2006-2007 Season
Terrence Tiernan: Major Works
Thursday, June 8 - Friday, July 28, 2006
Reception: Thursday, June 8, 5-7pm
This exhibition of paintings by Terrence Tiernan is assembled of work selected by Jim Richard Wilson, the director of the Opalka Gallery at The Sage Colleges. Tiernan chaired the Department of Visual Arts at the Sage College of Albany for fifteen years, and worked closely with Jim Wilson as the department and the exhibition program matured. Concurrently Tiernan managed an ambitious painting practice, turning out a substantial body of work. Since 1980 he staged nine solo shows and participated in numerous group exhibitions. His paintings can be found in private, corporate, and university collections.
This selection of paintings and collages produced since the mid-1980s reveals Tiernans consistent commitment to the making of art. Tiernan finds satisfaction in developing visual ideas in response to possibilities presented by initial applications of paint to the canvas. While spontaneity and deeply felt emotions form the background of Tiernans visual ideas, the artist frequently applies his observations of natural phenomena and man-made structures to the refinement of his subjects. Although factual experiences are seldom the beginning of a working session, the juxtaposition of pigments and developing forms will more likely trigger a recollection in the artist, and become the found subject of the work of art. Overall there are broadly-based themes derived from natural features of the landscape, veiled figurative situations, as well as pure abstraction.
from the essay by Esther Tornai Thyssen
Robert Beck
Courtesy of CRG Gallery, NY
August 14 - October 22, 2006
Reception for the artist:
Sunday, September 17, 1-4pm
Artist Talk: Tuesday, September 19, 7-8pm
Robert Beck creates encounters between objects and viewers. His work is poetic engaging, visceral and sometimes violent. Beck deploys a diverse range of media including offset printing blankets, plaster casts, as well as, drawings that incorporate finger print powder. Beck has also produced 3 video installation pieces. As an aspect of the show at the Opalka, the artist will recreate the makeshift shrine of flowers, balloons and candles that greeted visitors to his first exhibit at CRG in New York. Throughout his work, intensely personal narratives are intertwined with cultural icons and myths.
The exhibit is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue containing an essay by Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator of Exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Gallery Hours during this exhibit:
August 14 - September 2, M-F 10-4
September 5 - October 22, M-F 10-4:30, M-Th 6-8, Su 12-4
Gallery closed, September 4 and October 8-10
Seminal Works of Robert Richenburg
from the collection of Richard Zahn
Courtesy of David Findlay, Jr. Fine Art, NY
November 5 - December 18, 2006
Reception: Sunday, November 19, 1-4pm
Robert Richenburg (1917-2006) studied at the Art Students League in New York with George Grosz and Reginald Marsh. After serving in the U.S. Army and then living and teaching abroad, Richenburg returned to New York in 1947 where he studied with Hans Hofmann. Within two years Richenburg's work was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Guggenheim Museum) and he was invited to join the Club where he became friends with Franz Kline, Willem De Kooning and Ad Reinhardt. In 1951 Leo Castelli included Richenburg's work in the historic Ninth Street Show.
By the early 1960s the artist's paintings were receiving strong critical acclaim. Irving Sandler, noted author and art critic, wrote: Richenburg emerges as one of the most forceful painters on the New York Art Scene. Richenburg has had one person shows at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute and Rose Art Museum (Brandeis University) among others. While his oeuvre has evolved and expanded over the years, it has never lost its enthusiasm, vitality and verve.
This exhibit includes nearly thirty of Richenburgs works, including 18 from the collection of Richard Zahn. These works range from the intimate to the monumental in scale and were created over a span of 50 years, 1940 to 1990.
Jon Schueler: The Sign of the Gale
Curated by Victoria Keller
Courtesy of ACA Galleries, NY and the Jon Schueler Estate
January 22 - February 25, 2007
Reception: Friday, February 2, 4:30-7:30pm
Curators Presentation: Sunday, February 4,1-4pm
Jon Schueler (1916-1992) was an American master who produced ethereal canvases reflecting the profound influence of nature, in particular the wild skies and countryside of the Scottish highlands. Schueler studied at the California School of Fine Arts under Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn. He arrived in New York in 1951, during the ascendancy of Abstract Expressionist luminaries Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, all of whom influenced his work. In 1957 Schueler left New York for Scotland, setting up a studio in the small fishing village of Mallaig in the western highlands on the Sound of Sleat. For the remainder of his life, he would return to Scotland where the light and weather of the western coast were lasting influences on his canvases, reflecting the transitory and turbulent moods of sea and sky.
Joan Robey: Recent Sculpture
Courtesy of O.K. Harris Works of Art, NY
March 11 - April 15
Reception, Friday, April 6, 5-8pm
Joan Robey's sculpture utilizes old and discarded objects and brings them into a fresh context. Her materials, chosen for their markings and form, are combined into simple, poetic assemblies. The completed sculptures speak to aspects common to man, nature and physics; elements such as gravity, inertia, chance and relationship. The work explores the impact of forces and events and expresses themes of movement/repose, tension/equilibrium, attraction/repulsion. Robey's work has been most seen in her home state of California. This is Joan Robey's second solo exhibition in the Northeast. The exhibit is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essay by Timothy Cahill.
BFA Exhibition I
Thursday, April 26 - Sunday May 6, 2007
Reception: Thursday, April 26, 4:30-6:30pm
BFA Exhibition II
Thursday, May 10 - Sunday May 20, 2007
Reception: Thursday, May 10, 4:30-6:30pm