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roz steiner

Artist's exhibit pairing unrelated photos from 1980s onward at Roz Steiner Gallery Oct. 1-31

By Billie Owens

(Above: "Cowboy Mouth.")

Submitted photos and information from Genesee Community College.

At Roz Steiner Gallery at Genesee Community College artist Nigel Maister's tight. word. lit. will be on display Oct. 1 - 31.

There's an Artist Talk at the gallery Oct. 10 at 12:30 p.m., with receptions at 1 and also 5 p.m.

tight. word. lit. -- Through the pairing of unrelated photographic images, Maister creates a narrative both implied and explicit and manifested in emotional, formal, aesthetic, intuitive and intellectual expression, and an evocation of action.

About Nigel Maister

He is a South African born, Rochester-based photographic artist, using found, appropriated and original imagery in his work.

His work has been a finalist in Klompching Gallery’s Fresh 2016 (New York), and seen, most recently, at Gallery Q (Rochester), Main Street Arts (Clifton Springs), and at the Cleveland Print Room.

A work from the series "tight. word. lit." as chosen by SaveArtSpace for public art exhibition during August 2018 on a billboard in the Neighborhood of the Arts in Rochester. He was a MacDowell Colony Fellow in 2018.

Maister is also a collector of 19th century and vernacular/functional photography, as well as a director, writer and designer of theater. He currently serves as the Russell and Ruth Peck Artistic Director of the University of Rochester International Theatre Program.

(Below: "Drag.")

Here's Maister's statement about his exhibit tight. word. lit.

This work explores narrative both implied and explicit; and narrative in the form of a past photographic action that, through a contemporary recontextualization and dialogic combination, is brought into the present.

The raw material for tight. word. lit. is snapshot photography. These images, from the 1980s onward — the last gasp of the analog snapshot — are overlooked in the current vogue for vernacular photography, which fetishizes the snapshot as art object (albeit an inadvertent one).

These "late" snapshots frequently betray little of the charm that characterize the genre at its zenith. I was drawn to images that might have been discarded by the picture-taker: those that are out of focus, inexpertly composed, blanched by a too-close flash, etc. In others, content or composition might be considered banal in their simplicity or apparent “artlessness.”

And in yet other selections, the performative nature of the subject matter — divorced from its context and rendered enigmatic, perplexing, or disturbing—was my departure point. But in all these variants, the series recontextualizes the nature and meaning of the snapshot: that object that serves as a commemorative artifact with a distinct function in the world.

It discards that function and meaning and allows the image to transform and to evoke a potential narrative event far from the intent of the original maker. The title of the series, tight. word. lit. similarly refers to recontextualization, but this time of vernacular language and slang, repurposing adjectives, nouns and verbs for utterances of approbation, enthusiasm, and affirmation.

Thus this work undermines the notion of the primacy of the individual image as a valuable artifact in and of itself, or even of the image as a signifier of a particular meaning or referent fixed in an identifiable past. Rather, it looks at the combination of photographic artifacts in dialogue with each other for its worth.

It is this that serves my goal: to rewrite these visual histories, making the viewer an active participant, forcing them to forge connections and create personal narratives that are compelling, mysterious and durable.

The world portrayed in these works is decidedly not our world. I hope they speak to us viscerally on some other level. They are intended to present us with a "third reality": not a document of their time, nor a document of ours.

These works are evocations of that interstitial space where past and present intersect and create an emotional, imaginative bridge into the subconscious, which should feel immediate yet also prescient.

www.nigelmaister.com

Roz Steiner gallery to feature alumni artworks

By Billie Owens

Press release:

Amid the joy of reuniting with friends and professors, the big hair and '80s tribute bands, and the great food and good times that will mark Homecoming at Genesee Community College in September, will be inspiring artwork created by GCC alumni.

The Roz Steiner Art Gallery will showcase a variety of media from talented graduates: digital photography, nature paintings, ceramics, realistic portraiture, serigraphs and watercolors, photography and multimedia works.

The exhibitors for the Alumni Exhibition include:

Amanda J. Adams, from the GCC class of 2007, is a digital photographer and certified art educator. She earned her associate degree in Fine Arts after graduating from Greece Athena High School. In 2009, Adams completed her bachelor's degree in Art Education, and is currently working toward a master's degree in Art Education from Nazareth College in Rochester.

