Times Union, Albany, NY
OFF THE CHARTS, MAPS AND THEIR MYRIAD MEANINGS INSPIRE ARTISTS IN WIDELY DIVERGENT WAYS
Sunday, August 1, 2004
It may be a given that the Earth's oceans and rivers, islands and continents are fully mapped, but artists are proving there's still plenty left to explore. As visually appealing objects and as rich symbols of both nature and human culture, maps have become fodder and inspiration for artists of many different genres and styles. Consider:
Maps are a regular part of the colorful and playful collages of the Albany artist known as Piper, who created the collage on this page for this story. ``Graphically, they're interesting,'' she says.
The local sculptor Chris Cassidy is creating a relief map of the Hudson Valley out of 660 terra-cotta-colored bricks. His ``You Are Here'' will become a permanent installation in the community building of the new Empire Commons on the uptown campus of the University at Albany.
Metroland, Albany, NY
JUDGING THE JURIED
Volume 27 - Number 4 - Jan. 22, 2004
The 2004 Mohawk-Hudson Regional Invitational
Albany Center Galleries, through Feb. 21There was considerable controversy last year when the juror for the Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region exhibition at the University Art Museum cut more than 1,000 submissions by 220 artists down to just 35 works by 17 artists, and there will likely be more talk regarding the 2004 Mohawk-Hudson Regional Invitational at Albany Center Galleries, where works by Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, Chris Cassidy and Allison Hunter are now on view.
Times Union, Albany, NY
A TOO-NARROW REGIONAL FALLS SHORT OF ITS MISSION
Sunday, July 13, 2003
ALBANY The Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region exhibit is an annual reunion of sorts. Each summer, this survey of our area's art scene offers the community a chance to catch up with the newcomers and elders of the tribe, and view breakthroughs of style (or lack thereof), technique and thought. Artists from a hundred-mile radius use the regional to show off new work, gathering for what amounts to a family portrait taken each year by a different prominent juror.
Many elements contribute to the relative strength of each regional, but one factor that remains constant is the show's singular importance on the local arts calendar. In this regard, this year's installment at the University at Albany's University Museum is especially disheartening, for it seems to have forgotten, or shrugged off, its public mandate. Seldom has a regional been this unfulfilling.
The problem, in a nutshell, is that the exhibition simply does not contain enough work, nor represent enough artists. Traditionally, the regional, which rotates among UAlbany, the Albany Institute of History & Art and the Schenectady Museum, contains approximately 100 works by some 40 to 70 artists. This year, it offers just 35 pieces by 17 artists.
Times Union, Albany, NY
UALBANY SCULPTURE DEPARTMENT CARVES OUT NEW CAMPUS SPACE
Sunday, October 20, 2002
ALBANY The window above Chris Cassidy's studio space is smeared with printer's ink, residue from his recent habit of tracing on parchment the arcs of birds that fly by the glass. It's not the kind of stuff you would expect from a sculptor, but then Cassidy, a University at Albany graduate student in art, never expected to be working in a building with windows, much less a brand-new, high-tech facility dedicated to the fine arts.
The $4.2 million Boor Sculpture Studio is just that. It sits on the eastern edge of UAlbany's uptown campus, replacing the off-campus digs that housed the school's sculpture department for the past two decades.
"This building means a tremendous amount for us," says JoAnne Carson, who became chair of the school's art department in September. "Our old rented space on Railroad Avenue was hardly state-of-the-art. It was also far away, and it always felt somewhat marginalized and temporary."