ArtBeat: What To See

This Saturday, September 29 is Free Museum Day. Sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine, you can sign up for free admission for two to Storm King Arts Center, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Fenimore Art Museum, Dia:Beacon, The Clark and The National Museum of Dance, among many others. To receive your free Museum Day Live! Ticket for two people only, go here to sign up; your tickets will be emailed to you after you submit your information.

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Die Formeister: The Masters of the Form @ MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams. Experimental animation, three dimensional work, glass, textile, prints, paintings, ceramics, jewelry and a site-specific installation by ten Berkshire-based artists and art teachers: Yura Adams, Karen Arp-Sandel, Michael Vincent Bushy, Janet Cooper, Helen Febbo, Linda Kayes-Moses, Fay O’Meara, Dina Noto, Glenn Shalan and Paula Shalan. Artists reception: Thursday, September 27, 6-9pm as part of the DownStreet Art. (Through October 21)

Cosmologies @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibit that considers just a few of the many ways in which art can explore the complex themes of cosmological thought, including works by Kiki Smith, Vija Celmins, Thomas Ruff, Duane Michals, June Wayne, Bernard Cohen, Lynn Chadwick, Joseph Cornell, Wallace Berman, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Rauschenberg, Vik Muniz and Barbara Takenaga. (Through December 16)

Always Is Where It Always Is @ Foundry for Art Design + Culture, Cohoes. Paintings by singer-songwriter-poet-novelist-painter Patrick Porter. Artist reception: Saturday, September 29, 6-9pm. Live musical performance: Friday, October 12, 7-9:30pm. (Through October 21)

Tasha Tudor: Around The Year @ Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. An exhibit that illustrates the changing seasons and their special celebrations with over 100 outstanding examples of this beloved author and illustrator’s original art for children’s books and greeting cards. (Through December 31)

Impressions @ Clement Art Gallery, Troy. Seven printmakers with different techniques explore subject matter ranging from abstract to realism to surrealism. Featuring artists Thom O’Connor, Channing Lefebvre, Steven Hazard, Sandra Wimer, Sunghee Park, Pattie Lipman and George Dirolf. Opening reception: Friday, September 28, 6-9pm. (Through October 24)

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Stanley Bielen @ The Harrison Gallery, Williamstown. Still life oil paintings by Philadelphia artist Stanley Bielen. (Through September 30)

Fashion and Art @ Upstate Artists Guild, Albany. One of the highlights of this group show will be an installation by Tom D’Ambrose created as a tribute to the late Nadia Trinkala featuring the dress (“The Paper Diva”) he created for last year’s Discard Avant-Garb Fashion Show made from her vintage wall paper. (Through September 30)

Peter Leue: Deus ex Machina @ Marion Royael Gallery, Beacon. Peter Leue’s “Deus ex Machina” is a larger-than-life installation that explores the complex relationship of play, imagination and invention and the irresistible human impulse to reinterpret our environment. Also on view are oil paintings by Kathleen Erin Lee and mixed media works by Mary Giehl. (Through September 30)

Farrell Brickhouse @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Paintings, in oil and glitter, by Farrell Brickhouse. Also on display: sculptures by Andrew Dunnill and Bruce Gagnier, installation by Laetitia Hussan and paintings by Georgia Elrod, Charlotta Janssen, Joseph Haske and Katherine Bradford. (Through October 2)

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Surreal Visions @ The Limner Gallery, Hudson. Works in a wide variety of media by 21 contemporary artists. (Through October 6)

Judith Henry and Mary Ellen Bartley @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Judith Henry will present photo collages from two recent series: Rebirth explores her fascination with public obituaries, while Masquerade is comprised of cinematic mise-en-scenes from appropriated word and image. In Standing Open, Mary Ellen Bartley presents images of photography books as they stand open before her camera, using their chance settling and a full-frame close-up. Also on display: portfolio showcases of Laura Noel and Terri Garland. (Through October 7)

Three Points Determine a Circle @ Kleinert/James Arts Center, Woodstock. Photographer Lucas Blalock, painter James Hyde and sculptor Fabienne Lasserre present works that contain circular forms and/or fragments. (Through October 7)

