Sunday, April 12, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Phoenix: Reinvention, Renewal, Resurrection
Spark Contemporary Art Space

Spark Contemporary Art Space
1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

Five artists interpretation on the mythical and cross-cultural status of reinvention, renewal, and resurrection.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

To a large extent, Cappuccilli's drawings and paintings are about the beauty of mark making, sensitivity of touch, and forms that are fundamentally mysterious. Her drawings are sometimes mistaken for photographs. The biomorphic drawings may read as benign or threatening hybrids, or as unknown species. The stain drawings developed from recognition of the delicate formal quality of grease stains, and their random patterns.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Arena Art Group Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Fun, wild, and experimental artwork by Rochester's Arena Art Group.

A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women's study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse. The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women's access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have always met regularly from October through April to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year's president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott, and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club's first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley, and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875-1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents.

Faces: Inspiration from Within -- Works by Erin Boyle
Westcott Community Center

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Cutting away from traditional portraiture, Erin creates edgy images that offer more expressive descriptions.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

Phoenix: Reinvention, Renewal, Resurrection
Spark Contemporary Art Space

Spark Contemporary Art Space
1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

Five artists interpretation on the mythical and cross-cultural status of reinvention, renewal, and resurrection.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

To a large extent, Cappuccilli's drawings and paintings are about the beauty of mark making, sensitivity of touch, and forms that are fundamentally mysterious. Her drawings are sometimes mistaken for photographs. The biomorphic drawings may read as benign or threatening hybrids, or as unknown species. The stain drawings developed from recognition of the delicate formal quality of grease stains, and their random patterns.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Photo-Drawings: Recent Works by Julieve Jubin and Juan Perdiguero, and An Introduction: Recent Works by Barbara Stout
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

Arena Art Group Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Fun, wild, and experimental artwork by Rochester's Arena Art Group.

A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women's study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse. The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women's access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have always met regularly from October through April to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year's president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott, and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club's first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley, and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875-1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents.

Faces: Inspiration from Within -- Works by Erin Boyle
Westcott Community Center

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Cutting away from traditional portraiture, Erin creates edgy images that offer more expressive descriptions.

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer, and Tamara Natalie Madden
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer and Tamara Natalie Madden features works by three contemporary African American women artists who work in different media but explore issues of ethnicity, identity, history and culture in their work.

Robin Holder's works are inspired by issues of empowerment and integrity as well as the complexities of American identity: culture, gender, class, race and ethnicity. The works in her series "Behind Each Window, A Voice," were inspired by oral histories of eight of her neighbors in Brooklyn. Issues of race, social and political victimization, and ideas about society are shared by each of the subjects in their personal histories. The works are a combination of painting, collage and printmaking techniques.

Sonya Lawyer's photographic transfers combine imagery from vintage photographs with modern hand-dyed cotton fabric. The photographs were collected by the artist from vintage photo albums purchased at antique stores and through online auctions. Concerned that pieces of history were literally being torn apart and sold to the highest bidder, Lawyer was prompted to start acquiring images in order to protect them from further disturbance. Works from two series, "Searching For Beulah (limit of disturbance)" and "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)" contain singular images of men and women of color juxtaposed with fabric blocks of varying hues. The works are a celebration of the persons depicted, each work revealing strength, pride, beauty and a quintessential timelessness.

Tamara Natalie Madden, in her recent series of mixed media paintings, creates images of kings,queens and warriors, using everyday people as her inspiration. Recognizing the struggles of the working class, the unseen and unheard, Madden chooses to depict them as kings and queens, as a means of expressing appreciation for their experiences, struggles and triumphs. The paintings are layered with quilted fabrics, which represent regal clothing and, symbolically, storytelling and quilts reflecting African traditions. The birds in the paintings represent a sense of freedom.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

Phoenix: Reinvention, Renewal, Resurrection
Spark Contemporary Art Space

Spark Contemporary Art Space
1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

Five artists interpretation on the mythical and cross-cultural status of reinvention, renewal, and resurrection.

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibition of works by Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, "Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass," is an installation composed of audio and video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. For this, their first co-exhibition, the artists provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello's work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Thinking and Doing: Recent Works at Snøhetta
Syracuse University School of Architecture
Featuring Craig Dykers

Price: Free
Slocum Hall Auditorium
Syracuse University campus, Syracuse

Syracuse Architecture NYC visiting critic Craig Dykers is a founding partner of SNOHETTA, and has been involved in the design and construction of several major projects in the Middle East, Europe, and the US including the new library in Alexandria, Egypt, the new National Opera House in Oslo, Norway and most recently the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in NYC. Craig resides in both Oslo and in NYC. Reception to follow.

Soundscape Design: Acoustic Creativity-'Klanguage' for Media
The Warehouse Gallery
Featuring Hans-Ulrich Werner

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Hans-Ulrich Werner is a professor for sound, media and acoustic communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, Germany, and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Television, Radio and Film, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University.

Spring
LeMoyne College
LeMoyne College Chamber Orchestra and Jazzuits
Featuring Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes; jazz vocalist Nancy Kelly

Price: $15 regular, $10 seniors, students free
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

An evening of music featuring Vivaldi's Spring and all of your favorite Beatles tunes.

S.U. Brazilian Ensemble
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Waffles for Opera: Barrio Bohème
Syracuse Opera

Price: $10
Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Come join the Syracuse Opera for a great evening of fun, food and music. The Opera's Resident Artists will perform Barrio Bohème, a shortened version of Puccini's masterpiece set in 1960s Spanish Harlem, followed by a meet and greet with the artists, and some of the most amazing waffles ever made, served by Funk N' Waffles.

Proceeds to benefit Syracuse Opera.

For more information, email education@syracuseopera.com.

Sweeney Todd
Broadway in Syracuse

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Experience, live on stage, the musical that inspired the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie. When the infamous demon barber takes up with his crafty neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, the two embark on a delicious plot to slice their way through London's upper crust. Justice is served -- along with lush melody, audacious humor and hair-raising excitement. Don't miss this phenomenal productionwith full music and lyrics by multiple Tony-Award winner Stephen Sondheim.

Read a review!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

To a large extent, Cappuccilli's drawings and paintings are about the beauty of mark making, sensitivity of touch, and forms that are fundamentally mysterious. Her drawings are sometimes mistaken for photographs. The biomorphic drawings may read as benign or threatening hybrids, or as unknown species. The stain drawings developed from recognition of the delicate formal quality of grease stains, and their random patterns.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Photo-Drawings: Recent Works by Julieve Jubin and Juan Perdiguero, and An Introduction: Recent Works by Barbara Stout
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

Arena Art Group Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Fun, wild, and experimental artwork by Rochester's Arena Art Group.

A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women's study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse. The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women's access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have always met regularly from October through April to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year's president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott, and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club's first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley, and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875-1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents.

Faces: Inspiration from Within -- Works by Erin Boyle
Westcott Community Center

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Cutting away from traditional portraiture, Erin creates edgy images that offer more expressive descriptions.

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer, and Tamara Natalie Madden
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer and Tamara Natalie Madden features works by three contemporary African American women artists who work in different media but explore issues of ethnicity, identity, history and culture in their work.

