Proud Nation

G. Peter Jemison

( in deep blue with red headdress )

smiles with friends at the opening of 

Seneca Art & Culture Center

After years of development, with the help of public and private funding, we now have a new destination, the Seneca Art & Culture Center at Ganondagan in Victor, New York.  We made our way over to the new building on a grey day  in October to celebrate the opening of this large gallery devoted to telling the story of the Haudenosaunee cultures as they are today, and as they have evolved with other native people in this region over centuries.  There is a rich complex history told thru artifacts and personal testimony which promises to be a very important teaching tool for the young and old alike.

A diorama of the original settlement at Ganondagan

There was a very good turnout for the opening - and if you go - stop in to see the "Iroquois Creation Story" which is an animated short film and it will provide some orientation for you in regard to some major symbolic figures from Native American mythology.  This is a unique project from Ganondagan, Garth Fagan Dance, and R.I.T.'s School of Film & Animation, all spearheaded by G. Peter Jemison who is an ardent supporter and prime mover of the Seneca Art & Culture Center.

A cutaway model of the Longhouse

in the main exhibition gallery

G. Peter Jemison is a fine artist and he has promoted this idea of having a new building to house a collection which could be used to express the history of native peoples in upstate New York, and he has realized his wishes to put this institution on the map.  When you step into the exhibition area, you have a story that unfolds about the clans that the French called: "Iroquois".  You get a sense for what they needed to survive in a difficult time just after Europeans began to settle in what were then tribal lands.

Informative graphics on exhibition

The Seneca Art & Culture Center is a museum and gift shop, it is a meeting house, and an education center, there is an Auditorium, and all of this exists to promote understanding and respect for a shared history.  

There is also a wall devoted to a controversy that engaged popular attention over native American Lacrosse players traveling on native passports to attend a championship match in Europe, and the denial of their ability to play because their sovereign nation issued passports weren't recognized.

Recent skirmish for Lacrosse players

is documented here

A large section of the exhibition space is dedicated to a model of a Longhouse, and a visitor can go for a walk outside to see a real Longhouse with commanding views of the hills around Victor, New York.

You can get a real feel for the land around here, and for a first visit there is much to see and learn.  One is urged to read more about this place, and come back to see how they have truly realized this dream.

An important milestone is reached with the opening of the

Seneca Art & Culture Center

Arcadia in Brooklyn

Lennart Anderson recent photo courtesy Huffington Post

at home in Brooklyn

Reading the notice that Lennart Anderson passed away yesterday has left me with a great sadness.  I followed his work from the time I was a kid after seeing his paintings in an art magazine.  He was an influential teacher at a time when everyone was gaga over abstract expressionism and then it took lots of guts and determination to paint as a perceptual realist.  In some ways Lennart continued in the spirit of Edwin Dickinson, and in fact Lennart kept a marvelous Dickinson painting in his living room when I would visit him in the 1980's.

Lennart Anderson portrait of Barbara S.

I interviewed him for the Prospect Press and he was very generous with his time and had me come upstairs to look over his studio where we had a chance to talk.  He was working on one of the big figure compositions that occupied him for years at a time.  His Arcadian bacchanals cling to the tradition of painting's golden years - that of Giorgione, Titian, Poussin and Veronese.  This is a tough act to follow, made even more difficult by our current skittishness, and lack of a central core of belief when it comes to Fine Art.

Painting in Lennart Anderson's studio when I visited

The passing of a painter like Lennart Anderson, not only makes me recall my past, but also calls into question where we are today, and how far afield mainstream art has moved in the past 30 years or so when I lived in Brooklyn and visited his Union Street home and studio.  Lennart said of his attempt to follow in the footsteps of Poussin, "The subject is not just classical, it is air, flesh, and sky; the stuff of great art.  I want people who stand in front of my paintings to feel joyful."

