ArtBeat: What To See

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Define: Color @ The Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, Glens Falls. LARAC’s annual juried competititon features 60 artworks by 39 local and regional artists, selected by guest juror Tony Iadicicco. Opening reception: Friday, October 3, 5-7pm. (Through October 31)

The Gate to Hell @ The White Gallery, Lakeville. Photographs by Avery Danziger, who traveled to Derweze, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan earlier this year to photograph the 300-foot-wide man-made crater full of lethal gas that has been burning for more than 40 years in the Karakum Desert. Opening reception: Saturday, October 4, 5-7pm. (Through November 16)

Blues Men of Mississippi @ Strategy Graphics, Millerton. J.L. Hussey’s found object assemblages pay homage to the patron saints of modern music. Opening reception: October 4, 5-8pm. (Through October 18)

Poppies and Pixels @ 510 Warren Street Gallery, Hudson. Watercolors and iPad paintings by Nina Lipkowitz. Opening reception: Saturday, October 11, 3-6pm. (Through October 26)

Observations: Kathy Greenwood and Laurel Garcia Colvin @ Saratoga Arts, Saratoga Springs. Works by Kathy Greenwood and Laurel Garcia Colvin that examine and comment on the everyday, from the domestic to the social political environments. Opening reception: Saturday, October 4, 6-8pm. Artists’ talk: Saturday, October 4, 5:30pm. (Through November 8)

Fall Session I @ The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, Blue Mountain Lake. Works by Nils R. Caspersson (painting), Camille Costa Nerney (quilting), Carolynn McCann (photography) and James Murray (mixed media). (Through November 8)

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Strange Figurations @ The Limner Gallery, Hudson. The gallery’s annual exhibition of contemporary underground works of portraiture. (Through October 4)

After the Shot in the Wheatfield @ GCCA Catskill Gallery, Catskill. Matthew Zappala’s exhibition offers a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh. Also on display: The Other Side,an exhibition honoring the journey of recovering addicts and their friends and families, with artwork by individuals who have been affected by addiction and featuring portraits of recovering addicts by local photojournalist Kyle Adams. (Through October 4)

Only the Sun Can Prove That I Am Useful @ Matteawan Gallery, Beacon. An exhibition by Susan Walsh that takes its title from the words inscribed on a 16th-century sundial, and includes recent photographs and videos whose imagery is created with thread and shadows cast by the sun. (Through October 5)

Burlesque & Cabaret @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Photographs by Lear Levin. (Through October 5)

Visages de Nuit @ Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson. Photographs by Wendy Paton. (Through October 5)

Kamil Vognar: Elsewhere @ Galerie BMG, Woodstock and Bearsville. A new series of work by mixed media photographer Kamil Vojnar, who creates multiple layers of imagery using photographs and textures as well as varnishes and paints. (Through October 5)

Not The Thing We Were Thinking and Ideal Garden@ BCBART, Hudson. New work by Liz Ainslie and Lorenza Sannai. Also on display is a group exhibition including work by Lucio Pozzi, Lynn Itzkowitz, Jim Goss, Willem deKooning, Jef Bourgeau, Dan Welden, Erik Hanson, Antonio Alvarez and others. (Through October 5)

Leonid Lerman @ John Davis Gallery, Hudson. Sculptures by Leonid Lerman in the main gallery and sculpture garden. Also on view are paintings by Tine Lundsfryd, Linnea Paskow and Chuck Bowdish and photographs by Paul Hamann. (Through October 5)

Regis Brodie: Surface Expressions @ The Opalka Gallery, Albany. A survey exhibition of works from the past 45 years from Regis Brodie, known for the expressive surfaces and elegant shapes of his ceramic forms. (Through October 5)

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Fire in the Belly @ Fulton Street Gallery, Troy. A group show of self-taught artists, featuring Thomas D’Ambrose, Bob Gullie, Misty LeMay, Leslie Sharkey and Tony Thompson. (Through October 10)

Like Garage Band @ Curatorium, Hudson. Daniel Jocz’s installation of 13 ripped, cut, shredded and spray painted narratives on industrial grade aluminum panels. (Through October 11)

The Great Outdoors @ Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli. Landscapes and outdoor paintings by Ella Davidson and Mary Untalan, plus a tent space installation with an audio soundscape of the wilderness. (Through October 12)

