ArtBeat: What To See

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That Way: Mailable Sculpture by Abraham Ferraro @ Athens Cultural Center. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Abraham Ferraro has been creating structurally engineered sculptures out of reclaimed cardboard and mailing them via the USPS to their destinations. Opening reception: Saturday August 24, 5-7pm. (Through September 7)

Story Untold @ Lapham Gallery, Glens Falls. Featured artists: Valerie Patterson (painting); Suzanne Reed (assemblage); Nicole M. Santiago (painting). Opening reception: Friday, August 23, 5-7pm. (Through September 20)

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The Forest of And And And @ Gallery 105, North Adams. Hudson’s Tatiana Klacsmann will display her array of chimeras – mythical creatures that stem from Greek mythology that have body parts of different animals. (Through August 25)

Ibrahim Quraishi: Dreaming Arizona @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. A solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist Ibrahim Quraishi, this multimedia exhibition is a metaphoric 
journey along America’s Highway 64 as seen through the eyes of a Pakistani artist, exploring the end of cowboyism though seven videos, seven large photographic prints, an original soundtrack and lots of hay. (Through August 25)

Caravan Plus @ 69 Union Street, North Adams. The former Gateway Chevrolet Car Dealership is a pop-up gallery this summer and is currently hosting an exhibition of large scale installations, archival footage, costumes and sets from internationally renowned artists/choreographers, Eiko & Koma, whose performance art is created out of movement that emphasizes stillness in order to expose the audience to the vulnerability of their bodies. (Through August 25)

Messages From Iran @ Gallery 53, North Adams. Three short videos by Iranian born artists Amirhossein Bayani and Peyman Shafieezadeh, who both live and work from Tehran. “Messages from Iran
is one of the three video installations and is a collaboration between the two, offering a perspective that not many Americans get to experience: a glimpse of life outside of the United States and outside our realities of freedom. (Through August 25)

Painting #10 @ The Broken Mold Studio, Troy. Angela Kanaan showcases two dozen paintings, drawings and watercolors, all created specifically for this show over the past three months. (Through August 25)

Mara Hehmann – Call of the Catskills @ Clement Gallery, Troy. Mara Lehmann’s traditional and representational style of painting quietly invites viewers to share her tranquil contemplations. Her muted tones are subtle and richly rendered, imbuing her paintings with a profound sense of peace. (Through August 28)

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Islam Contemporary at The Whitney Center for the Arts and The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield. A multi-dimensional cultural exhibit that aims to bring a fresh perspective to contemporary Islamic heritage, life and culture, this show features twenty-five artists from around the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim, emerging and established. The roster of participating artists includes local artists such as Ambreen Butt, a Pakistani artist now living in Boston, known for her contemporary take on the miniature tradition of South Asia, and Daisy Rockwell, granddaughter of acclaimed Berkshires-based artist Norman Rockwell, who, inspired by her years in South Asia, will feature politically challenging works that deal with representations of the Muslim women by Western media. The roster of international artists includes emerging Iranian-Canadian artist Raheleh Saneie, a recent graduate of University of Ottawa, whose powerful video piece ‘Sound of Strings’ critiques and asserts her own gender and hybrid cultural identity, and the Bahrain-based artist collective, ‘Ulafa’a, which is a reconciliation building project aiming to create new connections within the Bahraini community through art and culture in a time of crisis by powerful and engaging works. (Through August 31)

Jane Bloodgood-Abrams @ Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. A solo show of luminious landscape paintings. Opening reception: (Through August 31)

Formative @ The Albany Barn. Mixed media show that emphasizes the process of artistic creation featuring Paul Lowenski, Laurel-Le Lipski, Todd Greive, Pat Hoffmeister and Dorothy Davila. (Through August 31)

Slowinski Paintings @ Limner Gallery, Hudson. Surreal works rife with social, political and environmental commentary. (Through August 31)