All Hallows Eve

Here Lies 1975

89 Charlotte Street, Rochester, NY

Here Lies..1975... the gallery closes this chapter of its existence with this new show at 89 Charlotte Street across from what remains of the Inner Loop.  Erich Lehman and his guest artists celebrate the season with this summary show of modest sized artworks, and when I visited it toward the end of the first week, many of the pieces had been sold.  Erich was on the radio the day before talking with Evan Dawson and his guests about a quandary facing Rochester, which is sometimes referred to as Image City - this city steeped in the arts is having a difficult time finding people who can step up to support the visual artists who keep these traditions alive.

"So We Beat On" by Sarah Rutherford

was among the works sold from the 1975 Gallery show "Here Lies"

I am sure that Rochester is not alone in this predicament.  Rochester does have a very lively arts scene and there are more things on view on a regular basis than ever before, yet galleries close and their traffic ebbs and flows.  There is an appreciation for the arts, but it is fragmented.  Erich had a terrific idea with 1975 Gallery - to have a place that had a special eye towards garnering a young audience and the prices for pieces in the gallery reflected the fact that this younger demographic has less disposable income to spend on works of art.  His was a labor of love and devotion, and I am sure that it will prove to be an inspiration to others who share his vision.

It takes a while for the visual arts to sort out what will be valuable, and as the saying goes, " You don't miss your water, 'til the well runs dry".  With the Spectrum Gallery at Lumiere Photo now closed, and the Ock Hee Gallery in Honeoye Falls set to close in December, and with this closing of 1975, we are seeing a trend.  Will there be more traffic going to Anderson Alley, to the Memorial Art Gallery? to the Hungerford Building?  Probably.  But, how will artists survive in this new climate?

David Jung at The Mercer Gallery

Monroe Community College

Some galleries are operated under the auspices of the academic institutions, and I think of the University Gallery which is part of The Vignelli Center at R.I.T., and the Mercer Gallery at MCC.  The Mercer Gallery with the help of Kathy Farrell has been bringing a wide variety of visual arts to our community for almost thirty years, and this month the show is devoted to artworks by notable alumni

of MCC.

The high polish resin on birch plywood paintings by David Jung grab your attention and their method and subject matter recall advertising from forty years ago, as well as the wavy lines of a television monitor.  A toy giraffe is presented in each one of the encaustic paintings by Jack Hellaby, and I have to say that I am mystified by the painting with the hypodermic needles.  What are we to infer from this image?  Are toy giraffes an addiction?  Or an inoculation?  This alumni show is a bit of a curiosity cabinet especially with the selections by the artist Matte.

Matte  at Mercer Gallery on the campus of MCC

Keep an eye out for interesting shows at the venues like the Mercer Gallery, whose show of works by Alumni runs through to November 6, 2015.  It will be worth you while to go and see the art and support the galleries in any way you can.

Mercer Gallery at Monroe Community College

No Ideas, but in Things

Cecily Culver 

at Gallery r

100 College Avenue, Rochester, New York

This came to mind when I was listening to Cecily Culver speak about her artwork, and it is a quote from the poet William Carlos Williams       ( No ideas, but in things ) and it sets in motion an appreciation of everyday objects seen through the discerning eyes of the artist.  These objects ( light bulbs, plastic bags, paper cups ) made in mass quantities become generic, taken for granted, and it takes the gaze of the artist to return to the object some individuality, some particular situation or esthetic context.  It is also an effort to deal with reality, in a heads-on fashion, to really notice what surrounds us, what awaits us, and what probably will be there in some form or another for the time being.

Cecily Culver's art includes sculptural work often seen together with a video component that places the object in a theatrical, but minimally invasive setting.  You are drawn to her work through curiosity, and through a willingness to put your past associations aside, and just deal with what she presents to us.  She treats her objects directly, and the effect is poetic, sometimes with a touch of melancholy.