The Liminal Portrait @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock. Richard Edelman’s “Liminal Portrait” photographs reveal transitional moments, combining the actions of a live model and the impressions formed by them on a custom-made pin screen. (Through October 8)

Charles Grogg: Reconstructions @ Galiere BMG, Woodstock. A solo exhibition of fractured photographic images, printed piece by piece in platinum / palladium on handmade Japanese paper, with the component pieces then stitched back together to form a re-constructed image. (Through October 8)

John Van Alstine: Arrested Motion/Perilous Balance @ The Opalka Gallery, Albany. Breathtaking, gravity-defying sculptures of metal and stone. Reception: Friday, September 7, 5-9pm. Site-specific performance by Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company: Friday, September 21, 7:45pm. Guided tour by the artist: Friday, October 5, 6:30pm. (Through October 14)

Nature Mechanized @ Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy. Ceramic works by Joshua Primmer focusing on experimentation with different stoneware and porcelain bodies; much of the inspiration behind the work comes from nature, architecture as well as science fiction and war machines. Also on display: Wired Kingdom, the 3rd annual exhibit and showcase of locally made, digital and electronic art. Reception: Friday, September 28, 5-9pm as part of Troy Night Out. (Through October 14)

Apparitions and Visitations: Paintings by Marc Roder @ Courthouse Gallery, Lake George. Marc Roder’s paintings mix personal stories and memories with historical and popular myths, depicting an “ever-changing landscape of popular culture and the retooling of our common mythical journeys inspired by Carl Jung, Ovid, Shakespeare, John LeCarré, Walt Disney and Homer (the Greek and Simpson), to name a few.” (Through October 19)

The Shape of the Earth @ The Teaching Gallery, Troy. Linda Cross’s paintings – or relief sculptures, as many in the art world consider them – are of riverbeds and geographical sites, mostly inspired by the Hudson River Valley. (Through October 20)

A Rising Tide; Imagining a Warmer Climate in the Hudson Valley@ Athens Cultural Center. The Center’s first-ever outdoor sculpture festival, mounted at three sites in and near the village of Athens, features 13 artists in a vast array of styles pondering the past, present and future of the Hudson River. (Through October 21)

Selected Faculty Exhibit @ The Schick Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs. This year’s exhibiting faculty are Trish Lyell, drawings; Deborah Morris, paintings; Victoria Palermo, sculpture and Matt Wilt, ceramics. (Through October 21)

Unearthed: Recent Archaeological Discoveries from Northern China @ The Clark, Williamstown. A selection of antiquities recently excavated from three separate ancient tombs in the Shanxi and Gansu Provinces. The centerpiece of this exhibition is a monumental fifth-century stone sarcophagus in the form of a traditional Chinese house measuring nearly 8 ft. x 12 ft. and weighing more than 10 tons. (Through October 21)

Battle of the Naked Men: New Work by Ed Smith @ BCB Art, Hudson. Life-sizes bronze sculptures depicting heroic pugilists – men constantly at battle with the world and with themselves. Also on view will be a new video by Bill Seaman, “A China of many Senses,” a poetic documentation focusing on small moments in a country undergoing political and artistic change. Opening reception: Saturday, September 22, 6-8pm. (Through October 21)

A Promising Venture: Shaker Photographs from the WPA @ Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield. Nearly 200 black and white photographs taken by Noel Vicentini in 1936 to document Shaker furniture, architecture and craft for a Works Progress Administration project of cataloging important American art. (Through October 26)

Sports! A Rockwell Celebration @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Though not necessarily a sportsman himself, Norman Rockwell was frequently called upon to create images celebrating our national love of athletics, from baseball, the Great American Pastime, to football, fishing, basketball, boxing and bicycle-riding.(Through October 28)

