Rising Stars

Above: Art by Dongyi Wu

Below: portrait of Dongyi Wu

Nice to meet and get to know some of the many new faces in the art world, which is now so diverse!  Also good to see one of our students from Rochester Institute of Technology pictured above, who has created beautiful artwork -and is beginning to be recognized for her contribution!  The online magazine called ACS ( out of Chicago ) has just published a lengthy interview with Dongyi Wu and featured her sculpture  and wearable art in their new issue.  You can read about it - and here is the link:https://www.acs-mag.com/acsmagjanfeb2019?fbclid=IwAR1WdA_nQhFxE0U5hPEL0Z140yl6t8GujZJJ_N5KPpHjqkznLK01ZVZpgMY 

Just Opened: Just Folks

at RIT CITY Art Space

Rochester, New York

Out for Friday, Galleries Night, I am just part of the big crowd at the show called: "Just Folks", and what a show it is!  This is the brainchild of Erich Lehman and the exhibition celebrates some of the artists associated with Wall/Therapy and Erich's 1975 Gallery ( which I really miss! ).  Here is Erich  enjoying the sense of a large family gathered together to talk art and other things.  This city needs this kind of energy, and the art is not too bad either!

Erich Lehman at the opening of "Just Folks"

Erich has been a guest speaker in my class where we talk about the business of art, and his activity as a gallerist, and also as a promoter for Wall/Therapy - among other things, he has been an essential part of the art scene here in Rochester.  He is able to get the youth motivated to come out and contribute to the cultural scene and provides a nexus of energy and determination through his efforts. Some of the striking examples of this movement can be seen on the gallery walls.  A dramatic painting by Sarah C. Rutherford is just one part of a larger statement that she is making with her new television special "Her Voice Carries" soon to be seen over the PBS Broadcasting system.

A huntress by Sarah C. Rutherford

I wonder how the young artists that I see featured in this show deal with the new realities.  Do I see some of this reaction in the little painting here called: "Daily Damage Report"?  The arts are going through a period where there are so many directions to take, how does one follow it at all?  Luckily this is also a very democratic moment, and  if you have the skill and the stamina, you can make a statement.

Dan Pendleton's  "Daily Damage Report"

I know from talking with Erich that he got started on this road to the art gallery by being a collector. He also has this renegade spirit that comes from the art that he saw and made for the roller boards that skaters created to give their boards personality.  So it was a bit of surprise to find surfboards in the show and why were they parked in a little corner?  Since a surfboard has a real dimension to it  why not feature that?  There is also some relationship to the tattoo artist in some of the work featured in "Just Folks", and I can imagine making  a bigger point being made for that.

Art by Mike Ming

Art by Sarah Blood at "Just Folks"

RIT CITY Art Space

There is so much to see in this exhibition and there is a convenient list to look at for the titles and prices.  Looking over the list there is a real surprise to see how much each artist is asking for their work.  Some of these talented artists whose work I have seen before are really maturing and getting better.  I found some beautiful portraits, and wonderful abstraction at this show - so you must go and see it!

Portraits by Brittany Williams

Abstraction by St. Monci

at RIT City Art Space

March 1 - 23, 2019

Local Color

A Maze, wall mural at R.I.T. Booth Building 7A

This is what it is like starting out in a field as diverse as the visual arts, what are all the turns to expect as you make your way ahead?  Before I get to sleep at night I think about how lucky we are to be here now, to experience all of the varied influences and make a contribution to our community!  I can reflect on the last few weeks and thank all the people who came out to the Axom Gallery to see my artwork.

Axom Gallery door Poster is a Welcome 

to all who ventured out in the cold!

I am grateful to Rick Muto, Robin Muto and Margot Muto for getting me involved in showing my artwork here in Rochester, New York.  The paintings and prints I have been making over the past four or five years looked so good in their gallery environment - I was really pleased to see it presented in this way.  The Axom Gallery is a room on the second floor of the Muto's loft space - and it has a living room atmosphere with sofas and chairs, glassware and floor coverings - all part of the interior design business that they run out of the same address.