The artist Cecily Culver

at her opening of "New Sense" at Gallery r

Speaking with the artist after her talk in the University Gallery at the Vignelli Center at R.I.T. I commented on how there were similar concerns in her art that she shared with the sculptor and video artist, Sterz Imrie, who was my neighbor for many years.  Cecily Culver helped take care of Sterz while he was recuperating from the effects of brain surgery, and I am sure she absorbed important lessons during that period of time while she was an undergraduate student in art at R.I.T.

"Warehouse Dance"  ( cast bronze, pipe, whiskers, motor and electronic components )

Now,  she has come back to Rochester to put on an exhibition of her recent sculpture, she has also earned her Master's degree, and won a prestigious prize from the Daedalus Foundation which allows her to spend a year in the New York City area practicing her art.

Balloon  (  cast aluminum, water, reflected light, TFT screen with digital video )

Taking a look around Gallery r on College Avenue in Rochester, we see the gallery space is very spare, and the audio elements from her work are hard to hear over the thrum of conversation.  People are looking around for the art - it just seems like there are just a few old bits of plastic piping and a metallic balloon; so we look at bit closer..

Cecily Culver presents her art at Gallery r

On the floor are some cast pieces of concrete, and what looks like a sewer drain with an old palm leaf stuck in the drain.  Then, the leaf moves back and forth and everything is still again.  This reminds me of a story from New York City where I grew up.  While I was still very young you could go and see the circus once a year, where they had for sale alligator eggs which you could buy and take home.  You watch as the baby alligator pops through the shell and gradually grow.  The parents, alarmed, wonder what to do with a growing alligator in the apartment and throw the creature down the toilet, where it ends up in the city sewer system, and who knows when it crawls back out of the drain to attack...

So, Cecily sets up dramatic encounters that may revolve around objects and physics ( sound and vibration ), reflection - images that bounce off of one another, and movement like the dancing antennas of a roach caught in a drain pipe.  All of this is deliberate and understated, so we are entering a mindset of contemplation, and wonder.  Anything that gets us to slow down a moment to notice that things are a bit different is a welcome attitude in a world of hype and spectacle.

Flip Side of Counter Culture

Robin Cass presents

"Menagerie" at Axom Gallery, Rochester, New York

When I was growing up in the mid 20th century, the prevailing conversation about art and artists was that "they" represented the counter culture.  In this country we were being brought up in a new corporate world, so "those people" who did not fit in ( artists and other minorities in the social fabric ) and they took it upon themselves to fight the urge to conform.  Now, forty years later, everyone thinks of themselves as more favorable towards a creative lifestyle, and the political stance of the "counter Culture" no longer carries much cachet.

Artists in mid 20th century stood out because they were unlike the majority, but here in 2015, there are so many artists working in our midst that they tend to blend in to society, and they even have a reputation of adding something to the community.  The arts may contribute to our prosperity, and they can establish a dialogue about matters we feel strongly, even though we may not be able to put those feelings into words.

So artists want to show you the territory they inhabit.  It is a world of imagination that has been given a physical form, and looking at new artwork the best bet is to keep an open mind.  New artwork can bring you to a place you have never been, and it is part of the artist's job to provoke new thinking, new concepts, and a new feeling.

Robin Cass creates "Ocular bulbulpods"

with

blown, painted, and fabricated glass, 

silver, steel, brass, rubber, and felt

Step into the new show titled: "Menagerie" at Axom Gallery in Rochester, and you might have the feeling that you are looking through a series of portholes into a unique science experiment.  You can behold the glass work and constructions of Robin Cass ( a colleague of mine at R.I.T. ).  In these works she combines metal work with blown glass and the effects of lighting on her new pieces can be very engaging.  Looking at these mixed media so artfully combined may remind you of a primordial world of organic forms seen under magnification.  Robin titles her work like examples from a science textbook: "Stigmate paddlepod", and "Ocular bulbulpods".  I have remarked before that Robin's artwork calls to mind the wonderful glass flowers on view in the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants at Harvard University.

