Friday, April 17, 2009

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

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

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

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

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Techno_Culture
Redhouse

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

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

Opening: BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

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

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

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

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

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

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

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

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

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

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

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

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

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

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

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

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

FridayFLICS: Iraq in Fragments
ArtRage Gallery

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

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

Mustard's Retreat
Folkus Project

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

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

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

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

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

Westcott Theater
Toubab Krewe

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

With Gadabout

Poet Carl Dennis
Downtown Writer's Center

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

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

Two One-Act Plays by Sandra Fenichel Asher

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

For more information, phone 315-559-9892.

The Importance of Being Earnest
Onondaga Community College
Onondaga Drama Club

Price: $5
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

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

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

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

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

Read a review!

Poor Super Man
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

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

Read a Review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

Ruthless! The Musical
The Talent Company
Dan Tursi, director

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

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

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

Read a Review!

Improv Comedy Night
Saltine Warrior

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

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

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

Saturday, April 18, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

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

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

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

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

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

Closing reception.

Work by Chuyen Huynh and Mark Povinelli.

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

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

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

LeMoyne College Student Dance Concert
LeMoyne College

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

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

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

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

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

Free parking is available in Irving Garage

Catherine Russell in Concert
WAER

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

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

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

Solo Piano Recital
Andrew Russo

Christ Episcopal Church
407 E. Seneca St., Manlius

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

Westcott Theater
Asher Roth

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

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

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

Interactive retelling of the classic story.

Two One-Act Plays by Sandra Fenichel Asher

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

For more information, phone 315-559-9892.

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

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

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

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

Read a review!

Poor Super Man
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

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

Read a Review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

Ruthless! The Musical
The Talent Company
Dan Tursi, director

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

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

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

Read a Review!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

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

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

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

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

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

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

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Onondaga Community College
Featuring Kevin Moore, piano

Price: Free
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

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

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

A Bon Voyage Concert
Hendricks Chapel
Hendricks Chapel Choir
John Warren, conductor

Price: Free
Hendricks Chapel
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Concert features musical selections that the choir will sing on their tour to Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. With Kola Owolabi, accompanist and Joshua Dekaney, percussion.

Voice Recital
Featuring Gabriel Traub, Emily Wells, Robert Brotherton, and Wesley Roy

St. Alban's Episcopal Church
1308 Meadowbrook Dr., Syracuse

Classical and theater music.

Donna Colton & Laura Barrigan with Relative Harmony

Price: $10
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

For reservations, phone 315-677-9560 or e-mail donnacolton1@msn.com.

Graduate Conducting Recital
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Featuring Andrea Rommel

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

The program features works by Bennett, Stravinsky, and Holst, performed by the Syracuse University Wind Ensemble.

Free parking is available in Irving Garage. For more information, contact Andrea Rommel at amrommel@syr.edu or 315-573-4966.

Joe Donohue
Syracuse Wurlitzer

Price: $15 adults; $2 children
Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Joe Donohue, from Buffalo, was introduced to the pipe organ at the age of nine. Before age 10 he was the organist of St. Teresa's Church in Buffalo where he played their 38 rank Tellers & Johnson pipe organ. By 15, he was well established in the local music scene, but soon fell in love with the theatre organs of the region. Joe started an organ program that was to have lasted five years, but his devotion and commitment to the instrument allowed him to complete it in two. He then went on to study classical and sacred organ repertoire. As much as he loved the classical side of organ, the theatre organ was most beckoning to him. In 1990, Joe played his first theatre organ program at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonowanda. Since then, he has played concerts in Rochester, Ohio, Florida and Canada. In 1995, Joe had the honor of playing the famous Shea's Buffalo 4/28 theatre organ for their Christmas concert. Joe maintains a very active schedule. He is the general music teacher for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo grades K-8, and currently the Director of Music and Organist for Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Cheektowaga, NY, where he directs two choirs and a children's bell choir. In addition to his work, he belongs to nine organ groups, teaches organ lessons and performs several nights a week.

Streams of Consciousness: Composition Recital
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music

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

"Streams of Consciousness" is a composition recital of Filipino composer and S.U. graduate student Nilo B. Alcala II, this year's Billy Joel Fellow and 2008-2009 Polyphonos Young Composer Awardee.

The program includes chamber and solo instrumental music; vocal settings on text by William Blake, Wendell Berry, Rabindranath Tagore and Syracuse poet Dan Moriarty; two choral works, one based on a chant ("Bagbagto") from the Ifugao tribe in the Philippines, and a setting of a Pablo Neruda poem ("La noche de mil noches" from Cataclismo).

