award winner at
The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester
At the Arts & Cultural Council gallery, artist Jeanne Raffer Beck has tales to tell. Little phrases are silk screened onto many slips of fabric that flutter - set up in a large grid with one end attached and the rest free of restraint. The result is a moving, shimmering pair of artworks that remind me of Jasper Johns alphabet paintings with a bit more fashion and flair. Jeanne was one of the award recipients in the recently opened juried show for artist members of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. Sarah Lentini, director of the Arts Council announced the award winners and welcomed people who
attended the opening.
This showing of select artworks from the Rochester region attests to the health and viability of the visual arts community and also to the juror's tastes. The jury consisted of two museum directors - Grant Holcomb from the Memorial Art Gallery, and Anna Tobin D'Ambrosio from the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, and one distinguished professor of design - Roger Remington from R.I.T.
Other awards were bestowed on artists Bill Keyser, and Shamira Nicholas. The styles of artwork in this exhibition run from highly detailed natural subjects thru to the abstract - most of the art being two dimensional and a few sculptural works on pedestals. I was happy to be selected for the show, and on either side of my little print - were artists who I knew from our graduate program in Fine Arts at R.I.T., - so we must be doing something right!
Juried Members Show at The Arts & Cultural Council gallery
Just down the block on College Avenue another opening is underway for Carol Acquilano. There at the Spectrum Gallery - we have a select group of paintings made over a period of three years, and a beautifully produced catalog "Sketchbook of Cortona" available for purchase. Carol this past year ( 2012 ) created a print edition for the Memorial Art Gallery ( Patron Print ) as well as working there to prepare frames for the works going on exhibition at the museum.
Carol happily greeted visitors to her show, and when you see these medium sized works you will find that the color is very active, many of these paintings were made directly from the scene - as they say - en plein aire. Carol's art is very buoyant and expressive, and speaks about where she has been and the impressions these places in Italy ( and here in New York at Linwood Gardens ) have made on her. As many artists have done before, Carol is attracted to the architecture in Italy, and the sense of history found in that country - and it begs to be painted.. Cortona is a feast for the eyes and the senses, and this is quite eloquently stated in Carol's paintings and watercolors now on view - so extend your summer - visit Cortona through the eyes of an engaged and engaging artist.
Carol Acquilano's paintings on view at Spectrum Gallery, Lumiere Photo
