Sometimes intimate, occasionally intricate, but always intriguing, small works of art invite us to step close and peer into their spatially bounded world. The Albany Institute’s new exhibition, Small and Seductive, is the third in a series to highlight its contemporary art collection. This exhibition features artwork of smaller proportions by the Upper Hudson Valley’s most ingenious and talented artists, paintings and sculpture that captivate within limited dimensions.
More than thirty works will be on exhibition in the recently renovated third floor Lansing Gallery. Many present powerful statements as single objects of visionary perspicacity, but others work together to form a sizeable series or unite into a bold visual presence, such as Smokerise Circle by Michael McKay, the Institute’s recent purchase at the 2013 Exhibition of the Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region, or Gayle Johnson’s reflective series of self portraits. Other artists represented in the exhibition include Fern Apfel, whose Song Sparrow entices viewers with curious fascination like a cabinet of curiosities, and William Wilson, whose Making Believe shocks and humors simultaneously as it reinterprets the Dutch master Jan Vermeer. The exhibition also features paintings by Richard Callner, Robert Cartmell, Jason Stewart, and Laura VonRosk.
Small and Seductive includes several sculptural works by artists Dennis Byng, Benignia Chilla, Larry Kagan, and Paul Mauren. Though small in size, their jewel-like color, pattern, and intricate detail captivate. Compelling contemporary art need not always be of sizeable dimensions as this exhibition proves that small can be seductive!
Artists in the exhibition:
Judy Alderfer-Abbott
Fern T. Apfel
David Austen
Dennis Byng
Richard Callner
Robert Cartmell
Carol Caruso
Benigna Chilla
Marcia Clark
David Dwight Coughtry
Richard Garrison
Allen Grindle
Allen Gussow
Gayle Johnson
Larry Kagan
Katharine Kreisher
Ted Lind
Harold Lohner
Paul Mauren
Michael McKay
Willie Marlowe
Antoni Milkowski
Doretta Miller
Tom Nelson
Thom O'Connor
Harry Orlyk
Ariel Pannenborg
Marjorie Portnow
Bill Schade
Jason Stewart
Lynn Talbot
Peter Taylor
Laura Von Rosk
George Wexler
Wendy Ide Williams
William Wilson
Deborah Zlotsky