Robin Holder's works are inspired by issues of empowerment and integrity as well as the complexities of American identity: culture, gender, class, race and ethnicity. The works in her series "Behind Each Window, A Voice," were inspired by oral histories of eight of her neighbors in Brooklyn. Issues of race, social and political victimization, and ideas about society are shared by each of the subjects in their personal histories. The works are a combination of painting, collage and printmaking techniques.

Sonya Lawyer's photographic transfers combine imagery from vintage photographs with modern hand-dyed cotton fabric. The photographs were collected by the artist from vintage photo albums purchased at antique stores and through online auctions. Concerned that pieces of history were literally being torn apart and sold to the highest bidder, Lawyer was prompted to start acquiring images in order to protect them from further disturbance. Works from two series, "Searching For Beulah (limit of disturbance)" and "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)" contain singular images of men and women of color juxtaposed with fabric blocks of varying hues. The works are a celebration of the persons depicted, each work revealing strength, pride, beauty and a quintessential timelessness.

Tamara Natalie Madden, in her recent series of mixed media paintings, creates images of kings,queens and warriors, using everyday people as her inspiration. Recognizing the struggles of the working class, the unseen and unheard, Madden chooses to depict them as kings and queens, as a means of expressing appreciation for their experiences, struggles and triumphs. The paintings are layered with quilted fabrics, which represent regal clothing and, symbolically, storytelling and quilts reflecting African traditions. The birds in the paintings represent a sense of freedom.

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Exploring History with Art: The Changing View—Landscapes
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

The exhibition will feature work from seniors in VPA's School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, with a particular focus on the areas of painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts/material studies and art photography.

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibition of works by Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, "Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass," is an installation composed of audio and video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. For this, their first co-exhibition, the artists provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello's work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Iraq & the U.S. -- Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Iraq & the U.S.—Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace is an exhibit of artwork exchanged between Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and students at our own Van Duyn Elementary School. The exhibit will display a joint mural, an Iraqi mural and other artwork from children connected to the project.

Too Many Sopranos
Civic Morning Musicals

Price: Free
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Charlotte Haas-Quirk, Sabine Krantz, Andrea Love, Julie McKinstry, Sandra Murphy, Gayle Ross, Norma Tippett, sopranos, sing works by and about women, featuring choruses from the comic opera Too Many Sopranos by Edwin Penhorwood.

An April Soiree
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Featuring soprano Julianna Sabol

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Soprano Julianna Sabol, faculty member and co-chair of the voice department, will present a recital, assisted by faculty members Ken Meyer, guitar; Ida Trebicka, piano; and Gregory Woods, cello. The first half of the program will include works by Gounod, Massenet, Henessy, Heggie, Mozart, Schubert, Moniuszko, Tosti, and Rachmaninoff. The second half will feature works for voice and guitar, including the Canciones Españolas Antiguas, authentic, rarely performed Spanish folksongs collected and arranged by Garcia Lorca. Other folk song settings by Britten, Leisner and Copland will also be performed.

Sabol has given concerts in Canada, the United States, and Poland as a soloist with orchestras, as a recitalist, and on the opera stage. She is a winner of such prestigious competitions as the National Opera Association, the Jerome Hill Memorial Award in the Metropolitan Opera auditions, the National Association of Teachers of Singing artist auditions, and the Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition. She has appeared as a soloist for consecutive seasons with the Platteville (WI) Summer Music Festival; with the Bach Aria Festival in Stonybrook, NY; and in chamber music performances with the Syracuse Camerata, in the Dorothy Goff Frisch Concert Series, and as recital soloist in her New York City Merkin Concert Hall debut.

Parking is available in Irving Garage.

For more information, contact the Setnor School at (315) 443-2191.

Poet Laureate Charles Simic
Raymond Carver Reading Series

Price: Free
Gifford Auditorium, Huntington Beard Crouse Hall
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Charles Simic is the outgoing poet laureate of the U.S. Library of Congress. The Yugoslavian-born writer, who is featured in this year's CNY Reads' "One City, One Book" campaign, has published more than 60 books, including 20 books of poetry. He also has published numerous translations of French, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian poetry; has written several books of essays; and has edited several anthologies. Simic received the Academy Fellowship in 1998, was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2000, and earned the Academy's Wallace Stevens Award in 2007. He is professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of New Hampshire.

The reading will be preceded by a Q&A session with the author beginning at 3:45 pm.

Parking is available in SU pay lots. For more information, phone 315-443-2174.

Little Women Book Club
Syracuse Opera
Featuring Jackie Robinson

Price: Free
Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

This event will feature performances from Mark Adamo's opera Little Women performed by Syracuse Opera Resident Artists, as well as readings from the book. The book club will also provide other fun activities for women of all ages. Syracuse Opera invites you to join them in their goal to Promote Literacy, Empower Women, and Enhance Community Involvement through the arts.

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The story is simplicity itself. A young girl, alive to everything around her and awakening within her, with hopes and dreams of the life she may one day lead with friends and family, confides to her diary the secrets of her heart. That diary, as we all know, becomes one of the lasting documents of the 20th century, a testament not to the horrors we know so well, but to the indomitability of the human spirit. That's what's so wonderful about this version of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly revised by Wendy Kesselman. With information gleaned from previously withheld portions of the diary and additional survivor accounts, we glimpse this remarkable young woman with greater clarity and deeper understanding of the fullness of her life. Was she on the verge of falling in love for the first time? Did she harbor misgivings about herself or members of the "family" imposed on her? We know the sad end of the tale, but do we really know the complexity of the heart that with its every beat sought to find the goodness in others?

Read a Review!

Sweeney Todd
Broadway in Syracuse

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Experience, live on stage, the musical that inspired the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie. When the infamous demon barber takes up with his crafty neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, the two embark on a delicious plot to slice their way through London's upper crust. Justice is served -- along with lush melody, audacious humor and hair-raising excitement. Don't miss this phenomenal productionwith full music and lyrics by multiple Tony-Award winner Stephen Sondheim.

Read a review!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

There will be artist receptions at 11:00 am and 5:00 pm as part of Th3.

To a large extent, Cappuccilli's drawings and paintings are about the beauty of mark making, sensitivity of touch, and forms that are fundamentally mysterious. Her drawings are sometimes mistaken for photographs. The biomorphic drawings may read as benign or threatening hybrids, or as unknown species. The stain drawings developed from recognition of the delicate formal quality of grease stains, and their random patterns.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Photo-Drawings: Recent Works by Julieve Jubin and Juan Perdiguero, and An Introduction: Recent Works by Barbara Stout
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

Opening reception with artists in attendance, 5:00-8:00 pm.

Arena Art Group Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Fun, wild, and experimental artwork by Rochester's Arena Art Group.

A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women's study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse. The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women's access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have always met regularly from October through April to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year's president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott, and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club's first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley, and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875-1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents.

Faces: Inspiration from Within -- Works by Erin Boyle
Westcott Community Center

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Tonight for Th3, Boyle will be on site working on a new oil painting, demonstrating techniques and answering questions about her work.

Cutting away from traditional portraiture, Erin creates edgy images that offer more expressive descriptions.