Janet Sternburg: Passage and Barbara Kilpatrick: Performance for Camera and Imaginary Audience @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Janet Sternburg works with disposable and iPhone cameras, exploring their special qualities, while Barbara Kilpatrick creates performances for camera, in which the audience is absent but implied. Also on display are portfolio showcases by Pavel Romaniko and James Bellucci. (Through September 1)

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)

Taking Over @ Morrison Gallery, Kent. A solo exhibition by sculptor Henry Klimowicz, who has filled the 7,000 square foot gallery with an array of recent large-scale works. (Through September 1)

Photo-Journals: A Global Perspective @ Gallery 668, Greenwich. A photography exhibition featuring Jean-Louis Atlan, Cynthia Carris, Ray Favata and Caroline Lacey. Also featuring the works of young artists Alicia Alonso and Morgane Cornu. (Through September 1)

John K. Lawson: A Retrospective @ Good Purpose Gallery, Lee. John Lawson became known for his unique drawing style and intricate creations using discarded Mardi Gras beads. This exhibit will include collages, paintings and a bead studded piano. (Through September 2)

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)

Jenny Snider: New Work @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Paintings and collages by Jenny Snider in the main gallery. Also on display: Bruce Gagnier: Made for Bronze in the Sculpture Garden. On display in the Carriage House: sculpture by Barry Bartlett and Shari Mendelson, woodblock prints by Boris Sternberg and paper casts by Laetitia Hussain. (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)

Face Off (Museum Studies) @ BCB Art, Hudson. New paintings and drawing by Barbara Friedman, focusing on her current passion: the reinterpretation and reinvention of signature paintings from New York’s finest museums. According to Ms. Friedman, “I ‘perform’ as an artist while symbolically wearing the smock of the faithful museum copyist – an old trope often associated with ‘lady’ painters. I attempt both to honor and subvert this stereotype by parking in front of images, responding to them intuitively, and letting them become generative springboards… [A]t some museums, like the Met, I have to get my painting stamped ‘this is a copy’. This official stamp marks my painting as non-art, meaning that it’s not from the museum’s collection. I think of this as the counterpart to ‘Ceçi n’est pas une pipe,’ [This is not a pipe – a famous annotation to the pipe painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte] an addendum that both denies the artwork’s function and lets it take on a new function.”

Ms. Friedman adds, “On the days that my copyist’s permit doesn’t allow me to paint, I do charcoal drawings instead. On one occasion I used a sketchpad that had glassine interleaves, and when I opened my pad at home, I found that parts of the image had transferred to the glassine. What had rubbed off struck me as being far more interesting than my original drawing. Now when I complete a drawing in a museum, I close the pad, stick it in my backpack, open it at home, and accept whatever has transferred to the glassine as my finished piece.” (Through September 15)

The Man Show @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. A group exhibit exploring aspects of masculinity through the work of David Konigsberg, Allan Skriloff, Joseph Heidecker, Mark Beard, David Austin, Robert Flynt, Jacob Fossum, David Paulson and Darshan Russell. (Through September 15)

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)

Masters on Main Street: Eastern Standard: Indirect Lines to the Hudson River School @ Main Street, Catskill. Curated by Kate Menconeri, this seventh edition of the storefront exhibition series includes paintings, photographs and siteworks by contemporary artists who draw on the landscapes and artworks of the 19th century Hudson River School painters. Featured artists: Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Tim Davis, Sandy Gellis, Joel Griffith, Ruth Hardinger, Kysa Johnson, David La Spina, Alex McKay, Nadja Verena Marcin, Alan Michelson, Jason Middlebrook, Ben Ruggiero, Lisa Sanditz, Anne Katrin Spiess, Lauren Sansaricq, Susan Wides and Linda Weintraub. On view 24/7 in the 300 and 400 blocks of Catskill’s Main Street. (Through September 20)