Looking at "Menagerie"

by Robin Cass

There is also a bit of the haunting universe of H.R. Giger, the illustrator who died recently.  I see that in the suspended metalwork cages that act as a frame for some of the larger constructions in this new exhibition.  I enjoy the patina and color of many of these works and there is enough to suggest that we are just seeing the beginning of their existence.

Eileen Feeney Bushnell

at

The Mill Art Center, Honeoye Falls, New York

Down in Honeoye Falls, New York, we have a new show of printmakers from our region at The Mill Art Center.  Different methods of making prints are on view in a variety of different sizes and styles and this one caught my attention with its layers of imagery, and I found myself wondering what teeth have to do with an acrobat balancing on the head of a statue of Buddha...?  There must a story behind this print so we will have to ask Eileen Bushnell - just what is going on here?

Greg Smith in a "varied edition" of Looking Back

If you are in the market for some works on paper you will find some very attractive art in this new show, and the price is modest compared to what you will find elsewhere.  Take a look at the monoprints of Richard Harvey, or Dennis Revitzky - these are artworks by seasoned professionals and they have much to offer.  Tarrant Clements has some large abstracts, and Elizabeth K. Durand is showing new prints at The Mill Art Center.  You have to see it for yourself.

Pompeii landscape by D. Revitzky

at The Mill Art Center

There and Back

Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella

paintings on view at The Albright Knox Art Gallery

Buffalo, New York

I spent some quality time with students at The Albright Knox Art Gallery and upon entering the museum I noticed that everything they had hanging on the walls when I last visited had been changed.  Where did Clyfford Still go?  And who is Dan Colen?

Half of the museum had been closed when I returned because they were busy mounting new shows upstairs.  I was attracted to the new selection of paintings in the galleries and it seemed that I was seeing works I was not familiar with.  The new hanging had an accent on constructivist abstraction and abstract expressionism - all the way up to the present.

As I wrote in my last post, I was interested in going to Buffalo to see a show devoted to Robert De Niro, a painter who taught at The Cooper Union in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  I attended his class and also that of Hollis Frampton - a photographer and film maker devoted to the art of cinema.  Hollis Frampton always had a pack of Pall Malls in his hand and he would chain-smoke his way through our class.  I didn't know at the time that he was also a gifted documentary photographer who had many deep friendships among some of the iconic artists of mid 20th century.

Hollis Frampton's photo of Frank Stella

at work in his studio 1958-62

At the Albright Knox they have a show of photography where artists photograph other artists  ( sometimes at work in their studios ).  My teacher,  Hollis Frampton is represented in this show with at least three photos of important artists such as Frank Stella, Carl Andre, and James Rosenquist.  It is really interesting because you can see these photos of artists at work and then in the next gallery you can see their actual paintings on view.

There is a special exhibition of the work of Dan Colen, and I was surprised to read about his art and the radical materials he uses on his canvas: chewing gum!  I wondered how he gets the gum to stick to the canvas?

Dan Colen in "Shake the Elbow"

If you get too close to these "paintings" they smell sweet, and the imagery is of a raucous food fight. I am not sure that we need another re-hash of abstract expressionism.  There is no new formal ground won in this battle on canvas, and I was surprised to see the space devoted to this artist at this time and place.

When I was back at work at R.I.T. I visited The University Gallery in the Vignelli Center and saw wonderful paintings by Benigna Chilla, and ceramics by Vera Vico.  The layered abstractions  alone are worth seeing, as they weave space together in a unique way.  Why weren't these on view at The Albright Knox?

Works by Benigna Chilla

The ceramics of Vera Vico are inspired by the Mediterranean culture and she navigates these ports of call with a deftness that is impressive.  I love the colors and the forms that she explores.  You can revisit the historic Amphora, and her application of color and feeling for form is the work of  a gifted artist.

