Current Exhibition

Repetitive Nature January 8 – July 7, 2008

Gabe Brown, Frank Jackson, Allyson Levy, Naomi Lewis, Portia Munson

The desire to revisit particular images, marks and subject matter is common among many artists. Traveling the same ground over and over again yields intimate, expert knowledge of that path, a map by which one reaches new territory by reconsidering familiar materials and ideas.

The five artists featured in this exhibition use pattern as a means to divine the ways in which repetition manifests itself in the natural world and among us. While these artists consider the intersection of pattern within the natural and human realms in different ways, together they explore the inherent impulse to revisit, reinvent and repeat what is both physical and ethereal in our world.

Technicolor Shadow Gabe Brown, 2007 Oil on linen over wood panel	Carpinus Tunnel Syndrome Allyson Levy, 2004 Encaustic and hornbeam on wood
Flutter (detail) Frank Jackson, 2005 Gouache, watercolor paper, glue on paper	Quiver Naomi Lewis, 1999 Aquatint
Helenium Portia Munson, 2006 Pigmented ink on rag paper

Past Exhibitions

Neighborhood June 19 – December 15, 2007

Photographs of Arbor Hill and West Hill by David Brickman

Arbor Hill and adjacent West Hill in Albany are really one neighborhood – a complicated area with a very rich history that is as old as colonization. In the twentieth century, third or fourth generation Irish and German Americans have given way to waves of other immigrants – first Southern African-Americans, then Caribbean, Asian and Middle Eastern populations. It is a poor but solidly working class community; rough, but retaining much of what was once a glorious architectural beauty, which in many instances has been enhanced by touches of modern color and culture.

Trained as a painter, David Brickman composes his photographs with an eye for formally dynamic juxtapositions of shape, light and color. For 20 years he has maintained a studio in the West Hill neighborhood, and lived there for five or six years before he began this series of photographs. His intention was not to document the area in the classic journalistic manner, so much as it was to make observations about his own territory, and to show the visual vibrancy of American urban life.

Big Willow, Clinton Avenue Color photograph 2001	Red Wall, Clinton Avenue Color photograph 1993
African Man Outside Dorton’s, North Lake Avenue Color photograph 2004	Colorful Houses, Clinton Avenue Color photograph 1998
Bus Stop, Delaware Avenue Color photograph 2006	Blue Vases, Elk Street Color photograph 2005

ANIMAted: The Inventive World of Anima Katz

The Art & Culture Program at Albany International Airport is pleased to host ANIMAted: The Inventive World of Anima Katz, an exhibition of works by self-taught artist Anima Katz.

Anima was born in Cologne Germany in 1940 and emigrated to the United States in 1962. In spite of a life long love of art and a highly developed visual sense, as a young person Anima never imagined becoming an artist. Quite suddenly in 1994, she began to paint and within just a few weeks, she was making works that exhibited the stylistic qualities that are apparent in her work to this day. Working intuitively and intensely, Anima devotes nearly every day to an art demanding the greatest attention to detail, and in doing so she has produced a very large and varied body of work.

This exhibit draws from four different series: The Artist Series, The New York Paintings, The Black Series, and The Paris Paintings. In each series, Anima evolves variations on a particular motif or subject. As her work is an art of transformation, the subject enters into her process only to emerge utterly changed—an artwork defined by Anima’s unique personal style.

Fernand Léger In His Studio Anima Katz, 2006 oil on canvas board	It’s All About Power Anima Katz, 1999 oil on canvas board
A Balancing Act at Rue Port-Royal, Paris Anima Katz, 2004 oil on canvas board	Washington Arch, New York City Anima Katz, 2001 oil on canvas board

Character Study May 22 – December 8, 2006

Artists include: Sara Di Donato, Donna Fitzgerald, Allen Grindle, John Hampshire and Andrea Hersh.

Throughout time artists have depicted the human form as a way of exploring what is most elusive, most essential and most individual about who we are. Light, shadow, line and color define not only what we recognize as a faithful likeness, but as a portal to the experience of another. The study of character requires not only a doorway into the lives of others, but a mirror that reflects our own nature as well. The artists in this exhibition present a visual threshold through which we can glimpse what binds and distinguishes us.

Intro panel, works by Sara DiDonato
Florence, Donna Fitzgerald, 2005, color photograph	Venice 2, Donna Fitzgerald, 2005, color photograph
Works by Allen Grindle	Branch, Allen Grindle, 2004, woodcut print
Scott and Stacy II, Andrea Hersh, 2005, photo collage, acrylic	Scott and Stacy I, Andrea Hersh, 2005, photo collage
Smiley, MB 2, John Hampshire, 2000, oil on paper	Works by John Hampshire

Foreign Affair, January 29 – March 27, 2005

Artists include: Esteban Pastorino Diaz, Candace Plummer Gaudiani, Priya Kambli, Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, Brent Phelps, Vicki Ragan and Scott Whittle.

The Art & Culture Program at Albany International Airport is pleased to host Foreign Affair, an exhibition that was curated by Kate Menconeri and presented by the Center for Photography at Woodstock from January 29 – March 27, 2005. For more information about CPW, please call 845.679.9957 or go to www.cpw.org.

Foreign Affair, installation view

photographs by Scott Whittle

photographs by Walter Martin & Paloma Muños, courtesy PPOW Gallery

Aeroclub, Veronica by Esteban Pastorino Diaz, courtesy Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery

While images in a travel brochure may offer the lure of the exotic and a tourist’s snapshot allows us to return to that beach, or crowded city street, photographs can also provide new perspectives and expand our understanding of the world around us. The artists in Foreign Affair do just this by focusing on the experience of the traveler and revealing our varied associations with exploration, dislocation and discovery in unfamiliar territory. The aerial kite photographs of Esteban Pastorino Diaz, as well as Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz’ Travelers series, invite us to examine our own perceptions about place and travel through what appear to be toy-like worlds. Priya Kambli and Candace Plummer Gaudiani consider the dual sensation of longing for and being estranged from places held in memory. Scott Whittle considers what it is like to be a tourist – to intentionally plumb the unknown for all its surprises and banalities. Vicki Ragan and Brent Phelps reflect on how we make our way through time and place, and the transformations that occur within ourselves and upon the landscape.

Sharon Bates, Director
Art & Culture Program
Albany International Airport Gallery hours:
7:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. daily.
For additional information phone: 518.242.2241 or email arts@albanyairport.com