Also I want to thank Rebecca Rafferty of CITY Newspaper tor taking the time to come and see my exhibition and then spend her time writing a very informative review which you can read here: https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/review-alan-singers-shapely-at-axom/Content?oid=9576231

Alan Singer's "Transformation" a 

transfer monotype, 2018

Now, after my show has closed I can move onto the next chapter, which includes more exhibitions and some travel time.  The monotype above will be part of the yearly theme show at the Oxford Gallery in the spring.  Another exhibition I am involved with is one I am curating: Process & Purpose, 2019.  This is a printmaker's invitational which will have two venues:  Corners Gallery in Ithaca and the new RIT City Art Space later in the spring and summer.

We plan to travel to California for my mid-semester break, so don't be surprised if I write my next blog from the west coast!  In the meantime I am looking forward to  a new show called "Just Folks" which will feature artists associated with Erich Lehman and Wall/Therapy.  That show will also be presented opening March 1st at the RIT City Art Space.

Here in Rochester we also stopped in to see a show of small scale pastel drawings that were presented  in the cafe of the Little Theatre.

Group Show of pastel drawings at Little Theatre

"Georgia On My Mind"

The first place winner

S.Zefting-Kuhn

The lighting for this group show left something to be desired, but the show was very welcome especially because we had just stepped out from seeing the movie Capernaum which was quite a stirring affair.

Now I am back in my studio looking out over the train tracks and thinking about what comes next.  Stay tuned, and I will have more to report this coming season, thank you.

View from The Hungerford Building

Renewal

Poster at the entrance to Axom Gallery

Rochester, New York

About the time I was putting the finishing touches on my own show at Axom Gallery here in Rochester, I went out to check on some of my R.I.T. colleagues who now have their own exhibitions in our area.  I have worked with these people that I write about here, usually as an advisor or instructor at R.I.T., but in most cases as I have watched them work it is I who have learned from them, and continue to do so.

Highland Park 

It has been cold and snowy, and I found my way up to Highland park to check out one of my favorite views.  It is remarkable how I can find so many similarities in the real world when I compare these views to the abstraction in my paintings, like the snow scene here, and my painting I call "Electrical Storm" at the top of this post.

I walked over on cold winter night to the opening of "A Day's Gonna Come" - which is a two person show for Jacquelyn O'Brien and Zach Dietl, now on view at the new RIT City Art Space.  This show is on until February 23rd, and it features new sculpture and prints by these young artists who are beginning to speak in an artistic  language of their own.

Jacquelyn O'Brien

"A Day's Gonna Come"

at RIT City Art Space

Actually, Jacquelyn's work is an evolution for the kinds of sculpture she was making while still a grad student a few years ago at R.I.T.  Her art has a penchant for declaring it's own weight, and she has a flair for pink.  Her art expresses a kind of pressure that one might have seen in the art of Robert Gober from twenty years ago.  That pressure her sculpture exhibits, I equate with a social anxiety, and it certainly has to do with weights and measures.

Jacquelyn O'Brien at City Art Space

I was glad to read in a fine printed brochure that accompanies this show that Jacquelyn has won awards for her work, because it is certainly memorable.  I think her large sculpture with dangling cement cylinders is like some sort of arcane musical instrument that has the potential to ring out with a thud by crushing that furry thing underneath.

Jacquelyn O'Brien "Weights"

I have a tendency - thinking about a psychological diagram when I am looking at these sculptural and conceptual works, and I also think about the title for this show "A Day's Gonna Come" - and what that may mean in regard to this work.  Like Louise Bourgeois, we may be regarding this work in the future like a trend setter, so we will see.....

RIT City Art Space features work by Zach Dietl

In Zach Dietl's sculptural art there is a certain matter-of-factness that may cause one to think of the rigging of ships and other historical associations.  Some of Zach's artwork has a light humor to it - modern jazz effect of a few squeaky squawky notes in an otherwise solid performance like tooth picks sticking out of a wood beam.

Cory 

Card

with 

"Sweepings"

at 

ROCO

Down the block at Rochester Contemporary Art Center, I walk back to a room to see some intimate drawings by Cory Card.  Cory also has a droll sense of humor and his suite of drawings called: "Sweepings" include very sensitive renderings (in graphite) of materials that we often overlook or just vacuum up.  These drawings are hard to characterize, but they are, or almost could be,  mere shadows.