Threads: Fiber Art @ CCCA, Hudson. Exhibiting artists: Julie Chase, John Cooley, Fran Heaney, Denise Giardullo, Jessica Gibbons, Nancy Hawkins, Kathryn Kosto, Karen Madden, Ellen Mahnken, Cynthia Mulvaney, Clarke Olsen,Valerie Richmond, Pamela Strousse, Carol Swierzowski, Richard Talcott, Alta Turner, Karl Volk and Lauren Wolff. (Through September 21)

Design@Work: 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)

Equine Concepts: Robert Cartmell and Paul Kant @ The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville. Paintings by two of the area’s preeminent equine artists. (Through September 22)

Necessity and Chance @ Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham. Photographs by Rebecca Loyche, Mona Mark, Elliot Schneider, Joel Seaman and Brian Wood. (Through September 22)

Lauren Fensterstock @ Sienna Gallery, Lenox. Lauren Fensterstock’s site-specific installation work and wall pieces depict nature by incorporating meticulously cut and curled paper, charcoal, and Plexiglass to create floral and garden scenes, referencing French and English garden design of the 1500s to 1700s, the 18th century practice of “quilling” (sculpting paper by wrapping around a quill) along with a nod to, and reflection upon, 20th century American earth art and the work of Robert Smithson. (Through September 23)

Saratoga 150: Then, Now and Beyond! @ Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Springs. In celebration of 150th anniversary of The Saratoga Race Course, this exhibition showcases works by regional artists that reflect on our region’s rich past, represent or comment on today, or envisions the future for the region. (Through September 28)

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)

W O V E N @ Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock. Using materials ranging from common weaving materials like cotton and wool to the more exploratory – bullet-riddled steel, wire, tennis balls – the artists in this exhibition engage in an energetic dialogue between contemporary visual culture and the traditions of the textile industry, freed from functional constraint. Artists include: Susan Brandeis, Yale Epstein, Marsha Farley, John Garrett, Rob Goldfarb, Sheila Hicks, Nancy Koenigsberg, Alex Kveton, Jorge Lizarazo for Hechizoo Textiles, Lael Marshall, David Poppie, Kate Rapin, Joanne Russo, Zoe Siegel, Mamie Spiegel, Altoon Sultan, Harriet Tannin, Suzanne Tick, Grace Wapner, James Brendan Williams and Bhakti Ziek. (Through September 29)

Overgrown @ The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Works by Geoffrey Detrain, Alexis Grabowski and Claire Sherwood. Also on view in in the President’s Gallery is (un)Settled with works by Tasha Depp, Aldo Lira, Kelly Jones and Matthew Shropshire. Closing reception: Friday, September 27, 5-9pm. (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)

An American in Venice: James McNeill Whistler and His Legacy @ Arkell Museum, Canajoharie. This exhibit presents eleven prints by Whistler from his time in Venice, placing them alongside the work of followers who were practicing in Italy in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The juxtaposition of these works allows the viewer to appreciate both Whistler’s innovations and the different ways in which his work affected the artists who followed him. (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)

Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibition that examines a pioneering group of black artists whose work and connections with other artists of varied ethnic backgrounds helped shape the creative output of Southern California, featuring approximately 140 works by thirty-three artists including Melvin Edwards, Fred Eversley, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Alonzo Davis, Dale Brockman Davis, Noah Purifoy, Betye Saar and Charles White.(Through December 1)

72 Degrees: L.A. Art from the Collection @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. Work by artists in Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970s. Forging various West Coast aesthetics that included assemblage, Finish Fetish, and Conceptualism, these artists departed from traditional modes of representation by exploring materials in new ways. Artists featured in the show include Edward Kienholz, George Herms, Wallace Berman, Robert Heinecken, Ed Moses, Helen Pashgian, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos, Maren Hassinger, Richard Diebenkorn, Vija Celmins, and Ed Ruscha. (Through December 1)

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)

Opener 25: Hildur Asgeirsdottir Jonsson @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson explores the overlap between painting and textile with shimmering paintings on woven silk thread. Often monumental in scale, her work takes its imagery from a range of sources, including brain scans, celestial objects, and most frequently, her native Icelandic landscape. (Through December 29)

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)