ArtBeat: What To See

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Animalia @ The Albany Barn. Drawings, sculpture, and video that examine the animal nature of the human experience by Suzanne Boatenreiter, Lisa Harris, Colin Boyd, Denise Kelty, Molly Stinchfield, and Georgia Wohnsen. Opening reception: Friday, July 5, 5-9pm (Through July 31)

Lift Ev’ry Voice Photography Show @ Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield. Portraits of African American elders from throughout Berkshire County, featuring photographs by Jane Feldman, Ken Green, Jennibeth Gomez, Julia Kaplan and Sue Geller, as well as brief personal histories by historian and MCLA professor Frances Jones-Sneed. Opening reception: Friday, July 5 (Pittsfield First Friday Artswalk) 5-8pm. (Through July 29)

Remembering Henry @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. A tribute to Henry Geldzahler with works by Stephen Hannock, Tom Slaughter, Ray Charles White, and Scott Kilgour. Opening reception: Friday, July 6, 5-7pm. (Through July 31)

Russell Serrianne @ Salem Art Works. Captivated by the energized line naturally found in the strength and determination of the vine tendril, Russell Serrianne uses these natural lines as drawing tools. Artist reception: Saturday, July 6, 4-6pm. (Through July 26)

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Soft Focus @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. Paintings and photographs by James O’Shea, Chad Kleitsch, Betsy Weis, Jeri Eisenberg, Lynn Butler, Lori Van Houten, Patty Neal and Bruce Murphy. (Through July 7)

John Jackson: Whimsical Metal Sculptures @ West Kortright Centre, East Meredith. John Jackson has been creating sculptures for over 35 years using a sculpture palette consisting mainly of bike and motorcycle parts, distressed musical instruments, old tools and gleanings from flea markets. Favorite themes are musicians, masks, critters, and banksters behind bars. (Through July 8)

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Earth & Atmosphere @ Good Purpose Gallery, Lee. Luminous paintings by William McCarthy and whimsical sculptures by David Bryce. (Through July 15)

Something For The Table @ Sienna Gallery, Lenox. New works by master metalsmith and artist Myra Mimlitsch-Gray. Deliberately tentative, this work investigates fracture, explores gesture and embodies utilitarian notions. (Through July 16)

A Dream in the Dash @ The Living Room, Albany. This exhibit, the grand opening a new exhibition space at the historic St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands, will feature photography and “Dream Windows” by Albany artist Chuck Miller who has framed some of his works in actual windows removed from very old buildings. (Through July 17)

Pure Photography: Pictorial and Modern Photographs from the Syracuse University Art Collection @ Arkell Gallery, Canajohaire. The 30 photographers included in this exhibition have extensive histories that span thematic periods and artistic styles. Taking their cues from master photographers like Edward Steichen, artists such as Berenice Abbott and Manuel Alvarez Bravo built on that foundation in order to explore the very art of photography. (Through July 20)

DownStreet Art @ downtown North Adams. The exhibitions for DownStreet Art, the monthly arts walk celebration in North Adams, continue through July 21. Here’s just a few highlights:

• The Other Hudson Chapter 2: Dennis Herbert and Kahn & Selesnick @ MCLA Gallery 51. The second exhibit in a series that showcases work by artists from the Hudson Valley, this exhibit features photography, drawings and sculptural objects by the internationally-renowned collaborative duo Kahn & Selesnick as well as dioramas and assemblages by outsider folk artist Dennis Herbert. These photos, drawings and objects d’art harken from another time and place, echoing the maudlin alleyways and old world charm of the Hudson Valley.
• The Beehive Collective: The True Cost of Coal @ Gallery 53. An exhibition focusing on the social and environmental impact of mountain top coal mining by The Beehive Collective, an all-volunteer network of artists, educators, and activists who use compelling visuals to share complex stories crafted in collaboration with social movements.
• Lydia Thomson and Kim Colligan @ Adams Community Bank Gallery. An exhibition, curated by Christina Stott, of paintings and prints by these two Brattleboro-based artists.
• False Apex @ Branch Gallery. Ceramic works by Geoffrey Booras & David Kaufmann, who grapple with questions of technological relationships within a wide scope of time in an effort to reflect on the tools of our day and how their use defines our present situation.

