Despite the psycho-sexual suggestion of many of the pieces, Savett’s work emphasizes the paradoxical nature of his chosen material. Steel is both plastic and rigid, creating objects of a certain permanence. Most metals can be mass-produced but start out liquid; it seems natural to Savett to bring that liquid or plastic quality into fabricated sculpture. This isn’t a language spoken by many sculptors of steel. [Read more…]
Zack Lobdell
My work is the epicenter of my human experience. It is my witness to our current situation as a people at the precipice of self-destruction, on the verge of self-awareness, the eruption of emotion, an effusion of expression to convey my deepest fears and hopes. My paintings are reverence for, and anticipation of our possibilities.
Christopher Murray
Christopher Murray was born in Troy, New York in 1972. He is primarily a mixed-media artist but includes a variety of traditional art-making processes in his practice. [Read more…]
Erik Laffer
Erik Laffer is an artist whose work immerses viewers in a world where the digital realm intersects our daily lives. His primary, overarching theme revolves around the digital world, with many of his pieces evoking the nostalgic imagery of old television static. This distinctive approach not only showcases his technical ability but also his conceptual depth, offering a fresh perspective on the integration of digital aesthetics into contemporary art. [Read more…]
Robert Gullie
Robert Gullie is a photographer, mixed media collagist and printmaker. His work has been widely exhibited in over 90 exhibitions since the early 1990’s, including twenty-five solo exhibitions. [Read more…]
Laura Von Rosk
Laura Von Rosk received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY at Purchase. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in both solo and group shows. [Read more…]
Randi Kish
Randi Kish retired from a lifelong career as a public school art teacher in the Saratoga Springs City School District in June 2010. She has been working as a full-time ceramic artist in her studio at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center since. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the region. [Read more…]
Harry Orlyk
Harry Orlyk was born in Troy, New York in 1947. In 1971 after graduating college, he went on to graduate school at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Over the next nine years, he was influenced by several Nebraskan artists. “Still-life painter Robin Smith taught me how to use paint without turpentine – to paint from the tube.” He also admits the influence of photographer Lawrence McFarland who taught him what spiritual space was, and how to emphasize it. Lastly he credits well-known Lincoln painter Keith Jacobshagen with having impressed on hm the importance of routine. He currently resides with his family in Salem, New York, near the Vermont border. [Read more…]
George Van Hook
George Van Hook’s paintings have been exhibited for over 35 years throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Van Hook’s painterly style follows in the tradition of the impressionists. Inspired by both a love of nature fostered by long hours painting “en plein air,” Van Hook paints with gusto and passion, bringing a freshness and immediacy to the rural scenes where he lives in upstate New York. [Read more…]
Leslie Peck
Leslie Peck, a New York native, was educated at the Fashion Institute of Technology where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art. She then spent a year studying art in Italy at the Scuola di Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, before apprenticing in Rome with renowned illustrator Alessandro Biffignandi. Peck began a freelance career in romance book cover illustration in 1988. While still sucessful in the publishing field, her love for portraiture of people and animals has found its expression in her most recent oil paintings. [Read more…]
Jordan Becker
I am a ceramic artist working in up-state New York. After earning a degree in the Fine Arts I have spent the last 12 years studying and learning about pottery and ceramics, with the last 8 specific to wood-firing clay. In 2009 I built a community wood kiln I currently fire my work in. I have always been an object maker, and explored different materials with art and function in mind. For me the discovery of clay and its soul moved me to become a fuller person. [Read more…]
Takeyce Walter
Takeyce Walter is truly inspired by the landscape. This is ever apparent when standing before any of her paintings. Walter’s work in oil and pastel present the landscape of the Northeast in all its glory. There is a great sense of familiarity, calm, and peacefulness in each piece.
