Monday, September 12, 2011

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

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

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

Fall Flamenco Festival: Africa and Iberia

Price: $18 adult, $12 with student ID, $35 VIP
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

An evening of music and dance with Sergio Aranda, flamenco dancer from Spain guest artists of AB Productions and Puente Flamenco.

A portion of the proceeds of this event will be donated to master puppeteer Vladimir V. of Open Hand Theater, whose home was destroyed in a fire.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

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

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

My Mother Is ...
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Recent work by Amy Bartell and Cynthia Clabough, with special guest KayCie Simmons. Also featuring works in collaboration with Emma Bourque, Nate Bourque, Maddie Carlone, Alyssa Lunka, Aaron Roe and Sara Roe. The exhibition explores our relationship to our mothers.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Inner Gravitas
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Mixed media installation by Alexey Vs and Michael John.

Unsung Heroes Film Series: Indestructible
Redhouse

Price: $8 regular, $5 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Diagnosed with ALS, filmmaker Ben Byer starts documenting his life on camera. What begins as a series of video diaries grows into an epic journey spanning three years and six countries as he scours the globe looking for answers and a cure. Includes a complimentary beverage and guest speaker.

Panel Discussion: Street Art and the Use of Spray Paint
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This panel discussion is being held in conjunction with the exhibition "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street" at the Warehouse Gallery. Featuring California-based street artists Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez.

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

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

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

My Mother Is ...
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Recent work by Amy Bartell and Cynthia Clabough, with special guest KayCie Simmons. Also featuring works in collaboration with Emma Bourque, Nate Bourque, Maddie Carlone, Alyssa Lunka, Aaron Roe and Sara Roe. The exhibition explores our relationship to our mothers.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

Perceived Environments
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The gallery's September exhibit is a group show featuring six artists' comprehension of captured moments in their personal and imagined environments.

James Skvarch, well known for his detailed etchings of real or inventive spaces, will display works selected from two of his series, "Interiors" and "Caprices."

Self-taught artist John (Jaws) McGrath details in pen and ink his 'minds-eye' remembrances of sights he encountered throughout his 30-year travels across the country as a biker.

The show's exhibited photography by artists Harry Freeman-Jones and R. L. Mercer will give viewers up-close takes of familiar environments as Freeman-Jones presents lush colors of flora and fauna in a back yard garden, and Mercer, in his photogenic eye, depicts things normally overlooked in everyday scenes.

Artists Wendy Harris and Robert Niedzwiecki paint landscapes in different ways, Harris using pastels to achieve pure color intensity, and Niedzwiecki using oils and watercolors to create a more realistic look at what is in front of him.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
XL Projects

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

"Drawn to Paint" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings and sketchbooks by Jerome Witkin, one of America's leading figurative painters and a longtime professor of painting in VPA's Department of Art.

"Drawn to Paint" marks the first time Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. Curator of the exhibition is Edward A. Aiken, associate professor and program coordinator of VPA's graduate program in museum studies in the Department of Design. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

The works of Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition, while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

For more information, phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours or e-mail Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com. Complete information and related programming is available at suart.syr.edu or on Facebook.

Inner Gravitas
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Mixed media installation by Alexey Vs and Michael John.

The Machine/La Maquina: The Art of Favianna Rodriguez
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

The work of Favianna Rodriguez embodies an art and cultural practice that gives voices to disenfranchised people all over the world, transforming it into a tool for agitation, inspiration, and action. The exhibition, The Machine/La Maquina will feature some of Favianna's newest works. Favianna's composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant youth in the USA, land workers fighting for their survival, or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Gala Opening Night With Todd Hobin
LeMoyne College

Price: $25, reservations recommended
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

An intimate evening with the founder of the Todd Hobin Band performing his favorite tunes new and old. Join us for this celebration as we toast the beginning of a new season.

Papadosio, with Phantom Chemistry, Vapor Eyes
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Rahul Mehta, fiction
Raymond Carver Reading Series

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

The reading will be preceded by a question and answer session from 3:45-4:30. The public is welcome.

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Windows Project: Oscar Garces: Transcendence
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Cuban-born, and Syracuse-based artist Oscar Garces' site-specific mural in the Window Projects space will offer a local echo to "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art". This is his first solo exhibition. Both exhibitions will be organized in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in Syracuse.

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Outlandish Way: Works by William Rollins Hall, Jr
Petit Branch Library

Price: Free
Petit Branch Library
105 Victoria Pl., Syracuse

William Rollins Hall, Jr. is displaying his photos for the fifth time at Petit Branch. His technique of digitally altering the photos gives them a surreal quality.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

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

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

My Mother Is ...
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Recent work by Amy Bartell and Cynthia Clabough, with special guest KayCie Simmons. Also featuring works in collaboration with Emma Bourque, Nate Bourque, Maddie Carlone, Alyssa Lunka, Aaron Roe and Sara Roe. The exhibition explores our relationship to our mothers.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

There will be an artist discussion this evening 5:00-7:00 pm with a kora performance at 6:00 pm, as part of Th3, the Third Thursday citywide art open.

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

Perceived Environments
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The gallery's September exhibit is a group show featuring six artists' comprehension of captured moments in their personal and imagined environments.

James Skvarch, well known for his detailed etchings of real or inventive spaces, will display works selected from two of his series, "Interiors" and "Caprices."

Self-taught artist John (Jaws) McGrath details in pen and ink his 'minds-eye' remembrances of sights he encountered throughout his 30-year travels across the country as a biker.

The show's exhibited photography by artists Harry Freeman-Jones and R. L. Mercer will give viewers up-close takes of familiar environments as Freeman-Jones presents lush colors of flora and fauna in a back yard garden, and Mercer, in his photogenic eye, depicts things normally overlooked in everyday scenes.