Works on Paper @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. 17 artists who use a wide array of conventional and unconventional techniques working on and with paper, including Claudia McNulty, David Paulson, Meg Lipke, Madelon Jones, Scott Nelson Foster, Maria Cristina Brusca, Jeannie Weissglass, David Dew Bruner, Mihail Chemiakin and the photography duo Kahn and Selesnick. Some of the less traditional uses of paper include that of Paul Chojnowski who burns images into the paper itself, drawing with a blowtorch and water. Sarah Berney and Ken Polinskie create images from different colors of paper pulp which are then pressed together. Jenny Kemp uses paper cut-outs and Valerie Hammond sews beads to the delicate handmade paper. Both Ralph Stout and Perrine Simon collage layers of paper, while Louise Laplante uses collaged antique paper as the surface for her chalk drawings. (Through October 28)

Connections: Exploring the Ties between Poet Jim McCord and Painter Bruce McColl @ Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady. The chance meeting over ten years ago between poet Jim McCord and painter Bruce McColl started a relationship that would influence both the form and content of their art. The paintings of McColl drew McCord away from re-presenting aspects of nature to examining the intimacy of human interiors spaces. Bruce McColl, on the other hand, became more conscious of emphasizing basic elements in his painting such as line and color, and his work became more abstract. Tour and discussion with Jim McCord: Thursday, October 18, 1-2pm. (Through October 28)

Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered @ The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. Paintings, drawings, prints, and archival materials make up this first comprehensive, critical assessment of the influential artist who is often referred to as the grandfather of American illustration. (Through October 28)

Jane Philbrick: The Expanded Field @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. An immersive 1.5-acre landscape consisting of a progressive sequence of site-specific elements, including The Asphalt Meadow, which transforms the back access road and disintegrating asphalt lots into a welcoming green space; The Rounds, made of rammed earth and dry stack stone; and The Body Pockets, planted with elfin thyme and cut into the diagonal slope of the three-tiered stonewall (formerly the foundation and retaining walls for a building razed in 2004.) Open seasonally May through October.

All Utopias Fell @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Michael Oatman’s ambitious vision re-purposes an Airstream trailer into a crashed satellite, complete with parachutes and solar panels.(Through October)

Liz Whitney Quisgard: Kaleidoscope @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. In this exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures and fiber wall hangings, Liz Whitney Quisgard uses an exuberant palette to produce intricate geometric patterns comprised of marks placed in a mesmerizing array of triangles, spirals, lines and circles. (Through October 21)

Power Runs in Man Channels: Diversity in Nigerian Art @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. An exhibition that highlight the artistry of the Igbo and Yoruba people, the most populous ethnic groups whose artwork is widely collected by American museums, as well as artworks by smaller, less well-known cultures such as the Mumuye and Jukun peoples. (Through October 21)

Jazz Exhibition @ Hudson Opera House, Hudson. Paintings by Wilson McLean and Henk Mommaas. (Through October 27)

Seasons @ Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield. Scenes of Hancock Shaker Village painted earlier this year by Marguerite Bride, Michael Cohen, Ivor Parry and Scott Taylor. (Through October 28)

All Those Vanished Engines @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. A layered sound installation by sound artist Stephen Vitiello created especially for the MASS MoCA boiler house, a relic from the industrial past of the site that was once used to heat the factory buildings that now make up the museum. (Through November 4)

Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. The figures inhabiting Laylah Ali’s works in The Greenheads Series are enigmatic round-headed beings of indeterminate sex and race who inhabit a regimented, dystopian world where odd and menacing, though sometimes strangely humorous, encounters prevail. Season opening celebration: Friday, September 28, 5-7pm. (Through November 25)

Vote For Me And I’ll Set You Free: Works From The Collection of Lawrence B. Beneson @ Art Omi, Ghent. An exhibit that draws on historical documents, artifacts and works of contemporary art to create a kaleidoscopic view of the political process of voting and the role of the public and the artist in the political process. (Through November 30)

Terry Adkins: Recital @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. a selection of work from the past thirty years by artist and musician Terry Adkins, who stages installation-based experiences that activate architecture, sculpture, video and photography with live happenings. Also on view is Dance/Draw, a large group show that examines the blurring of formal distintions between media. (Through December 2)

The Fields Sculpture Park Annual Exhibition Opening @ Art Omi, Ghent. Ten new works by noted artists join the nearly 70 contemporary sculptures on view throughout the sculpture park.

