings by Scott Reynolds and a new series of ‘mini-canvases’ by Musho Rodney Alan Greenblat; a portion of the sale proceeds will be donated to the ongoing Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. (Through March 3)

Art or Evidence: The Power of Photojournalism @ Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady. Works by Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Stefano De Luigi, Jessica Dimmock, Adam Ferguson, Ashley Gilbertson, Ron Haviv, Ed Kashi, Davide Monteleone, Christopher Morris, Seamus Murphy, Franco Pagetti, Gilles Peress, Anastasia Taylor-Lind and Tomas van Houtryve. Reception: Thursday, February 7, 5-7pm. (Through March 10)

Furgary: The Hudson Boat Club @ CCCA Gallery, Hudson. This group show examines the “furgary,” a group of hand-built structures on the banks of the Hudson, have been owned and used by Hudson area residents for almost 100 years. Exhibiting artists: Nora Adelman, Steve Benson, Arlene Boehm, Lynne Bolwell, Gerald Cooley, Tess Daley, Chris DeMarco, Joyce Ferris, Jim Flosdorf, Laura Garramone, Karen Hummel, Gretchen Kelly, Maria Kolodziej-Zincio, Bob Laurie, Patricia Morton, Cynthia Mulvaney, Inge Rist Lincoln, Walt Pasko, Herb Rogoff, Bill Sinclair, Cecelia Sinclair, Douglas Stalker, Sarah Sterling, Karl Volk, Valerie White, Audrey Wyma and Kenneth Young and featuring the works of Furgarian artist Tom Ponkos. (Through March 15)

Inspiration from the Past: The Art of James Whitbeck @ Mabee Farm Historic Site, Rotterdam. Works inspired by 16th and 17th century Dutch masters, using historic oil techniques, by self-taught painter James Whitbeck. (Through March 15)

Fragment: Jake Winiski, Hyun-Joon Yoon and Diana Schmertz @ Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Springs. This exhibition brings together three artists, working in media ranging from painting and alternative process photography to video installation, to explore various systems and different perspectives within the everyday by breaking away fragments, only to re-assemble them, giving way to new meaning. (Through March 29)

So to Speak @ Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy. An exhibition that calls into question the pervasiveness of the still and moving photographic image within our culture’s visual regime and the dominance of visual media within today’s cultural production. Artists include Leona Christie, Anthony Discenza, Hollis Frampton, Melinda McDaniel, Fernando Orellana, Paula Gaetano Adi and Klub Zwei. Lecture with Johannes Goebel: Thursday, March 21, 7pm. (Through March 29) Also on view: Hudson Valley Seed Packs: Art of the Heirloom (through February 10) and day2day print exchange (through February 24)

Wink: Pairings From Berkshire Museum’s Collection @ Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Guest artist Maggie Mailer has organized an exhibition that features pairs of paintings, photography, and prints from the Berkshire Museum’s permanent collection. (Through March 31)

I Am (Richard Nixon) @ The Center for Photography at Woodstock. In this site specific installation incorporating five videos produced over the past 6 years, Adie Russell inhabits iconic male figures from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s including Richard Alpert, Ingmar Bergman, Jack Kerouac, Richard Nixon and, in her most recent video, Marlon Brando. Lip-synching to recordings that have been extracted from radio and television interviews before ethereal backgrounds, Russell’s uncanny performances cumulatively address the topics of creative process, perception and reality. (Through March 31)

The Web Is A Lonely Place, Come Play @ The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Five artists who produce work within or through the radically democratized “free space” of the web. Through video, performance, photo-based imagery, interactive installation and animations, each artist explores the internet as both seductive virtual playground and subversive artistic studio. Artists: Christopher Baker, Petra Cortright, Jon Rafman, Rafaël Rozendaal, and Kate Steciw.(Through March 31)

Lions and Tigers and Museums, Oh My! @ Kidspace @ The Clark. Inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’s enormous painting Tiger, Lion, and Leopard Hunt, visitors will explore many questions: Who will be victorious? Could this animal hunt really have happened – and did it? What events or personalities caused Rubens to paint this picture? What problems did Rubens encounter when painting such a big picture so very long ago? This exhibition will include a number of hands-on activities. (Through March 31)

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)

We The People @ The Tang Teaching Gallery, Saratoga Springs. An exhibition and event series that explores constitutions and how they act to create order, configure communities, and form a collective identity featuring Allison Smith, Francis Cape, and Nari Ward. (Through April 7)

Xu Bing: Phoenix @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Drawing inspiration from the contemporary realities of his fast-changing country, Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years creating his newest work, featuring two monumental birds fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in urban China, including demolition debris, steel beams, tools, and remnants of the daily lives of migrant laborers. At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the mythic Phoenixes bear witness to the complex interconnection between labor, history, commercial development, and the rapid accumulation of wealth in today’s China.