Martin McMurray: The Case for Dream Insurance @ Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson. An exhibition of new faux books that have the appearance, weight and feel of real books (although they do not open). Their uncanny titles seem vaguely familiar or laughably plausible. Also on view are paintings and drawing on found paper, old book covers and other materials by Erik Schoonebeek. (Through October 18)

Mary Reid Kelley: Working Objects and Videos @ University Art Museum, Albany. Three recent videos by Mary Reid Kelley: You Make Me Iliad, The Syphilis of Sisyphus and Priapus Agonistes, as well as an exploration of the inventive process by which she has fused live performance, drawing, sculpture, costume design and digital media. (Through October 18)

Make It New: Abstract Painting from the National Gallery of Art, 1950–1975 @ The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. An exhibition that examines the different paths taken by abstract painting in the first quarter-century of the postwar period, presenting Abstract Expressionist and color field masterpieces alongside other canonical works organized by the formal categories of pattern, texture, and shape. Featuring key works such as Jackson Pollock’s Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), Mark Rothko’s No. 1 (1961) , and Lee Bontecou’s Untitled (1962), the show also includes paintings by Jean Dubuffet, Jasper Johns, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Ryman and Cy Twombly. (Through October 13)

An Oasis of Beauty: Photographs by Julie McCarthy @ Chesterwood, Stockbridge. Chesterwood’s 2013/2014 artist-in-residence, Stockbridge photographer Julie McCarthy turns her lens on the possessions and surroundings of Margaret “Peggy” French Cresson, the only child of famed sculptor Daniel Chester French. An accomplished portrait sculptor in her own right, Margaret, born in 1889, lived at Chesterwood in the summer months from the time she was a little girl until her death in 1973. Also on display on the outdoor grounds are eleven large-scale abstract sculptures by world-renowned New York sculptor Albert Paley. (Through October 13)

Confluence of Opposites III @ Courthouse Gallery, Lake George. Caroline Ramersdorfer’s carved and polished marble sculptures integrate light as a sculptural medium, while John Van Alstine’s sculptures examine the tension and interaction of of stone and steel. (Through October 17)

Zach Gross @ Hudson Opera House, Hudson. Photographs, cameraless photography, paintings and video by Zach Gross, an internationally published photographer with a focus on portraits, fashion, and landscapes. (Through October 19)

Raw Color: The Circles of David Smith @ The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. Painted in hues contrary to those found in nature, David Smith’s sculptures were constructed to stand in concert with the dramatic Adirondack landscape of the fields surrounding his home and studio in Bolton Landing, where he placed them. (Through October 19)

2014 Selected Art Faculty Exhibition @ Schick Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs. New works by Kate Leavitt, Janet Sorensen, Sarah Sweeney and Joanne Vella. Gallery Talk: Tuesday, September 30, 4-5pm. (Through October 19)

Susan Hartung: Following a Line @ The Teaching Gallery, Troy. A retrospective of paintings, drawings and prints including works based on or in opposition to the grid from the 1980s and 90s and more recent works where her minimalist marks meander freely. (Through October 25)

Landscapes@ The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville. An exhibition of paintings by renowned local landscape artist Harry Orlyk. (Through October 26)

Regional Art Show @ Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Spencertown. Juried works of twenty seven artists in various media: April Aldighieri, Scott Balfe, Stephanie Blumenthal, Arlene Boehm, Cathy Boyd, Laura Cannamela, Kay Castelle, Denise Chandler, B. Docktor, Jerry Freedner, John Gampert, Dale Evva Gelfand, Pete Gray, Valerie Hoffmann, Ellen Jouret-Epstein, Maj Kalfus, Hiroshi Kazo, Ellie Kreischer, Barbara Lax, Claudia McNulty, Jack Millard, Melanie Mintz, Hannah Potler, Marcia Powdermaker, Susan Sabino, Roy Stevens and Kenneth Young. (Through October 26)

The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator @ Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge. A study of the little-known twenty-year illustration career of the realist master as well as attitudes towards art and the crosscurrents of contemporary commercial society during the early to mid twentieth century. (Through October 26)

Elevator Music 27 Kamau Patton: Torus-Variation 1 @ Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. New work by New York based artist Kamau Amu Patton, who has assembled a group of analogue video monitors that present streams of geometric abstraction and video feedback with synthesized sound, building on his investigations into the electromagnetic spectrum and audible material as a social and aesthetic phenomena. (Through October 26)