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer, and Tamara Natalie Madden
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer and Tamara Natalie Madden features works by three contemporary African American women artists who work in different media but explore issues of ethnicity, identity, history and culture in their work.

Robin Holder's works are inspired by issues of empowerment and integrity as well as the complexities of American identity: culture, gender, class, race and ethnicity. The works in her series "Behind Each Window, A Voice," were inspired by oral histories of eight of her neighbors in Brooklyn. Issues of race, social and political victimization, and ideas about society are shared by each of the subjects in their personal histories. The works are a combination of painting, collage and printmaking techniques.

Sonya Lawyer's photographic transfers combine imagery from vintage photographs with modern hand-dyed cotton fabric. The photographs were collected by the artist from vintage photo albums purchased at antique stores and through online auctions. Concerned that pieces of history were literally being torn apart and sold to the highest bidder, Lawyer was prompted to start acquiring images in order to protect them from further disturbance. Works from two series, "Searching For Beulah (limit of disturbance)" and "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)" contain singular images of men and women of color juxtaposed with fabric blocks of varying hues. The works are a celebration of the persons depicted, each work revealing strength, pride, beauty and a quintessential timelessness.

Tamara Natalie Madden, in her recent series of mixed media paintings, creates images of kings,queens and warriors, using everyday people as her inspiration. Recognizing the struggles of the working class, the unseen and unheard, Madden chooses to depict them as kings and queens, as a means of expressing appreciation for their experiences, struggles and triumphs. The paintings are layered with quilted fabrics, which represent regal clothing and, symbolically, storytelling and quilts reflecting African traditions. The birds in the paintings represent a sense of freedom.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Exploring History with Art: The Changing View—Landscapes
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Opening: Techno_Culture
Redhouse

Price: Free
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Opening reception 5:00-8:00 p.m. as part of Th3.

Techno_Culture is an exhibition of works from artists utilizing numerous forms of technology in their creative process. Presented in association with the Department of Transmedia's Computer Art Program at Syracuse University, the show offers a sampling of the vast area of art forms unique within our digital-based culture. Techno_Culture features the work of artists Wafaa Bilal, Alicia Ross, Shawn Lawson, Meggan Gould, Michael Heroux, Olivia Robinson, Stephen Belovarich, and Chris Prior.

Curator Sean Hovendick teaches courses in Computer Art within the Department of Transmedia. Hovendick's interactive, procedual and time-based works explore the hidden forces of power, identity and social order within the mediated psyche. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally - most recently at the Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ; the traveling exhibition Experiencing the War in Iraq, and FutureSonic: International Festival of Art, Music & Ideas in Manchester, UK.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

A gallery reception will be held on Thursday, April 16, from 5:00-7:00 pm, with a performance by MFA candidate Jenny Carolin at 5:30 p.m.

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

The exhibition will feature work from seniors in VPA's School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, with a particular focus on the areas of painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts/material studies and art photography.

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Works include framed batik, cloth colleges, sculptural coiled basketry, quilting, tapestry, and more by artists Wilson Akuamoah-Boateng, Sharon Bottle Souva, Lauren Bristol, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, Linda Esterley, Alice Gant, Hilary Gifford, Mary Kester, and Holly Knott.

Wild Card Exhibit: Serymour and Blodgett School Art Show
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibition of works by Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, "Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass," is an installation composed of audio and video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. For this, their first co-exhibition, the artists provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello's work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Iraq & the U.S. -- Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Iraq & the U.S.—Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace is an exhibit of artwork exchanged between Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and students at our own Van Duyn Elementary School. The exhibit will display a joint mural, an Iraqi mural and other artwork from children connected to the project.

Works of Frederick Bartolovic
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery

Price: Free
Clayscapes Pottery Studio
1003 W. Fayette St., Suite L1, Syracuse

Exhibition of the work of SUNY Oswego ceramics professor, Frederick Bartolovic, who explores the effect of technology on culture and the human body, mapping the "space between the human form and the landscape..."

Meet the Artist: Peter and Susan Valenti
Eureka Crafts

Price: Free
Eureka Crafts
210 Walton St., Syracuse

Special Th3 event: Peter and Susan Valenti showcase their well-known decorative ceramic work in a trunk show. Light refreshments.

CNY Arts Covenant Logo Contest Exhibit
Museum of Young Art

Price: Free
Museum of Young Art
110 W. Fayette St., One Lincoln Center, Syracuse

An exhibit of nearly 80 entries to the CNY Arts Covenant logo contest. Come and see how Central New York responded to the "Call to Action" from the Arts Covenant. The public is invited to vote on the finalists in the contest. Visit www.ArtsCovenant.com for details.

The Art of Giants Puppets
Open Hand Theater

Price: Free
International Mask and Puppet Museum
518 Prospect Ave., Syracuse

Opening: The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The basis of this show will be a unique demonstration of city arts and culture. A showing of true urbanism and creativity that lies within the youth of this concrete civilization, where street performances, music, dancing, graffiti, art, and spoken word have evolved from simple basic ideas into the most complex and deep meaningful outputs of artistic expression.

"The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad" at the will feature new artists as well as past favorites: John Deere, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas; Marc Pitterelli, photography; Ramona Persaud, photography; Tina Dadabo, colored pencil & marker on paper; Amber Blanding, glass; Brandon Hall, mixed media; David McKenney, acrylic on canvas; Debra Parry Trichilo, photography; Edward Colelli, photography on silk; Jace Collins, mixed media; Jim Reed, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas;
Melissa Tiffany, collage; and Mick Mather, digitally manipulated photography.

The show kicks off with another OLG Sight and Sound Experiment as part of Th3. Complimentary snacks and tasty beverages will be provided. The entertainment of the evening features three live DJs -- Isis, Fresh Kid Finesse (both of Up Rock Crew), and Sik60Six -- spinning a variety of Drum-N-Bass, Breaks, and Old School Grooves. Breakdancers from the Up Rock Crew shall tear up the floor as Live Grafitti Art is created in the backdrop of the show. Freestyle MCs Flaca and One Love shall rock the mic & battle it out.

International Art Showdown
Spark Contemporary Art Space

Price: Free
Spark Contemporary Art Space
1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

Special Th3 event. International Art Showdown: seven international artists will be setting up shop and installing work for an international art showdown.

Wired Space
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts
COLAB

Price: Free
Case Supply Building
601 W. Fayette St. , Syracuse

Syracuse University's COLAB will present an exhibition of interactive art and design installations.

"Wired Space explores the functional, conceptual, and expressive possibilities of weaving together materials, technology, and interaction. The installations include an interactive wall/musical instrument, a weeping willow tree that brings outside sounds into a rehabilitated warehouse, and a wall that opens into another country.

The installations in "Wired Space" were created by students enrolled in "Interactive Lab: Responsive Environments," a COLAB-sponsored, cross-disciplinary course that explores the intersection of information, interaction and installation art. In the semester-long experience, students learned to program microcontrollers and use sensors and emitters to produce site-specific artworks using various data and information sources, video and sound. The course is taught by faculty members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the School of Information Studies.