Artists Wendy Harris and Robert Niedzwiecki paint landscapes in different ways, Harris using pastels to achieve pure color intensity, and Niedzwiecki using oils and watercolors to create a more realistic look at what is in front of him.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
XL Projects

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

There will be an exhibition reception this evening from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in conjunction with Th3, Syracuse's city-wide art open.

"Drawn to Paint" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings and sketchbooks by Jerome Witkin, one of America's leading figurative painters and a longtime professor of painting in VPA's Department of Art.

"Drawn to Paint" marks the first time Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. Curator of the exhibition is Edward A. Aiken, associate professor and program coordinator of VPA's graduate program in museum studies in the Department of Design. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

The works of Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition, while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

For more information, phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours or e-mail Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com. Complete information and related programming is available at suart.syr.edu or on Facebook.

Inner Gravitas
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Mixed media installation by Alexey Vs and Michael John.

The Machine/La Maquina: The Art of Favianna Rodriguez
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

The work of Favianna Rodriguez embodies an art and cultural practice that gives voices to disenfranchised people all over the world, transforming it into a tool for agitation, inspiration, and action. The exhibition, The Machine/La Maquina will feature some of Favianna's newest works. Favianna's composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant youth in the USA, land workers fighting for their survival, or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens.

Meet the Artist: Nanette Bergevin
Eureka Crafts

Eureka Crafts
210 Walton St., Syracuse

Local jewelry artist & potter Nanette Bergevin creates unique pieces that reflect the broad perspectives of the artist's creative moods. Selecting components from shapes, cuts and finishes that capture her imagination, Nanette's creations are designed from a variety of pearls, semi-precious stones, colored glass and metal beads. With skillful blend of colors and tones to achieve the individualistic effect of each finished piece, her designs range the full spectrum -- sport, casual, formal, bold or whimsical.

Opening: Self Expressed: Works of Mary Fragapane
Redhouse

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

There will be an opening reception this evening 5:00-8:00 pm, with an artist talk at 7:00 pm.

Fragapane is best known for her enigmatic female figures that seek to capture the intangibles of joy, passion, and the beauty of the human spirit. Working in an expressive style on un-gessoed canvas, she uses a layering process incorporating acrylic paints, chalk and oil pastels, pencil, and water.

Fragapane has exhibited extensively in Manhattan and throughout New York, Cleveland, California and internationally on the Island of Curacao. In addition to her solo shows, she has been commissioned for numerous Public Art projects.

PAL Project Summer Works
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

There will be a gallery reception from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Opening: Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art: Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez
The Warehouse Gallery

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

An opening reception will be held this evening 5:00-8:00 pm.

California-based street artists Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez will create new temporary murals inside the Warehouse Gallery. The work is based on improvisation, collaboration, and the notion that how and what they paint is recognizably Californian in its focus on strong colors, patterns, forms, and nature.

Their language consists of colorful abstract forms pertaining to optical illusions and movement, faces, evoking real and imaginary urban settings, and tropical imaginary landscapes. All three of them have significantly contributed to public art in San Francisco, San Diego, and other major cities within (Minneapolis; Washington, DC) and outside of the United States (Beijing, Dubai, Oaxaca, Sydney, Tokyo, Zurich) through their use of spray (Apex, Chor) and traditional paint (Jet Martinez) to achieve elaborate compositions with high attention to detail.

Read a Review!

Dying Oak, Wild Raspberry Bush: Works by Pae White
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Two videos, Dying Oak/Elephant (3-min loop) and Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush)(1-min loop), both 2009, by internationally recognized artist and designer, Pae White.

These two video pieces employ high-tech 3D scanning and motion animation techniques and apply them to objects from the natural world, playfully interrogating the integrity of the human/nature divide. The result is a mesmerizing exploration of natural form in which perspective and scale are in constant flux, the data points coalescing for a moment to create an image that is almost hyper-real in its detail, and in the next dispersing into glowing abstractions that might be galaxies or cities at night.

Human Rights Film Festival: Budrus
SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Communications

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Budrus" (Julia Bacha, USA, 2009) is a powerful documentary that follows Ayed Morrar, a Palestinian community organizer, as he unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an inspiring nonviolent movement to save his village of Budrus in the West Bank from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. Hailed by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times as a "must-see documentary," "Budrus" illuminates the promising strategies of a progressive and inclusive movement for non-violent change in the region. Winner of numerous awards at major film festivals in Jerusalem, San Francisco, Berlin and New York, "Budrus" will be introduced by Nadav Greenberg, outreach and programming coordinator at Just Vision, the organization that produced the film. Greenberg will also lead a discussion after the screening.

Public parking will be available for $4 on Thursday at Booth Garage (Comstock Avenue)

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Recent Work: Sarah Oppenheimer
Syracuse University School of Architecture

Price: Free
Slocum Hall Auditorium
Syracuse University campus, Syracuse

Remnants
ArtRage Gallery
Featuring Michael Greenlar

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

The story of the Hmong people in Laos is a story of survival. Recruited first by the French, and then by the Americans, to be the front line of defense against the North Vietnamese army, their territory became a fierce battleground of the Viet Nam War. The United States' covert bombing campaign from 1964 to 1973 gave Laos the distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of warfare. Photojournalist Mike Greenlar made 10 trips to Laos between 2000 and 2009 to document the lives the Hmong were fashioning in two resettlement villages. There they continue to farm land rife with unexploded cluster bombs and other munitions. Remnants is more than an exquisite book of photographs; it is a part of the lives of both a people and the man who decided to tell their story. Mike will be giving a presentation and signing copies of this extraordinary work.

Presented in conjunction with Th3, the Third Thursday citywide art open.

Artist Lecture
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Lecture featuring California-based street artists Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez, in conjunction with the exhibit "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art."

