Juror Karen Davis peruses the Photo Regional Salon at Albany Center Gallery |
Laura Brodsky's fatherhood 2 won one of four top prizes at the Photo Regional |
First up, the 42nd Annual Photography Regional at Albany Center Gallery began on Sept. 8 with a salon-style installation of 200-plus submissions by more than 80 photographers. Karen Davis, co-owner of Davis-Orton Gallery in Hudson, then culled those submissions into a Select show that re-opened on Sept 18. It features 43 photographers (of which I am one) and includes 49 pieces, with 11 of those works receiving special recognition. Heads-up: The Photo Regional will close this Friday (Oct. 2), so you’ll have to hurry if you want to take a look. I recommend that you do.
Jill Baucom's Blackberries won one of four top prizes in the Photo Regional |
Amy Silberkleit - 1918 stone lithograph |
Deborah Zlotsky - Yours, Mine, Ours vintage scarves |
The largest of those galleries contains vast splashes of bright colors provided by works in many media – painting, sculpture, photography, collage, and textiles among them – with a large portion of those pieces being abstract. In a nearby, somewhat smaller room, again featuring the full array of media, the theme is landscape.
Yet another medium-sized gallery includes works that mostly engage in political or social commentary, again with many media represented but, in this case, weighted much more toward photography (not including my own, which are abstract, and hang in the larger gallery).
One feels the effects of 2020’s global and national upheavals in Cross’s selection of prizes, many of which went to the more topical works in the show, yet the overall effect of this Regional is what it should be: a well-distributed cross-section of the region’s best art, organized - but not dominated - by theme.
Jeff Wigman's oil on panel Arrival in Hell is included in Infinite Uncertainty. Wigman also has work in the Mohawk-Hudson Regional and the Fence Salon. |
It’s worth noting that seven of the 33 regional artists
included in Infinite Uncertainty are
also included in the Mohawk-Hudson Regional
(in which four of them received awards), an overlap that underscores the
meaningful relationship between the two shows. Like the Regional, Infinite
Uncertainty features work across many media, a good bit of it colorfully or
monochromatically abstract, but much more of it representing interpretive
responses to our current social issues.
Tatana Kellner - Scream collage, acrylic, and charcoal on paper |
Altogether, Infinite Uncertainty is a relatively rare instance of a carefully curated large group show at an urban Capital Region gallery featuring only regional artists. Though 33 seems like a lot of participants, the spacious gallery has enough room to accommodate multiple pieces by most of them, and numerous pieces by many, making for a great degree of depth in this presentation.
This mixed-media collage by Paula Drysdale Frazell is in the Fence Salon |
I will revisit the Fence
show on this blog after it has been juried and re-hung as Fence Select.
In the meantime, please do yourself a favor and get out to see these treasure troves of high-quality, current regional art while you can.
Mike Glier's oil on canvas Swallows Hunting is part of the Mohawk-Hudson Regional. Glier is one of three former Regional jurors who have work in this year's show. |
1 comment:
“September Madness” (as opposed to March)
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