Kate Edwards
“I spent most of my childhood moving back and forth across the United States. I can still remember the endless vistas from days of car travel. The beauty of the varied landscapes left a real impression on me. I gain inspiration from the change in season and the light of any given minute of the day. To paint landscapes I feel more connected to the world, and endless observation constantly informs my work. I tend to paint what is around me and as I live in an agricultural landscape that is what I paint.” [Read more…]
Eden Compton
American painter Eden Compton was born in Texas and raised in Connecticut. Eden and her NZ born husband, Richard, have settled in upstate New York after two decades of sailing and managing private charter boats in the Caribbean and throughout the US. Eden has a permanent studio and gallery in the Beekman Street Arts district of Saratoga Springs.
Anne Diggory
Anne Diggory has worked out of her studio in Saratoga Springs, New York, for almost 40 years. She is known for her combination of accurate detail with expressive painting and strong abstract structure – an outgrowth of education at Yale and Indiana University and many years of exploring and painting the natural world. Her work has been seen in over 35 solo exhibitions and 75 group exhibitions in the United States, Panama and Germany.
Mikel Wintermantel
Mikel Wintermantel is an artist schooled in tradition and raised in a modern world. He has been able to cross the advancement in modern materials and tools with his deep respect for old world methods. Through years of exploration his method and materials have become almost transparent in the creation process.
William McCarthy
William McCarthy works on wood board, paper and canvas using several layers of gesso before priming the surface with cadmium red base, a quick sketch using charcoal is used to lay out the design, then the paint is applied. He works in layers using thinned down oil color, building on these layers with glazing techniques the colors are adjusted and brought up to completion before final coats of varnish are applied.
Nancy Magnell
Operating out of her home in Saratoga Springs, NY, Nancy Magnell specializes in the art of reverse glass painting. Very few people in the country practice this form, and even fewer use it to paint landscapes. Working initially on canvas, landscape painting has been Magnell’s specialty since her 20s, when she replicated the works of Hudson River artists.
Valerie Craig
Valerie Craig has drawn and painted nearly all her life. Her oil and watercolor paintings are suffused with soft light and convey a sensitive approach. Craig’s subject matter is varied and includes still-life, landscapes and street scenes. Valerie Craig has had more than twenty years in the field to date. [Read more…]
Wendy Williams
Drawing, painting and ceramics form the artistic base for Troy, NY native, Wendy Williams. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Ms Williams began exhibiting across the Northeast United States beginning at the Cutler-Stavaridis Gallery in Boston, MA and has been the recipient of several grants through the years, including the Elizabeth Foundation and Yaddo. [Read more…]
Allen Grindle
Allen Grindle received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham in 1973 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. After graduating college, he received his Master of Arts (studio art) from the State University of New York in Albany, New York in 1978. Over the years Allen Grindle has produced many works of art including sculptures, black and white prints, and paintings. [Read more…]
Constance Kheel
Constance Kheel’s abstract paintings celebrate the interaction between drawing and color, juxtaposing the controlled discipline of geometrics with the spontaneity of poured colors. At the same time, the heavy texture of Kheel’swork focuses on the materiality of painting. Primary shapes, such as circles and squares, emerge and retreat and expand and contract like astral objects in infinite.
Deb Hall
Inspired by nature and digital communication, Deb Hall’s images reflect our highly caffeinated, constantly moving, technological culture and its impact on our perception and environment. Her work has been exhibited widely in national juried exhibitions, galleries and museums. [Read more…]
Linda Bacon
I am intrigued by light and shadow, shapes and spaces, insides and outsides, within and without. Sometimes insides become outsides like a flower bud that was once within but then emerges out. Inside joins outside and a new within becomes. [Read more…]
Emily Prosper
Emily Prosper is an abstract artist living and working in Albany, NY. She earned her BFA in Painting and Sculpture with a Minor in Art History from the College of Saint Rose in 2019. [Read more…]
John Van Alstine
John Van Alstine is an American sculptor living and working in Wells, NY in the Adirondack region of New York State, best known for stone and metal abstract sculptures exhibiting exceptional balance and poise. The works are often multi level with references to the figure, classical, nautical, celestial and western mythological themes. [Read more…]
Teri Malo
Teri Malo’s landscape paintings primarily explore the sense of place, whether in her series on the mill towns of the Blackstone Valley, or in her more recent coastal New England series. Time spent on Cape Ann and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and in Lubec, Maine on the edge of the Bay of Fundy has profoundly affected her choice of subject matter. Her paintings capture large open spaces and the changeable atmosphere and seas of the New England region, as well as the rocky details of this familiar place. [Read more…]
Mark Del Guidice
My abstract wood sculptures and unique furniture pieces are primarily derived from a creative intermixing of my art, design, and woodworking vocabularies. They express my unique view of the physical world of forms, color and patterns. I am forever inspired by the complicated yet random compositions that I see in nature. [Read more…]
Lesley Black Vogel
My work explores the connections between the physical act of creating balance and its calming effect in our increasingly chaotic environment.