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

Ruthless! The Musical
The Talent Company
Dan Tursi, director

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

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

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

Read a Review!

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

Monday, April 20, 2009

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

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

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

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

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Price: Free
Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life
102 Walnut Place (corner of Harrison St.), Syracuse

Selma Hurwitz is an internationally-known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for "gluing"), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, MA; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw at 315-443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Westcott Theater
Soulive

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

The Up Here Tour: Soulive featuring The Shady Horns and special guest Nigel Hall. Funk/jazz/soul.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

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

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

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

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

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Price: Free
Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life
102 Walnut Place (corner of Harrison St.), Syracuse

Selma Hurwitz is an internationally-known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for "gluing"), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, MA; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw at 315-443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

Porcile
Syracuse International Film Festival

Price: $8 regular; $6 students/seniors; multifilm discount passes available
Newhouse 3, Rooom 141
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Screening and discussion of Porcile and one or more shorts by Gian Vittorio Baldi, one of the most important and influential producers/directors in the history of Italian cinema. He will be a special guest of the Syracuse International Film Festival for a week before the opening as well as during the days of the Festival, will receive the festival's Special Achievement Award this year, and also serve on the jury.

Gian Vittorio Baldi produced several of the most important Italian films of the 1960s and 70s including Robert Bresson's Four Nights of a Dreamer, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Pigsty and Notes Toward an African Orestes, and Jean-Marie Straub's Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach by Jean Marie Straub and Daniel Huillet.

Friends of the Central Library Author Series
Featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson

Price: $25
Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

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

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

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

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

Gallery Exhibition: Works of Anne Novado Cappuccilli
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Price: Free
Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life
102 Walnut Place (corner of Harrison St.), Syracuse

Selma Hurwitz is an internationally-known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for "gluing"), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, MA; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw at 315-443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Techno_Culture
Redhouse

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

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

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

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

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

Civic Morning Musicals
Anthony Crain and Cindy Josbena, pianists

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

Pianists Anthony Crain and Cindy Josbena perform a joint recital featuring works by Bach, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Ravel.

Van Duyn Elementary Shool Concert
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Some of the artists/students from Van Duyn Elementary School who worked on the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange project will be giving a musical performance. Come hear their voices and see the art of children who are building a culture of peace.

Westcott Theater
Presidents of the United States of America

Price: $22
Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Presidents of the United States of America (pop punk/alternative/punk), with Oppenheimer (indie/pop/electronica)

Mary Gaitskill
Raymond Carver Reading Series

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

Mary Gaitskill is one of today's most celebrated novelists and short-story writers. She is currently promoting a collection of stories -- her first in more than a decade -- titled "Don't Cry" (Pantheon Books, 2009). Gaitskill is also author of "Because They Wanted To" (Simon & Schuster, 1998), nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award, and "Veronica: A Novel" (Pantheon Books, 2005), nominated for the National Book Award. She recently served on the faculty of SU's Creative Writing Program.

Youtheatre: Letters Home
CNY Arts

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

For more information or reservation, contact Bob Dwyer, 315-435-2162.

The Diary of Anne Frank
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

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

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

Read a Review!

Let's Make a Date
Rarely Done Productions
Featuring Roy George

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

A cabaret night staring Roy George with special guests Jodie Baum, and Jimmy Wachter as Barbra Streisand. Musical Director Josh Smith leads a 9-piece band through a night of jazz standards, gospel, musical theatre, and children's songs, including selections from All Shook Up, Aladdin, Beauty and The Beast, Mary Poppins, Sesame Street, and many more.

Let's Make a Date is part of the "One Night Only" series. This performance is a fundraiser for Rarely Done Productions.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Price: Free
Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life
102 Walnut Place (corner of Harrison St.), Syracuse

There will be a reception with the artist tonight 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Selma Hurwitz is an internationally-known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for "gluing"), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, MA; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw at 315-443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Limbo: Works of Admas Habteslasie
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Paintings from OHA's permanent collection

Techno_Culture
Redhouse

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

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

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

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

Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

MFA 2009
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

BFA Exhibition
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

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

Fiber Art
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Anne Cofer: Concealed Objects
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

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

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

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

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

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

22nd Annual Senior Fashion Show
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

Price: $6
Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Senior fashion design students in the School of Art and Design will present their collections.

Tickets can be purchased at the Schine Box Office, 315-443-4517. Parking is available in SU pay lots. For more information, contact the fashion design program office at 315-443-4644.

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

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

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

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

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

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

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

MFA Film Showcase 2009
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

An event showcasing films produced by Syracuse University MFA Film candidates.

