Today is Albany First Friday 5-9pm, including the following openings/receptions:

• World Unity Corporation Gallery Art Show featuring paintings by Brian Fleming, GG Roberts and KK Herubin and scultpures by Joseph Hyson @ MSK Building, 184 Central Avenue, Albany. Opening reception 6-9pm
• Upstate: Paintings and Constructed Paintings by Russell DeYoung @ Albany Art Room. Work inspired by and evoking post-industrial upstate New York. (Through April 30). Opening reception 5-9pm
• The Thread That Binds: Jennifer Hunold + Sierra Furtwangler @ Albany Center Gallery, Albany. Works that merge traditional and historical references with popular culture using fiber as a dominant medium. Closing reception 4/2, 6-8 PM. (Through April 17) Opening reception 6-8pm.
• Randy Garber: Reverberations @ Opalka Gallery, Sage College, Albany. (Through April 18) Opening reception 5-9pm.

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Margo Mensing and Elizabeth Bishop

Every year Margo Mensing chooses a public figure who died at her current age and creates a body of work based on an examination of that person’s life and work. Her current show at the Saratoga Arts Center, “It’s Not Unusual,” is based on the life and writings of American poet Elizabeth Bishop.

This Thursday, February 25, Mensing will perform “It’s me, Elizabeth,” a monologue in which she “channels” Bishop, reading a few of her favorite poems, mentioning connections between her poems and her life, and commenting on what the literary world has made of her since her death.

What: Artist Talk by Margo Mensing
Where: Saratoga Arts Center, Saratoga Springs
When: Thursday, February 25, 7pm
This event is FREE and open to the public

Yikes!

The most recent post on the Times Union’s “Don’t Touch My Comics” blog was waaaaaay back in July when the blog warned that “Maintaining,” Nate Creekmore’s comic strip about an inter-racial teen would end in August. That was more than six months ago…

But then last week, the blog was revived bigtime with the announcement that – gasp! – the TU was thinking of pulling the plug on the venerable “Mark Trail,” the only continuing serial strip still published in the daily Times Union.

“Trail” has always been a love-it or hate-it lightning rod, and that’s obviously still the case with more than 100 reader comments pouring into the blog in less than a week.

Ah, so do folks really buy the daily Times Union to read “Mark Trail”? Really?

And what are all of those TU subscribers going to do when they discover that there’s no more TV listings magazine beginning on Sunday, February 28?

Friday is the Art Night Schenectady/Schenectady 3rd Friday arts walk in, uh, Schenectady.

Lumina @ Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill. A juried photography exhibition exploring light as theme, concept and process. Opening Reception: Saturday, February 20, 5-7pm Free. (through April 10)

Dish & Dine @ Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield. The first in a series of evening dinners in the gallery pairing local food with local artists, featuring a menu of locally grown produce from The Market, served on dinnerware by Mary Anne Davis and conversation with photographer Jason Houston. Saturday, February 20, 6:30-9pm $35, limit 40 guests. BYOB. Reservations required.

Living Under The Same Roof @ Hessel Museum of Art and CCS Galleries, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson. An exhibition that examines the idea of the museum’s collection as a system with variable entrances. The public is invited to select works from storage to be seen in a viewing room, with the work displayed in a rotating system according to weekly requests. Opening reception Saturday, February 20, 1-5pm. Free. (Through May 23).

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