[Read more…]
Margaret Horn
A self taught potter, with a 12 year passion for clay. Veterinary Medicine is my profession but clay satisfies my creativity and provides a therapeutic life balance. The calmer, quieter aspects of life reflected in my clay pieces. [Read more…]
Ann Larsen
Ann Larsen paints from Maine to California. She has been in over 80 gallery and museum exhibitions.
Among the many awards Larsen has received are Best Landscape, American Women Artists National Competition; two Awards of Excellence, Oil Painters of America, Eastern Regionals; Masters Signature Silver Medal, American Women Artists National Competition; Award of Excellence given by Quang Ho at the Paso Robles Invitational.
David Lussier
David A Lussier is a nationally and internationally recognized American landscape painter, working in the tradition of the impressionists. His paintings have garnered more than 75 awards and are in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the United States and Europe. Mr. Lussier is also an official US Open artist for the United States Golf Association and four of his paintings hang in the permanent collection of the United States Golf Museum. Lussier’s technique is characterized by a masterful use of color harmonies and poetic brushwork that bring his paintings to life.
Clarence King
James Coe
Whether painting out in plein air, or in my home studio; whether painting birds, landscape, or views of nearby farms; in all of my paintings I hope to convey my reverence for the land, its wildlife, and our rural heritage. But while the subject matter may reflect my passions in life, the thread that ties all of my work together is more conceptual.
Jill Fishon-Kovachick
Jill Fishon-Kovachick is a renowned local clay artist and owner/director of the Saratoga Clay Arts Center located in Schuylerville, NY. Fishon-Kovachick utilizes Raku, Sagger and High Fire techniques to create subtle yet resplendent tones of earth and sky in her work. In her own words, “[The] natural coloration, reflected in my work, brings everything together for me.” [Read more…]
Phyllis Kulmatiski
I went to a Polish catholic school and bumped into statues of saints at every corner. I went to college during the war in Viet Nam. Slogans and banners became part of my vocabulary. I often scratch and paint words, whole stories, or admonitions on the surface of my figures. [Read more…]
Susan Stuart
Susan Stuart was born in Worcester, Mass., and lives and works in Albany, N.Y. She earned an MA’76 from UAlbany and a BFA’69 from Syracuse University and studied with Rudolf Baranik at the Art Students League from 1991-1996. [Read more…]
Jon Gernon
Jon Gernon is a painter, printmaker and independent curator living in the Eastside of Historic Troy, NY. His current works focus on creating modern day fables, allegories and lore. Jon is a former gallerist and gallery director with over 25 five years of curating and designing exhibitions. [Read more…]
David Miller
David Miller is one of the most well-known and respected artists in the upstate New York area and is included in a wide range of both public and private collections, including Carnegie Museum of Art, School of The Art Institute, Key Bank Headquarters, Pepsico Corporation, Siena College, among many others. Miller’s work can best be described in the words of noted writer and poet John Yau: [Read more…]
Mary Pat Wager
Mary Pat Wager has been a sculptor for over thirty years. Her work is included in many public and private collections. Her sculpture employs the use of found objects, as well as, fabricated metal components. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards for her work in sculpture. These include a National Endowment for the Arts grant and representing the United States with her work at the Small Works International Exhibition in Budapest, Hungary. Mary Pat Wager lives and works in upstate New York. [Read more…]
Charles Bremer
Artist Charles Bremer has explored a wide breadth of creative medium in his career ranging from photography, drawing and sculpture, to theater stage sets and experimental sound. His work has been exhibited in art centers, galleries, and private collections both in the United States and internationally. [Read more…]
Matt Chinian
I am a realist. I paint what I see and depict places and objects with a simple understanding of light and shadow. My subjects are taken from daily life, things I see in passing, things I’m drawn to; they are commonly overlooked. [Read more…]
Robert Niedzwiecki
Robert Niedzwiecki (b.1954) was born and raised in central New York and grew to love the varied landscapes represented in this region. An artist in high school, Robert won an art scholarship from the National Scholastic Art Competition but instead chose to attend the Air Force Academy. [Read more…]
Patricia Collins
Pat Collins is a ceramic artist residing in Saratoga Springs, New York who specializes in raku and saggar fired pottery. Pat studied ceramics at the University of West Chester in Pennsylvania where she graduated with a BFA. Since graduating, her work has been in several exhibitions in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.
