James E. Freeman’s paintings of 19th-century Italian street life are on display at Munson-Williams-Proctor

Everson exhibit shows off how the current art scene evolved

The 2009 Syracuse art season offers works by renowned artists, several retrospective exhibits and, as usual, an array of group exhibitions. The season’s theme is collaboration, with Barry Anderson’s work appearing at 13 venues and on downtown billboards, with two galleries showing Marco Maggi’s artworks, and with other galleries collaborating.

Visual Affects

By joining the Arts Covenant you are agreeing to promote the local aesthetic

Nancy Jurs’ knack for repositioning found objects makes for a compelling Everson exhibit

By Carl Mellor

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The Nature of Being, the current exhibit at the Edgewood Gallery, has a title that suggests deep thinking, perhaps a bit of a cerebral touch. While many of the works do explore the human condition, this is a show with plenty of visual appeal. It has paintings that are both reflective and emotional, as well as provocative sculptures and artworks depicting flowers and other aspects of nature.

Voices of Diversity, currently on exhibit at ArtRage Gallery, uses more than 100 black-and-white photos to celebrate the Syracuse Community Choir, a group with a 23-year history and an extensive songbook dealing with peace, social justice and building community. In working on this exhibition, photographer Lida Suchy didn’t focus on people singing at concerts or rehearsals. Instead, she tried to create a group portrait, one arising from images of many choir members.

Pins and needles are no big deal, unless you’ve lost a limb. Amputees often feel phantom pains; even mild discomfort is a torture in that case: an itch you can’t scratch; a wrong you can’t right. Ellen Garvens’ Prosthesis show at Light Work Gallery is like that. The two bodies of her work united here probe aching absences.

New galleries and famous artists dominated the year in art

By Carl Mellor

During 2008, various trends appeared on the Syracuse art scene. There were exhibits reassessing famous artists. Several shows ventured into unfamiliar territory and succeeded very well. It was a time for exploration of memory from different artistic and personal perspectives. Finally, there was change in the roster of galleries as several new venues opened.

A Southern graveyard provides intriguing images

in Ernesto Pujol’s current exhibit

By Carl Mellor

Ernesto Pujol’s new show, Walk # 1, at Syracuse University’s Light Work Gallery, begins with a singular agenda: creating a body of work based on the artist’s reflections of meditative walks taken in Magnolia Cemetery, a Civil War-era graveyard in Charleston, S.C. Documenting the cemetery is one matter; communicating deeply felt feelings is a different task.

ArtRage opens its gallery doors with a project involving veterans of four wars

By Carl Mellor

Syracuse's newest venue, ArtRage: The Norton Putter Gallery, has announced an exhibition schedule mirroring its goals and aspirations. The new gallery, located at 505 Hawley Ave., plans to present visiting and locally originated exhibitions, to show works visually and thematically incisive, and to explore themes of community, peace and social justice. The opening lineup includes Combat Paper, Syracuse Cultural Workers Inside-Out and Voices of Diversity, a photographic portrait of the Syracuse Community Choir. 

Combat Paper, whose opening reception runs Saturday, Oct. 11, 7 to 9 p.m., was first initiated by Green Door Studio, of Burlington, Vt., along with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Veterans transformed uniforms worn in combat into sheets of paper and artworks by beating, cooking and cutting them. The Syracuse exhibit, for example, will feature artists’ books, three-dimensional pieces and broad-side prints, among other works.