New Sunflowers

Sunflower, 2017, Transfer print by Alan Singer

Toward the end of the year here in New York State, we who love and support the arts should be thankful and grateful to those people and institutions that celebrate culture ( rather  than tear it down ) and who also work to bring us this bounty that enriches our community in so many ways.  I am thinking about the cultural workers who behind the scenes engage in a daily basis to highlight what is happening near and far.  Galleries and museum curators and their directors are working hard, not only to attract attention to their latest offerings but who try to make sense out of a tidal wave of cultural production.  We are fortunate to live in a relatively peaceful period and locally the arts are one of the factors that make our lives so much more interesting.

Here we have a vital arts sector and there needs to be continuing support from the business world and from local news media - because the arts are necessary for many, and getting the word out is tricky.  With so many choices, it is difficult in the best of times to make a living with the arts as your main focus.  Artists have to capture your attention, and make you curious about what it is that they are offering.  Artists have their experience to share in a form that attracts and activates the senses.

During the year we have been to see many exhibitions and there are many that were missed sorry to say.  Seven years ago I was able to start up this blog with the encouragement of  Bleu Cease at RoCo and soon I will have published my 300th posting, so if you have been checking in to see what is on The Visual Artworker - Thank You!

At Warren Phillips Fine Art & Frame

Hungerford Building

1115 East Main St. Rochester, NY

Along with the artists who have a major representation on view such as Wendell Castle who has a show that will be ending soon at The Memorial Art Gallery, there are other shows to be seen including one in my studio building - The Hungerford - that houses Warren Phillips Fine Art & Frame.  This end of the year group show always has some surprises and it is attractive to collectors who want something a little different.  Below is a new painting by George Wegman which is all color and atmosphere - so what happens to those shapes?

I was happy to speak with some of the artists at the opening for this show, and I enjoy the mix of styles that are found in the gallery.  Below are some colorful images from Jill Gussow, who I once shared a studio with when we were in college together at The Cooper Union.  It really is interesting to contemplate the growth of an artist's work over many decades, and I last wrote about Jill's ceramic murals that she has been engaged with in our area ( on Scio Street ).

Sampling of works by Jill Gussow

Over the holidays and beyond if you are in the Ithaca area, and you want to get some fresh air, stop in to the Laboratory of Ornithology in Sapsucker Woods - www.birds.cornell.edu/  

Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology

You can take the path around the pond, and then stop in to see the exhibition we have mounted of my father - Arthur Singer's artwork which will be on view thru February 28th.  Check out their website for the holiday hours.  There are almost 30 works of his that we have mounted on the walls of their auditorium, and if you go - please sign our guest book, and look at the Fuertes paintings while you are there on the second floor.  The entrance inside of the LAB has great murals of birds by Jane Kim, an outstanding young artist who was a guest speaker in my class at R.I.T. last year.

All-in-all this has been a very rewarding time, I have enjoyed my sabbatical and I am looking forward in 2018 when I will be publishing a new book about my own artwork, including the image at the top of this post....so stay tuned!  Enjoy your holidays!

Arthur Singer, The Wildlife Art of an American Master

at

Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology

Ithaca, New York