Very meditative... and curious!

The Nature of Change

"Landscape and the Unbuilt"

at Rochester Contemporary Art Center

137 East Avenue

Rochester, NY

Of course we are not alone, but our species inflicts un-natural change on our environment - something to think about as we go through periods of difficult climate.  What can be done about it?  What can I do about it?  While I contemplate this and walk up East Avenue to Rochester Contemporary Art Center, I anticipate a show that will engage me in the local situation and I feel the impact immediately at a well-attended opening for the show: "Landscape and the Unbuilt".

Totem by Patti Russotti

The group of artists in this large and textured show have been charged with finding visual stories to tell about this place we call home, and that can start with a look at a map and maybe a journal entry or memories of a hike or two in places like Corbett's Glen, or other properties managed by the Genesee Land Trust.  Patti Russotti in her display tells the viewer about what she found there in the Glen - trees of great height almost 150 years old - only a few hundred yards away from the mainline of the railroad that passes through this area.

Phyllis Bryce Ely - her focus is on the landscape

at ROCO

I said my congratulations to Gay Mills, the Executive Director of the Genesee Land Trust at this exhibition - her organization is responsible for the stewardship of many properties with a mission to protect the wilds and conserve the habitat.  Think of what this can accomplish when you have a drink of the fresh water that serves our community, or consider what our region would be without the habitat for wildlife among other things.

Nate Hodge painting and bookshelves and nature guides

Rochester based artists are featured in this exhibition and the art that each of these creative individuals puts on display is augmented with a map of an area that is their focus.  This is bringing the art of landscape into a new and different concern - more than just a pretty painting over the couch - hopefully this show creates an active agency to help us think about conservation and construction more wisely.  Your involvement could start with a visit to this show.

Jean K. Stephens graphite drawing

We are moving away from the romantic view of the landscape especially with harsh news of wildfires and frigid conditions here in the USA.  Citizens need to unite and urge caution and thoughtful development of our natural resources.  In the present show there are reminders of the past through the art of Aaron Delehanty ( he misspells John James Audubon throughout ) reworking well known prints of this 19th century pioneer.  Also there is the sculptural presence of a falconer from the Middle East to throw us back in time.

Aaron Delehanty studies Audubon

The ancient art of Falconry

Jennifer Schinzing presents the facts as best she can through the art of taxidermy.  She found road kill, animals that met with accidents, and she presents them in their little glass coffins.  I am not sure that this is a hopeful sign, just something that we all face - the reality of our own mortality as living beings.

Jennifer Schinzing presents her taxidermy at ROCO

Each of the featured artists writes a short testimonial to their own involvement with nature, and the artists also focus on particular areas of concern.  Perhaps it is a trail, like the El Camino that George Wegman selects that runs through our town, or maybe it is farmland that is celebrated in the peaceful artwork by Andrea Durfee that greets you at the door.  On my way out of the show I stop to admire the drawings by Bill Stephens who manages to convey the ongoing mystery of nature and one way of approaching the amazing complexity of life.

Bill Stephens drawings at ROCO

George Wegman on the El Camino Trail

in

Landscapes and the Unbuilt

at

ROCO

Snow Seen

Snowy scene out my studio window

at the Hungerford Building

prior to a big snow storm...

January, 2019

Cold wintry weather was not going to stand in my way, so I am going out to see artworks by some people who have studied with me at Rochester Institute of Technology.  Here it is,  late in January and there are dual opening receptions for "Articulating Craft" as well as a solo exhibition of new media by Rebecca Aloisio in the Colacino Gallery - both shows in the Nazareth College Art Center.

Rebecca Aloisio at the reception  for "Stratum"

Yes, I worked with Rebecca as an advisor - and introduced to her new ways of looking at printmaking and she uses the advances in technology to her benefit.  What I think is refreshing about her art are the new forms her abstraction has in evidence.  Large scale and small, her work establishes new connections between color and form, and yet has a deep relationship to the process of collage - and you can read about it in her artist statement.