Garth Evans: Same difference @ BCB ART, Hudson. Sculpture, watercolors and drawings that highlight a diverse body of work, coinciding with a retrospective currently touring major museum venues the UK. Also on view will be a group show of gallery artists, including work by Frank Cresotte , John Foxx, Lynn Itzkowitz, Fred Scruton and others. (Through July 21)

C. Ryder Cooley @ Lavender Door Gallery, Stockbridge. Drawings and installation by multimedia artist C. Ryder Cooley. (Through July 21)

Plowshares: Living Close to the Land @ GCCA Catskill Gallery, Catskill. This group photography exhibit highlights the agrarian, pastoral and utilitarian aspects of our landscape as well as sustainable economics and lifestyles. Participating artists include regional journalist Kyle Adams, old-process revivalist and rural life chronicler Craig Barber, digital and alternative process specialist Dan Burkholder, conceptualist and photogram experimenter Jared Handelsman, East Texas photo teacher and pin-hole master Vaughn Wascovich and others. (Through July 27)

Mind and Matter: Jane Dell and Liz Parsons @ SCAC Arts Center Gallery, Saratoga Springs. An exhibit that brings together two painters who explore both inner psychology and the physical world around them. (Through July 27)

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)

Interiors @ The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville. A solo exhibition of luminious paintings by Nick Patten, winner of the best-in-show award at the annual Upstate Artists group show.

Channing Lefebvre: Associations and The Fence Select @ The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Channing Lefebvre, recipient of the President’s Award from the Fence Show in 2012, presents intuitive, yet minimalistic drawings in this solo exhibition. Also on view, in the Main Gallery, is The Fence Select, 50 works by 33 artists chosen by juror Denise Markonish from the annual all-members show at the Center, as well as The Student Fence Select in the Foyer Gallery. (Through July 28)

Tamara Staples and Rebecca Doughty @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Tamara Staples’ photographs of chickens and Rebecca Doughty’s ink drawings. Also on views are portfolio showcases of Dianne Yudelson and Jim Nickelson. (Through July 28)

Tsunami Mommie @ Limner Gallery, Hudson. Abstract paintings by Michael Jay Heinrich that focus on the disintegration of society. (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)

Floriography @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. An exhibition of new floral photographic work created with various photographic processes and mixed media by Brigitte Carnochan, Kim Kauffman and Leah Macdonald. (Through August 5)

Art Meets Art: Perspectives On and Beyond Olana @ Olana and The Hudson Opera House, Hudson. These dual exhibitions showcase 36 contemporary artists who live and work in the area around Hudson and include photographs, paintings, posters and multi-media works inspired by Olana: the family home, studio, estate and working farm created by the eminent Hudson River School painter, Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900). Works will be available for sale to benefit both The Olana Partnership and the Hudson Opera House. Each artist was invited to create a new artwork directly inspired by Frederic Edwin Church’s most personal artistic masterpiece, Olana. The artists spent time within the iconic house and throughout Church’s 250 acre artist-designed landscape, utilizing the nineteenth-century painter’s home on the Hudson as muse. Artists featured include Peter Aaron, Marina Abramovic, Carolyn Marks Blackwood, R.O. Blechman, DJ Spooky, Makoto Fujimura and Annie Leibowitz. (Through August 11)

The Marcellus Shale Documentary Project @ The Center for Photography at Woodstock. This photographic survey, compiled over a period of 10 months beginning in late 2011, features the work of photographers Noah Addis, Nina Berman, Brian Cohen, Scott Goldsmith, Lynn Johnson and Martha Rial, who have taken on the responsibility of documenting the lives of Pennsylvanians affected by natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. Reception: Saturday July 13, 5-7pm. Panel discussion: Saturday, July 13, 11am-1pm at Upstate Films (132 Tinker Street). (Through August 18)

Multiple Focus: Contemporary Photography from the Albany Institute’s Collection @ The Albany Institute of History and Art. For more than a quarter century, the Albany Institute has been collecting the diverse works of contemporary photographers from the Hudson Valley and the collection has grown to include portraits, landscapes, still lifes and photomontage, representing a variety of photographic processes from gold-toned printing-out paper to infrared digital photography. (Through August 18)

Objectify: A Look Into the Permanent Collection @ Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. A major new exhibition of some of the most significant and fascinating objects from the Museum’s holdings of more than 50,000 artworks, specimens, and artifacts. (Through September 1)

