Saturday, March 29, 2025
Afternoon in Ithaca
Monday, March 10, 2025
Art Community
Cab Calloway on left and Arthur Singer on right in Jericho for dinner circa 1975
I grew up in a household with art and music, mostly because my parents were both involved in the visual arts, and my father had close friends in the Jazz World! We went to see Cab Calloway at The Westbury Music Theatre and after that he came over to our house for dinner. My father did a lot of design work for Cab, including his bandstands and a number of famous posters for the Jazz star.
If you saw the exhibition we had last winter at The Rundel Library, you would have some idea of how important it is to build a community that supports the arts. When I was younger I worked for publishers and got started writing about art while I was living in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1970s. My first articles appeared in The Prospect Press, and I interviewed artists for American Artist Magazine.
Now, almost 50 years later, I am still interested in writing about art and artists, and I do that through this blog you are reading... I can't say how important it is to belong to a vibrant visual arts community, and I certainly found one here in the Rochester area. Being part of this community came about for me because I was hired to teach in the School of Art at R.I.T. in 1988. I was very thankful for this since there was a terrible economic crisis in the late 1980s.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
East & West
We start out this new year thinking about how sales of art are being effected by conditions in the marketplace. My father, Arthur Singer ( 1917-1990 ), left me some wonderful Japanese prints in his will, and now the time has come to see if they will sell.
Years ago, my dad bought many collectible prints through the Ronin Gallery in New York City, so we drove down there to meet Roni Neuer who has been the owner and director there for many years.
Friday, February 7, 2025
Snowscape
Winter is here! It is snowy but glowing, and I wanted to check in with people who read these posts and thank them for their attention! I got started writing about the visual arts many years ago because there was so little in the newspaper that kept up with all that is happening in our area, and I am afraid it has only gotten worse! The pandemic didn't help either, and now that we are in recovery we have to deal with a new administration that defies democracy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaQznA2vm8
The publication also from Marquis Who's Who is something that I want to mention to you. I have the cover story and this is also a BIG book full of interesting profiles!
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Best Wishes
Here in the Rochester area, this is the first full year that I have had my art studio at my home in the hills. I had moved away from The Hungerford Building on East Main Street because of friction I felt with the new owners there. Now, all I have to do is walk a few feet to my new studio space, and save all that time and money driving to East Main Street!
During this year I reconnected with my audience thru the exhibition that we held at The Rundel Library in the early months of 2024, and I really enjoyed putting that show together. I also connected with the editorial team at Marquis Who's Who. For years I was listed in their book - The Who's Who of American Art, and now I have a new page that you can visit that lists "Industry Leaders":
https://whoswhoindustryleaders.com/2024/10/02/alan-singer/
The Marquis Who's Who also sent me a commemorative plaque which you can see below:
Cover: https://marquismillennium.com/17th_Ed/alan-singer/116
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Breakthrough
Shoji 4 - Bedford Avenue#153
DESCRIPTION
"My childhood home was built by my father in the traditional Japanese style, and it was filled with shoji doors. Because they are made of paper, they would often tear and need to be repaired, and I remember watching my mother do this work. She would boil rice flour to create a rice glue, and use it to bind fresh paper to the frames. I loved the clean white translucence of the refreshed screens.
I wanted to commemorate this tradition in my Shoji series. I live and make art in Brooklyn, so my shoji screens incorporate the textures of the city. They are not minimal clean white, but rather show the complexity of textures, patterns and colors. I wanted to embrace the essence of Brooklyn’s bold attitude.
When I start a new work in this series I begin by building the shoji 'frame' on the canvas. As my mother did, I make my own rice glue and use it to bind layers of material. The layers accumulate like memory and experience, obscuring the ones below. Later, the layers are worn away again revealing them as a new moment to explore.
This one, Shoji 4 / Bedford Ave, is named for Brooklyn’s longest street, which passes through so many layers of culture along its length."
–Akiko Yamamoto
I applaud Akiko and hope to see her artwork when we visit Brooklyn in a few weeks!