Read Rebecca's artist statement

One of the large compositions near the entrance to the gallery resembles some form of a face, but also could have geological ramifications.  Crystals perhaps like a geode form where the mouth might be.  There are shallow overlaps like layers or strata - hence the name of her show "Stratum".

Back away a bit and the form becomes a standing figure ( an "Ice Man"? ) - brandishing a sword or pole....

Rebecca Aloisio at

The Margaret Colacino Gallery 

thru March 1, 2019

Nazareth College Art Center

In the main exhibition hall another one of my students from R.I.T. - Chenyang Mu  has created unique bent glass pieces that are connected to flexible rubber tubes that pass through a sounding board so that if you breathe into a mouthpiece inserted into the rubber tube you can sound a musical note - not unlike that of a violin!  Chenyang Mu has created a quartet of new musical instruments - creating a music that is soothing, and meditative.  I like that her art really involves the viewer - you become an active participant!

Chenyang Mu with her musical glass "instruments"

in the new show

"Articulating Craft"

Next to the musical tubes there is a wall full of colorful plaster ornaments that could be worn around the neck and this part of the presentation is called "Workshop" by Brice Garrett. They are all lightly tinted and could be the beginning of a new fashion trend, and in fact there are several pieces in this show that can be worn as jewelry.

Workshop by Brice Garrett

in Articulating Craft

Another trend also represented in this exhibition are the 3D printed artworks and one item in particular caught my attention in black and white nylon called: "A Virtual Body" by Lauren Eckert.

It looks like a headset for VR with a bit of jazzy Op Art, but it is also a work of art itself.  The craft of printing in 3D has come a long way since I first came across it at Kodak, where they were printing models for their new cameras - this must have been 20 years ago now....

   

Virtual Body - printed 3D nylon by Lauren Eckert

The art in "Articulating Craft" is everywhere on display in the Art Center Gallery at Nazareth College.  There is a price list for the pieces that are on sale.  The "Star Nosed Mole Belt Buckle", by Tom Muir however, is not for sale.....

Star Nose Mole Belt Buckle

by Tom Muir

You Have To Be There

Mary Gabriel's new book 

published by Little Brown

"Ninth Street Women"

"Ninth Street Women" is a great read and a new big book by Mary Gabriel.  It is big in many ways, but first and foremost it is a story that needs to be told setting the stage for what is to come.  Women in the arts from my point of view have never been given the attention or the credit that they deserve.  I have been involved in the visual arts all my life, and this is what I have observed.  Our culture musters some support for the visual arts, but the women who stimulate the field and have been practitioners alongside men have been over-looked - now and in the past.  This new book attempts to play catch up, by telling women's stories, and giving us a profile of five painters from the mid 20th century.

Helen Frankenthaler ( above and below )

This is particularly important because there is a large constituent portion of artists I know who are women; they play major roles in the gallery and museum world too but the majority of attention has gone to the men involved.  This bias began to change back in the 1970s when feminism started to take hold in the U.S. and it was certainly strong in Ithaca, New York when I was a painting student in grad school at Cornell University.

"Ninth Street Women"  takes me back to the 1950s when my parents ( who were both artists ) took me around to art galleries in the Village (NYC ).  Later when I was in college at Cooper Union, I lived on east 11th Street so I knew the physical layout of the city, and I was living right there where everything happened.  My next door neighbor was Dore Ashton, an art historian who wrote a lot about the action of women in the arts.  Dore Ashton brought Helen Frankenthaler to speak to students in my class.  I also met many of the people who Gabriel quotes in this book.  As far as I am concerned her book is a must read.  She writes in a descriptive fashion that takes you into the lives of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler - and these five women helped change the course of modern art.

I went out to roam the city and see the shows of these five women, and I also had the chance to hear from them in person, and that is important.  Seeing artists do their thing- talking about what they love - that is happening here in Rochester too.  Just this past Friday night at the new RIT City Art Space there was a wonderful talk with Leonard Urso and Willie Osterman.  John Aasp introduced them and just to hear their stories behind their art was a thrill.  This is the last week of their show "Emergence", the evening was cold, but there was a large turnout.