Dance Masks of Guatemala: The Collection of Ed & Carmen Contento @ The Folklife Gallery, Glens Falls. Gallery talks/short films/dance demonstrations by Ed & Carmen Contento: Wednesday, October 17, 7-8pm and Thursday, November 29, 7-8pm. (Through December 31)

Clark Remix @ The Clark, Williamstown. A salon-style installation of works from The Clark’s permanent collection, including some 80 paintings, 20 sculptures and 300 examples of decorative arts. Visitors will be able to create their own “curatorial remix” of the collection through an interactive project called uCurate, available in the gallery and on the Clark’s website and can then submit them to a gallery that will be featured at clarkart.edu. The Clark’s curatorial team will regularly review the submissions, and will select the best of these for exhibitions that will be presented at the Clark. (Through Jan. 1, 2014)

Anna Betbeze: New Work @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Using Greek Flokati carpets as a ground for a mix of pigments that range from brilliant to muddy, Anna Betbeze creates unexpectedly textural paintings that verge on the sculptural. (Through January 1, 2013)

Making Room: The Space Between Two & Three Dimension @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Works by an international group of artists who combine two- and three-dimensional media in a single work using a marriage of new technology with more hand-crafted or out-of-date processes. By using traditional or analog media, these artists reflect a shared yearning for deceleration in the digital age and nostalgia for simpler technologies. Artists include Daniel Arsham and Jonah Bokaer, Dawn Clements, Inci Eviner, Claire Harvey, Laleh Khorramian, Kakyoung Lee, Chloë Østmo, Laura Riboli, and Luke Stettner.(Through January 2, 2013)

Rethink! American Indian Art @ The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield. Contemporary works in a range of media and techniques, from video installations, contemporary basketry, and beadwork to ceramics, sculpture, and glass, by accomplished artists Marcus Amerman, Jeremy Frey, Teri Greeves, Diego Romero, Preston Singletary and Bently Spang. The exhibition also will include historic Native American art objects from Berkshire Museum’s permanent collections. (Through January 6, 2012)

Seneca Ray Stoddard: Capturing the Adirondacks @ The New York State Museum, Albany. Works by Adirondack photographer and conservationist Seneca Ray Stoddard, who was instrumental in the establishment of the “forever wild” Adirondack Park, including over 100 of his photographs, an Adirondack guideboat, freight boat, camera, copies of his books and several of his paintings. (Through February 24, 2012)

Invisible Cities @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Titled after Italo Calvino’s beloved book – which imagines Marco Polo’s vivid descriptions of numerous cities of a fading empire to Kublai Khan – the exhibition features the work of ten diverse artists who re-imagine urban landscapes both familiar and fantastical, exploring how our perceptions of place are shaped by personal influences as diverse as memory, desire, and loss, as well as by cultural forces such as history and the media. The show includes work by Lee Bul, Carlos Garaicoa, and Sopheap Pich, as well as major new commissions by Diana Al Hadid, Francesco Simeti, Miha Strukelj, and local artists Kim Faler and Mary Lum. (Through March 1, 2013)

Oh, Canada @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. The largest survey of contemporary Canadian art ever produced outside Canada, this show features work by more than 60 artists who hail from every province and nearly every territory in the country, spanning multiple generations and working in all media. (Through April 1, 2013)

We The People @ The Tang Teaching Gallery, Saratoga Springs. An exhibition and event series that explores constitutions and how they act to create order, configure communities, and form a collective identity featuring Allison Smith, Francis Cape, and Nari Ward. (Through April 7)

Skyline Adrift: Cuban Art and Architecture @ Omi International Arts Center, Ghent.
Large-scale architectonic installations by Cuban architects Yilena Lourdes Feitó Echarri and Yoandy Rizo Fiallo and internationally renowned Cuban visual artists Alexandre Arrechea and Armando Mariño Calzado. (Through May, 2013)