Artist Open: Lee Whitted
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Jazz Pianist Lee Whitted will perform the timeless melodies of The Great American Songbook. Guests will enjoy songs from "the golden age of songwriting" (1920-1960) by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and others. Whitted will also share stories about the songwriters, including their compositions and inspirations. A presentation of paintings from the Everson's permanent collection, which were created during that era will accompany Whitted's performance.

Performance offered in conjunction with Th3, the Third Thursday citywide art open.

Who's Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Fiddler on the Loose
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $32.50 (includes meal, show, tax and gratuities)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

The milkman, Skeevya, and his family have been forced to leave their beloved little village of Havavodka and have immigrated to America. The quaint Russian countryside has been replaced by the bright lights of New York City and the old world traditions have been replaced by the new world permissions. In fact, Skeevya now has a new job ... with the Russian Mafia. At last he is a rich man! But how long can it last? Remember: You're gonna get a little on you when you're playing in the borscht.

For reservations, phone 315-475-1807 or email syracuse@meatballs.com.

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

*SOLD OUT* Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

Happ'ly ever after can be a royal pain in the ass! A riotous new musical-comedy revue featuring the original storybook princesses comically kvetching about the exploitation they've suffered in the Disney movies and theme parks. Snow White and her angry band of warbling royal friends musically storm the castle in this hilariously clever take on the princesses!

Disenchanted! is the winner of the 2010 New Jersey Playwrights Contest.

Musical Director Michael Stephan. Music, lyrics, book by Dennis T. Giacino; additional lyrics by Fiely A. Matias.

This show is intended for mature audiences only.

Read a Review!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Windows Project: Oscar Garces: Transcendence
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Cuban-born, and Syracuse-based artist Oscar Garces' site-specific mural in the Window Projects space will offer a local echo to "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art". This is his first solo exhibition. Both exhibitions will be organized in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in Syracuse.

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

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

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

My Mother Is ...
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Recent work by Amy Bartell and Cynthia Clabough, with special guest KayCie Simmons. Also featuring works in collaboration with Emma Bourque, Nate Bourque, Maddie Carlone, Alyssa Lunka, Aaron Roe and Sara Roe. The exhibition explores our relationship to our mothers.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Layers
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Lynette Blake: oil paintings on canvas
Carol Ackles: hand built and wheel thrown ceramics
Jan Navales: hand dyed, screen printed, stitched and beaded fabric wall hangings

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Self Expressed: Works of Mary Fragapane
Redhouse

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

Fragapane is best known for her enigmatic female figures that seek to capture the intangibles of joy, passion, and the beauty of the human spirit. Working in an expressive style on un-gessoed canvas, she uses a layering process incorporating acrylic paints, chalk and oil pastels, pencil, and water.

Fragapane has exhibited extensively in Manhattan and throughout New York, Cleveland, California and internationally on the Island of Curacao. In addition to her solo shows, she has been commissioned for numerous Public Art projects.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

Perceived Environments
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The gallery's September exhibit is a group show featuring six artists' comprehension of captured moments in their personal and imagined environments.

James Skvarch, well known for his detailed etchings of real or inventive spaces, will display works selected from two of his series, "Interiors" and "Caprices."

Self-taught artist John (Jaws) McGrath details in pen and ink his 'minds-eye' remembrances of sights he encountered throughout his 30-year travels across the country as a biker.

The show's exhibited photography by artists Harry Freeman-Jones and R. L. Mercer will give viewers up-close takes of familiar environments as Freeman-Jones presents lush colors of flora and fauna in a back yard garden, and Mercer, in his photogenic eye, depicts things normally overlooked in everyday scenes.

Artists Wendy Harris and Robert Niedzwiecki paint landscapes in different ways, Harris using pastels to achieve pure color intensity, and Niedzwiecki using oils and watercolors to create a more realistic look at what is in front of him.

Photography on the Edge: Between Realism and Abstraction
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The show features photographs by Central New York artists that address the relationship between realistic representation and abstract concepts. Participating artists include Willson Cummer, Bob Gates, Elisabeth Groat, Peter Mahan, Yolanda Tooley, Jeanann Wieners, Diana Whiting, and Jamie Young.

The co-curators, Jen Gandee and Syracuse-area photographer, Bob Gates, in selecting work for this show, were looking for images that are true to the perennial conflict in the history of photography between representational and non-representational images. The same conflicting impulses that have shaped other forms of art--realism, impressionism, expressionism, abstraction, surrealism--have had their adherents among photographers. The works in this exhibit show how some photographers in Central New York respond to or participate in that complex history.

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

Opening: On My Own Time
Everson Museum of Art
CNY Arts

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Since 1974, the Cultural Resources Council, in collaboration with the Everson, has presented On My Own Time. A celebration of artwork created by employees of local businesses on their own time, the exhibition is meant to promote creativity and artistic endeavors by those who are not full-time artists.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art: Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez
The Warehouse Gallery

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

California-based street artists Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez will create new temporary murals inside the Warehouse Gallery. The work is based on improvisation, collaboration, and the notion that how and what they paint is recognizably Californian in its focus on strong colors, patterns, forms, and nature.

Their language consists of colorful abstract forms pertaining to optical illusions and movement, faces, evoking real and imaginary urban settings, and tropical imaginary landscapes. All three of them have significantly contributed to public art in San Francisco, San Diego, and other major cities within (Minneapolis; Washington, DC) and outside of the United States (Beijing, Dubai, Oaxaca, Sydney, Tokyo, Zurich) through their use of spray (Apex, Chor) and traditional paint (Jet Martinez) to achieve elaborate compositions with high attention to detail.

Read a Review!

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
XL Projects

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

"Drawn to Paint" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings and sketchbooks by Jerome Witkin, one of America's leading figurative painters and a longtime professor of painting in VPA's Department of Art.

