Christine Heller, Into the Crosscurrents

Main Galleries:
Christine Heller
Into The Crosscurrents












“Into the Crosscurrents is a series of new works from a year of non-stop painting; a year in which tumultuous shocks have thrown me into a new stage of life. The act of painting has been a haven and in each stroke, I have been excavating what has gone before.

Painting for me is an extremely physical act, improvisational choreography that generates the strokes of paint, leads me into the core of a painting and prods me to go where I have never been before. New patterns of color, movement and form result from making marks that are authentic, clear, and accessible - without interference of preconceptions.

While I am painting, one response incites another until I see clarity developing, which tells me I have gotten all that I can from the painting. But sometimes the painting does not let me go. I persevere, going deeper, as if digging for relics, not knowing what I will find. The process leads me until I reach the crux of the work.

My paintings are the tracks left after a choreographed excavation. They are sometimes a distillation of memories and often a visceral search for essence."

Christine Heller
2009


















Sculpture Garden:
John Ruppert

"The chain-link fabric sculptures have evolved over the past several years, influenced by the urban context of my studio. These sculptures are translucent and are an antithesis to the mass of the castings. The shapes of the fabric sculptures are determined by the structural characteristics of the chain-link fabric, stainless steel retention rings, zip ties, aircraft cable, and gravity.

Context is critical to these sculptures. The indoor and out surroundings, as well as the relationship to other objects and each other, are in constant flux. In an outdoor setting the sculptures act as a monitor to the surroundings; interacting with the context of the site (with each other ... if there are more than one form) and the various weather and light conditions."

John Ruppert
2009
























Carriage House:
Installation Linda Mussmann
light bulbs, zip cord, handmade dimmers, handmade light instrument

"Linda Mussmann started making lights out of #10 tomato sauce cans discarded from the pizza parlors in New York City in the early 1970's for her theater Time & Space Limited.

Why did she do this? Because she did not like traditional theater lights. They were too big and too bright and did not fit the thinking she had about the theater she was making...and this theater (TSL) was about space and time and light and language and words and sound (all parts needed to be recognized independently).

Linda wanted lots of lights and lots of dimmers and lots of things going on and off and lots of little cans hanging from the ceiling so people could see the light and not be afraid of real stuff. Linda did not like illusion. She believes in truth. Then Linda kept on making lights and installed ideas for more spaces...sometimes real spaces and sometimes invented spaces. She has worked in theaters, and museums (Whitney, MOMA, major theaters such as Merce Cunningham's space, Riverside Dance theater, Marymount Theater, LaMama Annex theater etc).... and now she works every day in Hudson, New York at TSL in the theater space that she co-directs with Claudia Bruce.

Linda will make the elevator shaft (located in the barn at the John Davis Gallery) a place that will have handmade lights, a site specific installation lighting the “elevator shaft".

Linda Mussmann
2009
























Second Floor:
Sara Garden Armstrong
Shadow Memories
Photocollage, pastel, graphite, gel medium mounted on Lucite

“I have always been intrigued with natures fleeting moments, forever changing, constantly being renewed. I try to interpret the processes that are organic and dynamic capture a moment and trace time to paper surface.

One body of works examines winter shadows as they arrive, transition and depart. Shadows embody the ephemeral moments in the composition of our lives. The forms they create can suggest poignant memories, or the lapse between what is real and what is not.

I photograph shadows and details of nature including previous artwork, select portions to print and collage, and apply pastel and graphite to the composite image. I then coat the image with multiple layers (upwards of 25) of gel medium, adding depth and dimension. This slow process of layer coating allows me to explore the changes that occur as light moves through the medium to the image, the end result being an alteration of focus."

Sara Garden Armstrong
2009


















Second Floor:
Evan Venegas

“My work looks deep into the evolution of city life. The inspiration comes from the energy created by the masses of people and how weaved together we form a changing backdrop for city living. Another form of stimulation is the urban shapes which are sharp, curved, bold, delicate and combine into an infinite number of both simple and complex configurations. This has evolved into a symbolism that reflects the distinction between anthropomorphic shapes and those that have a manufactured quality. I fuse these two classes of shapes in my painting to represent what happens daily in the urban environment."