Angelus @ Perrella Gallery, Johnstown. An exhibit of more than 70 works by Gail Nadeau, who combines her interest in photography, printmaking, and painting to create images based on manipulating a single photograph. (Through October 31)

Fall Exhibit @ Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson. Mixed media constructions and drawings by Linda Cross, figures by William Clutz, landscapes by Joshua Brehse and encaustics by Allyson Levy. (Through November 2)

LGBTQ at Union, 2014 @ Wikoff Gallery, Schenectady. The annual LGBTQ at Union exhibition, coinciding with October’s LGBTQ History Month and National Coming Out Day on October 11, includes works in photography, documentary film, musical composition and creative writing by Martin Benjamin, Stephanie Burlton, Pakk Hui, Trevor Martin, Michael Allen Potter, Sarah Rand, Shanna Saldãn and Amilcar Tirado. Reception: Thursday, October 9, 5-6pm. (Through November 3)

< George Inness: The Rainbow @ The Arkell Museum[/caption]George Inness: The Arkell Collection @ The Arkell Museumm, Canajoharie. Five landscapes from the Arkell’s permanent collection that reveal George Inness’ diverse painting methods and approaches during the middle of his career—from detailed depictions of nature to gestural brushwork and vague landscapes. (Through November 15)

Opener 28: Erika Verzutti: Mineral @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. A field of bronze, concrete, clay and wax sculptures marks this first solo museum exhibition for Sao Paulo-based artist Erika Verzutti, whose works often combine dissimilar elements, such as references to common, everyday objects like fruits, vegetables, and eggs, with ceremonial forms, such as totems, tablets, and gravestones. (Through November 16)

Lauren Mabry @ Independent Art Projects, North Adams. Lauren Mabry makes painterly, abstract ceramic art through a synthesis of intuitive, expressive surfaces and elemental forms in a process-driven practice. Also on view are atmospheric paintings by Shen Chen, whose work blends multiple cultural elements as he layers concepts of time and space with Zen philosophy, meditation, and repetition. (Through November 16)

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith @ Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady. Works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who uses humor and satire to examine myths, stereotypes and the paradox of Native American life in contrast to the consumerism of American society. (Through November 30)

Paper Dresses @ PRESS Gallery, North Adams. Throughout the summer, the twelve “Paper Dresses” artists have been experimenting and creating work at PRESS that explores the tension between freedom and confinement within the dress form. Participating artists include Karen Arp-Sandel, Suzi Banks Baum, Kate Barber, Valerie Carrigan, Adrienne Gale, Anne-Maree Hunter, Melanie Mowinski, Tara O’Brien, Tammi Lee Oak, Diane Sullivan, Erin Sweeney and Yudelka Tavera. (Through November 30)

Anselm Kiefer @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. MASS MoCA opens a 10,000 square-foot building devoted to the art of Anselm Kiefer. The exhibition will include Étroits sont les Vaisseaux (Narrow are the Vessels), an 82-foot long, undulating wave-like sculpture made of cast concrete, exposed rebar, and lead; The Women of the Revolution (Les Femmes de la Revolution) , comprised of more than twenty lead beds with photographs and wall text; Velimir Chlebnikov , a steel pavilion containing 30 paintings dealing with nautical warfare and inspired by the quixotic theories of the Russian mathematical experimentalist Velimir Chlebnikov; and a new, large-format commission created by the artist specifically for the installation at MASS MoCA. (Through December 1)

The Dying of the Light: Film as Medium and Metaphor @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. A mix of atmospheric, documentary and sculptural works, this exhibition features the work of 6 artists — Rosa Barba, Matthew Buckingham, Tacita Dean, Rodney Graham, Lisa Oppenheim and Simon Starling — who capitalize on film’s particular visual, material, aural and even metaphoric characteristics.