Julie Branch
Julie Branch is a sculptor living outside of Rotterdam, New York. Working primarily in ceramics and fiber she creates figures inspired by nature, dreams and mythology. Julie grew up in the Dakotas, Colorado, Hawaii and Montana. She has lived in Minnesota, Montana and New York City.
JoAnn Axford
JoAnn Axford lives and maintains her studio in Glenmont, New York. She received her bachelor degree at the University of Bridgeport, Conn. and her masters from The College of Saint Rose. Her interest in botanical imagery led her to post-graduate study in Botanical Illustration at The New York Botanical Garden.
Nick Patten
Nick Patten is a native of Troy, NY and received his B.A. in Fine Arts of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. In addition to dozens of solo and group shows nationwide at a variety of venues, Patten’s work can be seen in many private and public collections throughout the world. [Read more…]
Doretta Miller
Environmental conservation, bio-diversity, global and ethnic uneasiness, mankind’s relationship to the planet earth, and even space explorations all come to mind as I began the new series, “Garden Stories.” Using the remnants of fall gardens as my stage, I set up narratives using miniature toys that include animals, fire engines, and astronauts. [Read more…]
T. Klacsmann
T. Klacsmann captures the consciousness of animals as they exist independently from, but intermingled with humanity. Loving beauty more than efficiency, they meticulously carve each thing that appears in their work in linoleum or wood. Some of the resulting relief prints are further developed with paint, ink, and colored pencil; other prints are scanned and turned into polyester lithography plates, printed and combined with relief prints to create multi-layered works on paper featuring animals in naturalistic settings altered by humanity. [Read more…]
Cheryl Horning
I am fascinated by identity, where we come from, and who we think we are. I draw inspiration from other people’s stories, contemporary and ancient, real and imaginary to create characters with interior lives of struggle and hope. [Read more…]
Gravity and Balance
Featuring the artwork of: Constance Kheel and Chris Duncan.
March 7, 2020 – May 31, 2020
Regina Wickham
I belong to the tradition of vessel makers. I work in clay, on the wheel, forming containers for flowers, food, air. Clay is the skin to contain a volume, the line to draw a profile. I think of long tall vessels as forms that stand as a person, defining and incorporating space. I feel a kinship with Chinese ceramics and like to sketch vases to understand the success of their curves, the space they envelop and the space they exclude.
“8th Annual Juried Group Show” | Upstate Artists
Featuring the artwork of: Abraham Ferraro, Andrea Hersh, Barry Lobdell, Carol Caruso, Channing Lefebvre, CherylHorning, Doretta Miller, Eden Compton Clay, Elisa Sheehan, Gary Glinski, Gene Greger, George Dirolf, Jeff Wigman, Jenny Hutchinson, JoAnn Axford, Joe Putrock, Laura Von Rosk, Linda Bacon, Mary EllenRiell, Niki Haynes, Pat Collins, Randi Kish, Rob Longley, Robert Gullie, Robert Coppola, RussellSerrianne, Steve Rein, Susan Hoffer, Klacsmann and Yeachin Tsai.