Evan Venegas
2009

















Third Floor:
Christopher McEvoy

“My latest paintings began with the desire to explore interconnectivity. I am influenced by the fluid nature of memory, experience and perception. To explore these ideas, I captured a series of images, generally landscapes that chronicle my surroundings, then used drawing and digital technology to manipulate each image, thus creating a record of perception and emotional response without giving the viewer direct access to the stimulus. In the paintings I develop from these images, structures vie for dominance within the canvas, much as sensory images or impressions might come to the forefront or recede in the mind or memory. Color and scale serve as a means to magnify and distort the experience of the viewer, ultimately amplifying a common location or a commonplace experience. To this end, technology is used to create the image, but it is the act of painting that makes the image more real, or larger than the reality it was derived from. Ultimately, the paintings lead the observer to question whether what he sees is directed by the artist, or directed by the viewer’s own personal set of experiences."

Christopher McEvoy
2009


















Fourth Floor:
John Van Alstine
Sisyphean Holiday Series

"SISYPHEAN HOLIDAY SERIES is a “tongue in cheek” spin-off from my recent Sisyphean Circle Series (2005-9), which examines parallels between the Greek mythological character Sisyphus and the plight of the artist.

Because of a lifetime of transgressions when Sisyphus reached the underworld he was forced as punishment to roll a large stone up a steep hill, only to have it tumble back after reaching the top. This toil lasts all eternity and, I believe, is a perfect metaphor for the creative process and especially applicable to those, like myself, who uses stone as a primary material.

However, to view the creative process simply as toil or a punishment is obviously too narrow and negative, I prefer to see it in the context presented by Albert Camus, the French existentialist in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Here Camus uses the myth to illustrate the idea that reaching ones final destination is not always the most important and if one “reconsiders Sisyphus” as he suggests, the struggle or journey reveals itself as ultimately the most meaningful - an idea that I, and many others, believe is central to the creative process and life in general.

After completing over 30 sculptures in the Sisyphean Circle Series, I created the new Sisyphean Holiday Series and present these works in a light hearted, “tongue in cheek” way. They suggest giving Sisyphus (and me) a break or “holiday”. Here Sisyphus's “stone” is placed in a form similar to an Adirondack guide boat or canoe which, I believe, gives the sculpture a playful and local summer twist."

John Van Alstine
2009

Fran Shalom with Douglas Culhane, Erin Walrath, Grace Bakst Wapner, Jeremy Hoffeld and Barry Bartlett

On Thursday, September 17th the work of the featured artist Fran Shalom was displayed in the main galleries with sculpture in the garden by Douglas Culhane, an installation by Erin Walrath in the Carriage House atrium, mixed media work by Grace Bakst Wapner, Erin Walrath, paintings by Jeremy Hoffeld and porcelain sculpture by Barry Bartlett.

Main Galleries: Fran Shalom Paintings "I am a modernist abstract painter with a pop sensibility. My works balance the formal with the playful, paring down shapes and ideas into their most basic forms. It is a search for clarity and humor, as is evidenced by the shapes and colors in my paintings: cartoony, bright, blobby and fun. But, like life itself, there is an undercurrent of conflict beneath the whimsy, as reflected in the tension and interaction between the shapes. Ultimately, it is important that the viewer becomes involved with the paintings, tempting them to stay long enough with the images to connect to a narrative that is at once ambiguous yet taps into the specifics and subtleties of their own lives." Fran Shalom 2009

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Sculpture Garden:

Douglas Culhane

At The Blind Window

"Things - solid inanimate objects - seem to be the most knowable, reliable and defined entities of our daily experience. I have always suspected that this is not the entire truth. As a sculptor I explore the inner potential of things and create works that make the mystery, uneasiness and animate presence of solid objects more apparent. The possibility of articulating ideas, feeling and questions without language is the aspect of sculpture I find most compelling.

These pieces were made with the knowledge of many other related objects in mind. Although they have no other utility than their accessibility to contemplation, their vocabulary is derived from the features of utilitarian objects. Form and function are confounded, mutated and hybridized to illuminate the richness and complexity of their being and of our experience of this world dense with things."