On Longing @ Burns Art Atrium Gallery, Schenectady. Works by photographer Frank Rapant that examine the grieving process and how a person might approach this from a faithless standpoint. (Through December 24)

Opener 26: Jeff Sonhouse @ Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. Over the past ten years, New York-based artist Jeff Sonhouse has created a powerful body of portrait paintings depicting often-masked black male figures that consistently defy and obscure classification. Adept at mixing pattern, color, and material, Sonhouse’s paintings feature a variety of unusual materials such as matchsticks, steel wool and cowry shells, and include references to art historical figures from Ed Paschke to Pablo Picasso. (Through January 4, 2015)

I was a double @ The Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. Visual artists who are rule makers, across a wide variety of styles and disciplines; all of the artists in this show invent rules and then follow them; whether written or not: Suzanne Bocanegra, Regina Bogat, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, André Cadere, Sarah Cain, Karin Davie, Taylor Davis, David Dupuis, Tony Feher, Alfred Jensen. Chris Johanson and Johanna Jackson, Sol LeWitt, Chris Martin, Gabriel Orozco, Bruce Pearson, Ciara Phillips, Kay Rosen, Wolfgang Tillmans, Fred Tomaselli, Johannes VanDerBeek, Ruth Vollmer, Stanley Whitney and Christopher Wool. (Through January 4, 2015)

Opener 27: Beverly Semmes: FRP @ Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Saratoga Springs. The Feminist Responsibility Project (FRP) by New York-based artist Beverly Semmes includes drawings, video, ceramics, and illuminated glass forms that are suspended throughout the gallery. At the heart of the exhibition is a collection of works on paper that features rough gestural applications of ink and paint that conceal and reveal the body as depicted in pornographic magazines. (Through January 4, 2015)

A Century of Olmsted: Utica and Beyond @ Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica. In the early 20th century, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870-1957) and Thomas R. Proctor (1844-1920) led the way in the transformation of the Utica landscape, creating beautiful and naturalistic recreational spaces that provided escapes from the city and enhanced the quality of life for its inhabitants. This exhibition explores the creation of some of Utica’s most beautiful natural places, including contemporary photographs by Lee Friedlander. (Through January 4)

Picturing America @ The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls. From the 1758 Portrait of John Gardiner by John Singleton Copley to Milton Avery’s Arrangement with Plants of 1948, the exhibition presents 57 paintings and sculptures that describe the American experience from the Colonial period to early Modernism. Other renowned artists from the two hundred year span represented in this selection include Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Susan MacDowell Eakins, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, George Inness, Paul Manship, John Singer Sargent and Benjamin West as well as Charles Willson Peale and his children Rembrandt, Rubens and Mary Jane. (Through January 4, 2015)

Anne Diggory: Hybrid Visions @ The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls. Recent works by Anne Diggory that explore “hybrid media,” a multi-layered process combining sections of photography and painting. The exhibition will feature a selection of her dramatic landscapes that juxtapose moving water and changing skies against the seeming permanence of the land. (Through January 4, 2015)

Franz West @ Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. Franz West (Austrian, 1947-2012) is known for willfully un-serious, non-ideological and sometimes mischievously erotic mixed-media drawings, sculptures and furniture. Intentionally crude collages combine awkwardly isolated figures from magazine ads with slapdash coats of thick paint and representations of the artist’s own sculptures. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Hall Art Foundation’s installation of West’s monumental outdoor sculpture Les Pommes d’Adam at MASS MoCA. (Through January 25)

Darren Waterston: Uncertain Beauty @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. Painter Darren Waterston’s installation Filthy Lucre — the centerpiece of Uncertain Beauty — is a contemporary re-imagining of James McNeill Whistler’s 1876 decorative masterpiece Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, reconstructed as a sumptuous ruin. Inside, viewers will find Waterston’s re-interpretations of Whistler’s paintings, along with stalactite-like ceiling fixtures and crumbling shelving replete with 250 hand-painted ceramic vessels. Glaze will appear to ooze down the wall, and the shimmering central peacock mural will partially melt into the floor in a puddle of gold. A soundscape featuring voice and cello composed by the New York-based trio BETTY will be heard intermittently through the space, punctuating the silence with hauntingly beautiful reverberations. The installation hints at parallels between the excesses and inequities of the Gilded Age and the social and economic disparities of our own time. At the same time, the work raises questions about patronage and the relationships between artists, collectors, and institutions. (Through February 1, 2015)

Black @ Standish Atrium Gallery, Albany. This new series by Brian Cirmo studies the darker, depraved side of American life, as the bespectacled, bearded and slightly balding protagonist travels around the country to discover what it means to be American. (Through February 25)

Eclipse @ MASS MoCA, North Adams. An installation that combines video, sound, and text to create an immersive and contemplative exhibition that examines species extinction through the passenger pigeon, whose once-massive population disappeared 100 years ago. (Through Spring, 2015)