Il Temporale
Syracuse International Film Festival

Price: Free
Shaffer Art Building, Room 121
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Screening and discussion of Il Temporale and one or more shorts by Gian Vittorio Baldi, one of the most important and influential producers/directors in the history of Italian cinema. He will be a special guest of the Syracuse International Film Festival for a week before the opening as well as during the days of the Festival, will receive the festival's Special Achievement Award this year, and also serve on the jury.

Gian Vittorio Baldi produced several of the most important Italian films of the 1960s and 70s including Robert Bresson's Four Nights of a Dreamer, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Pigsty and Notes Toward an African Orestes, and Jean-Marie Straub's Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach by Jean Marie Straub and Daniel Huillet.

Acting Shakespeare's Sonnets
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts
Featuring Elizabeth and Malcolm Ingram

Price: Free
Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The Ingrams will demonstrate how Shakespeare, through language and structure, reveals the situation and emotional state of his characters in the sonnets, providing the actor with the tools necessary for a fully realized performance.

The Ingrams have worked on more than 50 productions of Shakespeare's plays in Britain and the U.S. Most recently, they presented "This Powerful Rhyme," a program of 20 Shakespearean sonnets with music by Andrew Waggoner, performed by the Sequitur repertory company at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, and the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse. Both Ingrams teach voice and acting in the drama department at Syracuse University.

Free event parking is available in the Booth Garage, one block from Bird Library on the corner of Waverly and Comstock avenues.

For more information, please contact Kathleen White at 315-443-8782.

Onondaga Community College
OCC Percussion Ensemble

Price: Free
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Annual convocation concert

Words and Music Songwriter Showcase
Folkus Project
Featuring Maura Kennedy with Emily Arin and Tim Herron

Price: $10
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

Maura Kennedy plays a special hometown solo show the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase. Maura Kennedy, of the popular folk-rock duo the Kennedys, returns to her hometown of Syracuse for a solo show. This special appearance is one of Maura's first-ever solo concerts.

The opening set will include Emily Arin and Tim Herron performing in the round with series host Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, a grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Manlius Pebble Hill High School Chamber Ensemble

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

Works of Beethoven, Handle, Tsura, and others.

Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Contemporary Directions Ensemble
James O. Welsch, conductor

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

The program features two new compositions by graduate composition student, Ian Hartsough (faculty member Ken Meyer, guitar; Setnor alum Dianna Hnatiw, percussion), plus music of composition faculty member, Andrew Waggoner; The Goethe Lieder of Charles Fussell (Emily Gibson, soprano); a wind quintet by Hungarian composer, Endre Szervansky; and performances of three of John Cage's compositions, Music Walk, Living Room Music and the well-known 4'33".

Westcott Theater
Girls Guns and Glory

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Girls Guns and Glory (Americana/country/rock) with The Northbound Traveling Minstrel Jug Band (bluegrass/jam band/folk rock), Grasshigh, and Upstate Boxcar Club.

A Cappella After Hours
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music

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

A concert featuring all five of SU's a cappella ensembles: The Mandarins, Oy Capella, Orange Appeal, Main Squeeze, and Groove Stand.

Death Warmed Over
Acme Mystery Company

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

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

Preview: Disco Pigs and Zoo Story
Black Box Players

Price: Free
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh
Two friends set out on a celebratory birthday night through the nightclubs of Cork City. That night the whole of the city is lost in dance and pounding rave rhythms. But Pig and Runt want more. They are two inseparable violent creatures. From birth they have developed their own language and 'Pork City' through their eyes is a wet grey wasteland with only one diamond shining out of the shite, The Palace Disco. The night is going to be different from others. The inseparable are about to separate and which one will survive depends on which one can break free. Directed by Holly Hart.

Zoo Story by Edward Albee
A park bench in Central Park. A well-to-do business man. A disturbed vagrant. Primal warfare unfolds in this classic play about the desperate need for human connection, and the lengths we go to to achieve it. This deeply moving and comical one-act will creep under your skin and leave you questioning human nature in its most animalistic form. Directed by Brendan Naylor.

Friday, April 24, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

Price: Free
Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life
102 Walnut Place (corner of Harrison St.), Syracuse

Selma Hurwitz is an internationally-known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for "gluing"), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, DC; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, MA; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, DC.

For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw at 315-443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Passage: Latino Direction in CNY
Community Folk Art Center

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

Works by Alejandro Betancourt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

New York Waters: Photographs by Randy Duchaine
Erie Canal Museum

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

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

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

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

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