"Drawn to Paint" marks the first time Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. Curator of the exhibition is Edward A. Aiken, associate professor and program coordinator of VPA's graduate program in museum studies in the Department of Design. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

The works of Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition, while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

For more information, phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours or e-mail Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com. Complete information and related programming is available at suart.syr.edu or on Facebook.

Inner Gravitas
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Mixed media installation by Alexey Vs and Michael John.

The Machine/La Maquina: The Art of Favianna Rodriguez
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

The work of Favianna Rodriguez embodies an art and cultural practice that gives voices to disenfranchised people all over the world, transforming it into a tool for agitation, inspiration, and action. The exhibition, The Machine/La Maquina will feature some of Favianna's newest works. Favianna's composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant youth in the USA, land workers fighting for their survival, or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens.

Dying Oak, Wild Raspberry Bush: Works by Pae White
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Two videos, Dying Oak/Elephant (3-min loop) and Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush)(1-min loop), both 2009, by internationally recognized artist and designer, Pae White.

These two video pieces employ high-tech 3D scanning and motion animation techniques and apply them to objects from the natural world, playfully interrogating the integrity of the human/nature divide. The result is a mesmerizing exploration of natural form in which perspective and scale are in constant flux, the data points coalescing for a moment to create an image that is almost hyper-real in its detail, and in the next dispersing into glowing abstractions that might be galaxies or cities at night.

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

4:00 pm: Jimmy Vavallo, with Chuck Sgroi, John LaTocha, Tony Licamele, Jim Nestico, Richard Mulpagano
6:15 pm: Nova, with Fabian Provenza
8:00 pm: Esty Crisona
9:30 pm: Atlas, with George Feltman

For more information, visit www.festaitaliana.bizland.com.

Human Rights Film Festival: We Were Here
SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Communications

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"We Were Here" is David Weisman's reflective and deeply moving portrait of San Francisco's gay community during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Through the perspectives of five men and women who survived this unimaginable crisis, the film reveals how San Francisco's compassionate, multifaceted and creative response to AIDS remains today a powerful standard to aspire to in seeking a healthier, more just and more humane society. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Hallas and local AIDS activists Michael Salvo and Nick Orth (Friends of Dorothy Catholic Worker House).

Public parking will be available for $4 at Q4 (College Place) on Friday evening.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Shadowlands
Appleseed Productions
Sharee Lemos, director

Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, led a quiet, unassuming life, surrounded by his Oxford companions and held aloft by his unwavering Christian faith. But when he met Joy Davidman, American poet and divorcee, everything changed. Their romance came to challenge everything he understood about faith, hope and love. Written by William Nicholson.

Read a Review!

From Cuba to 'Cuse
ArtRage Gallery

Price: $10 suggested donation
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

José Miguel was raised with the wisdom of his grandmother and the Cuban revolution in the little town of Santa Clara. His one-man performance, "From Cuba to 'Cuse." is his personal story of growing up in Cuba and the culture clash he encountered upon immigrating to the United States. He will be sharing the stories of his life that, in his words, "I shouldn't be telling you, but I'm going to tell them to you anyway. These stories are my gift to you. If you want to cry, cry; if you want to laugh, laugh, but I want to be sure that you leave the theater with part of my essence, my being , my soul. I want this to be an unapologetic view of José Miguel Hernandez Hurtado."

This one-time performance will benefit the ArtRage Gallery.

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

The Queen of Bingo
Encore Presentations
William Edward White, director

Glen Loch Restaurant
4626 North St., Jamesville

A comedy of love by the numbers, by Jeanne Michels and Phyllis Murphy

Read a review!

*SOLD OUT* Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

Happ'ly ever after can be a royal pain in the ass! A riotous new musical-comedy revue featuring the original storybook princesses comically kvetching about the exploitation they've suffered in the Disney movies and theme parks. Snow White and her angry band of warbling royal friends musically storm the castle in this hilariously clever take on the princesses!

Disenchanted! is the winner of the 2010 New Jersey Playwrights Contest.

Musical Director Michael Stephan. Music, lyrics, book by Dennis T. Giacino; additional lyrics by Fiely A. Matias.

This show is intended for mature audiences only.

Read a Review!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Windows Project: Oscar Garces: Transcendence
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Cuban-born, and Syracuse-based artist Oscar Garces' site-specific mural in the Window Projects space will offer a local echo to "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art". This is his first solo exhibition. Both exhibitions will be organized in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in Syracuse.

Inner Gravitas
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Mixed media installation by Alexey Vs and Michael John.

Layers
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Lynette Blake: oil paintings on canvas
Carol Ackles: hand built and wheel thrown ceramics
Jan Navales: hand dyed, screen printed, stitched and beaded fabric wall hangings

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

On My Own Time
Everson Museum of Art
CNY Arts

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Since 1974, the Cultural Resources Council, in collaboration with the Everson, has presented On My Own Time. A celebration of artwork created by employees of local businesses on their own time, the exhibition is meant to promote creativity and artistic endeavors by those who are not full-time artists.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Perceived Environments
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The gallery's September exhibit is a group show featuring six artists' comprehension of captured moments in their personal and imagined environments.

James Skvarch, well known for his detailed etchings of real or inventive spaces, will display works selected from two of his series, "Interiors" and "Caprices."

Self-taught artist John (Jaws) McGrath details in pen and ink his 'minds-eye' remembrances of sights he encountered throughout his 30-year travels across the country as a biker.

The show's exhibited photography by artists Harry Freeman-Jones and R. L. Mercer will give viewers up-close takes of familiar environments as Freeman-Jones presents lush colors of flora and fauna in a back yard garden, and Mercer, in his photogenic eye, depicts things normally overlooked in everyday scenes.

