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Event Horizons

On November 6 SOAG opens a new solo show by Barbara Mink. “Event Horizons” features mainly large-scale abstracts in acrylics and oils.

Mink says this body of work is the culmination of her thinking about connections between painting and science.

“Ten years ago I founded an annual winter festival which features performers in both the  arts and sciences, so thinking about creative synergies is often on my mind. Painting has always been a part of my life, but this past year I tried an experiment: framing my work with concepts in physics and math.

At first I veered strongly toward rather literal connections but I soon became uncomfortable with the self consciously didactic results. I ended up naming the works in “Event Horizons” more playfully, so the titles touch only lightly on the paintings.

With a nod to the Romantics and Abstract Expressionism, my work rests on the energy of the gesture, the visible trace of the process, and the coherence of carefully controlled elements, with textures and densities ranging from thickly layered to ephemeral.”

State of the Art is located at 120 W. State Street in Ithaca.  Hours are Wed. – Fri., 12-6pm and Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm.  The gallery is ADA accessible and there is curbside parking available.  Contact information for the gallery is 607-277-1626 and www.soag.org.

Closeups of Paintings

Opening Night of Events Horizon

Painted Escapes

Gas prices are high, disposable income is low. Can’t get away for a vacation? Escape through the expressive paintings—abstract and realistic—of  Marian VanSoest and Patty L. Porter at State of the Art Gallery during August.

There are times when a person just needs to escape from the moment, but often the means or the time for this escape are not available. That’s where a connection with a painting can be very useful. Whether you want to go to a foreign land or just retreat into the depth of color and abstract form, a painting can facilitate this need.

Van Soest and Porter are two artists who have created paintings with just this in mind. They have painted together, traveled together and ruminated about art together for the past fifteen years. “Painted Escapes” exhibits paintings from their travels—both together and separately.

Van Soest says that she has taken a vacation from realism to revel in memory and painterly fun. Of her abstract works in the show, some evoke places seen from an airplane or by a bird out to catch fish. Some recall fields of roses or bluebells glanced from a car window. A few realistic figure paintings are included to show traveling painting companions at work and play. To Van Soest, these paintings—watercolor sketches—probably say it best: painting with friends on a summer day is one of life’s special joys.

Porter’s more realistic images of the hill towns and fields in Umbria, Italy, give the viewer a sense of the ambience of being in a foreign country while actually traveling only in your mind. For her, the idea of moving through the narrow antiquated passages of Orvieto and Spello suggest more possibilities of escape by considering what lies beyond the turn in the wall: the possibilities for escape are endless—hopeful, exciting, treacherous and tranquil.

A reception for the artists will be held Friday, August 7, from 5-8pm at the gallery, 120 W. State Street in Ithaca. Porter will be present at the gallery on Aug. 22, 12-5pm and Aug. 29, 12-5; VanS oest will be present on Aug. 9, 12-5pm and Aug. 15, 12-5pm. This is an opportunity for viewers to talk about the paintings with the artists. “Painted Escapes” runs from August 5 – 30, 2009. There is curbside parking and the gallery is ADA accessible. Hours: Wed. – Fri., 12-6pm, Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm. Contact information: 607-277-1626, www.soag.org

 

Abstract Discoveries

Over the past twenty years, artist/photographer Stan Bowman has explored the computer and digital software as tools for creating art.  “Abstract Discoveries,” the most current evidence of his efforts and explorations will be on display during June to visitors of State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca.  Bowman’s work in this exhibition is in the form of giclee prints:  most are printed on canvas and a few on metallic paper.

“These current images are for me a celebration of my interest in abstraction,” Bowman says.  “I am an abstract artist by inclination. Even when I began as a photographer in the 1950s my black and white images of subjects were organized with overall abstract patterns in mind. Places were important but so was the way the picture was organized in the frame. This attention to the abstract nature of imagery probably came originally from my years spent as an architect with its strong design emphasis, and my very intense interest in modernism with its focus on simplicity of form, shape and texture.”

Sharp Outline, one of the giclee prints in the exhibition, demonstrates Bowman’s use of abstract patterns and the ways he builds and manipulates them on the computer.  Although not black and white, he has organized his subject–colored shapes, which look like they were formed from a thick painting medium textured by a trowel–in layers of various colors and stages of enlargement.  There is an action caught–as if it were being captured through the viewfinder of a camera—of opaque shapes rising upward and leaving below trailings of what they once were.

Bowman has created this abstract imagery using programs like Adobe Photoshop.  “I am now pushing forward into new exciting territories,” he says, “I zoom in and feature pixels as the building block for abstract patterns, altering them using the powerful manipulation and transformation tools of Photoshop.  For me, discovery is the name of the game.”