Briana Coogan-Bassett was raised in Warsaw in a family of artists. Her collection of nature paintings brings to light the plight of endangered animals. Coogan-Bassett earned a Fine Arts associate degree from GCC in 2009, where she says she "learned basic photo developing skills, hand building techniques, how to construct and prepare a canvas, and the importance of drawing what you see." Her work has been featured in solo exhibits with both the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts and the Arts Council for Wyoming County.

Megan Dembinski is ceramist from the GCC class of 2009 who lives in Silver Springs. After completing her studies at Genesee, Dembinski earned a bachelor's degree in Art History with a minor in Studio Art from SUNY Geneseo in 2011. The Arts Council for Wyoming County awarded her the Rising Star Scholarship, which included a solo exhibition and a booth at the Letchworth Arts and Crafts Show and Sale. Dembinski plans to pursue a master's degree in either Art Conservation or Art Education.

Heather Gleason, from Elba, focuses on historical photographs in creating her realistic portraits. She earned an associate degree in Fine Arts from GCC in 2009 and then completed a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art from SUNY Brockport in 2011.

Chris Held has spent most of his life in Leicester, where the rural community has shaped his collection of watercolors and serigraphs featuring nature scenes. Held graduated from GCC in 2003 with an associate degree, and completed his bachelor's degree from SUNY Geneseo in 2008. He was the first recipient of the Rising Star Scholarship Award from the Arts Council for Wyoming County.

Michael Mulley is a Batavia native who owns the College Street Gallery in the historic Allentown District of Buffalo. The freelance photographer earned his associate degree in communications in 1988 and completed a bachelor's degree in Fine Art Photography from RIT in 1991. Mulley's photos have been published in The Buffalo News Sunday Magazine, Buffalo Spree magazine, Artvoice, Hallwalls' publications, The Art Laboratory of Berlin and the jazz magazine Coda.

Mary Jo Whitman graduated from GCC in 2009 with an associate degree in Fine Arts. She uses a variety of materials to produce interesting and meaningful two- and three-dimensional artworks. Whitman is currently working toward a bachelor's degree in Studio Arts from SUNY Brockport, with a dual concentration in sculpture and photography, as well as minors in art history and psychology.

"As I looked over the resumes and portfolios of this group of artists, I was impressed with the quality of the artwork, as well as the breadth of both subject and media," said Gallery Manager Shirley Verrico. "These artists clearly developed excellent foundation skills at GCC, but perhaps more importantly, each found a creative voice with which they could express themselves in a unique and personal way."

The exhibit runs from Sept. 14 through Nov. 8, with a reception planned from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29 during homecoming weekend.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but it's closed on Tuesday. Admission to the Roz Steiner Art Gallery is FREE.

To learn more about the gallery and the upcoming exhibit, visit: http://www.genesee.edu/campuslife/arts/gallery/calendar.cfm.

GCC's Bringin' Back the '80s Homecoming Weekend Sept. 28-29 has something for everyone and for all ages, including live bands, a car show, soccer games, brunch, Athletic Hall of Fame inductions and an Oktoberfest mixer with the Batavia Rotary Club at the Batavia Downs.

The complete rundown of activities, and registration forms for key events, are available on the GCC homecoming Web site: http://www.genesee.edu/depts/alumni/homecoming/

Roz Steiner Art Gallery's grand opening is April 15

By Billie Owens

The highly anticipated grand opening celebration of the new Rosalie "Roz" Steiner Art Gallery at Genesee Community College is set for 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 15.

The college Board of Trustees and gallery organizers are pleased to recognize the late Roz Steiner, President Stuart Steiner's wife, with the new facility that is named in her honor and located adjacent to the Genesee Center for the Arts at the Batavia campus.

Before Mrs. Steiner died unexpectedly in 2008, she was a visible figure at the college, participating in hundreds of events for board members, faculty, staff and students. She was active in community life and took a special interest in youth and education, serving in such roles as PTA president at John Kennedy School and hosting a number of Rotary exchange students.