Left to right - Leonard Urso, Willie Osterman, and John Aasp

Willie Osterman and Len Urso

It was a very cold evening when I had my own opening this past Saturday at Axom Gallery.  I plan to give an artist talk in dialog with artist Rebecca Aloisio and that will take place in the Axom Gallery during the afternoon of February 9th from 3-5 pm, so come on over if you are in town.  Here is a link to the gallery:

https://axomgallery.com/

"Shapely" by Alan Singer at Axom Gallery

176 Anderson Avenue, 2nd floor, Rochester, NY

Finally, I want to urge you to see the show happening now at the University Gallery in Booth Building at R.I.T. = see the packed show of posters and graphic designs from Abram Games. I remember this work from many years ago and there is so much to say about this era of design from a time when I was growing up.  These posters were part of the culture we lived in from the 1950s through the 1970s and it is fitting that they found a place to exhibit them in the Vignelli Design Center.  Below is a fine example from Abram Games.

Abram Games at University Gallery

Booth Building on the campus of R.I.T.

Made To Measure

My new painting is underway...

Acrylic gouache on gesso board

January, 2, 2019

Alan Singer

In preparing for my new solo exhibition here in Rochester presented by the Axom Gallery,  I have written an artist statement about the path I have taken over the last decade or so which is to blend science, art, and mathematics - certainly a direction I have been  interested in for many years.  And in many ways  the images I produce are related to the basic building blocks of life - with cells and energy as constituent parts.  My compositions express a certain kind of dynamic geometric relationship. 

Transfer monotype on paper, 2016

"Re-Entry" by Alan Singer

As I have written in my statement, I would have paid much more attention in my mathematics classes in junior high school, if my teachers had told me that there was a visual component to algebra for example.  If I could visualize how the numbers worked and what they signified in relation to one another, I probably would have been better at math ( I hope! ).  Well,  now there are personal computers and they have a screen where you can play with numbers in a very visual way to construct new forms or just play with geometry.  You may not realize it but a program like Photoshop functions on applied mathematics. Photoshop builds a grid of pixels which are so small they look like they blend seamlessly.  

A grid built with a color plot function

gives you left to right, and top to bottom measurement

I have written in the past that using a computer has enabled me to compose imagery and  construct in a wide range of colors, and at the most basic level it reminds me of  the Etch-A-Sketch I had as a kid.  The Etch-A-Sketch has two dials and each hand can control the movement of a stylus that creates an impression from left to right and from top to bottom.  Now on my computer I have a program called Cinderella, and it can plot in an RGB ( Red,Green,Blue ) color palette the same kind of functions that you get in Photoshop using simple mathematical commands - so if you can measure it, you can show it.

"Big Dr. Wavelength"

Transfer monotype on paper

by Alan Singer

2014

Just getting used to writing the commands for the Cinderella program took a while, and when I could practice I would try out different ideas and see what I could represent.  This image for example reminded me of some sort of heart rhythm.  I found that a set of mathematical commands could give a representation that could resonate on a whole other level.  Sometimes I thought that I was discovering universal principles this way, though I didn't know at first - what kinds of questions I should ask to get these results - it was all experimental for me.  A couple of years later I could get my image to dance...( see below ).

"Modern Dance"

Transfer monotype on paper

by Alan Singer

This is all very two-dimensional, the construction of my art gets more complex when I introduce the illusion of depth and sculptural form.  Luckily I found, and downloaded the program called 3D-Xplormath, and it allows me to build in three dimensions.  This program was "invented" by Richard Palais and has several features that would attract the artist.  3D-Xplormath allows you to construct dimensional geometry and see it from every angle.  I could also save my experiments in 3D geometry and see what they look like in other formats that would allow me to compose a scene.  Here is an example of geometric forms arranged in a composition that appears to have real depth.  It opens the way for some very creative, almost theatrical building of space, including many opportunities to light the stage, so to speak.

"Pose Please"

Transfer monotype on paper

by Alan Singer

Such potential!  I can't wait to get back to work, to explore new forms and experiment with my mathematical shapes.  If you are at all curious to see what I have discovered, come over to my show which will open at Axom Gallery, 176 Anderson Avenue, in Rochester, New York.  The reception is scheduled from 4-7pm on January 12th, and the show runs through February 23, 2019.  Call for further information: 585 232-6030.  See you there, and Happy New Year!