Some Assembly Required @ Albany International Airport Gallery. An exhibition focusing on collage, expressed through traditional cut paper techniques as well as hybrids of photography, film, painting and sculpture. Artists: Todd Bartel, Allen Bryan, Laura Christensen, Susan Spencer Crowe, Paul Forte, Kirsten Hassenfeld, Niki Haynes, Andrea Hersh, Elana Herzog, Thomas Huber, Mary Lum, China Marks, Michael Oatman, Rob O’Neil, Rich Remsberg, Anne Roecklein. (Through September 8)

Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History @ Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. A showcase of some sixty oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and etchings, as well as approximately 120 rarely seen wood engravings by Winslow Homer. Drawing upon the resources of the Clark’s own holdings of nearly 250 of his works (dating from 1857 to 1904), the exhibition provides a variety of distinctive perspectives on this important American artist. (Through September 8)

George Inness: Gifts from Frank and Katherine Martucci @ Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. Eight landscapes by George Inness that represent a survey of the artist’s late work. The paintings range in date from 1880 to 1894, the year of the artist’s death. During this period, Inness moved from the open-air painting and naturalism of his early career toward a more conceptual approach to capturing mood and the play of light and shadow. (Through September 8)

William Lamson: A Certain Slant of Light and Michelle Segre: Antecedents of the Astral Hamster @ The University Art Museum, Albany. William Lamson’s video, photography and sculpture address issues of masculinity, amateurism, science, play and the illusive quest for personal heroism that accompanies these subjects. Michelle Segre’s idiosyncratic drawings and new sculptures, which use reworked armatures and recycled materials in combination with elements such as rocks, milk crates, papier-mâché, colored yarn and plaster, reflect her intuitive, highly personal approach to materials.(Through September 14)

Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George @ The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls. From 1918 until 1934, Georgia O’Keeffe lived for part of each year at Alfred Stieglitz’s family estate on Lake George on a 36-acre property was situated just north of Lake George Village along the western shoreline. This survey of fifty-eight paintings explores the full range of work she produced during that time, magnified botanical compositions of the flowers and vegetables that she grew in her garden, to a group of remarkable still lifes of the apples and pears that she picked on the property. Also on display: A Family Album: Alfred Stieglitz and Lake George, a companion exhibition of approximately thirty photographs by the influential photographer, critic, and art dealer that takes an intimate look at the people who resided on the property while O’Keeffe was in residence there. (Through September 15)

[email protected]: The Karene Faul Alumni Exhibition @ The Esther Massry Gallery, Albany. Printed media, packaging, web and video works by 25 alumni of the College’s graphic design program. Gallery reception:Friday, September 6, 5-7pm. (Through September 22)

The First 15: Photography from the Meredith S. Moody Residency at Yaddo @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. The Meredith S. Moody Residency, which supports one female photographer each year, was established in 1997 by the Moody family in honor of the late photographer Meredith S. Moody. This exhibition presents several of her photographs as well as one work by each of the Residency’s artists: Dru Arstark, Linda Cummings, Barbara Ess, Sharon Harper, Sarah Jones, Jennifer Karady, Jin Lee, Annu P. Matthew, Sara Cedar Miller, Yola Monakhov, Arezoo Moseni, Carol Shadford, Rosalind Solomon, Jean Vong and Letha Wilson. (Through September 29)

Kaaterskill Clove: Where Nature Met Art @ Zadock Pratt Museum, Prattsville. Works by contemporary painters Athena Billias, Patti Ferrara and Carol Slutzky-Tenerowicz alongside one of the late Thomas Locker’s renderings of Kaaterskill Falls. The exhibit is intended to raise awareness about the importance of the Clove and the need for its preservation in the face of the environmental strain it has been under for the past several years. (Through October 14)

Caffe Lena: Inside America’s Legendary Folk Music Coffeehouse @ The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs. Featured in this exhibition is a selection of photographs made at Caffè Lena during its first decade of existence by Joe Alper (1925-1968). A self-taught freelance photographer, Alper’s work includes historic jazz, folk, and blues performance photography. His candid black-and-white photographs of the musicians, audience, and staff at Caffè Lena capture the Caffè’s intimate, creative environment. (Through October 20)

PaperWorks: The Art and Science of an Extraordinary Material @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. An exhibition that explores paper as a source of creative inspiration and innovation featuring contemporary works of art by more than 30 artists, all made from paper, as well as an array of objects and artifacts that show the uses of paper in industry, science, fashion, and technology. (Through October 26)

