During 2016, the Syracuse art scene featured a slew of group and solo shows discussing varied themes: the environment, David Bowie, depiction of women in artworks, and lots more.
The Everson Museum of Art had a full docket, starting with Angela Fraleigh’s one-woman exhibit Between Tongue and Teeth, Marie Lorenz’s Tide and Taxi, and Kindred Beasts, which offered a different approach to the biennial exhibition. In addition, the museum opened a new ceramic gallery incorporating extensive LED lighting, mirrors and new display cases. And D.J. Hellerman became the Everson’s curator.
Light Work Gallery hosted exhibits created by Mary Mattingly and Todd Gray, as well as images submitted by the winners of the 2016 Light Work grants. The recipients, from upstate New York, were Lida Suchy, Marion Wilson and Robert Knight, one of the strongest fields in recent memory for the awards.
Beyond that, the Edgewood Gallery scored with a large selection of Jim Ridlon’s artworks and a group show, Classic Tradition, that displayed Carol Adamec’s sculptures and paintings by Richard Henry and Nikolay Mikushkin.
ArtRage Gallery moved from a new exhibition of Robert Shetterly’s portraits to Christine Chinn’s parody-based portrayal of genetically modified foods to In God’s House: The Photographs of Robert Knight.
SU Art Galleries hosted a diverse lineup of exhibits: prints exploring the legacy of Stanley William Hayter; satiric drawings by Edward Koren, a cartoonist for The New Yorker; and It’s a Wrap! West African Textiles, featuring blankets, clothing and other items that discussed their cultural implications for West African society.
In Auburn, the Schweinfurth Gallery presented its annual exhibitions Made in New York and Quilts=Art=Quilts, as well as a group show highlighting emerging artists in Central New York.
Other notable group exhibits included Bad As I Wanna Be: Reimaging Black Womanhood at the Community Folk Art Center, and The Almighty Cup, with its display of pieces created across the United States, at the Gandee Gallery. At Syracuse Tech Garden, an exhibition of figurative and non-figurative works celebrated the late rock star David Bowie’s memory.
Utica’s Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute hosted World Though His Lens, images taken by photographer Steve McCurry in India, Pakistan, Cuba and other countries.
At the Manlius Library, Associated Artists hung its 90th annual juried exhibition. Dowling Art Center, on the other hand, presented its very first exhibit in August. Vistas Cubanas encompassed work by artists who migrated from Cuba to Syracuse, by several who still live in Cuba and by others who visited the island nation. Painting, documentary photos and other media all appeared at the new venue on 1633 Hawley Ave.
A longtime Armory Square venue, Eureka Crafts, changed its name to the Eureka Company and redesigned its display space.
Finally, the local art community mourned the passing of Michael Moody. He was known for paintings referencing inner-city life, for forays into fantasy and for a neighborhood landmark: the mural he painted on a building at the corner of Westcott and South Beech streets.