COLAB is an interdisciplinary initiative that encourages students and faculty to use their diverse skills and perspectives to solve complex, real-world problems creatively and collaboratively. Based in VPA and headquartered on the fourth floor of The Warehouse, COLAB offers courses, programs and events in a nontraditional atmosphere that fosters innovation and imagination.

Life in Occupied Palestine
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A free, hour-long, informative film about the situation in the West Bank of Palestine by Anna Baltzer, Jewish-American author and activist will be followed by response and discussion, plus refreshments.

The film was produced by and features Anna Baltzer, a young scholar who spent many months in the West Bank. Baltzer is also the author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. She has spoken to audiences throughout the United States.

Artist Talk
The Warehouse Gallery
Featuring Patricia Phillips and Marion Wilson

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Warehouse Gallery will host a lecture by Patricia Phillips, Independent writer and curator, Chair of the Department of Art at Cornell University, in the Warehouse Community Classroom at 5:15 p.m. At 6:00 p.m. a conversation between Patricia Phillips and "Museum of Lost and Found" artist Marion Wilson will take place in the main gallery.

Artist Open: Darryl Hughto and Susan Roth
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Artist Open for this month offers a fresh perspective on the Everson's permanent art collection, an ideal opportunity for attendees to learn more about their favorite color field paintings. Enjoy an engaging discussion between the artists and Steven Kern, Everson Director. Darryl Hughto and Susan Roth will put into context works in the gallery by their New York City colleagues, including Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, and Robert Motherwell.

Artist Open occurs during Th3, The Third Thursday.

Exhibit and Lecture -- 15th War: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts
Featuring Mindy Fullilove

Price: Free
Grace Episcopal Church
819 Madison St., Syracuse

Renowned speaker Mindy Fullilove, author of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It (One World/Ballantine, 2004) will speak about the impact of urban renewal on such cities as Syracuse.

Fullilove, a professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University, is a board certified psychiatrist who has conducted research on AIDS and other epidemics of poor communities, with a special interest in the relationship between the collapse of communities and decline in health. Her talk is part of a wider commemoration of Syracuse's 15th Ward, a predominantly Jewish and African American neighborhood that was destroyed in the late 1950s and early 1960s through urban renewal, the construction of Interstate 81 and the expansion of Upstate Medical Center (now SUNY Upstate Medical University).

Fullilove's talk will be accompanied by the photography exhibition "15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed," which was organized, researched, designed and constructed by museum studies students in Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) under the direction of instructor Bradley Hudson. A reception and viewing time for the exhibition will be held April 16 at 5:00 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church's Parish Hall.

The exhibition traces the historical development of the neighborhood from the early 20th century through the urban renewal period of the 1960s and concludes with a look at the neighborhood as it is found today. On view will be photographs that document the early days of the district as it evolved into a center for Jewish life in Syracuse. As the area progressed from those early days, it gradually became a destination for African Americans moving north in search of a better life. The photographs also show the neighborhood during the urban renewal period and the construction of I-81.

The exhibition consists of nearly 60 photographs drawn from the collections of the Judaic Heritage Center, the Onondaga Historical Association, the Coulter Library at Onondaga Community College and Beauchamp Library, as well as former and current residents of this part of the city. Included in the exhibition are the photographs of Aldo Tambellini and Marjory Wilkins.

Food and Justice in the 'Cuse
University Neighbors Lecture Series
Featuring Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows

Price: $10 regular, $5 with student ID
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows is an Episcopal priest and home cook who grows her own food and advocates for sustainable food reform. She is Rector at Grace Church and Episcopal chaplain at Syracuse University. Jennifer has a food blog, Cookin' in the 'Cuse (www.cookininthecuse.com) and is active in the Syracuse Real Food Coop. Before getting her Master's in Divinity, she earned one in Historic Preservation at Cornell. Jennifer has been working on issues of hunger and justice for nearly 15 years. She is married to Harrison Burrows.

LeMoyne College
LeMoyne College Jazz Ensemble; Young Lions of Central New York
Featuring John Abercrombie, guitar

Price: $15 regular, $10 seniors, students free
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

ECM jazz recording artist John Abercrombie performs with the ensemble.

Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Morton Schiff Jazz Ensemble

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The ensemble performs under the direction of faculty members Joseph Riposo and Dr. John Coggiola. The ensemble will perform many jazz compositions. The concert will also feature the SU Jazz Saxophone Ensemble.

Parking is available in Irving Garage.

Westcott Theater
Audrye Sessions

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

With Greene Reveal, Branson, Jackson's Kid Summer

Death Warmed Over
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $25.95 plus tax and gratuities (includes meal and show)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Interactive mystery/comedy dinner theater. A sleepy village is in for strange events when a famous medium comes to a haunted cottage to run a live seance on his television show.

The Importance of Being Earnest
Onondaga Community College
Onondaga Drama Club

Price: $5
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Written in 1895 by Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a rollicking comedy with hilarious wordplay and laugh out loud circumstances. The wealthy Mr. Worthington is the freewheeling Earnest in Town, and the stern, secure Jack in the country. When Jack's friend Algy gets word of his friend's duplicity, he follows Jack to the county where he impersonates Earnest, intent on wooing Jack's ward, Cecily. Matters complicate when Gwendolyn, Jack's beloved, and Cecily both become infatuated with the name Earnest. Both must impersonate Earnest while avoiding the stern and serious Lady Bracknell, who is intent on ending the frivolities.

Sweeney Todd
Broadway in Syracuse

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Experience, live on stage, the musical that inspired the Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie. When the infamous demon barber takes up with his crafty neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, the two embark on a delicious plot to slice their way through London's upper crust. Justice is served -- along with lush melody, audacious humor and hair-raising excitement. Don't miss this phenomenal productionwith full music and lyrics by multiple Tony-Award winner Stephen Sondheim.

Read a review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The story is simplicity itself. A young girl, alive to everything around her and awakening within her, with hopes and dreams of the life she may one day lead with friends and family, confides to her diary the secrets of her heart. That diary, as we all know, becomes one of the lasting documents of the 20th century, a testament not to the horrors we know so well, but to the indomitability of the human spirit. That's what's so wonderful about this version of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly revised by Wendy Kesselman. With information gleaned from previously withheld portions of the diary and additional survivor accounts, we glimpse this remarkable young woman with greater clarity and deeper understanding of the fullness of her life. Was she on the verge of falling in love for the first time? Did she harbor misgivings about herself or members of the "family" imposed on her? We know the sad end of the tale, but do we really know the complexity of the heart that with its every beat sought to find the goodness in others?

Read a Review!

Preview: Poor Super Man
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

Price: $5
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

David is a painter whose success has brought him fame, money and insulation from the life experiences that inspired him to paint. When he decides he needs to get out in the world again and takes a job at a small cafe as a waiter, the last thing he expects is to fall in love with Matt, part of the husband and wife couple that own the cafe. Love, hate, life and death—all have a place in this contemporary story about a group of 30-something urbanites whose lives seem to be coming apart.