Artists Wendy Harris and Robert Niedzwiecki paint landscapes in different ways, Harris using pastels to achieve pure color intensity, and Niedzwiecki using oils and watercolors to create a more realistic look at what is in front of him.

Opening: Photography on the Edge: Between Realism and Abstraction
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

There will be an opening reception this evening 6:00-8:00 pm.

The show features photographs by Central New York artists that address the relationship between realistic representation and abstract concepts. Participating artists include Willson Cummer, Bob Gates, Elisabeth Groat, Peter Mahan, Yolanda Tooley, Jeanann Wieners, Diana Whiting, and Jamie Young.

The co-curators, Jen Gandee and Syracuse-area photographer, Bob Gates, in selecting work for this show, were looking for images that are true to the perennial conflict in the history of photography between representational and non-representational images. The same conflicting impulses that have shaped other forms of art--realism, impressionism, expressionism, abstraction, surrealism--have had their adherents among photographers. The works in this exhibit show how some photographers in Central New York respond to or participate in that complex history.

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

The Machine/La Maquina: The Art of Favianna Rodriguez
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

The work of Favianna Rodriguez embodies an art and cultural practice that gives voices to disenfranchised people all over the world, transforming it into a tool for agitation, inspiration, and action. The exhibition, The Machine/La Maquina will feature some of Favianna's newest works. Favianna's composites reflect literal and imaginative migration, global community, and interdependence. Whether her subjects are immigrant youth in the USA, land workers fighting for their survival, or her own abstract self portraits, Rodriguez brings new audiences into the art world by refocusing the cultural lens.

Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art: Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez
The Warehouse Gallery

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

California-based street artists Apex, Chor Boogie, and Jet Martinez will create new temporary murals inside the Warehouse Gallery. The work is based on improvisation, collaboration, and the notion that how and what they paint is recognizably Californian in its focus on strong colors, patterns, forms, and nature.

Their language consists of colorful abstract forms pertaining to optical illusions and movement, faces, evoking real and imaginary urban settings, and tropical imaginary landscapes. All three of them have significantly contributed to public art in San Francisco, San Diego, and other major cities within (Minneapolis; Washington, DC) and outside of the United States (Beijing, Dubai, Oaxaca, Sydney, Tokyo, Zurich) through their use of spray (Apex, Chor) and traditional paint (Jet Martinez) to achieve elaborate compositions with high attention to detail.

Read a Review!

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
XL Projects

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

"Drawn to Paint" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings and sketchbooks by Jerome Witkin, one of America's leading figurative painters and a longtime professor of painting in VPA's Department of Art.

"Drawn to Paint" marks the first time Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. Curator of the exhibition is Edward A. Aiken, associate professor and program coordinator of VPA's graduate program in museum studies in the Department of Design. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

The works of Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition, while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

For more information, phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours or e-mail Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com. Complete information and related programming is available at suart.syr.edu or on Facebook.

Dying Oak, Wild Raspberry Bush: Works by Pae White
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Two videos, Dying Oak/Elephant (3-min loop) and Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush)(1-min loop), both 2009, by internationally recognized artist and designer, Pae White.

These two video pieces employ high-tech 3D scanning and motion animation techniques and apply them to objects from the natural world, playfully interrogating the integrity of the human/nature divide. The result is a mesmerizing exploration of natural form in which perspective and scale are in constant flux, the data points coalescing for a moment to create an image that is almost hyper-real in its detail, and in the next dispersing into glowing abstractions that might be galaxies or cities at night.

Don't Feed the Actors Dinner Theater
Don't Feed the Actors

Price: Dinner theater: $20 single; $38 couple. Show only: $10 on day of show if seating available
Fire and Ice Banquet Hall, The Locker Room
528 Hiawatha Blvd., Syracuse

Audience-interactive improv comedy with some of Syracuse's finest comedic actors.

Dinner 6:45 pm, show begins at 8:00 pm.

Read a review!

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

3:15 pm: Canzoni d'Italia, with Matthew De Bella
4:15 pm: Dance Centre North, with Cathy Mucci
5:30 pm: Jimmy Cavallo
8:00 pm: Esty Crisona
9:30 pm: Stroke, with Isreal Hagan

For more information, visit www.festaitaliana.bizland.com.

Human Rights Film Festival: Pink Saris
SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Communications

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Pink Saris" Kim Longinotto (96 mins., UK/India, 2010)
An intimate portrait of the indefatigable Indian activist Sampat Pal Devi, who leads a powerful grassroots movement against the discrimination and sexual abuse faced by Dalit women in Uttar Pradesh.

Public parking will be available for $4 on Saturday at Q4 (College Place).

Human Rights Film Festival: Nostalgia for the Light
SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Communications

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Nostalgia for the Light", Patricio Guzmán (90 mins., France/Chile/Germany, 2010)
In his hauntingly beautiful odyssey across Chile's Atacama Desert, Guzmán explores an aching paradox: the burial site for many disappeared victims of Pinochet's regime is also the best place on earth for astronomers to view the heavens. This screening is co-sponsored by the Latino-Latin American Studies Program.

Public parking will be available for $4 on Saturday at Q4 (College Place).

Human Rights Film Festival: I Am
SU Humanities Center and the Newhouse School of Public Communications

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"I Am", Onir (110 mins, India, 2010)
Weaving together the tumultuous lives of four characters struggling with their identity, this provocative film paints a compelling portrait of contemporary Indian society as it grapples with the vital issues of religious conflict, homophobia, sexual abuse and single motherhood. Starring Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Sanjay Suri and Purab Kohli.

Public parking will be available for $4 on Saturday at Q4 (College Place).