Douglas Culhane
2009

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Carriage House:

Installation: Erin Walrath Installation Force of Habit, 2009 (ongoing)Retired Socks, Reclaimed Wooden Objects, Nails, Glue Currently 8 x 11 feet but size indeterminate "We are creatures of habit. And as we go about running our particular programs and patterns, we leave in our wake, a trail of debris. That debris is sometimes saturated with meaning and is sometimes perfectly boring. Recently, I have begun to build visual tapestries from the things I collect, giving voice, or at least new context to the otherwise less interesting object. I find that this process has created an impetus to look at the world more optimistically. It also allows me a sort of indulgence and a freedom that I had not previously permitted myself; to be less cerebral and more playful in making art. For the past two and a half years, I have been gathering material for the piece that is the focus of this body of work. 'Force of Habit' is an installation comprised of collected socks that have been naturally worn out and, in some cases, outright obliterated. They have been saved, collected and submitted by hundreds of individuals. The intention was to create a project that could continue to grow, at times on its own, taking on whatever form it would. It became apparent to me somewhere in the process that I was creating a piece that would somehow reference the fine line between absurdity and gravity that seems to be the uniquely human experience." Erin Walrath 2009

Second Floor: Grace Bakst Wapner Collage "The focus of this series is first and foremost about color and texture. The format of a smaller rectangle inside a larger rectangle suggests a smaller world within a larger one and often there is a dialogue between the two. This dialogue is primarily about the play between fabric and paint or stitching and the painted line. The concern is with the abstract: with formal aspects of color and placement, with the difference between a line stitched and a line drawn, with the texture and character of stitched threads, and with the play of reflective light on fabric contrasted with the surface of paint absorbed into paper. Sometimes the outlines of houses can seem to be nestled in towns or colorful villages can be seen within gray cities but these images evolve from attention to abstract form, color and placement and are of secondary interest as the piece is worked." Grace Bakst Wapner 2009

Third Floor: Jeremy Hoffeld Drawings and Paintings "My recent drawings and paintings are closely tied to language. My mark-making units are words and sentences. Each picture is a type of entry, composed with distinct written content, ranging from commentary, to stream of consciousness, to confessional. Through the layered application of sentences a charged surface emerges, which is infused with the underlying feeling of the words, but in which the legible content is mostly abstracted." Jeremy Hoffeld 2009

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Fourth Floor: Barry Bartlett Beer Steins and Buddhas Amalgams of Desire Barry Bartlett's narrative sculptures, in ceramics and mixed media, have long explored the realm of socio-psychological issues, from evolution to warfare to suburban sprawl. In Bartlett's latest work, iconic motifs are reconfigured using porcelain castings of mass-produced souvenir molds. These eccentric, over-sized steins and Buddha icons are superimposed with casts of cultural, religious and political figures, fantastical animals, holiday chotchkes, etc. Essentially, a stein is a lidded tankard or mug. The lid was originally conceived in the late 1400's (following the lessons of the bubonic plague that killed over 25 million) as a sanitary measure to protect against hoards of little flies that frequently invaded Central Europe. With the decrease in population, landless day laborers that had survived the plague could now command higher wages and afford small luxuries. And so it was that the stein, vessel for the newly improved beer - a.k.a the flowing bread - was born. Beer was now made with quality ingredients, not the slop of rotting cabbages and bread, and promised many health benefits. Through the centuries, the stein, with its luxury value manifested via allegorical, biblical and historical vignettes, became a status symbol, reflecting current cultural interests and trends. Bartlett's act of recontextualizing these icons reminds us both of their permanence in our imaginations and their vulnerability as icons. Commemorative vessels, once a mainstay of events such as world's fairs, are now usually relegated to the realm of kitsch; reinterpreted as political commentary, however, they seem to regain a kind of expressive power. What was exotic has become trivial, historical events turn into shallow representations, kitschy fantasy figures become almost anonymous in their new, strange surroundings, as Bartlett says, and commemoration becomes commentary. The bourgeoisie have reached astronomical proportions.