+When the Tropics Are Quiet
Group Show
Curated by Vladimir Cybil Charlier
March 10 – April 28, 2024
Artists: Blanka Amezkua, Pyari Azaadi, formerly known as Jaishri Abichandani, Iliana Emilia Garcia, Lilian Garcia-Roig, Jessica Lagunas, Rejin Leys, Dianne Smith, Virginia Inés Vergara
When the Tropics are Quiet showcases the works of Blanka Amezkua, Pyari Azaadi (formerly known as Jaishri Abichandani), iliana emilia García, Lilian Garcia-Roig, Jessica Lagunas, Rejin Leys, Dianne Smith and Virginia Inés Vergara that reflects the interiority of the artists. In this exhibition, the artists explored their inner selves beyond their cultural identities, be it Caribbean, Latin X, or Southeast Asian-American. This body of work aimed to dialogue with the artist's individuality and how it transcends their perceived American-ness or non-American-ness. Blanka Amezkua's mixed media installation in the Ned Harris Gallery provided a tactile contrast to the main gallery, featuring works firmly anchored in traditional Mexican craft and papel picado technique. Her practice displays deliberate strategies to explore the crafts and indigenous traditions of her native Mexico as a strategy of resistance and resilience.
When the Tropics are Quiet was on view in GARNER Art Center’s Gallery at Building 35 in both the Main Gallery and Ned Harris Gallery spaces.
Read When the Tropics Are Quiet artist, Blanka Amezkua’s feature in the New York Times!
+Other Life Forms
January 13 – February 25, 2024*
Curated by Jackie Shatz and Robert Egert
Main Gallery at Building 35
Throughout history, animals and plants have inspired artists, and our survival today is still intricately connected to them. Other Life Forms showcases the work of fourteen artists who explore our deep, complex, and often mysterious connections with animals and plants.
Artists: Leigh Burton, Brett DePalma, Cathy Diamond, Carol Diamond, Robert Egert, Frankie Gardiner, Ruth Irving, Kathy Kearny, Pam Marchin, Jeffrey Morabito, Celeste Morton, Jacqueline Shatz, Liz Weiss, Michael Zansky
+Tone Color, Paintings by Diane Churchill | Music by Mark Attebery
January 13 – February 25, 2024
Ned Harris Gallery at Building 35
Tone Color is a collaborative project of paintings by Diane Churchill paired with original music by Mark Attebery. Performed live on opening weekend, the music will accompany visitors to the gallery, an ambient companion to Diane’s work.
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Westchester.
+2023 Members Exhibition
November 18th - December 17th
Building 35
GARNER Arts Center has proudly presented its annual Member Show since the spring of 2016.
As a multi-disciplinary, un-juried exhibition, any artist of any medium with an active GARNER Membership may exhibit artwork. To match GARNER’s vast industrial-era art gallery spaces, there are no size restrictions. Artists are encouraged to think big, and we are so glad that they do. Each year, the exhibition becomes an even more dynamic portrait of the vibrant, inspired and truly gifted artists of the GARNER community. With its new home in our masterfully restored Building 35 Main gallery and Ned Harris gallery, GARNER’s annual Member Show continues to flourish as a community mainstay.
Exhibiting Artists: Farhana Ahkter, Marie Medjine Antoine, Marshall Barg, Charles Barry, Cristina Biaggi, Alice Brodhead, Kate Buggeln, Kenneth Burns, Joyce Byrnes, Tony Campbell, Diana Chelaru, Shakira Chin, Diane Churchill, Brian Daly, Lisa D'Amico, John DeMarco, Brett DePalma, David K. Dixon, Joanna Dickey, Jenny Doctorow,
Predrag Dubravcic, Shaina Dunn, Lauren Eberhardt, Linda Eckstein, Sharon Falk, Collette V. Fournier, Richard Alan Fox, Susan Freiman, Joe Fusaro, Ruth Geneslaw, Trine Giaever, Martin Glick, Steph Gorin, Deborah Grosmark, Joan Harmon, Brian Hart, Pat Hickman, Susan Hillary, Bill Hochhausen, James Hostomsky, Carla Rae Johnson,
Ken Karlewicz, Priscilla Karlewicz, Polly King, Deborah Kittay-Heffler, Valerie Kleiner, Arden Klemmer, Susan Lais Hostetler, Elizabeth Lauri, Eric David Laxman, Daniel Lombardo, Barbara Lowenstein, Mouise Nezer, Maxwell Nunes, Maria Teresa Ortiz-Naretto, Robert Parsekian, Rostislav Persion, Jane Pinchuck, Gerda Quoohs, Ellyn Joyce Rabinowitz, Carl Rattner, Sarah Rose,
John Rosis, Randolph San Millan, Elaine Schloss, Julie Scholz, Julie Seidman, Inez Sieben, Debbie Silberberg, Joel Silverstein, Anthony Simpson, Susan Stava, Najahjo Stoller, Lynn Stein, Don Steinmetz, Patricia Stewart, Cassie Strasser, Paul Tappenden, James Tyler, James Winans, Steven Winkler, Valerie Zeman, Morgana Zilarra
+SPENCER TUNICK: Naked Pavement
Building 35
September 15th - November 5th
Rockland County-based photographic artist, Spencer Tunick exhibited banners, photographs and video of his installations from around the world in a solo exhibition, Naked Pavement, at GARNER Arts Center. Tunick’s large-scale photographic banners were displayed in the Main Gallery space at Building 35, suspended overhead, both immersing the viewer and accentuating the industrial-era architecture of the newly restored exhibition space. Tunick’s banners highlight the artist’s treatment of the human body’s surface as it appears on flowing material, revealing each artwork’s connection to the impermanent body. Framed photographs were on view in Building 35’s adjoining Ned Harris Gallery, along with contact sheets and video from Tunick’s 2014 installation at GARNER Arts Center documenting the experience of the installation’s volunteer subjects.
Spencer Tunick has documented the live nude figure in public with photography and video for over 30 years. Since 1994, he has organized over one hundred temporary site-specific installations encompassing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of volunteer subjects. Tunick encourages us to appreciate the human body and view it as a form of art, just like a painting or a sculpture. While another artist might depict a scene with oil paint on canvas or sculpt their idea out of clay, Tunick uses bare skin and its countless different tones to create a sort of abstraction and new form. These photographic documents of human masses do not emphasize sexuality but challenge our view of nudity and public space.
The backdrops for Tunick’s scenes can be selected from anything and anywhere, including a desert sandstorm or the center of New York. Nudity is seen differently in Tunick’s works as the backdrops change and assume different meanings. Although nudity can be seen as a common practice in art, Tunick’s works challenge the typical genre conventions, creating a solid foundation in contemporary art. In his installations, Tunick assembles a human mass and carefully places his subjects into the scenery, creating a sculptural and picturesque scene. For some installations, Tunick has added objects for the on-camera participants to hold or wear, including body paint. Often, the works contain a deeper meaning, such as awareness of cancer, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQIA+ rights, equality, and climate change, among other issues.
Tunick’s installations and portraits have connected hundreds of thousands of participants around the world. Tunick could not make his art without the generosity of these volunteers. He is eternally grateful for their participation. Each participant receives a print from the installation as a memento. The works to be exhibited at GARNER Arts Center are from around the world and include Tunick’s individual portrait series.
spencertunick.com
Instagram: @spencertunick
+Best of Springs, Sprockets & Pulleys, Steve Gerberich
Building 35
May 6 - July 30, 2023
(Steve) Gerberich describes his work as “a mixture of 1 cup Duchamp, 3 teaspoons Calder, 2 tablespoons Kienholz, ½ cup Cornell, 1 pound Rauschenberg and a sprinkle of Tinguely.” With his quirky style, sense of humor, aesthetic, and philosophy, Gerberich creates sculptures that draw the viewer into the action. “Push a button or spin a crank,” he says, “and these marvels come alive: buzzing, whirring, squeaking, humming, clanking, chugging, flashing, and blinking… this is analog work for the digital age.”
+New Works - Polly King
Building 35, Harris Gallery
May 6 - July 30, 2023
Polly King has lived and worked in Nyack, NY for more than twenty years. She works on wood and paper, using collage, flashe paint and any other materials that seem right at the time. Drawing is integral to her work as well as layering, and typically she keeps many pieces going at the same time.
Her work walks a line between abstraction and representation, believing they are one and the same. Many of her collage elements come from photographs she took while traveling or at carnivals or walking the streets of New York.
+Upstate Art Weekend
Saturday, July 22nd and Sunday, July 23rd
Pop Up Exhibitions:
*Between the Sacred and the Secular *
Group Exhibition: Vladimir Cybil Charlier, Linda Eckstein, Joan Harmon and Pat Hickman
Building 1, Studio A
Between the Sacred and the Secular features artwork by Vladimir Cybil Charlier, Linda Eckstein, Joan Harmon and Pat Hickman. Through mixed media, painting, prints and sculpture, these artists invite viewers to contemplate the ways in which the sacred and the secular coexist and interact in our world. Each artist brings their unique perspective to this theme, offering a rich and diverse range of interpretations and inviting viewers to find meaning and connection in the spaces between.
*SUPERNATURAL *
Building 5, 2nd Floor
Curator Jonathan Shorr
Group Exhibition:Arden Klemmer, Brett De Palma, Ursula Schneider, Courtney Stock, Austin Siegert, Daniel Zeese, Nick Farhi, Sam Crohn, Don Steinmetz, Paul Christopher Conticelli
Su·per·Nat·u·ral: (adjective & noun) a manifestation or event attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. GARNER Arts Center and Curator at Large Jonathan Shorr present SuperNatural a group exhibition which brings together a wide range of ingenious and clever creators. Each artist, in their own inimitable way, is daring to challenge contemporary understanding and nature.
With this exhibition GARNER continues to exhibit artists who are attempting to explore, in narrative and technique, forms that are unprotected by rules and history. Language has it’s own special nature, it’s own conventions and communal ideas. But if language doesn’t change, if it seeks refuge in those conventions and if the communal ideas reflect only the past, language dies. The artists here, in their struggles against ingrained habits and familiar assumptions, are taking us to different places, to fictitious situations.
TROUBLE You Are Not Here VR experience and multiverse maze installation
Building 2 South
In You Are Not Here, TROUBLE extends their maze work into a metaverse environment, creating a 30 square meter virtual maze installation within a built maze. It will be accessible to viewers via VR headset, desktop, and cellphone.
+Grand Opening Exhibition - NED HARRIS
NED HARRIS Photography Building 35, Visitor Center March 11 - April 23, 2023
Ned was a successful artist, photographer and curator who helped invigorate the cultural scene of Rockland County for over fifty years. A graduate of De Witt Clinton High School, Ned received training at Pratt Institute and The New School for Social Research. A founder of a prominent Manhattan graphic design firm, he created many iconic package designs for major cosmetic labels, such as Helena Rubinstein, Estée Lauder, Avon, Frances Denneiouy and Revlon. He was also a longtime board member and Chairman of the Exhibition Committee of the Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA), where he conceived and curated many memorable exhibitions. A gifted photographer, Ned's eye and camera caught the irony and humor in everyday life that most of us miss. His black and white photography captured New York City street scenes in the 1960’s, and he embraced digital photography and techniques in the 21st Century. Ned's photography book Form and Texture, published in 1974 by Van Nostrand Reinhold, has inspired teachers and students to this day. A proud veteran of WWII, Ned served in the Twenty-Third Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, a camouflage unit comprised of visual artists and sound engineers designed to mislead the enemy, and received a Purple Heart. He was among the veterans interviewed in the PBS documentary "The Ghost Army," and he was the subject of the documentary "Ned Harris: An Eye for Chance."
+Grand Opening Exhibition - VLADIMIR CYBIL CHARLIER
VLADIMIR CYBIL CHARLIERThe Inidigo Suites Building 35, Main Gallery March 11 - April 23, 2023
The Indigo Suites were developed in response to the history of the Garner Historic District as an old indigo Mill. As each piece juxtaposes seemingly disparate cultural references and textures, the work also weaves personal histories with markers from both Caribbean and American cultures, generating a complex narrative for the viewer to decipher. The pieces rethink iconic images using the self-taught art and vernacular language of the Caribbean, and are a gesture that aim to reclaim and re-context iconic images within the post-colonial history of the Americas. For example, the blue jeans, boots, and straw hats that are recurrent images in the paintings can be read equally as iconic cultural markers that belong to the American cowboys or as the sacred attributes of Zaka, the deity of agriculture in Haitian Vodou: a New World archetype. The duality and ambiguity leave viewers to ponder how they construct meaning. Vladimir Cybil Charlier is a New York-based multi-disciplinary artist. She was born in Queens, New York, to Haitian parents and grew up between New York City and Port-au-Prince, an experience that continues to inform her work. She earned a Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Trained as a painter, Charlier has delved into many artistic mediums. Over the years, her work has focused on developing a cohesive language to articulate a diasporic culture and the search for that language has been the thread linking her different bodies of work, whether mixed-media paintings, prints or three-dimensional work. Earlier in her practice, Charlier started mining various forms of popular art and crafts from the Caribbean, looking at self-taught painting traditions, textile work, as well as the spiritual traditions and sacred art forms of the African diaspora, particularly as evidenced in the Caribbean; in essence rethinking these traditions within a wider diasporic perspective, such as those communities of people of Caribbean heritage, living elsewhere in the Americas, in cities such as New York. Charlier has been an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and more recently, at Fountainhead studios in Miami. Her work has been featured in the 2006 Venice Biennale and exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio and the Bronx Museum. Charlier participated in the Biennial del Caribe in the Dominican Republic, the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador, and the Panama Biennial in 2003. Her work has been included in an exhibition at Le Grand Palais, Paris, and more recently in shows such as Relational Undercurrents at MOLAA, the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, 2018 and Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas, BRIC House, Brooklyn, 2018, Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Perez Art Museum Miami, 2013. She also had a solo exhibit at Five Myles, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 2018.
+Grand Opening Exhibition - SARI DIENES
SARI DIENES
Building 35, Ned Harris Gallery
March 11 - April 23, 2023
On August 8, 2011 Hurricane Irene brought catastrophic flooding to the Garner Arts Center housing the Sari Dienes’ Retrospective exhibition. The gallery collapsed, and half of the exhibition was lost. Now, 12 years later, Garner Arts Center opens Building 35 as a magnificent new state-of-the-art exhibition space. To celebrate the opening and recognizing the support of the arts community of Rockland County, (including support from Rockland County, the Town of Haverstraw, Village of West Haverstraw, New York State/ Governor Hochul, and Taylor Global), we are pleased to announce the grand opening of Building 35 with a new exhibition of the groundbreaking artworks of Sari Dienes. During a career that spanned over six decades, Sari Dienes worked in a wide range of media, creating paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, textile designs, sets and costumes for theater and dance, sound-art installations, mixed-media environments, music, and performance art. In the late 1940’s Dienes met and began a lifelong friendship with composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. She established herself in the epicenter of the art world during the 1950s, mentoring and influencing artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and was close friends with Mark Rothko, Ray Johnson, and a myriad of others. “Armed with an ink roller, she mapped her urban haunts as well as her body’s movement; uneven and ghostly skeins of pigment document her repetitive application of a standard-size brayer across the surface. Dienes placed drawing at the center of her practice while simultaneously challenging traditionally held views about the medium.”1 This exhibition focuses on Dienes’ work from the early 1950s and traces her evolution when she rejected her formal training to begin experimenting with new materials and techniques- a shift in her practice from surrealistic painting and drawing, past abstract expressionism, suggesting the beginnings of Pop Art and seminal in the Neo Dada movement. She developed “rubbings,” layering surface textures of urban manhole covers and sidewalks as well as assemblages of found objects. “But more than a change of technique, a conceptual shift was occurring in Dienes’ work. She was at the cusp of something new; her innovative use of materials, scale and everyday environmental sources was in keeping with what a younger generation of American artists were beginning to approach. The art-historical implications of Dienes’ frottage works are more significant than has been acknowledged.” 2 Now within the Garner Historic District of New York, the new Garner Arts Center honors the work of the Sari Dienes Foundation which continues to promote, preserve and research the legacy of Sari Dienes and celebrates the publication of the new book, Sari Dienes: Who I Am?!, Commentaries on her Life and Art, edited by Barbara Pollitt. 1 text excerpt from Sari Dienes’ 2014 solo exhibition at The Drawing Center, NYC, New York https://drawingcenter.org/exhibitions/sari-dienes 2 (Sid Sachs: Sari Dienes Who I Am?! Sari Dienes Foundation 2022, p. 32 edited by Barbara Pollitt) The Indigo Suites The Indigo Suites.
+GARNER 3 Exhibition
Artwork by Joe Fusaro, Nathan Singer and Justin Smith
January 14 - February 26, 2023 Building 35
Joe Fusaro creates drawings, paintings and mixed media works that produce surprising and simultaneously familiar images. While the subject matter may be rooted in personal experience the objects, in the end, feel universal.
Joe is the Senior Education Advisor for Art21 and an adjunct professor for the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University. He served as the Visual Arts Chair for the Nyack Public Schools in New York from 2003-2022.
Nate Singer grew up in Rockland County, exploring the natural foliage of his surroundings. His initial sketches of organic objects were explorations of the veins and roots of leaves and trees. As an undergraduate, Singer completed coursework in engineering, math, physics and psychology, all in pursuit of more intimately understanding the patterns of the natural world. Singer found painting and sculpture to be the best mediums for him to explore his fascination with these forms, and graduated with his B.A. in Fine Art from Union College in 2017.
Artist statement: This series of abstract paintings and ink drawings use hard-edged shapes and intuitive calligraphic marks to create compositions that combine organic growth with rectilinear shapes. Inspired by both the highly structured cityscape, and the natural environment, Singer combines elements from both worlds to create his energetic paintings.
Justin Smith is an artist, musician and actor born and raised in Rockland County. A self-taught painter, he began painting in 2015 and two years later had the privilege and honor of manning his own solo show entitled "Metaphysical Translation" at the Union Arts Center in Sparkill, NY. Ever evolving, Justin is presently focusing on successfully launching his music career, but his undying love and appreciation for creating art will always be his core passion.
Artist Statement: My work is a metaphysical exploration utilizing the full spectrum of the human condition. Through colors, figures, and shapes I am able to express feelings within myself that simply cannot be translated otherwise. These raw emotions are applied to canvas with improvisation, but are carefully thought out as well. The gestural renderings are then layered and edited until the hidden images are revealed, and the deeper meanings come bubbling to the surface. Often times these “revelations” come to life with unpredictable results, and what I’m left with seldom resembles my original thought process.
I make art because my creative self is never content. It always has something to say, a story to tell, an anecdote to pass on, or a new and fresh perspective to explore. I create because it is a rush of joy and necessity flowing intermittently out of the same faucet.
+6th Annual Member Exhibition
November 12 - December 11, 2023
Exhibiting Artists:
Farhana Ahkter
Stacy Alessio
Kenneth Burns
Joyce Byrnes
Kris Campbell
Hector Cancela
Mary Kate Cardona
Matt Casanovas
Vladimir Cybil Charlier
Elena Chelaru
Diane Churchill
Brian M. Daly
Lisa D'Amico
Andrea Della Cava
John DeMarco
Joanna Dickey
Brett De Palma
Linda Eckstein
Sharon Falk
DB Flynn
Richard Alan Fox
Tiffany Freeman
Susan Freiman
Joe Fusaro
John Gilbert
Trine Gaiever
Deborah Grosmark
Joan Harmon
Jennifer Herman
Pat Hickman
Susan Hillary
James D. Hostomsky
Polly King
Arden Klemmer
Valeri Koltchine
Susan Lais Hostetler
Lynne Lancaster
Elizabeth Lauri
Corrine McConville
James McNaughton
Cass McVety
Marcy Mechanic
Mouise
Maria Teresa Ortiz-Naretto
Gerda Quoohs
Ellen Joyce Rabinowitz
Carl Rattner
Sarah P. Rose
Aviva Sakolsky
Elaine Schloss
Ursula Schneider
Julie Scholz
Lorena Shaw
Debbie Silberberg
Anthony Simpson
Don Steinmetz
Patricia Stewart
Paul Tappenden
Magdalena Truchan
James Tyler
Arny Weinstein
Frances Wells
James Winans
Deborah Zengotita
+Paul Tappenden Retrospective
October 1 - 30, 2022
Paul Tappenden March 23, 1947 - October 4, 2021
An award-winning artist, Paul Tappenden’s creativity varied over a career spanning 45 years. He worked on Broadway sets, television and film; created stunning Hudson River landscapes; was a noted muralist and developed two unique painting techniques. He was awarded honors from government and organizations as a champion of the arts.
Paul studied music and art at Milton Keynes College (a division of Oxford University) in Buckinghamshire, England. After earning his degree, he taught in England and Bermuda before coming to New York in the mid-seventies.
His work includes pen and ink drawings, etchings, watercolors, and oil and acrylic paintings and murals. He developed two unique painting techniques called Fresco Découvrir and Modellier Massé, bridging the gap between painting and traditional fresco.
Paul’s subject matters range from portraiture, landscape, still-life and architectural. At one point in his career, he developed a reputation for paintings of the Hudson River Valley and the quaint Victorian village of Nyack where he lived for 43 years.
He was a member of the United Scenic Artists painting scenery for Broadway plays such as Cats and Evita, TV including a year on Saturday Night Live, and over fifty movies including Cotton Club, Legal Eagles, Trading Places and The World According to Garp.
Later in life, Tappenden studied herbs, natural health and foraging, becoming an expert forager sharing his knowledge through workshops, foraging expeditions and The Rockland Forager blog. He published two books, The Edible Plants of Nyack, and The Edible Plants of Nyack and Beyond, which is more extensive and in its second edition.
Tragically, he died in 2021 from COVID19 and kidney disease, leaving his wife Kathy of 45 years and daughter Kelly.
Awards 2006: Award of Excellence, Rockland County Executive Award Artist of the Year, State Legislature of NY and Arts Alliance of Haverstraw 2004: Prize painting for Rockland Gay Pride 2003: Pride of Rockland Arts Award; Rockland County Executive Award for Visual Arts
Commissions
The Plaza Hotel, NY; The Whitney Estate, NY; Jumeirah Essex House, NY; Ralph Lauren; Old Navy; Nyack Village Hall; Nyack Hospital; Architectural Digest; Town and Country; Guide to the Nyacks; Rockland County Tour Guide; Rivertown Magazine; Rockland Magazine; Hook Magazine; Bergen County Magazine; Journal News; Rockland County Times
www.paultappenden.comwww.rocklandforager.com
+Home Body, Daniella Friedman, Svetlana Bailey & Eli Tesma
Sunday, July 24 - Sunday, September 18
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
These daring artists combine in this three person show an ecstatic embodiment of home, humanness, post humanism, and ecology of culture while holding the space for each individual’s experience of self dancing in the ether. The divergent creativity of expression in these works embraces each the other and helps the viewer savor the free floating tension of a strange and fascinating world of wonder and mystery.
Daniella Friedman
Mixed-media paintings of collaged interiors that depict multi-dimensional ideas of home, transporting us to a deeply emotive and psychological space. What is the spiritual dimension of domestic objects, interior space and the intimate layers within it which become symbols of lifestyle, taste and class. Diaristic, photographic collage built with artist’s images of daily life. A container of time, memory and material. The formal elements of the paintings—color, shape & mark as metaphor for life, with precise attention to edges, directionality and compression.
Daniella was born in Merrick, New York in 1987. Upon earning her degree in Studio Art from Brandeis University, 2009, she moved to Mexico City as a recipient of the Mortimer-Hays Traveling Fellowship to design and produce a line of handmade fluorescent oil paint. MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University, 2015. She is a recent artist-in-residence at Dumfries House Scotland, Fountainhead Residency, Miami and the Vermont Studio Center. She has exhibited in Mexico City, Athens, France, Miami and New York. She currently lives with her family in Harlem, NYC.
Svetlana Bailey
Her photo-based practice explores embodiment and our human centric view of the environment. She searches for new ways of inhabiting our world and examining interactions between human and habitat. Her sculptures of fruit, ice and bodies represent the eerie intimacy between human and surroundings, engaging with new thoughts on ecology and speculate on the weirdness of the future.
”In Would the sun still rise I lie on light sensitive paper in the desert while the sun rises. Sunlight leaves colored traces on the paper that preserve an outline of my body in the moments it passes through places that are becoming uninhabitable. The sense of being and existing in a body has occupied me since early childhood. I remember at a young age trying to feel the difference between myself and my body and wondering why my conscious memories are all located in this body. I’m exploring the borders of my physicality that define my existence and interactions with the outside world and what it means when this body melts away, blurs into the environment and becomes terrain. With the California fires flaring, intensely coloring the sky, and the haze obscuring my vision as the desert storms filled my hair, ears and nostrils with sand, my body was exposed to the harshness of our environment while the hazy pink hues of the sky poetically embedded me and my family. Is there a new evolutionary period ahead where our materiality enters a dream state and reconstitutes in a bodily vehicle for a future atmosphere?”
Svetlana Bailey has exhibited throughout the United States and Australia, including at Elizabeth Houston Gallery NYC, Crossing Art NYC, Clamp Art NYC, Blue Sky in Portland, Filter Space in Chicago, Artereal in Sydney where she is represented and the Zhu Qizhan Art Museum in Shanghai. Bailey has been in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Marble House Vermont, Mountain School Los Angeles, Vermont Studio Center, Atlantic Center for the Arts, the NARS Foundation in New York, the Three Shadows Photography Arts Center in Beijing and the 501 Artspace in Chongqing. She is the recipient of national and international grants by the Australia Council for the Arts, Copyright Agency Sydney, Joseph Robert Foundation Pennsylvania and the American-Australian Association in New York, and was profiled in Vault Magazine and PDN Magazine. Svetlana Bailey’s work is held in the Australian Government’s Artbank collection and the Library of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and for two years running was awarded the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward prize. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and lives with her family in New York City.
Eli Tesma
Eli explores the evocation of Home in his photographs. Is it a physical state of where he is, or an emotional connection to a place that has a meaning for him? For years his home was a base in the desert, at times in a small tent with his teammates. As a child, it was on his mother's back as she carried him across a similar desert. At night he photographs the stars, the unknowable ether and looks at the milky way. Home is earth, carrying us on its back. In this body of work, he is focused on familiarity, safety and nomadism.
Eli Tesma was born in northern Ethiopia and raised in Israel as a conservative Jew. After serving as a sergeant sniper in the Israeli military, he pursued a visual arts education at Hadassah College in Jerusalem. He's been a documentary and news photographer for the past 18 years and lives with his family in Jerusalem. This is his first exhibition in the United States.
+You Are Here (AKA The Maze)
by TROUBLE (Laura Paris and Samuel Hillmer)
Creekside Sculpture Trail
You Are Here" is a sculptural maze featuring a vanitas in the center. Viewers, including dogs and wildlife, are invited to walk through the maze. The maze presents an opportunity for reflection upon our relationship to space, habits of assembly, and performance ritual.
+IMPOSUKE BOOLBOOL, Josh Fox & Echos of a World Gone…, Richard Bedkowski
Building #5 2nd Floor
IMPOSUKE BOOLBOOL, Josh Fox
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
May 21 - August 21, 2022
Josh has been creating visual art since he was in his early twenties--drawing, painting, video, film and theater. His visual art, theater, and filmmaking have an intense, shocking, arresting visual style. Josh delves into new language in these paintings. IMPOSUKE BOOLBOOL is the premiere showing of several evocative new paintings in this series. Josh Fox is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning writer/director and an internationally recognized spokesperson and leader on the issue of fracking and extreme energy development.
@joshfoxpaintings
@joshfoxfilm
Echos of a World Gone…, Richard Bedkowski
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
Rick is daring to do something different; attaching himself to new ideas and trying to get to another place. Where is it ? What is it? Extremely strange and beautiful. Based on illusionary practices; nothing real; nothing hard or objective—its all subjective. Sincere evocations of his state of mind.
+COVER LOVER REMIX
Curated by Dick Burroughs
May 21 - July 9, 2022
Exhibiting Artists Selected Artists: Amy Mott, Mitch Liner, Audrey Anastasi, Patricia Stewart, Stacy Alessio, John Gilbert, Kelly Perez, Nancy Diamond, Anette Back, Lisa D'Amico, Melanie Sullivan, Debbie Silberberg, Kelly Sisco, Mouise, Mackenzie Heslin-Scott, Victor "Victor Ignacio" Rodriguez
Guest Artists: Pablo Power, Ritchie Sway Iwanski, Mike Perry, Sean Qualls, Kristen McCilver, Adam Krueger, Misha Tyutyunik, JIMTWICE, Charlotte Mouqin, Savior El Mundo, Voodo Fé, Shawn Mckinney, Natalie Sturgis, Mr Momar, Iulian Budea
COVER LOVER REMIX (CLR) is a juried multi-artist exhibition of “remixed” album covers. This exhibition explores the transition of visual artists from consumers of album art to creators of reimagined album covers. CLR opens at GARNER Arts Center on May 21st and will be on view through July 9th. The opening weekend coincides with the GARNER Arts Festival, which returns to Rockland County on May 21st and 22nd.
Dimensionally, all exhibiting pieces measure 24” x 24,” which maintains the square shape of an album cover, while doubling the cover size for increased visual impact. Participating artists will reinterpret iconic album covers while maintaining a conceptual thread to the original album artwork, which will be visible via QR code. The experience of CLR is an homage to album cover art and vinyl records and will feature a curated selection of exhibition programming, expected to include all-vinyl DJ sets, pop-up record shops during the opening weekend, and other album art and vinyl-centric programming throughout the exhibition run. The vast range of source material crosses musical genres with album artwork often creating an emotional bond with the public. The beauty, drama, creativity, and anticipation lies in how the artist navigates that bond while owning the vision of their remix. As stated by curator Dick Burroughs, “Album art isn’t normally in art-specific environments such as a gallery, and the public’s interaction with the familiar, yet different creates a vibrant energy.”
In addition to the artists the jury selects for the exhibition, the exhibition will feature a select group of guest artists curated by Dick Burroughs, whose art has the style, energy, and vibrancy to create exceptional expressions of the Cover Lover Remix curatorial theme. The select artists include Mike Perry, an Emmy-winning artist whose work spans an array of mediums, from paintings to sculptures, including books, public art installations, monographs, drawings, and silkscreens. Mike has exhibited across Europe and Asia in both solo and group shows. He has found success working in animation, highlighted by his continued work on Comedy Central’s Broad City, which resulted in the Television Academy naming Mike Perry Studio the 2018 Emmy winner of their Motion Design Jury Award for the Mushrooms Episode. Perry’s purpose is to conjure that feeling of soul-soaring wonder you have when you stare into distant galaxies on a dark night, when you go on long journeys into the imagination, when you ponder what it is that this life is all about. In so doing, Perry celebrates form: of the human body, of shapes and lines that coalesce into lyrical masses, of the vastness of the cosmos and the questions it calls us to. In Perry’s patterns, portraits and dreamscapes, there are layers upon layers of meaning, some erased, some covering, some asking you to look deeper, some no longer there but still vibrating with a story that ought not to be forgotten! His use of color, pattern, and form, at times child-like, expresses a joyful spirit and a reverence for the bliss inherent in the human experience. We are thrilled to have Mike Perry in Cover Lover Remix.
+Big Risks: Creative Discoveries - Sculptures by Peter Strasser
April 23 - June 25, 2022
The material Peter Strasser works with is big, really big. And while the endeavor to create something from a whole cut tree requires taking risks that might not turn out as anticipated, the possibilities can be endless.
Monumental trees become twisted with burls and cutouts with brightly colored geometric shapes or wood beams inside the tree trunk. The viewer is left perplexed as to how such a juxtaposition could even be created. While preserving the original, he adds another layer of thought to what was once a tree.
+QUEEN MOTHER OF PROGRESS And African Journeys - Photographs by Collette V. Fournier
May 22 - June 25, 2022
There is a traditional African saying that "It takes a village to raise a child". My exhibition is a photographic documentation of "The Queen Mother of Progress". To my vision, this photograph best exemplifies an African culture of traditional life and how village elders are held in high esteem. This is a story of how a third world community works together and supports one another.
In August 2010, Ms. Alexandreena Dixon, Executive Director of Chiku Awali African Dance, Arts and Culture was enstooled in the village of Bepoase, Ghana, W. Africa in a four hour ceremony called the Durbar. The four-hour celebration consisted of dancing, drumming, speeches, and traditional rituals of being raised and lowered three times on the stool, then being dusted with a white powder as a form of protection. With her new name Nana Yaa Oforiwaa Amanfo I, she is now responsible for bringing the village and schools up to date economically and with new technology.
+On Pins and Needles: Accessible Burlesque & the Art of Adornment
December 12, 2021 - February 12, 2022
Delilah Blue Flynn & Magdalena Truchan
Although millions of people are classified as disabled, the often misunderstood world of disabled Americans, and particularly of disabled women, is relegated to society’s margins. The otherness of disabled women confines them, and their beauty is often disregarded. Blurring the lines between disability, beauty and sexuality is taboo. On Pins and Needles aims to spotlight and redefine the beauty standard with an exploration of disability, seen through the lens of the aesthetic of mid-twentieth century pin-up illustration and the capabilities of those we categorize as disabled. The exaggerated sexuality of pin-up illustration makes it an ideal medium to explore society’s discomfort with merging stereotypical images of beauty with disability.
The genesis of the exhibit is a friendship between two artists living in the Hudson Valley. Delilah Blue Flynn, an illustrator, and Magdalena Truchan, a graphic designer and fashion blogger, were talking over a few glasses of wine one night. Magdalena, a car crash-induced paraplegic, told Delilah how disheartening it is that barely any interesting and modern representation of disabled people exists in art. That idea resonated with Blue and she decided to act upon this for her friend. Knowing Magdalena as well as she does, Blue chose to depict her in all her retro-inspired punk rock glory, as a modern day pinup on wheels. Magdalena was so thrilled with the piece that she immediately shared it on social media and the response was overwhelming. The two quickly realized that this was an artistic expression that touched people and made an impact. Magdalena and Delilah decided to expand upon this thereby creating a series that would showcase those with disabilities who are not defined by limitations. They can be stylish, fun, interesting and sexy people who just happen to be disabled.
Additionally, Magdalena's love and interest in fashion led her to the direction of DIY fashion. Her fashion designer friend taught her how to knit and she embraced the craft. She discovered fiber arts via experimentation with all kinds of textiles while knitting fashion pieces. She wanted to design one of a kind stylish pieces which were also adaptive for people with limited mobility. Her hand knitted wraps are an expression of her keen fashion eye and her love of fiber crafts. Influenced by Japanese and Italian designers as well as the textiles themselves, these wraps are not only utilitarian but also works of art.
Delilah Blue Flynn has been an artist since she could grasp a crayon in her tiny fist. In 2016, she graduated from NYC’s School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Illustration, where her art was featured in the 2015 Junior thesis show. Her work has appeared in various galleries throughout NYC and the Hudson Valley and she has illustrated several children’s books, including Bradley, What Are You Doing? and King O’ The Cats. She currently resides in the Hudson Valley with her two excitable Australian Shepherds. Her work can be found at www.blueflynn.com. Follow Delilah Blue Flynn on IG.
Born and raised in Forest Hills, Queens and Bergen County, NJ, Magdalena Truchan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design and Painting from SUNY Purchase. In 2013 she created a fashion and lifestyle blog Prettycripple.com. In addition she creates humorous videos about a variety of topics, sits on the board of the nonprofit arts organization Haverstraw Riverwide Arts and seeks to find a filter for her no-holds-barred sense of humor. Follow her on IG
+5th Annual Members' Exhibition
November 13 - December 4, 2021
The annual GARNER members’ exhibition returns. See over 100 artists in multiple disciplines. A very cool community event at GARNER Arts Center.
+JONATHAN DEMME: Collecting with Abandon
October 9 - 31, 2021
An exhibition of over 100 works from Jonathan Demme's extraordinary collection of Haitian, Island and Outsider Art.
Art sales benefited GARNER Arts Center’s Building 35 restoration project, Haverstraw African American Connection — The Experience, L'Centre D'Art in Port Au Prince, Haiti and Americans for Immigrant Justice.
Many Thanks to Joanne Howard and Brooklyn Demme.
+Tell the Truth, Daniel Lanzilotta
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
May - July 2021
Building 35 Tell The Truth was a new in-person exhibition by Artist in Residence, Daniel Lanzilotta. Curated by Jonathan Shorr. Daniel Lanzilotta brings significance to the seemingly insignificant using post consumer waste to create works of art. Daniel works with plastic waste, detritus, rubbish, fragments of litter, trash, flotsam and jetsom. He works predominantly with plastic ocean debris and calls himself a ‘Plastician”. His work is a celebration of items cast away in the environment.
Telling the truth through my work is the responsibility of the person who is viewing the work. I’m just bringing to light a question about environmental issues and post-human consumption. What is the viewer’s contribution to my art supply?
-Daniel Lanzilotta
GARNER Arts Center is pleased to present Tell The Truth, a new exhibition of sculpture from Environmental Artist and Sustainability Advocate, Daniel Lanzilotta. In his sculptures, Lanzilotta transcends the boundaries of sculptural meaning, interaction, movement and abstraction in his depictions of 21st Century life.
Lanzilotta brings significance to the seemingly insignificant use of post-consumer waste to create works of art. Daniel works with plastic waste, detritus, rubbish, fragments of litter, trash, flotsam and jetsam. He works predominantly with plastic ocean debris and calls himself a ‘Plastician’. His work is both a celebration and wake-up call about the items humans cast away in the environment.
With this exhibition, Daniel dares to explore, in narrative and technique, forms and materials that are unprotected by rules and history. These sculptures create new conventions and communal ideas of awareness, beauty, and emotional connectedness. The artworks eloquently struggle against ingrained habits and familiar assumptions, bringing the viewer to a profound understanding of our disposable lifestyles while simultaneously launching us toward an intentional place far away from the culture of consumption.
Daniel and GARNER Arts Center Curator-At-Large Jonathan Shorr have teamed up to teach the students at Haverstraw Community Center with Sustainability Engineer Ray Mosquea and HCC Project Coordinator Tim Sanders while they further support Haverstraw’s Sustainability Movement “to become the most sustainable community in New York State”. During his residency, Daniel created Happy Consumer, one of his large public sculptures using 500 laundry bottles from Los Primos laundromat’s two-week collection of recycled bottles. Amongst other community projects, they are spearheading, with Mr. Mosquea, a project to help Los Primos attain a sustainable model. Lanzilotta and Shorr are supplementing his exhibition with interviews, a documentary and classes to make his exhibition also serve as a Sustainability Incubation Center during the run of the show in Building 35.
Beyond the stunningly evocative exhibition of blazing explosions of color sculptures, these art pieces are built with uncoded usage that seamlessly intrigue viewers and connect our humanness with nature. “In the American culture, we’ve lost track of what something [really] is.” Daniel has been materializing his artistic vision by collecting debris, rubbish, and plastic waste for the past twenty-four years. One thing he does not lack is mindfulness, which led him to honor both his artistic whims and deepest convictions beginning in his early twenties.
A native New Yorker, born in the Bronx, Daniel Lanzilotta holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Lanzilotta is an Artist in Residence at GARNER Arts Center. His artwork has been exhibited widely on most every continent.
+MY LOVE SPiNS… SPiNS LOVE, Shura McComb
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
May - July 2021
GARNER Arts Center was pleased to present MY LOVE SPiNS... SPiNS LOVE, a large immersive video exhibition of Multimedia Artist Shura McComb’s ground-breaking new work in video, digital, projection mapping, sound, movement art and VJ. He brings illumination and spirit to the world through the use of an intricate blend of 3D technology and the abstract narrative of emotive motion art. McComb is a cultural storyteller creating a new vista with inventive graphics and culture-play. A riveting image-maker, he creates visually consuming discoveries. McComb’s work reveals an unusual awareness — both cerebral and sensory — of how humans consume images and story across culture.
McComb’s videos envelop the viewer, splashing across complex industrial landscapes, buildings, objects and small screens. Encompassing a wide range of cinematic, irresistibly attractive videos and movement, the imagery installs the viewer into McComb’s other-worldly spaces where fictions are more real than fact.
McComb paints and sculpts ethereal videoscapes — color, music, and vitality collide with soothing mastery. His work is refined yet raw, leading the viewer through overlapping expansions of creativity. He unweaves a narrative in color wilderness and multi-dimensional warping. This unique visual terrain is simultaneously new and familiar while establishing mutable emotional revelations and sweeping sensatory encounters. From the unexpected we imagine ourselves anew.
McComb creates an engaging audio-visual trialogue with the viewer, industrial space and projections of expanding unknowableness embraced by human creativity. A master of spatial reality, video manipulation and projection technique, McComb has produced hundreds of image and video artworks and presented them in dozens of art, cultural and popular locations in New York and Florida. McComb’s seminal production at GARNER Arts Center with Curator Jonathan Shorr, includes 25 monumental outdoor projections during the Let There Be Light Festival and other video productions and upcoming in 2021 The VJ Show, Mapping Projection and VJ Classes, along with Summer Outdoor Projections.
McComb was the Visual Director and resident VJ for Brooklyn's underground party ReSolute for 6 years. In addition, he's VJ'd at Output, the Brooklyn Mirage/Avant Gardner, Webster Hall, House of Yes, and countless warehouses big and small. He’s mixed live for an extensive list of artists including Nina Kraviz, Andrew Weatherall, The Black Madonna, [a:rpia:r], Rhadoo, Chez Damier, DJ Tennis, Bob Moses, Sonja Moonear, Zip, Daniel Bell, Nightmares on Wax, and many more. He has created interactive art experiences for First Night St. Petersburg, The Museum of Fine Arts and The James Museum.
Shura McComb was born in 1972 in New York City. He is an Artist in Residence at GARNER Arts Center and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
+THE RIGHT TO VOTE
A virtual exhibition series from #GarnerAtHome
September - October 2020
Featured Exhibitions
Women Are All The Thing | Susan Stava
Living Blue in a Red State | Aubrey Roemer
Remembering Hillary | Cristina Biagi
A Look Back | Ed Kirkland
GARNER Arts Center will presented a series of virtual exhibitions and artist talks, careening through the ongoing pandemic toward the presidential election on November 3rd with these four artists’ search for the heart and soul of our American Democracy.
This exhibition series was presented in partnership with SuffrageForward
+RESILIENCE 2020
July - September 2020
A Virtual Photography Exhibition Guest Juried by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist, Bill Foley
Is resilience one’s ability to adapt to a changing world? What about us is ever-enduring? This exhibition seeks to share the resilience of the human spirit and the places we find inspiration, beauty and strength in the darkest times.
“A good half of the art of living is resilience.” Alain de Botton.
GARNER Arts Center is pleased to share this extraordinary exhibition resulting from an open call that reached across the country and around the world. Due to recent global uprisings, we extended our call to encourage photo submissions related to protest and social justice, which can be seen as part of this exhibition. We recognize the theme of RESILIENCE as part of this important moment in our history.
Participating Artists: Danica Adler, Maksim Akelin, A. Anupama, Gina K. Callaghan, Jennifer Deppe Parker, Mary D'Urso, David Finestein, Jacqueline Fiore, Christian Henninger, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Abigail Joyce, Phillip Junor, Julia Justo, Ann Kinney, Camille LaPlaca-Post, Jessica Margo, Lorella Schoales, Susan Stava, Susan Strange, B.A. Van Sise, Christian Vermazen, Thomas Watkiss, Josie Zetina, Hao Zhang
+Seven Magnets, Explained
October 3, 2019 - August 2020 In the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Taproom
Works by Michael Delaney
Earlier this year, I got a college lecture on science from the library. In the lecture, there was a section on electricity and magnetism. Afterwards, I kept thinking about electro-magnetism and all the radio waves pushing and pulling through space. All the hidden pulling forces seemed everywhere.
When I was approached about doing a show at the Industrial Arts Brewery, I started thinking about all the unseen forces present in rooms full of people as well as the thoughts and motivations which push and pull in our private thought-lives. It all seemed like a strange sort of wonderful magnetism.
I wanted to explore these curious forces while trying out a new (and obviously appropriate ) gimmick: modular art utilizing magnetism. My experiment is to see if viewers are moved to interact with the movable elements in the large pieces. My hope is that they’ll appreciate the mystery in all this pushing and pulling.
Artist’s Bio: Michael Delaney’s unique art is big, bold, and engaging; playing off themes of community, spirituality, technology, and the intimacy of personal relationships. His paintings and murals always stimulate thought, conversation, and a strong reaction.
Delaney spent his childhood in the Bronx seeking solace in the desolate areas near the highways and cemeteries around his neighborhood, eventually finding acceptance and inspiration in the underground music and art scene of NYC’s Lower East Side, where he worked as a sound engineer at the legendary punk rock club CBGB.
After a period of instability, Michael moved to Nyack and began painting to reconnect with the places and themes which brought him comfort, wonder and mystery.
Painting on found and recycled materials and using a variety of media, Michael is self-taught and constantly stretching the limits of his imagination. The abstract shapes and vibrant colors of Michael’s work lure viewers in from a distance and then keeps them captivated with wit and wordplay, often offering commentary on life in the 21st Century.
“I really get lost in painting. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the morning and there’ll be a big painting in front of me that I don’t even remember doing. It’s a way for me to escape but still feel connected. ”
Since his record-breaking debut at the 95 ½ Main Gallery during the 2018 Nyack Art Walk, Delaney’s work has shown at the Garner Art Center, The Volition Gallery and the Inner Landing Festival. Most recently, he was chosen as the featured artist for the 2019 Nyack Art Walk. Michael lives and paints in Nyack.
+4th Annual Members' Exhibition
March 7 - June 2020
Nearly 100 GARNER Members in multiple disciplines. Click here to view the virtual gallery.
Participating Artists: Farhana Akhter, Patricia Blanco, Nancy Bowen, Kenneth Burns, Joyce Byrnes, Kris Campbell, Kate Cardona, Lorna Carroll, Diane Churchill, Brian Daly, Lisa D'Amico, Andrea della Cava, John DeMarco, James Diaz, Jacqueline Fiore, Richard Alan Fox, Joe Fusaro, Christelo Gerard, Trine Giaever, John Gilbert, Deborah Grosmark, Joan Harmon, Julian Harvey, Jennifer Herman, Pat Hickman, Susan Hillary, Stephen Horowitz, James Hostomsky, Polly King, Ann Kinney, Susan Lais Hostetler, Lynne Lancaster, Elizabeth Lauri, Eric David Laxman, Lillie Lazarevich, Mitchell Liner, James McNaughton, Terry Mollo, Merrie Robin Monroe, Marc Montefusco, Mouise, Nocturnal, Nunesy, Galit Oelsner, Maria Teresa Ortiz-Naretto, George Potanovic, Gerda Quoohs, Ellyn Joyce Rabinowitz, Carl Rattner, Peter Rednour, Rosemary Rednour, Lex Reibstein, Ursula Schneider & Rick Johnson, Sarah Rose, Lee Ross, Aviva Sakolsky, William Savage, Judy Schaefer, Elaine Schloss, Ursula Schneider, Laurie Seeman/Strawtown Studio & Minisceongo Watershed Alliance, Danit Sharir-Reichenberg, Lorena Shaw, Debbie Silberberg, Nathan Singer, Scott Staton, Susan Stava, Don Steinmetz, Susan Strange, Peter Strasser, Cassie Strasser, Rob Sturgeon, Art Tillman, Pattiann Truocchio, James Tyler, Colleen Vanderhoef, Arny Weinstein, Will Whitehurst, James Winans, Anne Winner, Audrey Worman, Veronica Yacono, Tony Ziegler
+Kingdom of Night
July 11 - October 1st
In the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tapoom
Selected Paintings by Matt Enger Jonathan Shorr, Curator
Excerpts in regular font from Marguerite Van Cook’s Review.
Even as at first glance the work is a hyper-updated pop-art, at a second look, it is a thought provoking conversation about identity, memory and how life and death engages history and art. Matt Enger (b. Oklahoma, 1963) is one of the most important living artists of our time. His art has been exhibited internationally in solo exhibitions and group shows. His work is in the collections of prominent collectors, arts organizations and corporations. Matt is recognized in the art world as one of the finest print makers and painters in the world, having produced innumerable Print Editions for Robert Rauschenberg and Keith Haring among others. Matt is a protégé of Robert Rauschenberg and worked as the Master’s Studio Assistant on Captiva Island, Florida for several years.
Twin brothers Matt and the late Mark Enger arrived on Avenue B in NYC in 1989 where they started their eponymous company “Exploding Sky Worldwide” in 1990. The name stood for the exquisite, outrageous and often controversial work they produced. They pursued their fine art careers, curated shows and performed with their band the “War Hippies,” all executed with their typically audacious energy. Their company took off as the vehicle for their limited edition clothing line, fine art objects, paintings, installations, and public collaborative identity. Exploding Sky quickly became known throughout the Art and Rock World. Artists, Collectors, Actors and Musicians spread the Enger brothers imagery from their Lower East Side headquarters. The brothers’ street wear was quickly adopted by the local musicians, including The Boredoms, Metallica, Lubricated Goat and others (C. Henry). Further, the meticulous nature of their silkscreen work earned them a reputation as supremely skilled printers, which made them a premiere resource to produce limited editions for important artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring, Kiki Smith, Donald Baechler, Spooky and others.
This exhibition exceeds the viewer’s position as spectator, it forces one to enter the painting existentially. The Engers press one to revisit issues of consumerism in a way that recalls Picasso’s famously disruptive painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, here even more concretely. The Enger’s symbolism taunts our expectations and engages divergent emotions simultaneously.
The everyday elements of the past gather importance in Matt Enger’s often intriguingly contradictory analogies. The paintings carry both universal and personal ambivalence about American values, while there is a love of its history that is again both personalized and made collective. This richness of possibility and sublime execution makes Matt’s work compelling. Several sweeps of paint fill the canvas as the artist simplifies his gesture to a purist statement of his work. The piece, whose strokes are instant, fresh and sure, though full of kinetic energy and promise, presents a strangely complete comment. There is an ambiguity as one senses the artist draw breath as he moves to his next work and next state of consciousness. The physicality of this painting…invokes the interaction of the body and the spirit.
Matt’s historic challenges provide a subtext for his engaging visual humor. These paintings contain a fluid line that overlays a dynamic palette. These rule-breaking artworks such as “Candy Land” travel through unmapped territory with light-hearted pastels, boldly drawn lines and serene contemplation of The Last Supper, Pop-Art, invented myth, explosions, American and Native American history, abstraction, globes, battles, people, roses, tires, wolves, skulls, chaos and freedom. Through vibrating fluorescent hues, jewel-like gestures both abstract and representative, “Road House #2” and all these paintings are successful for their beauty and sophistication, and frequently in the work Matt’s painterly thrust elucidates his move towards simplification and essentialism. This is the ground upon which he makes his painterly stand. The paintings are universal in their appeal to the viewers shared past and hopeful future, even as they challenge what it means to be an American and to engage in modern life. This unique ability to create irresistibly attractive paintings through ecstatic color, raw gestural drawing, with a technologically advanced art process sets the viewer vibrating with an awareness of profound truth and detached bliss. One can’t help but smile.
Matt is forever looking for ways to create visual depth and line to enhance the psychedelic pallet he favors. His work is a metaphor which employs historical fact as well as fantasy to explore the daily challenges of people in crowded, technological, wondrous, divergent and many times frustrating societies.
+There Was an America Before Us
Photographs by Albert Hong
Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room Through June 29th
Albert Hong is a New York-based photographer and a Vice President at The Blackstone Group. His unorthodox background in the financial sector, quite literally defined by a two-block radius surrounding the intersection of 52nd and Park, has resulted in his photographic work consistently seeking to explore interpretations of escape, vastness, and surreality found throughout the natural world. His work’s driving intention remains to rekindle our fascination for, appreciation of, and above all, a desire to conserve our only home.
+Concrete of All Commons
Building #35
Gallery Hours: Saturday, June 8th - 3:00 - 6:00pmSaturday, June 15th - 3:00 - 6:00pm
Concrete of all Commons imagines a novel-like exploration of a lived in American utopia...FAHEEM HAIDER, Guest Curator
A group exhibit featuring the work of:NEAL HOLLINGER CHRIS VICTOR MICHAEL ASBILL DEREK STROUP JUNGYUN CHOI
+Gravity's Wings
Paintings by Sharon Falk
On View October 4 - December 27th, 2018
Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room
In the series of paintings I use the images of birds in an exploration of a moment of time that encompasses the source of light as knowledge, art and the lightness of spirit. It is the gesture of wild things, boldly emerging from places of containment or darkness into an awareness of discovery. They exist in a delicate moment of balance in space, and I seek to portray this energy even in stillness. I am interested in moments of expanded time, a gesture that is fleeting but remains in memory as infinite in its completeness. Through the images of wild things, birds in flight, animals in motion, I attempt to get close to their natural state of freedom. They embody the power in each of us in our relation to earthbound struggles, along a path that is both arcane and familiar in a timeless way. In exploring the aura around all things, I am drawn to that light from an unknown source, and the desire to pay attention to the vanishing language written on the land and all nature.
- Sharon Falk
+3rd Annual GARNER Arts Center Members’ Exhibition
March 9 - April 7, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9th at 7pm Gallery Hours: March 16, 23, & 30 & Apr.6 - 1:00 - 5:00 PM
+Passages, featuring the art of Jean Manning
On View July 19 - September 30 in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room
In this collection of oil paintings I am expressing the emotions associated with passages. Passages in the sense of moving through or past some time or place in one’s life. The figurative work originates from my family photo album. I know exactly what was happening when the photo was taken, but alterations in the narrative are made when the snapshot becomes a painting. Within each painting are very personal stories of love, innocence, loss, betrayal and sadness. The moment when the photo was taken has now been altered with the passage of time and memory. The story changes. In the smaller abstract paintings I’m using cold wax mixed with oil paint and applying on wood with various rubber and metal spatulas. There is less control in the application, yet each painting evolves into similar shapes and conveys an inevitable expression of loss, anger or sadness with recurring motifs of dark holes, passageways or floating singular objects. www.jeanmanningart.com
+New Work, featuring the art of Rodger Stevens and Jamie Kimak
On View April 26 - June 4 in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room
Rodger Stevens was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent most of his childhood playing in the street and drawing. Whenever not rigorously engaged in those pursuits, he attended the Poly Prep Country Day School. After receiving degrees in both Economics, from Pace University in New York, and Fine Art, from the Parsons School of Design in New York – and working like mad – he is now an internationally exhibited artist. Rodger currently resides in Nyack, New York, where he continues to work like mad alongside his artist wife, Johanna Goodman, and his two incandescent little kids.
Commissions include: The Whitney Museum of Art, The American Folk Art Museum, PS1, The Katonah Museum, The Bristol Museum, Tiffany & Co., Barney's, PS 122, David Rockwell, Jonathan Adler, Todd Oldham, The Rockwell Group, The W Hotel, Mumm's Champagne, Yohji Yamamoto, The New York Children's Museum of Art, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Stuart Weitzman, Sotheby's, MTV, Persol, The Hangaram Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Starbucks, The New Yorker
Private Collections: William Shatner, Leonard Lauder, Tom Armstrong, David Rockwell, Todd Oldham, Jonathan Adler, Simon Doonan, Alton Brown, Alfred Taubman, David and Jane Walentas
Publications: Art & Antiques, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Elle Decor, The New York Times, Surface, Wallpaper, Dwell, Elements of Living, New York Arts Magazine, City Magazine, D Home Magazine, Sandbox Magazine, Cargo Magazine, Blueprint
Jamie Kimakis a New York-based multi-disciplinary Fiber Artist with professional industry experience in Textile Design, Graphic Design and Fashion Design.
With a background in fiber arts including a BFA in Fiber Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Jamie has experience in traditional hand loom weaving, traditional fabric dyeing methods with natural dyes including indigo, multi-cultural textile design processes including batik, shibori, silk painting, ikat design, devore, silk-screening on fabric and digitally printing on fabric.
Jamie is actively teaching workshops in a variety of textile-based processes at the Garner Arts Center, Rockland Center for the Arts, The Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center and other local arts facilities.
Jamie creates her silk design works via digitally printed pieces, using a combination of her original paintings and ink-drawn designs coalesced into the finished silk composition on display.
+Darkness Breaks, the art of Diane Churchill
On View in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room: March 15 - April 23, 2018
Diane Churchill has been creating paintings in her studio at Garner Arts Center for decades, where she is inspired by the architecture, the stream, and her fellow artists. She exhibits often in Rockland County and New York City and has been honored by fellowships and residencies.
About this work: "Dark into light is an ancient theme. We live it with the seasons; we experience it in our emotional lives.
"I am interested in the glamorous and comforting aspects of darkness. Darkness is a time/space when the world stills and reflection grows. Darkness has power - the power of creative life. It is also a sweet solace." Diane Churchill
Her work is in various private and public collections. More can be seen at www.dianechurchill.com.
+2nd Annual Members' Exhibition
March 10 - April 8, 2018
GARNER Arts Center was pleased to present its second annual Members' Exhibition with over 120 participating artists!
+Ruins, with works by Andre Junget and Dorothy Schmidt
On View in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room: January 25 - March 8, 2018
Andre Junget's work in architectural illustration spans 20 years securing his position as an important contributor to the world of architectural perspective and interior design illustration. A self-taught illustrator and perspectivist, Andre began his career as a tool and die maker in the space and aircraft industry. He later went on to teach perspective at the Institute for the Study of Classical Architecture and has served as Illustrator in Residence at the prestigious architectural firms of Ferguson and Shamamian, Hart Howerton, and Roman and Williams. His architectural work has been honored with Awards of Excellence from the American Society of Architectural Illustrators in 2005, 2008 and 2009. In 2007, Andre was elected to the Society of Illustrators through the support and sponsorship of world-renowned artist Murray Tinkelman. In 2017 Andre was elected into the International Society of Scratchboard Artists.
These images of an abandoned space explores the small moments of the past. After two decades of abandonment and several visitors, the state of decay adds a sense of an afterlife. It's not like it once was but a wilder version... one more free. Dorothy Schmidt
+ A Life in Art, Works by Frank Welles
On View in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room: November 16, 2017 - January 18, 2018
A voyage through 70 years of art-making explores the artist’s mind and astounding creativity. Welles was a long time tenant of the Garnerville Arts & Industrial Center and is co-founder of GARNER Arts Festival. Artworks in this exhibition include paintings, drawings, watercolors, pastels, and etchings.
+ Drawing Into Architecture & Works on Paper by Joe Fusaro
On View in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room: September 7 - November 9, 2017
Joe Fusaro examines simple gestures in order to create surprising and simultaneously familiar images. This collection of work, inspired by his 2013 SoHo exhibition, “On Paper”, utilizes architectural elements and spaces to initiate smaller drawings, creating companion pieces for the large scale works.
+ Printmaking: Regular & Irregular, Woodcuts 1987-2016, Works by Ursula Schneider
On View in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room: July 13 - September 7, 2017
+ A Dark Rock Surged Upon, Curated by Faheem Haider
A Dark Rock Surged Upon, as spectacle, and as an exhibition of works of art installed, projected, and performed throughout GARNER Art Center’s remarkable decommissioned factory spaces, offers no answers; they are responses to contexts that feel jarringly new, cleaved by difference and dissembling. Instead, the works manifest the duty to pose questions about the current moment pressed upon many by racialized and gendered discrimination, our environmental challenges, urban decay and rural devastation, the wholesale assault on political credence, weaponization of worship, and the colonization of speech and mind. A Dark Rock Surged Upon is composed of sculptural, performance, video, photographic, and installation works by Thomas Albrecht, Michael Asbill, Sadee Brathwaite, Stephen Derrickson, Francois Deschamps, Laura Kaufman, Noah Fischer, Matthew Friday, Matt Frieburghaus, Peter Iannarelli, Tlisza Jaurique, Todd Martin, Linda Montano, Emily Puthoff, Rena Leinberger, Ryan Roa, Steve Rossi, Heather Renee Russ, Sigrid Sarda, Zachary Skinner, Tiffany Smith, Molly Stinchfield, Derek Stroup, Anthony Tino, Chris Victor, and Marcus Zilliox.
+ Looking to the Self, Looking into Others, an Intersectional Conversation, Margaret Coleman & Angela Mosley - Co-Curators
Exhibiting the work of nine interdisciplinary artists. Each artist focuses their work on a different topic relating both on a personal level and a community level, in a discussion around contemporary issues that seek to break through the boundaries that oppress. Featuring work by; Aubrey Roemer, Novel scholars, Cori Champagne, Joan Harmon, Jeca Rodriguez-Colan, Angela Mosley, Stella Marrs, Margaret Coleman, Kyanna Brindle, Melissa Cain.
+ Everybody Cryin' Justice, James Tyler - Curator
"I can't believe the things that I'm seeing - I wonder 'bout some things that I've heard - Everybody's Cryin' Mercy - when they don't know the meaning of the word. - Mose Allison. Featuring work by; Ruth Geneslaw, Steph Gorin, Ed Kirkland, Thea Lanzisero, Katherine Matheson, Cassie Strasser
+ Art is Freedom, Jonathan Shorr - Curator
May 20th, 2017 - June 15th, 2017
A group exhibition of selected social justice artwork, images, quotes, posters, photos, tear sheets etc. and visitors can add drawings or statements on paper to the show. Colored paper, colored pens, pencils, markers, and tape will be available for visitors on tables in the center of the room. Universally, art connects and delights. This is a nonpartisan social justice interactive exhibition like others developed by artists throughout history. Visitors are given the materials to place their social justice art and statements on the wall of the exhibition to inspire deeper social justice engagement and discussion.
+ Todd Monaghan Solo Exhibition: Stark Expressionism in the 24 Hour News Cycle, Jonathan Shorr - Curator
On view in Building 5 Studio C May 20th, 2017 - June 15th, 2017
+ OTHER PLACES, Viking Etiquet, Tim Feresten, Gillian Ha, Brian Leo, Amy Morse, Z. Zarenger
February 16 - April 12, 2017
On view in the Industrial Arts Brewing Company Tasting Room
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
This exhibition displayed the work of established artists who are attempting to explore, in narrative and technique, forms that are unprotected by rules and history. Language has its own special nature, its own conventions and communal ideas. But if language doesn’t change, if it seeks refuge in those conventions and if the communal ideas reflect only the past, language dies. The artists here, in their struggles against ingrained habits and familiar assumptions, are taking us to different places, to fictitious situations that stir the imagination.
+FIRST ANNUAL ARTIST MEMBER SHOW
March 11 - April 24, 2017
Featuring Work By 93 members of the GARNER Arts Center community. This is the first Artist Member Show in GARNER Arts Center's history, and we could not be more proud of the involvement and support of our community.
+ TRANSPOSING PERCEPTION, Daniel Liss, Andrea Stanislav, & Michael Zansky Exhibition
September 24 – December 10, 2016
Featuring Work By: Daniel Liss, Andrea Stanislav, Michael Zansky
Transposing Perception, explored the concept of “changing the relative place or normal order of things” transitive verb trans·pose \tran(t)s-ˈpōz
1: to change in form or nature : transform
2: to render into another language, style, or manner of expression : translate
3: to transfer from one place or period to another : shift
4: to change the relative place or normal order of : alter the sequence
*Daniel Liss is a Creative Director, filmmaker and technologist from New York City. Before founding S+7, Daniel was Creative Director at New York based media design firm, Local Projects, where he served as lead creative on engagements for BMW Guggenheim Lab, Jacob Burns Film Center, New York Botanical Garden, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Panasonic, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum, the Nature Conservancy, and Google Creative Lab. Daniel has spent several years exploring possibilities for story-telling inherent within new media frameworks and holds a B.A. in Cinema Studies from SUNY Binghamton and an M.P.S from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he returned to teach after graduation.
*Andrea Stanislav is consumed by ideas of contemporary power, the embodiment of the manifest destiny of global capital. Oftentimes darkly humorous, her work is ultimately a critique of the ancient symbols, the origin myths of civilization. The pastimes and playthings of power. In a hybrid practice of sculpture, installation, video, and public art, Stanislav explores the architecture of empire. Her work questions the systems built on human capital, their hegemonic structure. Strongly influenced by the rise and fall of bygone kingdoms, she is equally consumed by ideas of contemporary power—from American exceptionalism to the city of Dubai, the embodiment of the manifest destiny of global capital.
*Michael Zansky – “Zansky sees the uncertainty of it all as an element of humor, like a dog chasing its tail. In a sense, it is like the experience of Renaissance perspective when it was new, and the human came up against the cognitive uncertainty of experiencing space in a new way.” -Thomas McEvilley
This exhibition is sponsored, in part, by Century 21 Full Service Realty.
GARNER's 2016-2017 Season of Programming is sponsored, in part by Orange & Rockland Utilities.
+ RECYCLING TIME, Nelson Diaz
“Science, math, religion and history are basically stories we tell ourselves about our experience in life and the phenomenon we call energy.”
+ *WITNESS: THE FACES OF HAVERSTRAW, Ken Karlewicz
When Documentary Photographer Ken Karlewicz decided to “take some photographs of Haverstraw” back in 1999, he never realized he would spend almost 10 years creating “a portrait of a neighborhood and its people.”
+ *HAVERSTRAW PAINTINGS, Bill Hochhausen
A series of paintings by local painter Bill Hochausen.
+ *PUSHING THE OPTICAL ENVELOPE, M. Henry Jones Survey Exhibition
October 10-April 17, 2016
Curated by Jonathan Shorr
Survey Exhibition of stroboscopic and three dimensional work by artist, inventor and scientist M. Henry Jones entitled Pushing the Optical Envelope.
The exhibition included his earliest forays into toy-making and sculpture, his teenage animated film work, the legendary photo animation music films, experimental animation projects, the cult TV commercials, animating stroboscopic zoetropes, stereoscopic pinhole and zone plate photography, lenticular explorations, and his collaboratively developed Fly’s Eye Three Dimensional Photographs that can be viewed with the naked eye. Jones joined the staff of Artpark at 16, was awarded two Palms as an Eagle Scout, received the Kodak Teenage Movie Award and a full tuition scholarship to the School of Visual Arts.
M. Henry says of his process that he is more interested in giving static objects movement than in storytelling. The Wall Street Journal states that Jones’ “motives were more perceptual than promotional,” and he attempts to “overload viewers” and “induce retinal after-images”.(4)This Exhibition was made possible with the generous support of Ken Larson.