2011 Sneak Preview and 2010 Best of Fest
Syracuse International Film Festival

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

The Man Who Knew How to Fly (Official Selection: SYRFILMFEST'11)
Directed by Robi Michael (USA), fiction, 24 min.
Mr. Tomasek was walking back from work when he suddenly remembered a dream. In it, he pushed with his left foot, and at that very second he started flying effortlessly across the sky. Mr. Tomasek looked around him. Nobody was following him. He moved his legs a little, as if he were riding a bicycle, and in an instant he rose to a height of 30 feet. It's hard to explain a simple dream to a group of geniuses that obviously know so much more than you do. Indeed, fear can paralyze one's body, making it that much harder to take flight.

To Catch a Billionaire (Winner: SYRFILMFEST'10)
Directed by Tomas Vorel (Czech Republic), fiction, 96 min.
A cheeky comedy from director Tomas Vorel. Everyone longs to catch a billionaire--the police, reporters, politicians, artists, ladies and even the clergy. A report is fabricated accusing a successful businessman, Patrik Grossmann, of racism. When the media launches a full-blown campaign against him, the atmosphere gets so thick that anyone can kick him while he's down just to prove their morality. Grossmann's demise seems inevitable until he gets an idea: Buy a TV station and get the public opinion on his side. Let the comedy begin.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

The 219 Takeover

Price: $25
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

12:30 Sophistafunk
1:30 Widowspeak
2:30 The London Souls
3:30 Beach Fossils
4:30 Vivian Girls

Parking lot of 219 S. West St. (RedHouse), Syracuse, rain or shine.

Power of Pattern x 2
Society for New Music

Price: $15 regular, $12 seniors, $10 students
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians and a presentation by David MacDonald on his "Power of Pattern" ceramic exhibit of recent work currently on display at the Everson Museum.

4:00 pm: David MacDonald presentation
5:00 pm: Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (55 min.)

Performers include Andrew Russo, Marc Mellits, Sar Shalom Strong, Rob Auler, Cristina Buciu, Heidi Hoffman, Richard Faria, John Friedrichs, Janet Brown, Bridget Moriarty, Pamela Igelsrud, Neva Pilgrim, Rob Bridge, Jennifer Vacanti, Thad Anderson, Jon Lee, Jeff Moore, plus OCC percussionists Brianna Hoige, Jimmy Spagnola, Alex Bick, and Luke Dennis

Steve Reich is one of the 20th century's most important composers, a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner. Music for 18 Musicians is among his most important works. In this work Reich uses the metallophone to cue the ensemble to change patterns, much like Balinese Gamelan or West African music.

The Princess and the Pea
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

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

Interactive retelling of the children's classic story.

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

Shadowlands
Appleseed Productions
Sharee Lemos, director

Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, led a quiet, unassuming life, surrounded by his Oxford companions and held aloft by his unwavering Christian faith. But when he met Joy Davidman, American poet and divorcee, everything changed. Their romance came to challenge everything he understood about faith, hope and love. Written by William Nicholson.

Read a Review!

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

The Queen of Bingo
Encore Presentations
William Edward White, director

Glen Loch Restaurant
4626 North St., Jamesville

A comedy of love by the numbers, by Jeanne Michels and Phyllis Murphy

Read a review!

*SOLD OUT* Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

Happ'ly ever after can be a royal pain in the ass! A riotous new musical-comedy revue featuring the original storybook princesses comically kvetching about the exploitation they've suffered in the Disney movies and theme parks. Snow White and her angry band of warbling royal friends musically storm the castle in this hilariously clever take on the princesses!

Disenchanted! is the winner of the 2010 New Jersey Playwrights Contest.

Musical Director Michael Stephan. Music, lyrics, book by Dennis T. Giacino; additional lyrics by Fiely A. Matias.

This show is intended for mature audiences only.

Read a Review!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Windows Project: Oscar Garces: Transcendence
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Cuban-born, and Syracuse-based artist Oscar Garces' site-specific mural in the Window Projects space will offer a local echo to "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art". This is his first solo exhibition. Both exhibitions will be organized in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in Syracuse.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

Perceived Environments
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The gallery's September exhibit is a group show featuring six artists' comprehension of captured moments in their personal and imagined environments.

James Skvarch, well known for his detailed etchings of real or inventive spaces, will display works selected from two of his series, "Interiors" and "Caprices."

Self-taught artist John (Jaws) McGrath details in pen and ink his 'minds-eye' remembrances of sights he encountered throughout his 30-year travels across the country as a biker.

The show's exhibited photography by artists Harry Freeman-Jones and R. L. Mercer will give viewers up-close takes of familiar environments as Freeman-Jones presents lush colors of flora and fauna in a back yard garden, and Mercer, in his photogenic eye, depicts things normally overlooked in everyday scenes.

Artists Wendy Harris and Robert Niedzwiecki paint landscapes in different ways, Harris using pastels to achieve pure color intensity, and Niedzwiecki using oils and watercolors to create a more realistic look at what is in front of him.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Photography on the Edge: Between Realism and Abstraction
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The show features photographs by Central New York artists that address the relationship between realistic representation and abstract concepts. Participating artists include Willson Cummer, Bob Gates, Elisabeth Groat, Peter Mahan, Yolanda Tooley, Jeanann Wieners, Diana Whiting, and Jamie Young.

The co-curators, Jen Gandee and Syracuse-area photographer, Bob Gates, in selecting work for this show, were looking for images that are true to the perennial conflict in the history of photography between representational and non-representational images. The same conflicting impulses that have shaped other forms of art--realism, impressionism, expressionism, abstraction, surrealism--have had their adherents among photographers. The works in this exhibit show how some photographers in Central New York respond to or participate in that complex history.

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A Magnificent Obsession: Selections from the Hamilton Armstrong Collection of Prints
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

For decades, Hamilton Armstrong of Fayetteville, NY has been collecting prints created by some of most important and well-known American and European artists of the last 200 years. While only a fraction of the number of works he collected will be exhibited, this show will demonstrate two areas of great interest to Armstrong.