Read a Review!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

To a large extent, Cappuccilli's drawings and paintings are about the beauty of mark making, sensitivity of touch, and forms that are fundamentally mysterious. Her drawings are sometimes mistaken for photographs. The biomorphic drawings may read as benign or threatening hybrids, or as unknown species. The stain drawings developed from recognition of the delicate formal quality of grease stains, and their random patterns.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Photo-Drawings: Recent Works by Julieve Jubin and Juan Perdiguero, and An Introduction: Recent Works by Barbara Stout
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women's study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse. The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women's access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have always met regularly from October through April to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year's president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott, and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club's first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley, and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875-1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents.

Faces: Inspiration from Within -- Works by Erin Boyle
Westcott Community Center

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Cutting away from traditional portraiture, Erin creates edgy images that offer more expressive descriptions.

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer, and Tamara Natalie Madden
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer and Tamara Natalie Madden features works by three contemporary African American women artists who work in different media but explore issues of ethnicity, identity, history and culture in their work.

Robin Holder's works are inspired by issues of empowerment and integrity as well as the complexities of American identity: culture, gender, class, race and ethnicity. The works in her series "Behind Each Window, A Voice," were inspired by oral histories of eight of her neighbors in Brooklyn. Issues of race, social and political victimization, and ideas about society are shared by each of the subjects in their personal histories. The works are a combination of painting, collage and printmaking techniques.

Sonya Lawyer's photographic transfers combine imagery from vintage photographs with modern hand-dyed cotton fabric. The photographs were collected by the artist from vintage photo albums purchased at antique stores and through online auctions. Concerned that pieces of history were literally being torn apart and sold to the highest bidder, Lawyer was prompted to start acquiring images in order to protect them from further disturbance. Works from two series, "Searching For Beulah (limit of disturbance)" and "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)" contain singular images of men and women of color juxtaposed with fabric blocks of varying hues. The works are a celebration of the persons depicted, each work revealing strength, pride, beauty and a quintessential timelessness.

Tamara Natalie Madden, in her recent series of mixed media paintings, creates images of kings,queens and warriors, using everyday people as her inspiration. Recognizing the struggles of the working class, the unseen and unheard, Madden chooses to depict them as kings and queens, as a means of expressing appreciation for their experiences, struggles and triumphs. The paintings are layered with quilted fabrics, which represent regal clothing and, symbolically, storytelling and quilts reflecting African traditions. The birds in the paintings represent a sense of freedom.

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Exploring History with Art: The Changing View—Landscapes
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Techno_Culture
Redhouse

Price: Free
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Techno_Culture is an exhibition of works from artists utilizing numerous forms of technology in their creative process. Presented in association with the Department of Transmedia's Computer Art Program at Syracuse University, the show offers a sampling of the vast area of art forms unique within our digital-based culture. Techno_Culture features the work of artists Wafaa Bilal, Alicia Ross, Shawn Lawson, Meggan Gould, Michael Heroux, Olivia Robinson, Stephen Belovarich, and Chris Prior.

Curator Sean Hovendick teaches courses in Computer Art within the Department of Transmedia. Hovendick's interactive, procedual and time-based works explore the hidden forces of power, identity and social order within the mediated psyche. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally - most recently at the Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ; the traveling exhibition Experiencing the War in Iraq, and FutureSonic: International Festival of Art, Music & Ideas in Manchester, UK.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

Opening: BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

An opening reception will be held from 4:00-7:00 p.m.

The exhibition will feature work from seniors in VPA's School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, with a particular focus on the areas of painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts/material studies and art photography.

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Works include framed batik, cloth colleges, sculptural coiled basketry, quilting, tapestry, and more by artists Wilson Akuamoah-Boateng, Sharon Bottle Souva, Lauren Bristol, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, Linda Esterley, Alice Gant, Hilary Gifford, Mary Kester, and Holly Knott.

Wild Card Exhibit: Serymour and Blodgett School Art Show
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibition of works by Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, "Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass," is an installation composed of audio and video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. For this, their first co-exhibition, the artists provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello's work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

Iraq & the U.S. -- Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Iraq & the U.S.—Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace is an exhibit of artwork exchanged between Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and students at our own Van Duyn Elementary School. The exhibit will display a joint mural, an Iraqi mural and other artwork from children connected to the project.

The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The basis of this show will be a unique demonstration of city arts and culture. A showing of true urbanism and creativity that lies within the youth of this concrete civilization, where street performances, music, dancing, graffiti, art, and spoken word have evolved from simple basic ideas into the most complex and deep meaningful outputs of artistic expression.

"The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad" at the will feature new artists as well as past favorites: John Deere, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas; Marc Pitterelli, photography; Ramona Persaud, photography; Tina Dadabo, colored pencil & marker on paper; Amber Blanding, glass; Brandon Hall, mixed media; David McKenney, acrylic on canvas; Debra Parry Trichilo, photography; Edward Colelli, photography on silk; Jace Collins, mixed media; Jim Reed, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas;
Melissa Tiffany, collage; and Mick Mather, digitally manipulated photography.

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

Price: $10 regular, $8 seniors, $3 students
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

The LeMoyne Student Dance Company presents its annual spring concert featuring choreography from area professionals.

FridayFLICS: Iraq in Fragments
ArtRage Gallery

Price: $5 suggested donation
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Prized Cinema Verite documentary reveals stories of Iraq today, in a time of war and upheaval, told by Iraqis in their own words. Directed by James Longley, 2006. Oscar: Best Documentary. Award: Director Guild of America. Honored at the following film festivals: Amnesty International, Chicago Film Festival, Human Rights International Film Festival, Sundance.

Mustard's Retreat
Folkus Project

May Memorial Unitarian Society
3800 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Michael Hough and David Tamulevich, the Michigan-based duo known as Mustard's Retreat, are celebrating more than 35 years of making music with two milestones. In February they released their latest CD, "With Relish," a treasure trove of vintage tracks that captures the early years of this prolific musical partnership. Many of the songs were recorded in the early 1980s for their public radio show in Flint, and were taken from newly discovered original tapes. In addition, Tamulevich has been honored with the 2008 Annual Folk Tradition in the Midwest Lifetime Achievement Award by the board of the Midwest Regional Folk Alliance.

Everything Mustard's Retreat does on stage is aimed at pleasing, moving, and engaging their audiences. Their music is community music. It comes from our common roots and traditions, pays tribute to those roots and expands on them. It is music that speaks to people's hearts and lives and binds them together as an audience.

S.U. Concert Choir
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Westcott Theater
Toubab Krewe

Price: $12
Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

With Gadabout

Poet Carl Dennis
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Carl Dennis is the author of ten books of poetry, including, most recently, Unknown Friends (Penguin, 2007), and New and Selected Poems 1974 to 2004 (Penguin, 2004). His previous book, Practical Gods (Penguin, 2001), received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, in 2000, he was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize from Poetry Magazine and the Modern Poetry Association for his contribution to American poetry. He lives in Buffalo, where he is Artist in Residence at the State University of New York.

Two One-Act Plays by Sandra Fenichel Asher

Price: $7 adults; $5 children
Grace Episcopal Church
819 Madison St., Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-559-9892.