50 at 50: Five Decades of Collecting at The Hyde, 1963-2013 @ The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls. In celebration of The Hyde’s fiftieth year as a public museum, this exhibition focuses on 50 works of art from the fastest growing area of the Museum’s collection: modern and contemporary art. Included are paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by such artists as Joseph Beuys, Robert Cottingham, Sam Gilliam , Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Keith Haring, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Sol Lewitt, Diego Rivera and David Smith. (Through April 14)

Backstories @ The Clark, Williamstown. Works of art can lead a double life; often, one side is revealed to the public while the other – the back – remains forever hidden from view. In this exhibition, more than thirty masterworks from the Clark’s permanent collection (including two-dimensional works, such as paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs) will be displayed on pedestals so that viewers can walk around them. Seen this way, the works of art tell their little-known “backstories” and reveal the ways they were made, the way they have been cared for by collectors, and the many changes they have survived. Using “the back” as an artistic theme, the exhibition will also present pictures in which artists portray the human back. (Through April 21)

Stories and Journeys: The Art of Faith Ringgold and Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson @ The Opalka Gallery, Albany. Integrating the materials and visual language from their African-American heritage with those from the Western tradition, each of these extraordinary artists tell stories which inspire, educate, commemorate and preserve memories both individual and collective. Opens January 22. Reception: Friday, February 1, 5-9pm with a story tour at 7pm. (Through April 21)

Skyline Adrift: Cuban Art and Architecture @ Omi International Arts Center, Ghent.
Large-scale architectonic installations by Cuban architects Yilena Lourdes Feitó Echarri and Yoandy Rizo Fiallo and internationally renowned Cuban visual artists Alexandre Arrechea and Armando Mariño Calzado. (Through May)

Bats: Creatures of the Night @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. A rich array of video, photography, life-like models and interactive stations, all relating the story of the only mammal that flies. (Through May 12)

Gordon Parks: 100 Moments @ The New York State Museum, Albany. Photographs documenting African Americans in Harlem and Washington, D.C., during a pivotal time in U.S. history when both cities were going through significant changes arising from post-WW II urban migration, the expansion of the black press, concern for children’s education, and entrenched segregation and economic discrimination. (Through May 19)

Opener 24: Carrie Moyer @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery. Abstract works by Carrie Moyer. (Through May 19)

Labeltalk 2013: India @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. The ninth exhibition in the Labeltalk series, exhibitions that aim to explore works of art from a broad range of perspective, this show focuses on Indian art, inviting Williams professors from a broad range of disciplines to write short responses to the works. Also on view: Teaching with Art: The Persian Image, an array of Persian paintings dating from the 15th to the 20th century. (Through June 30)

Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. A major retrospective of graphic artist, activist and educator Corita Kent including iconic images from the turbulent 1960s and 70s. (Through July 28)

Points of Connection: Generations of Mingei @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. In 1918, the British potter Bernard Leach visited Japan where he met a young, then unknown now legendary, potter Shoji Hamada in the small village of Mashiko. This friendship sparked the resurgence of the mingei aesthetic, from which sprung the life force of modern Japanese ceramics. Mingei, the “art of the people,” aspires to celebrate beauty in the functional.

Shoji Hamada, one of Japan’s National Living Treasures, mentored Tatsuzo Shimaoka, also a National Living Treasure, who in turn mentored Ken Matsuzaki. Shinsaku Hamada, son of Shoji, continued the tradition, passing it along to his son, Tomoo Hamada, who, along with Yoshinori Hagiwara, represent the contemporary work in this lineage. Inspired by Bernard Leach, Phil Rogers carries on the legacy in Great Britian. (Through July)

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)