First is the area of architectural etching that began in 19th century Europe and continued into 20th century American printmaking. Consisting of more than 30 prints by Charles Meryon, John Taylor Arms, Samuel Chamberlain, and others, this part of the exhibition highlights an impressive selection of Meryon's rare etchings.

The second part of the show is a series of wood engravings done by Fritz Eichenberg for a reprint of Emily Bronte's classic novel, Wuthering Heights. These images are rare artist proof prints for the 1943 Random House edition of the novel and have been considered some of best illustrations of the 19th century classic because they capture the drama of author's text without adding superfluous material.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks. Dividing the show between two venues to allow for broader access, "Drawn to Paint" will be on view at the SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus and the XL Projects gallery in downtown Syracuse. This exhibition, with Dr. Edward A. Aiken as its curator, is the first time Jerome Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

"Drawn to Paint" is more than a selection of masterfully painted narratives. Through the juxtaposition of drawings and sketchbooks, the exhibition represents a rare look into the artist's process, from the inception of an idea to the completed artwork. The works of Jerome Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

Weekend and evening visitors can park in the Q4 lot on College Place. Notify the attendant that you are visiting the Galleries and you will be directed where to park. Parking is on a space available basis and may be restricted during events held at the Carrier Dome. If spaces aren't available the attendant will direct you to the nearest lot.

Read a review!

On My Own Time
Everson Museum of Art
CNY Arts

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Since 1974, the Cultural Resources Council, in collaboration with the Everson, has presented On My Own Time. A celebration of artwork created by employees of local businesses on their own time, the exhibition is meant to promote creativity and artistic endeavors by those who are not full-time artists.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin
XL Projects

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

"Drawn to Paint" consists of 70 works including drawings, paintings and sketchbooks by Jerome Witkin, one of America's leading figurative painters and a longtime professor of painting in VPA's Department of Art.

"Drawn to Paint" marks the first time Witkin has allowed his drawings to be displayed beside their finished works. Curator of the exhibition is Edward A. Aiken, associate professor and program coordinator of VPA's graduate program in museum studies in the Department of Design. "Drawn to Paint" will be traveling to other museums around the country during a two-year tour that will conclude at the Palmer Museum of Art in University Park, PA.

The works of Witkin carry forward into our era the grand Western European tradition of history painting. His images offer dramatic narratives that reveal themselves over time. Many of his most interesting paintings are large multiple panels, each section presenting a different chapter of an unfolding story. Their scale pushes the viewer back to see the whole composition, while his brushwork encourages close examination to better admire the painting's surface.

For more information, phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours or e-mail Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com. Complete information and related programming is available at suart.syr.edu or on Facebook.

Dying Oak, Wild Raspberry Bush: Works by Pae White
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Two videos, Dying Oak/Elephant (3-min loop) and Ballerina (Wild Raspberry Bush)(1-min loop), both 2009, by internationally recognized artist and designer, Pae White.

These two video pieces employ high-tech 3D scanning and motion animation techniques and apply them to objects from the natural world, playfully interrogating the integrity of the human/nature divide. The result is a mesmerizing exploration of natural form in which perspective and scale are in constant flux, the data points coalescing for a moment to create an image that is almost hyper-real in its detail, and in the next dispersing into glowing abstractions that might be galaxies or cities at night.

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

2:00 pm: Jonathan Howell, tenor, accompanied by Tim Davenport
3:15 pm: Nova with Fabian Provenza
5:15 pm: Jimmy Cavallo

For more information, visit www.festaitaliana.bizland.com.

20th Anniversary Westcott Street Cultural Fair
Westcott Community Center

Westcott Business District
Westcott St., Syraucuse

WAER Stage
1:00-2:00 pm: Tom Townsley
2:30-3:30 pm: Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman
4:00-5:00 pm: Salsa Son Timba
5:30-6:30 pm: Dave Hanlon's Cookbook

Multicultural Stage
12:30-1:15 pm: Samba Laranja
1:45-2:30 pm: Syracuse Irish Session
3:00-3:45 pm: Trio Los Claveles
4:15-5:00 pm: Akuma Roots
5:30-6:15 pm: Marcia Rutledge avec Djug Django

Dance Stage
12:30-1:00 pm: La Familia de la Salsa
1:10-1:40 pm: The Bassett Street Hounds
1:50-2:20 pm: Media Unit
2:30-3:15 pm: Puente Flamenco
3:25-3:55 pm: The Dance Theatre of Syracuse
4:05-4:35 pm: Congolese Dancers
4:45-6:30 pm: Wacheva

Taps Stage
12:00-12:25 pm: Kristin Gitler and David Goldman
12:45-1:30 pm: Colleen Kattau and Some Guys
1:45-2:30 pm: Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers with Joshua Dekaney and Wendy Ramsay
2:45-3:30 pm: Kanjira
3:45-4:25 pm: Dick Ward and Carol Bryant
4:45-5:30 pm: John Cadley and the Lost Boys

Kids Korner
12:40-1:00 pm: Magic by Len Dippold
1:15-1:45 pm: Tom Knight Puppets
1:55-2:30 pm: Toddlers Tango
2:45-3:15 pm: Tom Knight Puppets
3:25-3:45 pm: Magic by Len Dippold
3:55-4:20 pm: Hocus Focus: The Magic of Science
4:30-5:00 pm: Savannah

Bellydance Stage
12:30 pm: Drumming Open Dancing
1:00 pm: Omorose Raks, Katina, Powers of Perswaysion, Johara, Adi Shakti
2:00 pm: Maya Tribe, Tessa Myers
3:00 pm: Full Moon Hipstars, Meaghan Scully, Goddess Tribal Collective, Zajal, Sheelagh Sims
4:00 pm: Holly Rice, El Negoum, Lauren Ciciarelli, Gypsy Spirit, Sheba
5:00 pm: Holly Rice, Ahlam Dance Journey, Lauren Ciciarelli

For more information, visit the fair's website at www.westcottfair.org, via phone at 315-703-6848, or on Facebook.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

The Westcott Street Fair After Party: Dark Hollow and late night with Jeff Bujak
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Leaving Ibsen
Armory Square Playwrights
Len Fonte, director

Price: $7 regular, $5 students/seniors
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

This is a staged reading presentation of a work in progress; a talkback session with the playwright will follow the performance.