The Importance of Being Earnest
Onondaga Community College
Onondaga Drama Club

Price: $5
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Written in 1895 by Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a rollicking comedy with hilarious wordplay and laugh out loud circumstances. The wealthy Mr. Worthington is the freewheeling Earnest in Town, and the stern, secure Jack in the country. When Jack's friend Algy gets word of his friend's duplicity, he follows Jack to the county where he impersonates Earnest, intent on wooing Jack's ward, Cecily. Matters complicate when Gwendolyn, Jack's beloved, and Cecily both become infatuated with the name Earnest. Both must impersonate Earnest while avoiding the stern and serious Lady Bracknell, who is intent on ending the frivolities.

Elizabeth Rex
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park
Judith Harris, director

Price: $10 adults; $5 with student ID
The Warehouse, Main Auditorium
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Elizabeth Rex by T. Findley is a CNY premiere of an Off-Broadway smash. It shows Elizabeth I's deep-seated inner conflicts, in the time of Shakespeare, as a woman in a man's job when she confronts an actor who's a man portraying a woman.

Read a review!

Poor Super Man
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

Price: $20
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

David is a painter whose success has brought him fame, money and insulation from the life experiences that inspired him to paint. When he decides he needs to get out in the world again and takes a job at a small cafe as a waiter, the last thing he expects is to fall in love with Matt, part of the husband and wife couple that own the cafe. Love, hate, life and death—all have a place in this contemporary story about a group of 30-something urbanites whose lives seem to be coming apart.

Read a Review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The story is simplicity itself. A young girl, alive to everything around her and awakening within her, with hopes and dreams of the life she may one day lead with friends and family, confides to her diary the secrets of her heart. That diary, as we all know, becomes one of the lasting documents of the 20th century, a testament not to the horrors we know so well, but to the indomitability of the human spirit. That's what's so wonderful about this version of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly revised by Wendy Kesselman. With information gleaned from previously withheld portions of the diary and additional survivor accounts, we glimpse this remarkable young woman with greater clarity and deeper understanding of the fullness of her life. Was she on the verge of falling in love for the first time? Did she harbor misgivings about herself or members of the "family" imposed on her? We know the sad end of the tale, but do we really know the complexity of the heart that with its every beat sought to find the goodness in others?

Read a Review!

Ruthless! The Musical
The Talent Company
Dan Tursi, director

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Fasten your seatbelts...it's gonna be a laughed-so-hard-I-almost-fell-outta-my-seat night! What happens when you take the classic movies The Bad Seed, All About Eve, Gypsy, and Auntie Mame and roll them all together? You get Ruthless! The Musical, the story of 8-year-old Tina Denmark who would kill for the lead in her school play. Add her split-personality mother and a few other bizarre characters and you have a hysterical spoof filled with infamous deeds, mysterious pasts, hidden identities, outrageous plot twists, and loads of laughter.

Ten-year old Julia Goodwin stars as Tina Denmark, the aspiring child actress in Talent Companys production of Ruthless! A student at Reynolds Elementary School in Baldwinsville, Julia has appeared in seven musicals, including the title role in Annie and as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. In February, she appeared as Chip for Baker High School's production of Beauty & The Beast. She has sung the National Anthem for the Syracuse Crunch Hockey Team and the Syracuse University Women's Basketball Team. Recently called back after her first NYC audition, Julia was one of the finalists for Broadway's Mary Poppins.

Read a Review!

Improv Comedy Night
Saltine Warrior

Price: $13 regular, $10 students/seniors (cash only)
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Saltine Warrior is an improv comedy troupe. A Saltine Warrior show is a hilarious blend of short-form games (think the best parts of the hit TV show, "Who's Line Is It, Anyway?"), with the long-form scene styles in the tradition of Second City and Upright Citizen's Brigade.

This is truly interactive, improv comedy at its best! The entire performance is totally unscripted and unrehearsed...with scenes and games based on audience suggestions and participation.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

Wild Card Exhibit: Serymour and Blodgett School Art Show
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Works include framed batik, cloth colleges, sculptural coiled basketry, quilting, tapestry, and more by artists Wilson Akuamoah-Boateng, Sharon Bottle Souva, Lauren Bristol, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, Linda Esterley, Alice Gant, Hilary Gifford, Mary Kester, and Holly Knott.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

Fine Art & Flowers: Fields of Color
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular; children 5 and under free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

For the past seven years, the Everson Museum of Art has been delighting Central New York residents with Fine Art & Flowers. This annual event features floral arrangements inspired by art from the Everson's permanent collection.

Join us in celebrating the Everson's renowned art collection by participating in a weekend full of activity, where the Museum is transformed into a realm of flowers and beauty.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer, and Tamara Natalie Madden
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Three Sisters: The Art of Robin Holder, Sonya A. Lawyer and Tamara Natalie Madden features works by three contemporary African American women artists who work in different media but explore issues of ethnicity, identity, history and culture in their work.

Robin Holder's works are inspired by issues of empowerment and integrity as well as the complexities of American identity: culture, gender, class, race and ethnicity. The works in her series "Behind Each Window, A Voice," were inspired by oral histories of eight of her neighbors in Brooklyn. Issues of race, social and political victimization, and ideas about society are shared by each of the subjects in their personal histories. The works are a combination of painting, collage and printmaking techniques.

Sonya Lawyer's photographic transfers combine imagery from vintage photographs with modern hand-dyed cotton fabric. The photographs were collected by the artist from vintage photo albums purchased at antique stores and through online auctions. Concerned that pieces of history were literally being torn apart and sold to the highest bidder, Lawyer was prompted to start acquiring images in order to protect them from further disturbance. Works from two series, "Searching For Beulah (limit of disturbance)" and "Finding Authenticity (does anyone remember?)" contain singular images of men and women of color juxtaposed with fabric blocks of varying hues. The works are a celebration of the persons depicted, each work revealing strength, pride, beauty and a quintessential timelessness.

Tamara Natalie Madden, in her recent series of mixed media paintings, creates images of kings,queens and warriors, using everyday people as her inspiration. Recognizing the struggles of the working class, the unseen and unheard, Madden chooses to depict them as kings and queens, as a means of expressing appreciation for their experiences, struggles and triumphs. The paintings are layered with quilted fabrics, which represent regal clothing and, symbolically, storytelling and quilts reflecting African traditions. The birds in the paintings represent a sense of freedom.

Exploring History with Art: The Changing View—Landscapes
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

The exhibition will feature work from seniors in VPA's School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, with a particular focus on the areas of painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts/material studies and art photography.

Iraq & the U.S. -- Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Iraq & the U.S.—Children, Art & Building a Culture of Peace is an exhibit of artwork exchanged between Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and students at our own Van Duyn Elementary School. The exhibit will display a joint mural, an Iraqi mural and other artwork from children connected to the project.

The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The basis of this show will be a unique demonstration of city arts and culture. A showing of true urbanism and creativity that lies within the youth of this concrete civilization, where street performances, music, dancing, graffiti, art, and spoken word have evolved from simple basic ideas into the most complex and deep meaningful outputs of artistic expression.

"The Art of Urbanism: City Life in America & Abroad" at the will feature new artists as well as past favorites: John Deere, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas; Marc Pitterelli, photography; Ramona Persaud, photography; Tina Dadabo, colored pencil & marker on paper; Amber Blanding, glass; Brandon Hall, mixed media; David McKenney, acrylic on canvas; Debra Parry Trichilo, photography; Edward Colelli, photography on silk; Jace Collins, mixed media; Jim Reed, acrylic & spraypaint on canvas;
Melissa Tiffany, collage; and Mick Mather, digitally manipulated photography.

Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibition of works by Andrew Deutsch and Stephen Vitiello, "Sound Scores: Paper, Wood, Stone and Glass," is an installation composed of audio and video pieces as well as photographs, prints and sculpture. Deutsch and Vitiello are musicians, composers and sound artists who have been collaborating since 1999. For this, their first co-exhibition, the artists provided each other with musical scores for the other to perform. In so doing, they emphasize the visual nature of sound scores, shedding light on this complex, seemingly inaccessible medium called sound art.

In Vitiello's work viewers will see a shift from landscape photographs (7 Studies for Graphic Scores, 2007) to abstract black-and-white prints (Pond Set, 2008) that continue to refer to landscape through black lines that evoke both reeds and musical notes. In the background of his videos, Deutsch includes imagery from the "Notgeld" (emergency money that was put into circulation in Germany during the economic crisis of the 1920s) as a reflection on our difficult economic times. Deutsch also uses these collectibles in the making of his own sound scores; he has created a narrative referring to the films of Fritz Lang, to illustrated children's books, and to early 20th-century European artistic abstraction, where sound and sight blend into a common experience.

Periphercalculumination: A Projected Kinetic Installation
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Shaffer Art Building; Drawing Gallery (Room 431)
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Closing reception.

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

Price: $10 regular, $8 seniors, $3 students
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

The LeMoyne Student Dance Company presents its annual spring concert featuring choreography from area professionals.

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

Price: $10 regular, $8 seniors, $3 students
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

The LeMoyne Student Dance Company presents its annual spring concert featuring choreography from area professionals.

Graduate Vocal Recital
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Featuring Luba Lesser

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The program includes music by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Menotti, and Bolcom. The concert will also feature pianist Maryna Mazhukhova, a student chamber orchestra, and conductor Timothy Laughlin.

Free parking is available in Irving Garage

Catherine Russell in Concert
WAER

Price: $15
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

WAER hosts Catherine Russell, acclaimed blues and jazz singer, in a concert celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month. Russell is a legacy of Louis Armstrong's band member, Luis Russell.

To reserve tickets, phone Becky Slye at 315-443-4834.

Solo Piano Recital
Andrew Russo

Christ Episcopal Church
407 E. Seneca St., Manlius

Russo performs selected mazurkas of Frederic Chopin as well as short selections from his recent solo albums Dirty Little Secret and Mix Tape.

Westcott Theater
Asher Roth

Price: $20
Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

The Emperor's New Clothes
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

Price: $5
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Interactive retelling of the classic story.

Two One-Act Plays by Sandra Fenichel Asher

Price: $7 adults; $5 children
Grace Episcopal Church
819 Madison St., Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-559-9892.

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The story is simplicity itself. A young girl, alive to everything around her and awakening within her, with hopes and dreams of the life she may one day lead with friends and family, confides to her diary the secrets of her heart. That diary, as we all know, becomes one of the lasting documents of the 20th century, a testament not to the horrors we know so well, but to the indomitability of the human spirit. That's what's so wonderful about this version of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly revised by Wendy Kesselman. With information gleaned from previously withheld portions of the diary and additional survivor accounts, we glimpse this remarkable young woman with greater clarity and deeper understanding of the fullness of her life. Was she on the verge of falling in love for the first time? Did she harbor misgivings about herself or members of the "family" imposed on her? We know the sad end of the tale, but do we really know the complexity of the heart that with its every beat sought to find the goodness in others?

Read a Review!

Elizabeth Rex
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park
Judith Harris, director

Price: $10 adults; $5 with student ID
The Warehouse, Main Auditorium
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Elizabeth Rex by T. Findley is a CNY premiere of an Off-Broadway smash. It shows Elizabeth I's deep-seated inner conflicts, in the time of Shakespeare, as a woman in a man's job when she confronts an actor who's a man portraying a woman.

Read a review!

Poor Super Man
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

Price: $20
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

David is a painter whose success has brought him fame, money and insulation from the life experiences that inspired him to paint. When he decides he needs to get out in the world again and takes a job at a small cafe as a waiter, the last thing he expects is to fall in love with Matt, part of the husband and wife couple that own the cafe. Love, hate, life and death—all have a place in this contemporary story about a group of 30-something urbanites whose lives seem to be coming apart.

Read a Review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The story is simplicity itself. A young girl, alive to everything around her and awakening within her, with hopes and dreams of the life she may one day lead with friends and family, confides to her diary the secrets of her heart. That diary, as we all know, becomes one of the lasting documents of the 20th century, a testament not to the horrors we know so well, but to the indomitability of the human spirit. That's what's so wonderful about this version of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly revised by Wendy Kesselman. With information gleaned from previously withheld portions of the diary and additional survivor accounts, we glimpse this remarkable young woman with greater clarity and deeper understanding of the fullness of her life. Was she on the verge of falling in love for the first time? Did she harbor misgivings about herself or members of the "family" imposed on her? We know the sad end of the tale, but do we really know the complexity of the heart that with its every beat sought to find the goodness in others?

Read a Review!

Ruthless! The Musical
The Talent Company
Dan Tursi, director

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Fasten your seatbelts...it's gonna be a laughed-so-hard-I-almost-fell-outta-my-seat night! What happens when you take the classic movies The Bad Seed, All About Eve, Gypsy, and Auntie Mame and roll them all together? You get Ruthless! The Musical, the story of 8-year-old Tina Denmark who would kill for the lead in her school play. Add her split-personality mother and a few other bizarre characters and you have a hysterical spoof filled with infamous deeds, mysterious pasts, hidden identities, outrageous plot twists, and loads of laughter.

Ten-year old Julia Goodwin stars as Tina Denmark, the aspiring child actress in Talent Companys production of Ruthless! A student at Reynolds Elementary School in Baldwinsville, Julia has appeared in seven musicals, including the title role in Annie and as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. In February, she appeared as Chip for Baker High School's production of Beauty & The Beast. She has sung the National Anthem for the Syracuse Crunch Hockey Team and the Syracuse University Women's Basketball Team. Recently called back after her first NYC audition, Julia was one of the finalists for Broadway's Mary Poppins.

Read a Review!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Window Projects: Museum of the City of Lost and Found
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Marion Wilson's latest sculpture project, is a continuation of her public art project launched in conjunction with the 2008 New Orleans Biennial. The exhibition is a combination of hexagram patterns of i-ching (a symbol system used to identify order in random events) collaboratively painted on the wall by the artist, community members, faculty and students at Syracuse University; miniature "igloo" and cast resin objects; and a short video of Wilson's bicycle (mobile museum) performance in New Orleans edited by Jessica Posner. Wilson invites audience participation by filling out Lost and Found Report cards (available throughout the exhibition), her method of collecting stories about viewers' personal losses, chances, findings and discoveries.

