Sunday, December 29, 2013

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.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

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.

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

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.

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.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

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!

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.

A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

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

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

Read a Review!

Monday, December 30, 2013

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.

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., 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.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

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.

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., 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.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

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!

Jimkata, with The Manhattan Project
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

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.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

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.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

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.

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.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

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.

Unmanned: America's Drone Wars
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Rusted Root
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

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 3, 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.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

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.

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.

January Bank Show
Syracuse Improv Collective

Price: $5
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

We'll help you kick off the new year with our monthly Bank Show! Come join us for a night of fun, which includes improv, stand-up comedy, music, and improvisational art.

Our lineup includes:
Sam Stinson (music)
Loustin (improv duo)
Dewey Lovett (stand up)
Satan's Closet (improv with the return of former minion Aaron Geiskopf)
Improvisational art provided by Frank & Meghan

Saturday, January 4, 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.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

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.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

Read a review!

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Improv Comedy Night
Don't Feed the Actors

Price: $20 dinner and show, $10 show only
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

DFtA specializes in audience interactive improv and is one of the longest-running improv troupes in Central New York. Having toured all over the area, their large stable of theatrically trained actors rotate in and out of each show, ensuring a unique experience each time. Come enjoy an evening of improv in the style of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and Drew Carey's "Improvaganza."

The performance will be preceded by dinner at 6:30 pm.

Bill Knowlton's Bluegrass Ramble Barn Dance

Price: Free
WCNY
415 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Barn Dance will feature six of the region's best bluegrass acts including Diamond Someday, Delaney Brothers, Mark Allnatt Band, The Easy Ramblers, Rebecca Colleen and the Chore Lads, and Larry Hoyt & The Good Acoustics. The concert and recording of the Barn Dance will mark the 41st anniversary of Knowlton's radio program and will be broadcast from 9 p.m. to midnight Jan. 19 on WCNY-FM.

Also for the first time, WCNY will invite aspiring musicians to a Bluegrass workshop prior to the Barn Dance from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Guitarists Joe Davoli and Nick Piccininni will hold educational Bluegrass jam sessions in WCNY's lobby. The workshop is free and open to the public.

The Secret of the Puppet's Book
Open Hand Theater

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

Lewis is a most amazing puppet who lives in a book. He discovers a magical wizard, a rhinoceros, a giraffe, and a break-dancing puppet who becomes his friend. Wonderful characters come to life in this magical journey through a land of books. "The Secret of the Puppet's Book" is a celebration of reading and learning.

Sunday, January 5, 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.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

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

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

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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.

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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.

Jazz Vespers
CNY Jazz Arts Foundation

Price: Free
Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church
5299 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

These informal events are open to people of all faiths. Music is drawn from sacred and secular sources, accompanied by inspirational readings and homily.