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. (Through October 27)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Guided by the vision of a master storyteller, 32 animators, 1032 assistants, 107 inbetweeners, 10 layout artists, 25 background artists, 65 special effects animators and 158 inkers and painters and countless production staff came together to create an enduring masterpiece of the moving image. This exhibition explores the making of the film through more than 200 original works of art – from conceptual drawings and early character studies to detailed story sketches and animation drawings. (Through October 27)

2013 Annual Summer Exhibition @ Art Omi, Ghent. The Fields Sculpture Park opens its 2013 season with an installation of new and recent works by Nathan Carter, Tom Doyle, Paula Hayes, Allan McCollum and Erwin Wurm. (Through October 31)

Marko Remec: Totally Totem @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. In conjunction with this summer’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA, New York-based conceptual sculptor Marko Remec has created five outdoor installations for the grounds of MASS MoCA. Referencing the social functions of indigenous totem poles of the Pacific Northwest, Remec adheres readymade objects such as mops, brooms, safety mirrors and rearview mirrors to utility poles, transforming them into contemporary totems. As recorders of the present, the works speak to facets of the urban and suburban condition – surveillance and paranoia, narcissism and indifference, and the complex relationship between the built and natural worlds. (Throught October 31)

Haim Steinbach: Once Again The World Is Flat @ CSC Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson. An exhibition of a number of the artist’s grid-based paintings from the early 1970s, as well as a series of reconfigured historical installations and major new works created in relation to a selection of works drawn from the Marieluise Hessel Collection. The artworks in the exhibition span Steinbach’s forty-year career. (Through December 20)

Helen Marten: No borders in a wok that can’t be crossed @ CSC Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson. Helen Marten has created a group of works in diverse media – from sculptures to wall pieces and videos – in a comprehensive installation including many new works created specifically for the CCS Bard exhibition. (Through December 20)

Russel Wright: The Nature of Design @ New York State Museum, Albany. An exhibition featuring the work and philosophy of renowned industrial designer Russel Wright, exploring his career from the 1920s through the 1970s and including approximately 40 objects along with photographs and design sketches. (Through December 31)

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)

Love to Love You @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. An exhibition that brings together artists who explore fandom as a unique opportunity for shared social experience and extreme personal obsession, presenting fans not as passive spectators but active participants in culture. Whether making memorabilia, writing fan fiction, or singing karaoke, fans become creators as much as consumers of culture; by looking at the social culture of fandom, this exhibition poses questions about authorship, collectivity, and our place in the hierarchy of cultural production. Participating artists include Mark Bennett, Eric Doeringer, Elissa Goldstone, Jason Lazarus, Eva LeWitt, Patrick McDonough and Jeremy Shaw. (Through January 5, 2014)

Jason Middlebrook @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. For the past decade, Jason Middlebrook has been exploring the complex relationship between man and nature in his sculptures, installations, paintings and large-scale drawings. Responding to the unusual scale of MASS MoCA’s gallery, the artist will be working with planks that in some instances reach tree-like heights, while others will retain a human scale. Middlebrook will also debut a new monumental mobile that will function like a fountain within the gallery. Titled Falling Water after Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Kaufman residence, the work continues the artist’s exploration of manufactured nature while adding a twist to Wright’s notions of living in harmony with the environment. (Through April 7, 2014)

Joseph Montgomery: Five Sets Five Reps @ Mass Moca, North Adams. New York-based painter Joseph Montgomery creates compact abstract assemblages (many measuring only 12 x 10 inches) by layering a range of materials — a base vocabulary of sorts — including wood, clay, cardboard, fiberglass, paper, and wire. These elements take on the appearance of painterly gesture, each functioning like a brushstroke. The earliest of these works developed from the artist’s attempts to veil or destroy paintings which he found too earnest or too personal. These rejected works become a support for his subsequent collages and are at times cannibalized as material fragments in newer works. (Through April 7, 2014)

Guillaume Leblon @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. This first solo exhibition of Paris-based sculptor Guillaume Leblon’s work in a U.S. museum will feature a selection of works made over the last decade, in addition to two major new projects created for MASS MoCA. While his works refuse a single reading, they often conjure images of the ruin and the passage of time, bringing the present and the past into contact. Leblon can transform everyday components into sculptures that attain a relic-like quality or the aura of a classical statue.. (Through April 7, 2014)