FOUR DIMENSIONS, the first exhibition of 2011, will showcase the four new members of State of the Art: Mary Ann Bowman, Ileen Kaplan, Janet Byer Sherman and James Spitznagel. Bowman will show ceramics and photographs, Kaplan and Byer Sherman will exhibit paintings and Spitznagel will show digital abstract prints.

A reception for the artists will be held Friday, January 7 from 5-8pm. A wine tasting will be provided by Bet the Farm Winery (http://www.betthefarmny.com/) from Aurora, NY. In addition to this reception, a second reception will be held at the gallery on Friday, January 21 also from 5-8pm in conjunction with Ithaca’s LIGHT IN WINTER festival. Then, on the last day of the show, Sunday January 30 at 3pm, the WOMEN’S CHORALE OF 171 CEDAR, a singing group to which Ileen Kaplan belongs, will give a concert at the gallery. The Chorale is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011, by having a series of small salon-type concerts in various venues and they have chosen the State of the Art Gallery for one of their performances.

Show dates for FOUR DIMENSIONS are January 5-30, 2011.

The gallery will host its second Members’ Show of 2010 in September and the work of twenty-five of the gallery’s members will be exhibited.  Members will exhibit paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, sculpture and other three-dimensional work.  Those members not showing work in September, will show work in our May 2011 Members’ Show.  A reception will be held Friday, September 3 from 5-8pm.  Show dates are September 1 through 26.

“The Sky’s the Limit,” an exhibition of paintings in pastel by Carol Abitabilo Ast will be at the gallery August 4-29.  A reception for the artist will be held Friday, August 6 from 5-8pm with wine tasting compliments of Damiani Wine Cellars.

Carol says: “Much of the work in this exhibit demonstrates my fascination with the sky.  Always the backdrop, whether looking out a window or being out-of-doors, here it becomes a prominent feature.   With the sky emerging from the chorus line to stardom, the nature of the land is also changing in this exhibit.  Landscape is often associated with shades of green, but only a few of these paintings have any green in them at all.  Winter, rock and dusk rob the land of its traditional color, but present the viewer with beauty of a different sort.

Basically I use my pastels to preserve and share what I find beautiful.  The world is packed with controversy, stress, frustration, anger.  To allow loveliness in any manifestation to enter the mind is to regain humanness.   I hope this exhibit succeeds in some way in this direction.”

The artist periodically conducts pastel landscape workshops in New Mexico, New York and Maine and much of the work in this show represents her views of those places.  You can visit Carol’s web site and see more of her work:   www.carolast.com.

The artist will be sitting at the State of the Art Gallery every Saturday during the month of August.

Video

“Landscape and Light,” a show of photographs by David Watkins, Jr. opens June 30 and runs through August 1, 2010, at State of the Art.  These photographs are from several of the photographer’s favorite places:  his own perennial garden, the Maine coast and woods and country around Laramie, Wyoming.  Watkins says:  “In this show I’ve tried to exhibit a range of images all based on how the light at the time affected my own response.  Most of the images in the show have a strong graphic sense.  Some represent just a mood or experience while out with the camera…some a more manipulated, graphic representation of the original image.”

A reception for the artist will be held Gallery Night, Friday, July 2, 5-8.   Watkins will be sitting at the gallery July 2, 3,10, 31 and August 1.   Hours:  Tues. – Fri., 12-6pm, Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm.  The gallery is ADA accessible with curbside parking.

A BENEFIT EXHIBIT FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Ithaca sculptor explores gay and interracial marriage debates

In January 2010 Eva M. Capobianco will present “What Makes a Marriage?” at State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca, NY. The show will be a benefit for Marriage Equality New York and the Ithaca Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender Task Force (ILGBTTF). Fifty percent of the profits from all sales at the show will be shared equally by these two organizations.

The exhibit dates are January 6-31, 2010. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, January 8th, from 5-8pm. Harpist Myra Kovary has generously agreed to perform at the reception free of charge in support of the fundraiser. State of the Art Gallery is located at 120 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY. Hours are Wed. –Fri., 12-6pm and Sat. & Sun., 12-5pm. The gallery is ADA accessible, free and open to the public. The artist will be present at the gallery from 12-5pm each Saturday during the exhibit.

The work for this exhibit began during the general election in November, 2004. Ms. Capobianco states: “I found myself deeply upset by how the issue of gay marriage had been used by conservatives as a wedge issue to mobilize their base.” Feeling discouraged, she began to explore ways to use her art to compare today’s struggle for gay marriage equality with the fight for legal interracial marriage that culminated in the historic Loving v. Virginia case in 1967. Reading and researching these two issues has lead to some fascinating comparisons. The artist has incorporated quotes and ideas from these parallel debates into her sculptures in ways that she hopes will foster a healthy discussion about them.

Gay marriage has now become legal in several states, but it has also seen major setbacks in recent months and years. Capobianco says “My partner and I have been together for 27 years. Right now we COULD choose to get married in Canada or Iowa or several other states and that marriage would probably be recognized by our home state of New York. But it would not be recognized by the federal government. That would leave us without most of the benefits and protections that straight couples enjoy. It is important to support organizations that are working to educate the public about the fundamental unfairness of our current system.”

This exhibit is also part of the Light in Winter Festival, www.lightinwinter.com. There will be a second reception during the festival, on Friday, January 22nd, from 5-7pm.

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

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

 

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//

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.

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.

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