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| A view of the Small + Seductive installation |
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We’ve all been there – you’re aware of a show you know you
want to see, and it has a long run, so you leave it till later because you know
you have plenty of time to catch it before it closes … and then, inevitably,
time goes by and, in the best of circumstances, you catch the show on its last
day – or, more likely, miss it forever.
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| Pink Hat - Gayle Johnson, gouache on paper |
That’s how, on Sunday, I caught the last day of a fine show
of five photographers at the
Albany Institute of History & Art, and then
took the opportunity to peruse an ongoing exhibition called
Small + Seductive, which continues
through Sept. 28. Featuring about 50 works of art (a few of which are
multiple-piece series) by 37 artists,
Small
+ Seductive is the third in a recent series of shows from AIHA’s collection
of contemporary art. The first of that trio included only photographs (full
disclosure: two of those were mine) while the second was made up of large-scale
work in more traditional fine art media.
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From Here to Eternity - Wendy Ide Williams
ceramic sculpture | | |
This latest exploration of the
archive is, as the title suggests, made up of smaller works, all but a few of
which are from the late 1980s on, and consists mainly of paintings, sculpture,
and prints. Like the other two shows, Small
+ Seductive provides the viewer with an excellent overview of the
Institute’s collecting proclivities and a good cross-section of many of the
region’s most beloved and influential exhibiting artists. It is also very
helpfully labeled with descriptive information and “According to the artist”
statements from the living as well as some of the dearly departed.
Wall text explains that most of
these works were acquired by the Institute via annual purchase prizes from the
Mohawk-Hudson Regional, though others arrived by donation – and even commissions
– from artists, collectors, and supporters of the museum’s mission. Still
others were acquired during the transition out of the art field by the Schenectady
Museum and Planetarium and the concurrent de-accession of its art collection.
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Catskill Creek - Judy Alderfer Abbott
oil on board |
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In addition to revealing the
taste of Directors past and present, this selection shows the overwhelming
influence in this region of the fine art program at the University at Albany.
Though I didn’t take a head count, it’s clear the majority of artists
represented here either taught or studied at the U (some have done both), and
many of them continue to teach and show hereabouts, extending that legacy on
and on.
While many of the artists have
just one piece in the show (whether they have others in the collection is left
unsaid), several are represented by multiple works. Among them is Gayle
Johnson, a painter who died tragically young, but who left behind vibrant
portraits in gouache, twelve of which hang here in a grid. Richard Garrison
also shows a grid of colorful paintings on paper (16 of them), while an elegant
vitrine displays six of a slipcased set of ten etchings by Thom O’Connor.
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| Untitled - Dennis Byng, cast lucite |
Among the three-dimensional works
are a busily and evocatively painted ceramic shrine by Wendy Williams (it looks
more like a fountain to me), discreetly aligned with a powerful painted-concrete
head by her husband, Allen Grindle. Larry Kagan, a prominent sculptor with a
solo show set to end on Sept. 14 at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, is
represented by a tiny framed metal relief of a flag; and the great Dennis Byng
has a brilliantly decadent-looking cast plastic cube on a pedestal across the
room.
Painting dominates the show,
fittingly enough for one of the Hudson River School’s best repositories, and
landscape features in many of the paintings. Three excellent small views by
Marjorie Portnow and a fascinatingly detailed image of a forested Catskill
Creek by Judy Alderfer Abbott were gemlike discoveries for me. Other strong
landscape paintings include a photographically distorted wide-angle by Tom
Nelson and a Fauvist composition by Carol Caruso that depicts a favorite place,
the Albany Rural Cemetery.
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Albany Rural Cemetery
Carol Caruso, oil on canvas |
A few other paintings run
far afield from realistic rendering: A mesmerizing field of strips and dots by
Peter Taylor; a lush, expressive interior by Richard Callner; a slightly
nightmarish fantasy by Robert Cartmell. There are a few stabs at abstraction in
addition to Taylor’s, and a couple of real challenges to the status quo in
terms of materials, but most of the work here stays well within the bounds of
traditional and modern art, as you would expect from one of the nation’s oldest
museums.
Equally, from such a venue,
you would expect the contemporary art collection to be of high quality – and it
does not disappoint at all in that regard. So, catch it while you can – even if
it’s on the last day (again, that would be Sept. 28). And get ready for the
must-see show up next at AIHA: the 2014
Exhibition by Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, set to open with a
reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26.
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| View of Shaker Creek - Richard Callner, watercolor and gouache on paper |