Marion Wilson uses igloos as a nomadic structure of native materials to remind us of our basic human need for shelter and protection. In addition, it is a reference to fundamentals of human existence and the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merz (1925-2003). In New Orleans, Wilson's sculpture was originally mounted on a constructed bicycle able to roam the city streets within the St. Roch neighborhood and the French Market. In Syracuse, Wilson will exhibit her 'mobile museum' at the Warehouse Gallery, thus, creating a "museum inside a museum." Although the installation in the Window Projects will remain through June 6, its appearance will continuously change through the continual addition of found materials collected by the artist. Wilson will be guided in selecting these additional materials by outside interviews with the general public in the greater Syracuse community.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

Price: Free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The exhibition investigates the lives of those who work and play on the fabled bodies of water that border the city's five boroughs. Among those you will meet are a dry dock operator, an eel fisherman, a fireboat preservationist, and a guerilla swimmer. Gathered from the East River to the Erie Basin, the Hudson to Hempstead Harbor, each new perspective connects a personal passion to a fabled local maritime history.

Fine Art & Flowers: Fields of Color
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular; children 5 and under free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

For the past seven years, the Everson Museum of Art has been delighting Central New York residents with Fine Art & Flowers. This annual event features floral arrangements inspired by art from the Everson's permanent collection.

Join us in celebrating the Everson's renowned art collection by participating in a weekend full of activity, where the Museum is transformed into a realm of flowers and beauty.

As It Happens: Artists-in-Residence at Light Work
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Josh Brilliant curates a selection of images by recent Light Work Artists-in-Residence, including Amy Stein, Kelli Connell, Cristina Fraire, Krista Steinke, and Christine Osinski. Brilliant is currently an MFA candidate in the Museum Studies program at Syracuse University.

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Limbo" depicts a graceful yet unusually honest and insightful snapshot of Eritrea, an East African country suspended in an unsettled state between war and peace.

Eritrea warred with neighboring Ethiopia for 30 years before gaining independence in 1991. Then, in 1998, they entered another war with Ethiopia that lasted two years. Today, the war-torn country is yet again at the brink of war with their neighbor. Years of unrest have left the people of Eritrea waiting for life to improve. According to Habteslasie: "Transitory states become permanent; empty villas, destroyed old buildings and unfinished new buildings dot the landscape, monuments to the suspension of history. The collision between Eritrea's proud historical narrative and the bleak ennui of the present has produced an obsessive focus on the future. Reconstruction and infrastructure development are energetically driven forward whilst the economy remains essentially shut off from the outside world." The images in "Limbo" capture both destruction and construction, both the unhealed wounds of war and a fierce optimism and hope for a brighter future.

Habteslasie was born in Kuwait, and his parents are Eritrean. He received his master's degree from the London College of Communication in photojournalism and documentary photography. His photographic projects look at the ideas of identity, history, and the re-evaluation of our relationship with historical process. His work has been exhibited at venues such as Flowers East and 198 Gallery in London. His work has also been published in Source Magazine.

Exploring History with Art: The Changing View—Landscapes
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

MFA 2009 is an exhibition of master of fine arts degree candidates from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Twenty-two artists will exhibit a range of work from traditional media such as oil on canvas, portraiture, and atmospheric-fired pottery to contemporary media including digital prints, site-specific installation, and video projection. The diversity of the show is also distinctly international, with artists from Canada, France, Korea and Russia.

While the artists work in a variety of media and techniques, themes emerge across the disciplines. The concept of the fabricated or manipulated environment is evident in many of the artists' sculptural installations, including a monumental model stagecoach positioned in a moon-landing re-creation and a faux-storefront display with ceramic poodles that both mock and celebrate what we regard as haute couture.

Nostalgia and personal identity are also sources of inspiration in this year's exhibition. One artist's work reinterprets the well-known characters from Sesame Street into an iconic status, while another incorporates the artist's past memories and dark humor into photographs that explore childhood experiences of fear, mortality and sex.

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

The exhibition will feature work from seniors in VPA's School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, with a particular focus on the areas of painting, illustration, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts/material studies and art photography.

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer's interest in materials and artistic processes is evident in "Concealed Objects," a provocative new site-specific installation created for her first museum solo exhibition at the Everson. Inspired by British artists such as Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, whose sculpture is at once unique and fleeting, Cofer creates objects that exist for a moment and place in time and then are recycled and reused for other projects. The installation designed for the Everson is composed of skirt forms constructed of cloth and wet clay suspended from the ceiling in grid fashion. The skirts, arranged in perfect harmony within the space that contains them, appear to float in contradiction to the heavy clay that pulls them downward. Each garment is cut from a Victorian-era dress pattern (ca. 1895), combined with wet clay and modeled by hand to capture every fold of the fabric as it cascades to the floor. The repetition of form and motion recalls the monotonous tasks of domestic chores that have existed for centuries without change. Cofer assigns new meaning to the found and recycled fabrics she chooses for the garments: the bed linens, table cloths, furniture upholstery, and well-worn clothing conceal the individual histories, memories and stories untold about their previous owners.

Anne Cofer was the recipient of the Best-of-Show Award given at the 2008 Everson Biennial exhibition.

50/50: Works of Nancy Jurs
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Nancy Jurs juxtaposes her signature large-scale, hand-built ceramic sculptures with recent site-specific installations composed of ceramic, mixed-media and found objects. Throughout her 40-year career Jurs, a Rochester-based sculptor and ceramic artist, has produced an astounding body of work that largely addresses female power and strength. In 2003, Jurs completed the Armor Series, a grouping of six life-size armored torsos that present themselves with empowered determination. The stylized shells not only serve to protect the figures but to symbolize renewed confidence and strength in a post-9/11 world. "Undaunted" (2003), which is part of the Armor Series, was acquired by the Everson in 2004.

Also on view will be "Triad," a monumental 16-foot high sculpture composed of ceramic slabs that have been hand-built: cut, scraped, modeled, and stacked in three interacting totem-like structures. Triad will be prominently displayed in the Rosamond Gifford Sculpture Court.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

A new exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter (photography), Gretchen Hamlin (blown glass jewelry) and Lisa Noviasky (oil paintings).

Folk Music Series: Fritz's Polka Band
Arts Alive in Liverpool

Price: Free
Liverpool Public Library
310 Tulip St., Liverpool

Verona-based Fritz's Polka Band (FPB) was formed in 1978 by lead accordionist, Fred Scherz Sr., and his 8-year old son, Fritz, for whom the band was named. FPB performs an eclectic mix of musical styles, including modern polka, country, fox-trot, waltz, and more. As the first polka band to perform at a Woodstock Festival, Fritz's Polka Band is known for smashing stereotypes regarding "polka" music. FPB was also the first polka band to perform at B.B. King's Blues Club as well as The China Club, both nightlife landmarks in New York City. FPB has performed on stage with "Canada's Polka King," Walter Ostanek (three-time Grammy-winner) and "America's Polka King," the late Frank Yankovic (Grammy-winner).

In a Persian Garden
Civic Morning Musicals
Syracuse Opera Artists-in-Residence

Price: $15.00 adults, students free
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Syracuse Opera Artists-in-Residence will be performing Liza Lehmann's In a Persian Garden for four solo voices and piano, as well as the Brahms Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 65. Piano accompaniment by Douglas Kinney Frost and Adam Turner.

Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Onondaga Community College
Featuring Kevin Moore, piano

Price: Free
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse