Thursday, January 9, 2014

Paper or Plastic?
SALTQuarters Gallery

Price: Free
SALTQuarters Gallery
115 Otisco St., Syracuse

Paper or Plastic? is an ecologically minded three-dimensional exhibit that explores the rejoicing of imagination. This is a series of contemporary narratives from diverse young voices; where color, shape and reassigned materials converge into refined creativity and elegance. The artist, Angela Arrey-Wastavino, was one of the four winners of the Individual CNY ARTS Grant competition 2013.

The exhibit is open by appointment. For more info or to visit, email Angela Arrey-Wastavino at PaperOrPlasticExhibit@yahoo.com.

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

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

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

SUtura
XL Projects

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

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Non SICuitur Thursday
Syracuse Improv Collective

Price: $3
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

Our monthly open mic night! Come one, come all! Bring your friends, family, and strangers if they seem interested. A judgment-free space has been set up for you to showcase your talent whether it be improv, stand-up comedy, music, art, spoken word, dance, magic, or any other talent not listed.

We want you to come have fun, to fine-tune your skills, and be a part of a great performance community in Central New York. As always, an open jam will happen at the end of each evening, and you're more than welcome to participate.

Bad Kitty: A Holiday Whodunnit
Acme Mystery Company

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

Everyone who is anyone in the high-stakes, competitive world of professional cat showing is here tonight for the annual Catalina Cat Club holiday dinner and awards banquet. This once-tiny event has grown from a friendly competition into an international frenzy of flying fur and flashing claws—and that's just the owners (especially Marielle Ann DeVozz). Founder and host, Cy Ameze, invites you to come and raise a glass to this year's winner of the prestigious, jewel-encrusted Kitty Cup. That is, if you're still alive by the end of the evening.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Paper or Plastic?
SALTQuarters Gallery

Price: Free
SALTQuarters Gallery
115 Otisco St., Syracuse

Paper or Plastic? is an ecologically minded three-dimensional exhibit that explores the rejoicing of imagination. This is a series of contemporary narratives from diverse young voices; where color, shape and reassigned materials converge into refined creativity and elegance. The artist, Angela Arrey-Wastavino, was one of the four winners of the Individual CNY ARTS Grant competition 2013.

The exhibit is open by appointment. For more info or to visit, email Angela Arrey-Wastavino at PaperOrPlasticExhibit@yahoo.com.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

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

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Crystal Glow
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

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

Karen Kosicki: infrared photography
Max Block: dichroic fused glass jewelry and objects d'art
Mary Giehl: crystal sculpture grown from alum, and mixed media wall hangings featuring crochet elements

Read a review!

Moonshine Movie Madness: The Goonies
Redhouse

Price: $20 regular, $15 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

"Goonies Never Say Die"
Don't miss this iconic pop culture classic from the 80s! Follow a band of pre-teens who live in the "Goon Docks" as they attempt to save their homes from demolition, and in doing so, discover an old Spanish map that leads them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willie, a legendary 17th-century pirate.

Admission includes one free drink.

Jazz@Sitrus: Nancy Kelly
CNY Jazz Arts Foundation

Price: No cover
Sitrus on the Hill
Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel, Syracuse

Garnet Rogers, with special guest Natalia Zukerman
Folkus Project

Price: $15 regular, $12 members
May Memorial Unitarian Society
3800 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

One of Canada's best returns with a hardy, distinctive voice, crisp guitar work, and songs that run deep.

One of folk music's foremost performers, Garnet Rogers sings with a glorious baritone voice that goes straight to the heart. With his incredible range and thoughtful, dramatic phrasing, he is widely considered by fans and critics alike to be one of the finest singers anywhere. An optimist at heart, Rogers sings extraordinary songs about people and small, everyday victories. As memorable as his songs, his over-the-top humor and lightning-quick wit move his audiences from tears to laughter and back again. His music, like the man himself, is literate, passionate, highly sensitive and deeply purposeful. Leaning toward sharply etched story songs that deal with crucial moments in the lives of ordinary people, it expresses the unspoken language of the heart. Although some of his songs tend toward darkness, they always have a glimmer of light woven in.

Natalia Zukerman is nothing if not versatile. In addition to performing her own shows of original music, over the years Zukerman has played lap steel, bass and/or guitar alongside Janis Ian, Susan Werner and Willy Porter, toured collaboratively with fellow artists Garrison Starr, Louise Taylor, Erin McKeown, Sam Baker and John Fullbright, with her art.is.song art and music project comrade AG(Adrianne Gonzlez) with percussionist and vocalist Mona Tavakoli (Jason Mraz, Raining Jane) or with her annual holiday group Winterbloom (Antje Duvekot, Anne Heaton, Meg Hutchinson). Her collaborative nature was captured on her critically acclaimed double live album Gypsies & Clowns. She is currently at work on her seventh solo record, to be released in 2014 on Weasel Records.

*CANCELLED* Live Wire (AC/DC Tribute)
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Tickets will be refunded at the point of purchase.

The Liberty of Low Expectations
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park
Jamie Brumo, director

Price: Suggested donation: $20
The Warehouse, Main Auditorium
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Our 4th annual Happy New Year Fundraiser show encompasses poetry, music, and contemporary original theatre. Opening with the sensitive and dynamic poetry of the Underground Poetry Spot poets, followed by the creative alternate rocking sound of I Am Fool, brings you to the main course of 12 original blank verse monologues, The Liberty of Low Expectations, written and directed by our artistic director Jamie Bruno, that vividly illustrate the lives of 12 distinctly modern characters you've probably encountered in your daily life (if you are not one of them yourself).

Tickets are available from PurplePass.com/Liberty and the box office 45 minutes before the show.

Not Now, Darling
Central New York Playhouse
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $20
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

The scene is the exclusive London fur salon of Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-meaning innocent) struggles to keep things on an even keel despite the energetic philandering of his partner. At the moment, Bodley is trying to secure the affections of his latest would-be mistress by "selling" her husband an expensive mink fur coat for a fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Crouch is saddled with the task of consummating the sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect gift for his own mistress--whereupon the complications burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into closets, and a continuous barrage of rapid-fire jokes all become part of the hilarious doings, as the action of the play bubbles along merrily right up to the final curtain when, miraculously and to the great relief of all concerned, everything somehow manages to work out as it should.

Read a Review!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Paper or Plastic?
SALTQuarters Gallery

Price: Free
SALTQuarters Gallery
115 Otisco St., Syracuse

Paper or Plastic? is an ecologically minded three-dimensional exhibit that explores the rejoicing of imagination. This is a series of contemporary narratives from diverse young voices; where color, shape and reassigned materials converge into refined creativity and elegance. The artist, Angela Arrey-Wastavino, was one of the four winners of the Individual CNY ARTS Grant competition 2013.

The exhibit is open by appointment. For more info or to visit, email Angela Arrey-Wastavino at PaperOrPlasticExhibit@yahoo.com.

Crystal Glow
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Karen Kosicki: infrared photography
Max Block: dichroic fused glass jewelry and objects d'art
Mary Giehl: crystal sculpture grown from alum, and mixed media wall hangings featuring crochet elements

Read a review!

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Vein 8: Stone Canoe Exhibition
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Stone Canoe, A Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary, is published annually by University College of Syracuse University. The prize-winning journal, now in its 8th year, is committed to communicating to the world at large the depth and diversity of the Upstate New York arts community, and each issue features a provocative mix of artists and writers, both well-known and emerging, with ties to the region. The journal's name is inspired by the oldest recorded Upstate New York story, the journey of the Peacemaker in his sacred canoe of stone from Lake Ontario to the Finger Lakes, where he brought the resident warring tribes together to form the Iroquois Confederacy. Each year, the journal's prize-winning writers and artists are presented with an original stone canoe carving by noted Native American sculptor Tom Huff. The current journal, Stone Canoe Number 8, features the work of 24 artists chosen by 2014 arts editor Melora Griffis.

Participating artists include Doug Baird, Stephanie Barkley, Megan Biddle, Francis Clemente, Theresa DeSalvio, Vykky Ebner, Lorrie Fredette, Diana Godfrey, Walter Kopec, Kate Lawless, Steve Miller, Rachel Pea, Jen Pepper, Kathy Petrillo, Sarah Pfohl, Stephan Phillips, Larry Poole, Maria Rizzo, Mitchell Saller, Radio Sebastian, Kaitlyn Spina, Werner Sun, Ron Throop, Paul Weiner.

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

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

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Second Saturday Series: John & Cathy Cadley
Westcott Community Center

Price: $10
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

An appealing trad-leaning duo, built around the songs of John, CNY's top bluegrass/country/folk writer.

Following in the tradition of great male-female duets like Ian & Sylvia and Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, John and Cathy Cadley show how the simplicity of two voices and two acoustic instruments can produce powerful music. Their live concerts feature everything from traditional mountain ballads and bluegrass classics like "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" and "Blue and Lonesome," to Alison Krauss' "The Lucky One," to the Louvin Brother's "Cash on the Barrelhead." And just to add a few surprises, you'll also hear a great acoustic rendition of Paul McCartney's "I Will," a few of John's originals from his Nashville-produced solo CD, The Closer I Get, and Cathy's knockout version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Their repertoire draws on the bluegrass of Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, the tight harmonies of the Louvin Brothers, the "new acoustic" sounds of Alison Krauss and Claire Lynch. John's own originals, have been recorded by national bluegrass artists such as Tony Trischka, Jim Hurst, Missy Raines, and Lou Reid, who, with Vince Gill and Ricky Skaggs singing harmony, took John's song, "Time," to the #1 spot on the national bluegrass charts for three consecutive months.

Cathy's resume is equally impressive, including 21 years leading a church and gospel group in her hometown of Fayetteville, NY.

For an evening of soulful duet singing and tasty picking on guitar and mandolin, the Cadleys are not to be missed.

The Stonecutter
Open Hand Theater

Price: $8
International Mask and Puppet Museum
518 Prospect Ave., Syracuse

Tashi works as a Stonecutter and sees everyone else as having a better life than he. How Toshi wishes that he could be just like them. Three of Open Hand Theater's performers present this gentle, beloved folkstory with live music and a wonderful array of puppets in a striking Japanese-inspired theater style.

The Liberty of Low Expectations
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park
Jamie Brumo, director

Price: Suggested donation: $20
The Warehouse, Main Auditorium
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Our 4th annual Happy New Year Fundraiser show encompasses poetry, music, and contemporary original theatre. Opening with the sensitive and dynamic poetry of the Underground Poetry Spot poets, followed by the creative alternate rocking sound of I Am Fool, brings you to the main course of 12 original blank verse monologues, The Liberty of Low Expectations, written and directed by our artistic director Jamie Bruno, that vividly illustrate the lives of 12 distinctly modern characters you've probably encountered in your daily life (if you are not one of them yourself).

Tickets are available from PurplePass.com/Liberty and the box office 45 minutes before the show.

Not Now, Darling
Central New York Playhouse
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $34.95 dinner theater, $20 show only
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

Tonight's show will be preceded by dinner at 6:45 pm.

The scene is the exclusive London fur salon of Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-meaning innocent) struggles to keep things on an even keel despite the energetic philandering of his partner. At the moment, Bodley is trying to secure the affections of his latest would-be mistress by "selling" her husband an expensive mink fur coat for a fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Crouch is saddled with the task of consummating the sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect gift for his own mistress--whereupon the complications burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into closets, and a continuous barrage of rapid-fire jokes all become part of the hilarious doings, as the action of the play bubbles along merrily right up to the final curtain when, miraculously and to the great relief of all concerned, everything somehow manages to work out as it should.

Read a Review!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Paper or Plastic?
SALTQuarters Gallery

Price: Free
SALTQuarters Gallery
115 Otisco St., Syracuse

Paper or Plastic? is an ecologically minded three-dimensional exhibit that explores the rejoicing of imagination. This is a series of contemporary narratives from diverse young voices; where color, shape and reassigned materials converge into refined creativity and elegance. The artist, Angela Arrey-Wastavino, was one of the four winners of the Individual CNY ARTS Grant competition 2013.

The exhibit is open by appointment. For more info or to visit, email Angela Arrey-Wastavino at PaperOrPlasticExhibit@yahoo.com.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

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

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Casual Concert: Symphoria Up Close
Syracuse Orchestra (formerly Symphoria)
Chris Younghoon Kim, conductor
Featuring Deborah Coble, flute

Price: $35 regular, $25 seniors
St. Paul's Syracuse
220 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Strauss Wind Serenade, op. 7
CPE Bach Flute Concerto in D minor
Stravinsky Concerto in E-flat, "Dumbarton Oaks"

A reception will follow the concert.

Phil Eisenman, baritone; Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Pro Musica Divina

Price: $15 regular, $10 students/seniors
St. Matthew's School
214 Kinne St., East Syracuse

Bass-Baritone Phil Eisenman will be joined by Sar-Shalom Strong on piano and sopranos Mary Molnar and Gayle Ross as they present an afternoon program of song that includes music in the spirit of the season, classic folk, opera, and duets from Broadway. Additionally, Sar-Shalom Strong will perform solo works.

Buxtehude, Marin Marais, and Friends
Schola Cantorum of Syracuse
The Severall Friends Consort

Price: $15 regular, $10 students/seniors
Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church
5299 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

Consorts, pavans, a trio sonata, and more, for viols, baroque violin, and harpsichord, performed by The Severall Friends Consort: Kate Cushing, Alex Korolov, Joscelyn Godwin, and Toby Weinberg.

Thomas Lupo Pavans
Salamone Rossi Symphonie and Gagliarde
Matthew Locke Consort Suite
John Jenkins Consort Airs
Dietrich Buxtehude Trio Sonata
Marin Marais Suite in d minor
and more!

Mark Cohn and Paula Cole
Creative Concerts

Price: $30
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

Not Now, Darling
Central New York Playhouse
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $15
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

The scene is the exclusive London fur salon of Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-meaning innocent) struggles to keep things on an even keel despite the energetic philandering of his partner. At the moment, Bodley is trying to secure the affections of his latest would-be mistress by "selling" her husband an expensive mink fur coat for a fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Crouch is saddled with the task of consummating the sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect gift for his own mistress--whereupon the complications burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into closets, and a continuous barrage of rapid-fire jokes all become part of the hilarious doings, as the action of the play bubbles along merrily right up to the final curtain when, miraculously and to the great relief of all concerned, everything somehow manages to work out as it should.

Read a Review!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Paper or Plastic?
SALTQuarters Gallery

Price: Free
SALTQuarters Gallery
115 Otisco St., Syracuse

Paper or Plastic? is an ecologically minded three-dimensional exhibit that explores the rejoicing of imagination. This is a series of contemporary narratives from diverse young voices; where color, shape and reassigned materials converge into refined creativity and elegance. The artist, Angela Arrey-Wastavino, was one of the four winners of the Individual CNY ARTS Grant competition 2013.

The exhibit is open by appointment. For more info or to visit, email Angela Arrey-Wastavino at PaperOrPlasticExhibit@yahoo.com.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

2014 Transmedia Photography Annual Exhibition
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features photographs by seniors from the Art Photography Program in the Department of Transmedia, part of SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts. The bachelor of fine arts degree program in art photography is designed for students who plan to use photography as their primary creative medium. Many of these students will go on to exhibit their photographs nationally and work for magazines, advertising agencies, museums, galleries, corporations, educational institutions, and the fashion industry.

Exhibiting students include Marcy Ayres, Erica Bernstein, Paige Blinn, Cami Brown, Emily Edwards, Ashli Fiorini, Meagan Gregg, Krystle Gunter, Emily Hawing, Mark Hoelscher, Shelby Jacobs, Kelly Kazmierczak, Nicole Letson, Colin Liang, Victoria Nadler, Mary O'Brien, Allison Paap, Gabriela Perez, Sahra Roberts, Samantha Short, Amrita Stuetzle, Lilith Tagariello, Rachel Thalia, Ana Thor, Chris Trigaux, Katie Walsh, and Nils Wiklund.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Aspen Mays: Newspaper Rock
Light Work Gallery

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

Approaching her art making process like an anthropologist, artist Aspen Mays collects, appropriates and creates objects, information, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts that call into question our limited ability to understand or know the vastness, complexity, and sublime beauty of the physical universe. Her abstract images are made with a variety of photographic processes and are inspired by her passion for and connections within astronomy, prehistoric petroglyphs, anthropology, and science.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

There will be an artist reception this evening 6:00-7:30 pm.

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Crystal Glow
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Karen Kosicki: infrared photography
Max Block: dichroic fused glass jewelry and objects d'art
Mary Giehl: crystal sculpture grown from alum, and mixed media wall hangings featuring crochet elements

Read a review!

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

2014 Transmedia Photography Annual Exhibition
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features photographs by seniors from the Art Photography Program in the Department of Transmedia, part of SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts. The bachelor of fine arts degree program in art photography is designed for students who plan to use photography as their primary creative medium. Many of these students will go on to exhibit their photographs nationally and work for magazines, advertising agencies, museums, galleries, corporations, educational institutions, and the fashion industry.

Exhibiting students include Marcy Ayres, Erica Bernstein, Paige Blinn, Cami Brown, Emily Edwards, Ashli Fiorini, Meagan Gregg, Krystle Gunter, Emily Hawing, Mark Hoelscher, Shelby Jacobs, Kelly Kazmierczak, Nicole Letson, Colin Liang, Victoria Nadler, Mary O'Brien, Allison Paap, Gabriela Perez, Sahra Roberts, Samantha Short, Amrita Stuetzle, Lilith Tagariello, Rachel Thalia, Ana Thor, Chris Trigaux, Katie Walsh, and Nils Wiklund.

Aspen Mays: Newspaper Rock
Light Work Gallery

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

Approaching her art making process like an anthropologist, artist Aspen Mays collects, appropriates and creates objects, information, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts that call into question our limited ability to understand or know the vastness, complexity, and sublime beauty of the physical universe. Her abstract images are made with a variety of photographic processes and are inspired by her passion for and connections within astronomy, prehistoric petroglyphs, anthropology, and science.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Crystal Glow
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Karen Kosicki: infrared photography
Max Block: dichroic fused glass jewelry and objects d'art
Mary Giehl: crystal sculpture grown from alum, and mixed media wall hangings featuring crochet elements

Read a review!

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

2014 Transmedia Photography Annual Exhibition
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features photographs by seniors from the Art Photography Program in the Department of Transmedia, part of SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts. The bachelor of fine arts degree program in art photography is designed for students who plan to use photography as their primary creative medium. Many of these students will go on to exhibit their photographs nationally and work for magazines, advertising agencies, museums, galleries, corporations, educational institutions, and the fashion industry.

Exhibiting students include Marcy Ayres, Erica Bernstein, Paige Blinn, Cami Brown, Emily Edwards, Ashli Fiorini, Meagan Gregg, Krystle Gunter, Emily Hawing, Mark Hoelscher, Shelby Jacobs, Kelly Kazmierczak, Nicole Letson, Colin Liang, Victoria Nadler, Mary O'Brien, Allison Paap, Gabriela Perez, Sahra Roberts, Samantha Short, Amrita Stuetzle, Lilith Tagariello, Rachel Thalia, Ana Thor, Chris Trigaux, Katie Walsh, and Nils Wiklund.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Aspen Mays: Newspaper Rock
Light Work Gallery

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

Approaching her art making process like an anthropologist, artist Aspen Mays collects, appropriates and creates objects, information, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts that call into question our limited ability to understand or know the vastness, complexity, and sublime beauty of the physical universe. Her abstract images are made with a variety of photographic processes and are inspired by her passion for and connections within astronomy, prehistoric petroglyphs, anthropology, and science.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

SUtura
XL Projects

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

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Vein 8: Stone Canoe Exhibition
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Stone Canoe, A Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary, is published annually by University College of Syracuse University. The prize-winning journal, now in its 8th year, is committed to communicating to the world at large the depth and diversity of the Upstate New York arts community, and each issue features a provocative mix of artists and writers, both well-known and emerging, with ties to the region. The journal's name is inspired by the oldest recorded Upstate New York story, the journey of the Peacemaker in his sacred canoe of stone from Lake Ontario to the Finger Lakes, where he brought the resident warring tribes together to form the Iroquois Confederacy. Each year, the journal's prize-winning writers and artists are presented with an original stone canoe carving by noted Native American sculptor Tom Huff. The current journal, Stone Canoe Number 8, features the work of 24 artists chosen by 2014 arts editor Melora Griffis.

Participating artists include Doug Baird, Stephanie Barkley, Megan Biddle, Francis Clemente, Theresa DeSalvio, Vykky Ebner, Lorrie Fredette, Diana Godfrey, Walter Kopec, Kate Lawless, Steve Miller, Rachel Pea, Jen Pepper, Kathy Petrillo, Sarah Pfohl, Stephan Phillips, Larry Poole, Maria Rizzo, Mitchell Saller, Radio Sebastian, Kaitlyn Spina, Werner Sun, Ron Throop, Paul Weiner.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Crystal Glow
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Karen Kosicki: infrared photography
Max Block: dichroic fused glass jewelry and objects d'art
Mary Giehl: crystal sculpture grown from alum, and mixed media wall hangings featuring crochet elements

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Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

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

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

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2014 Transmedia Photography Annual Exhibition
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features photographs by seniors from the Art Photography Program in the Department of Transmedia, part of SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts. The bachelor of fine arts degree program in art photography is designed for students who plan to use photography as their primary creative medium. Many of these students will go on to exhibit their photographs nationally and work for magazines, advertising agencies, museums, galleries, corporations, educational institutions, and the fashion industry.

Exhibiting students include Marcy Ayres, Erica Bernstein, Paige Blinn, Cami Brown, Emily Edwards, Ashli Fiorini, Meagan Gregg, Krystle Gunter, Emily Hawing, Mark Hoelscher, Shelby Jacobs, Kelly Kazmierczak, Nicole Letson, Colin Liang, Victoria Nadler, Mary O'Brien, Allison Paap, Gabriela Perez, Sahra Roberts, Samantha Short, Amrita Stuetzle, Lilith Tagariello, Rachel Thalia, Ana Thor, Chris Trigaux, Katie Walsh, and Nils Wiklund.

Aspen Mays: Newspaper Rock
Light Work Gallery

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

Approaching her art making process like an anthropologist, artist Aspen Mays collects, appropriates and creates objects, information, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts that call into question our limited ability to understand or know the vastness, complexity, and sublime beauty of the physical universe. Her abstract images are made with a variety of photographic processes and are inspired by her passion for and connections within astronomy, prehistoric petroglyphs, anthropology, and science.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

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

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

Vein 8: Stone Canoe Exhibition
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Stone Canoe, A Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary, is published annually by University College of Syracuse University. The prize-winning journal, now in its 8th year, is committed to communicating to the world at large the depth and diversity of the Upstate New York arts community, and each issue features a provocative mix of artists and writers, both well-known and emerging, with ties to the region. The journal's name is inspired by the oldest recorded Upstate New York story, the journey of the Peacemaker in his sacred canoe of stone from Lake Ontario to the Finger Lakes, where he brought the resident warring tribes together to form the Iroquois Confederacy. Each year, the journal's prize-winning writers and artists are presented with an original stone canoe carving by noted Native American sculptor Tom Huff. The current journal, Stone Canoe Number 8, features the work of 24 artists chosen by 2014 arts editor Melora Griffis.

Participating artists include Doug Baird, Stephanie Barkley, Megan Biddle, Francis Clemente, Theresa DeSalvio, Vykky Ebner, Lorrie Fredette, Diana Godfrey, Walter Kopec, Kate Lawless, Steve Miller, Rachel Pea, Jen Pepper, Kathy Petrillo, Sarah Pfohl, Stephan Phillips, Larry Poole, Maria Rizzo, Mitchell Saller, Radio Sebastian, Kaitlyn Spina, Werner Sun, Ron Throop, Paul Weiner.