“Abstract Discoveries” will be on exhibit June 3-28, 2009, with a reception for the artist Friday, June 5 from 5-8pm at the gallery.  State of the Art is located at 120 W. State Street in downtown Ithaca.  There is curbside parking and the gallery is ADA accessible.  Hours are:  Wed. – Fri., 12-6pm, Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm.  Contact information:  607-277-1626, www.soag.org//and www.http://Stanbowman.com//


Landscapes Near and Far: Diana Ozolins

The cry of gulls, the boom of surf exploding on  rocks, sun drenched ancient slabs of granite, wind roaring in from the ocean — Schoodic, Maine, is a magical place. “Landscapes Near and Far” presents  paintings inspired by the ocean and tidal pools of Maine, as well as more familiar places closer to home. This show contains both small works done quickly on location, as well as larger works done in the studio from photos and oil sketches. Traveling with paint has become a regular part of the year for Ozolins. The rigor of  painting in unfamiliar surroundings leads to only one rule — no preconceptions, no mulling over what or where, just find what strikes the eye and rivet it to the canvas. Returning home always lets her see the local environment with fresh eyes, whether it is the sunrise over East Hill, the snow on a forsythia bush, or rain over the inlet.

Ozolins’ works have been familiar to gallery goers  in Ithaca since the early 1990’s. She works with either palette knife, or brush;  fragmenting the light and shadow  into a splintered burst of color, or gently caressing the folds of rock and swirls of water.

“Landscapes Near and Far” runs through April 26 at State of the Art, 120 W. State Street in Ithaca.  A reception for the artist will be held Friday, April 3, 5-8pm.  Gallery hours are Wed.-Fri., 12-6pm, Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm. In addition, work by gallery artists will be exhibited in the Members’ Gallery all month.  Information:  607-277-1626, www.soag.org, diana@ozolins.com//  The gallery is ADA accessible with curbside parking available.

New Members-Leslie Brill, Erica Pollock, Andrea King, Ethel Vrana

Wednesday, November 5 through Sunday, November 30, 2008
Opening reception: Friday, November 7, 5:00-8:00 pm
(The gallery will be closed Thanksgiving day, November 27.)

Paintings of urban life, trees, explorations of color and texture and collages of gods and goddesses which personify the planets will fill the front gallery at State of the Art during November. The work is by four new gallery members: painters Leslie Brill, Erica Pollock and Ethel Vrana and collagist Andrea King. The four artists will be present at a reception for their exhibition Friday, November 7, from 5:00-8:00 pm at the gallery.

This exhibition opens Wednesday, November 5, and runs through Sunday, November 30. In addition, other gallery members will exhibit paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and assemblage in the Members’ Gallery.

 

This exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the New York
State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program.

Frances Fawcett & Margy Nelson

January, 2009

Landscapes & Labyrinths
Frances Fawcett and Margaret Nelson

Wednesday, January 7, through Sunday, February 1, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, January 9, 5:00-8:00 pm
Second reception: Friday, January 23, 5:00-8:00 pm (Gallery Night)

“Landscapes & Labyrinths”, a two-person exhibition of new work by Margaret Nelson and Frances Fawcett, will be the first show of 2009 at the State of the Art Gallery. Because January is a month for a number of art-related events in Ithaca, there will be two receptions for the artists. The first will be Friday, January 9, 5:00-8:00 pm and two weeks later, in conjunction with Ithaca’s Light in Winter Festival, a second reception will take place on Friday, Jan 25, 5:00-8:00 pm. This is also Gallery Night in downtown Ithaca. Both receptions are at the gallery, free and open to the public.

Pennisi
Heart of Gold

Some of Margy Nelson’s art reflects the subject matter and precision she brings to her “day job” as a biological illustrator. The rest is her escape from precision into free association, in watercolor and “digital paint.” Here is what she has to say:
“Though normally an articulate person, I find myself to be inarticulate about my art. The meditative process of creation does not translate easily into words… Art, after all, is a visual, not a verbal, medium. So take a look at my images and decide for yourself what I am about. Whatever that may be, its exploration gives me great pleasure. I hope it will give you some pleasure too.”

Pennisi

Acrylic landscape paintings — large and small, expansive and intimate — make up Frances Fawcett’s share of the show. One of her interests is capturing the gestures of line in grasses, wood and water. She likes to paint environments that invite the viewer in, or that the viewer can imagine inhabiting were they a different creature altogether — a small mammal or an insect — or that call attention to the interest and beauty of often overlooked places in the landscape.

This is not the first time these two artists and friends have collaborated on an exhibition. They are both members of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and this past summer, they organized an exhibit of sixty-five pieces of scientific illustration to hang at Cornell’s Hartell Gallery. Nelson says submissions came from all over the world and it was a very impressive collection.

This exhibit is funded in part by a grant from the New York
State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program.

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