She was a native of Maryland born in 1941. She and Stuart married in 1962, five years before relocating in Batavia, where they raised their four children.

The grand opening celebration features the work of two professional, regional artists, Eric Serritella and Carol Acquilano, in a dual exhibit. The two-hour celebration is free and open to the public, and includes music by the Tom Monte Trio and light refreshments.

Serritella is a nationally exhibiting ceramic artist specializing in hand-carved trompe l'oeil vessels transformed into birch and weathered logs. Serritella's one-of-a-kind tromp l'oeil ceramic sculptures have been awarded and exhibited in galleries and museums from coast to coast and in Asia. His work is included in permanent museum collections, including Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum and The Everson Museum of Art's world class ceramics collection in Syracuse. Many other esteemed collections contain his work, including the Kamm Teapot Foundation – the world's largest private teapot collection.

Serritella has contributed to nearly 50 exhibitions and his work has appeared on the covers of AmericanStyle and Pottery Making Illustrated, and in the pages of Ceramics Monthly, NICHE, Clay Times, The Crafts, Report, and Ceramic Art (Taiwan), as well as in several books and calendars on ceramic art. He has given workshops in the USA, Canada and Taiwan. For more information, visit <http://www.ericserritella.com>.

Painter, printmaker and book binder, Acquilano is an award-winning artist based in Rochester. She paints the landscape in and around her native city of Rochester. Her favorite place to paint, however, is Italy, where she feels the connection to her ancestral roots. Also a printmaker, she has exhibited her work in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Rochester and Cortona, Italy.

Acquilano studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass., and earned a bachelor's of arts degree from SUNY Empire State College. She has participated in multiple solo exhibitions throughout Rochester at the Little Theatre, Nazareth College, Philips Fine Arts, Cedar Arts Center, Arts for Greater Rochester and the Lightner Library at Keuka College. She has had several group exhibitions across the country and New York State, including the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester.

Her selections for the Roz Steiner Art Gallery include paintings featuring cultivated landscapes of Cortona that have been painted over the last three years. Created both en plein air and in the studio, her paintings are a testament to her continued effort to develop her artistic voice. For more information on Acquilano, visit her Web site at <http://www.carolacquilano.com.>.

Community residents are kindly asked to RSVP for the gallery's grand opening celebration by calling 345-6809 or foundation@genesee.edu.

For gallery hours or for further information, please contact Gallery Manager Emily Pfeiffer at <http://ECPfeiffer@genesee.edu>.

Serritella's and Acquilano's dual exhibit continues through May 10. Currently, an exhibit of artwork by Genesee's Fine Arts students is on display in the new gallery.

Spring schedule for new Roz Steiner Art Gallery

By Billie Owens

Here's the Spring 2011 new Roz Steiner Art Gallery schedule (subject to change):

The new Rosalie "Roz" Steiner Art Gallery opens this spring with a GCC Fine Arts Student Show. It is scheduled for March 1 through April 5, with an opening reception from 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 3. The exhibit highlights current student artwork in GCC courses on drawing, painting, photography, 2D, 3D, and ceramics.

Community members and art enthusiasts should save the date for the Roz Steiner Art Gallery Grand Opening Reception, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 15. Complete details will be available soon!

The spring semester will round out with a GCC Digital Arts Student Show from May 11 through, with an opening reception from 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 12.

 

GCC seeks exhibitors for new Roz Steiner Art Gallery

By Billie Owens

Genesee Community College invites artistic exhibitors for the its new Roz Steiner Art Gallery. The call is open to individual artists and group exhibitions in all media.

The new gallery is currently under construction and will be ready for exhibits in early 2011.

Interested artists and groups should send a description of the proposed exhibit, all artist contact information, artist biography, resume, quantity and size of the artwork to be displayed, and digital .JPEG image samples of the artwork.

To submit exhibition proposals, individual artists and groups can submit work to:

GCC Art Department Office
Art Gallery Committee
Genesee Community College
One College Road
Batavia, NY 14020


No submissions will be returned; accepted artists will be contacted by the exhibition chair. Submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis, but to be considered for the 2011 spring semester they must be received by Dec. 3.

For more information, call Heather Jones at 585-343-0055, ext. 6448 or email hsjones@genesee.edu.

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