Recent Travels: Works by William S. Elkins, Jr.
Petit Branch Library

Petit Branch Library
105 Victoria Pl., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since. After trying most of the classic watercolor subjects (old barns, landscapes, seascapes), he began to experiment with "snapshots" of urban scenes. This led to an extended series which continues to be developed and now includes many variations of "people in their environment."

The Th3 opening will include an artist talk.

"Residue" and "Student Work from the Permanent Collection"
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Gallery A: "Residue" featuring recent work by Lu Mulder, an abstract artist whose work encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. On display are prints of her most recent 2-D pieces that explore the residue left by emotions, bias, desires and other invisible mechanisms. The forms build on her observations of individuals and give shape to the filters through which individuals experience and form a sense of reality of the world.

Gallery B featuring student work from the permanent collection of the SUNY Oswego Art Department.

Opening: Domestic Vicissitudes: Works by Analia Segal
Point of Contact Gallery

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

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

Comprised of both a site-specific installation and a large scale video projection, this exhibition navigates the porous boundaries between art, design and architecture intertwining the conceptual, aesthetic and functional nature of the objects that compose the everyday scenarios we live in.

Argentina-born Analia Segalis a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received grants that include: Pollock Krassner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Fundación Konex, Fundación Antorchas, Bienal de Diseño-Universidad de Buenos Aires, and 100% Design. Her works has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, as well as published in specialized magazines, catalogues and books, and it is included in private and public collections. She graduated as a Graphic Designer from the University of Buenos Aires and received her Masters Degree in Art from New York University. She lives and works in New York City since 1999.

Word Thursday: David Eye & Peter Mishler
601 Tully

601 Tully St.
Syracuse

David Eye's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bloom, Cider Press Review, Consequence Magazine (finalist, 2010 Consequence Prize for Poetry), Lambda Literary, The Louisville Review, Puerto del Sol, Stone Canoe, and other journals and anthologies. David earned a midlife MFA from Syracuse University in 2008, and has taught at Syracuse University, St. John's University, Manhattan College, and (currently) Cazenovia College. His chapbook, Rain Leaping Up When a Cab Goes Past, is forthcoming in November 2013 from Seven Kitchens Press.

Peter Mishler was educated at Emerson College and Syracuse University. He is currently employed as a creative writing teacher at Liverpool High School. With the photographer Joe Lingeman, he has been working on text and image installations in the city of Syracuse. He has recently been recognized by University of Virginia's Best New Poets anthology, and his poems have appeared in The Antioch Review and Matter: A monthly journal of political poetry and commentary, among other literary periodicals.

The readings will be followed by an open mic.

Death Takes a Cruise
Acme Mystery Company

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

Pack your costume, grab your party hat, and step aboard our venerable riverboat, The Mississippi Mistress, as we prepare to set sail down the "Big Muddy" for New Orleans and Mardi Gras! Woooo-hooo! The mighty Captain "Crawdaddy" Cretin will help you navigate the shoals, sand bars, (and wet bars), while Scooter, the Porter, and your Cruise Director, Lucy Belle Juniper, see to your comfort and entertainment. Watch out for the other passengers (They look pretty suspicious). Someone might not make it to the "Big Easy" alive.

Not Now, Darling
Central New York Playhouse
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $15
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

The scene is the exclusive London fur salon of Bodley and Crouch, where Crouch (the well-meaning innocent) struggles to keep things on an even keel despite the energetic philandering of his partner. At the moment, Bodley is trying to secure the affections of his latest would-be mistress by "selling" her husband an expensive mink fur coat for a fraction of its real worth, and the stammering Crouch is saddled with the task of consummating the sale with a straight face. But, as luck would have it, the husband seizes the bargain coat as the perfect gift for his own mistress--whereupon the complications burgeon uproariously, with poor Crouch caught in the middle. Suspicious wives, mistaken identities, scantily clad girls clapped hurriedly into closets, and a continuous barrage of rapid-fire jokes all become part of the hilarious doings, as the action of the play bubbles along merrily right up to the final curtain when, miraculously and to the great relief of all concerned, everything somehow manages to work out as it should.

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