In Leaving Ibsen, by Sheila Curran Bernard, historical novelist Elaine Markham is blocked as she attempts to describe the complex relationship between playwright Henrik Ibsen and his protégée, Laura Kieler, a writer whose devastating marital breakdown inspired the play A Doll's House. When this married East Coast feminist unexpectedly runs into an old flame--now also married, and a born-again Christian fundamentalist--she gains unsettling insight that changes her novel, and both of their lives, forever.

Sheila Curran Bernard holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and was a guest artist at the 2010 Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive. Leaving Ibsen was a finalist for the 2010 Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award and a semifinalist for the 2011 Ashland New Plays Festival. Other plays and screenplays have placed in competitions including the Nantucket Film Festival, Lamia Ink, and New Plays in America, and have had staged readings in New York and Portland. As a writer of films for television, Bernard has earned an Emmy Award, the CINE Golden Eagle, and the Peabody Award, and has been honored with residencies at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. In 2008, she joined the faculty of the University at Albany, SUNY.??

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

Shadowlands
Appleseed Productions
Sharee Lemos, director

Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, led a quiet, unassuming life, surrounded by his Oxford companions and held aloft by his unwavering Christian faith. But when he met Joy Davidman, American poet and divorcee, everything changed. Their romance came to challenge everything he understood about faith, hope and love. Written by William Nicholson.

Read a Review!

The Lion King
Broadway in Syracuse

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

Take Africa's animal kingdom, add the story of a lion-cub prince who becomes fatherless, and give director and master puppeteer Julie Taymor free reign. Throw in scores by Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. Now you have an idea why The Lion King has remained an audience favorite since its opening in November 1997. The winner of six Tony awards, the musical is based on the 1994 Disney film with the same title.

Read a Review!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Windows Project: Oscar Garces: Transcendence
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Cuban-born, and Syracuse-based artist Oscar Garces' site-specific mural in the Window Projects space will offer a local echo to "Colorfornia: New Forms in West Coast Street Art". This is his first solo exhibition. Both exhibitions will be organized in conjunction with the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in Syracuse.

Natural Selections: Works by Bob Ripley
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

The exhibit of wildlife paintings in transparent watercolors.

Senegal - France - Syracuse: Works of James Secor
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Experience the interplay of James Secor's expressive paintings with his kora music. Art and music coming together with influences from all over the world! The kora is a traditional West African instrument, much like a harp, but in play can resemble flamenco or even delta blues guitar techniques.

Vivid colors illuminate the subjects of James Secor's paintings, varying in style from representative to abstract. A visual vocabulary has evolved and emerged through his constant search for inventive solutions. Seeking to create a sense of unity and a balance of forces, whether by color, line or in value.

James Secor made his studies of the kora in Senegal through a Griot, one of a traditional culture of storytellers who often accompany themselves on koras or other instruments. Secor took in 12 of these traditional songs. Having been a musician for many years before learning the kora, this journey was certain to expand his repertoire for musical expression. The music James wrote in France resembles traditional kora and is influenced both by his own style as well as by his 8-month immersion in the world of the little French village of Tournus.

Hanging Out To Dry: Works by Lisa Noviasky
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Michelle Danforth Landscape Paintings
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Self Expressed: Works of Mary Fragapane
Redhouse

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

Fragapane is best known for her enigmatic female figures that seek to capture the intangibles of joy, passion, and the beauty of the human spirit. Working in an expressive style on un-gessoed canvas, she uses a layering process incorporating acrylic paints, chalk and oil pastels, pencil, and water.

Fragapane has exhibited extensively in Manhattan and throughout New York, Cleveland, California and internationally on the Island of Curacao. In addition to her solo shows, she has been commissioned for numerous Public Art projects.

Game On!
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Most of us remember playing board games as young children. We not only mastered strategy and spatial recognition -- if we were lucky, we learned diplomacy, teamwork and how to be a gracious winner and a good loser. Early games date back to 3500 B.C. and new ones are still being developed today. Simple boards and game pieces may take a back seat to technology and electronics, but the gameplay can be just as exciting.

Second-year industrial and interaction design students explore the genre of board games in "Game On!" The students worked on the project as part of the course "Principles of Industrial Design II." They began the assignment by understanding what made an activity interesting to a group of people and worked their way to the creation of compelling objects.

For more information, contact Denise Heckman.

15th Ward: Memories of a Syracuse Neighborhood Transformed
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition showcases work from "Remembering Syracuse's 15th Ward," a project about the Jewish and African American neighborhood occupying the area now dominated by the Interstate 81 overpass and SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For more information, contact Bradley Hudson at bjhudson@syr.edu.

The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)
Syracuse Cinephile Society

Price: $3.50 non-members, $3 members
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

We start our season by celebrating the 100th birthday of Lucille Ball. This lively comedy was the first time Lucille played a version of her zany and now-familiar "Lucy" character. She has hilarious run-ins with her boss (Jerome Cowan) and various customers ... and even gets mixed up in a murder! A real treat for Lucy fans.

Cast includes Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Jerome Cowan, Gail Robbins, Lee Patrick, John Litel, and Jeff Donnell, directed by Lloyd Bacon.