Amphora by Vera Vico

When Poets Rule The World - Drive to Buffalo

Robert De Niro, Sr.,

Autumn Landscape with House, 1968

oil on canvas

An invitation card arrived from the University at Buffalo Gallery on Martha Jackson Place, and it brought back a flood of memories of my college painting classes back in New York City at The Cooper Union.  We drove out to Buffalo, to see the show dedicated to Robert De Niro, Sr. and the poet Irving Feldman.  Feldman was teaching and writing at the University at Buffalo and he recommended Robert De Niro for a summer painting position - this was back in 1967.

"Bobby" De Niro looked and sounded like his son, the famous actor, Robert De Niro, Jr.  The painter - De Niro had some early success probably stemming from the support of his powerful patron - Peggy Guggenheim in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  The artwork included in his show in Buffalo was created during the time period when I studied painting with him at Cooper, and so many of the paintings presented were ones I was familiar with.

Installation of Robert De Niro, Sr. and Irving Feldman

"Painter and Poet at UB in the Late 1960's"

The title of the show relates to the fact that Robert De Niro, Sr. had close relations with writers, and that the scene in the early 1950's and 60's was alive with the spirit of poetry ( somewhat like today ) and some rather well known characters were changing our culture through their work ( I am thinking of poet Allen Ginsburg and the writer Jack Kerouac here ).

By the time I studied with De Niro, his work had been neglected by the prevailing art scene which was heavily invested in abstraction and pop art, two trends which he would have rejected at that point in his career.  It has been a slow climb back up for some post-humous recognition, and his show in Buffalo begins to do that.  Also, a recent documentary about his life has sparked a renewal, and at least there is some curiosity thanks to the efforts of his son to rehabilitate his father's legacy.

Barbara Insalaco, Lester Johnson, and John Hultberg

Upstairs at the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery

After visiting with Robert De Niro, Sr., I went upstairs to see the industrial landscapes of Barbara Insalaco, and I stuck around to look at the great ethnographic art collection on view as well as the paintings of Lester Johnson, and John Hultberg. 

A few miles down the road is the Burchfield Penney Art Center, and we caught the tail end of the Philip Burke show "Likeness of Being".

Philip Burke is a very popular caricaturist

with many portraits at

Burchfield Penney Art Center

Philip Burke's  paintings are always surprising for his endless imagination in re-arranging human anatomy while getting at the core of the celebrity he has in his cross-hairs.  Twenty years ago I brought Philip Burke to speak to my class at R.I.T. and he painted a work on the spot for the students to see his process.  He paints so intuitively, but always with a purpose.

Philip Burke's Rogues Gallery

in Buffalo

Upstairs, at Burchfield Penney Art Center I saw a collection of ceramics  in a show called "Body Norms" Selections from the Spong Collection.  There were many fine sculptors out for viewing including one of my neighbors in the Hungerford Building - Olivia Kim.

Sculpture by Olivia Kim

Later that same day we drove down to North Street,to the Hotel Lenox for an opening of a show at the Nina Freudenheim Gallery, and I am so glad we did.  There we saw the photos of Amanda Means, a terrific photographer, artist and printer who has worked with masters like Bernice Abbott and Robert Mapplethorpe. Amanda, has her photos in the collection at The Albright Knox Art Gallery, but I know her and her work from way back when she was just starting out in New York City.

Amanda Means at the Nina Freudenheim Gallery

I was really engaged by her large leaf portraits, which have a beautiful all-over light, and they remind me of the famous black and white plant portraits of Karl Blossfeldt.  Amanda's leaves ( and light bulbs, before that ) reveal a deeply curious mind with a high aesthetic threshold.  Her new work is abstract in one sense but very physical in another, as she folds photo paper and lets the emulsion run down the surface creating imagery that is immediate like a splash of water on dry cement.

Amanda Means " Fan Abstraction"

If you are in Buffalo, take a day to see these shows ( I am sorry to have missed the Hollis Frampton retrospective at CEPA Gallery - as he was also one of my teachers at Cooper Union ), and if you are not living in Buffalo, grab your hat and do not miss these exhibitions!