December 7, 2019 – January 12, 2020
Corey Pitkin
Corey Pitkin’s work is an exploration of ephemeral beauty expressed simply and genuinely. Using old master-esque muted colors complimented with subtle edgework his pieces shift and glimmer yet maintain their precision. His subjects are memories that slip away when you try to hold onto them for more than a moment.
Rita Dicaprio
Rita Dicaprio: “Painting is a way for me to quench an insatiable desire to create. I have always been captivated by the beauty of nature and the world around me. I feel so fortunate to live near the Adirondack Mountains where the beauty constantly astounds me. I find an endless number of subjects to paint in the ever changing colors of the landscape.”
Chris Duncan
Chris has a studio-based practice, making objects that are hand built and mostly low-tech. His sculptures are constructed, assembled from parts, using paper, cardboard and other ephemeral materials. The forms start from the ground and lurch or twist up.
7th Annual Upstate Invitational
Featuring the artwork of: Fern Apfel, Robyn Morgan Giddings and Audrie Sturman.
November 2, 2019 – December 1, 2019
Upstate Artists 2019
Please allow us to introduce and congratulate the artists chosen for this exciting new exhibit: Abraham Ferraro, Andrea Hersh, Barry Lobdell, Carol Caruso, Channing Lefebvre, CherylHorning, Doretta Miller, Eden Compton Clay, Elisa Sheehan, Gary Glinski, Gene Greger, George Dirolf, Jeff Wigman, Jenny Hutchinson, JoAnn Axford, Joe Putrock, Laura Von Rosk, Linda Bacon, Mary EllenRiell, Niki Haynes, Pat Collins, Randi Kish, Rob Longley, Robert Gullie, Robert Coppola, RussellSerrianne, Steve Rein, Susan Hoffer, Klacsmann and Yeachin Tsai.
Robyn Morgan Giddings
Robyn Morgan Giddings’ work explores human emotion through the interplay of color, abstract interior space, pattern and pop art. She received extensive training in studio art and painting at the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY and worked for many years in marketing and public relations. After retirement, she resumed painting. Her work is held in numerous private collections.
Audrie Sturman
Audrie Sturman works full time in two studios. One in Albany and the other at The Saratoga, Clay Arts Center. Audrie’s works are represented in numerous collections in the United States, as well as private collections in Canada, Europe, Israel and Australia.
Fern Apfel
The envelopes in Fern Apfel’s paintings are old and worn. Some have been repeatedly folded, others stashed out of sight for years. Some offer nostalgic reminders of things that no longer exist; others are from bygone friends. They represent relationships that were maintained across distances and referential dialogues extending through many years.
Rural Rhythm
Featuring the artwork of: Mikel Wintermantel, Leslie Peck, Kate Edwards, Jacob Houston, Clarence King, Jill Fishon-Kovachick and Ann Larsen.
September 28, 2019 – October 27, 2019
Jacob Houston
Jacob Houston is an enthusiastic participant in the field of art, creating unique paintings as well as building a busy art business. Jake is known for the perspective that he takes in his paintings, frequently from a vantage point above the subject. His favorite medium being acrylic, his paintings are vivid and detailed, captivating the viewer’s eye. [Read more…]
Summer Salon 2019
Featuring the artwork of: James Paterson, John Van Alstine, Robert Gullie, Zack Lobdell and Erik Laffer.
August 10, 2019 – September 15, 2019
Beauty and Power
Featuring the artwork of: Rachel Baxter and Beverly Mastrianni.
June 15, 2019 – July 28, 2019
James Paterson
Born in Saskatchewan, Canada James grew up in the Kensington Market neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario. Mr. Paterson received his BFA (hons.) from the University of Waterloo, and taught art at the elementary and high school level before leaving teaching to pursue art full time in 1989.
Capturing the View
Featuring the artwork of: William McCarthy and Harry Orlyk.
April 27, 2019 – June 2, 2019
Beverley Mastrianni
Beverley Mastrianni is an artist who lives and works in Saratoga Springs, NY. She graduated from Skidmore College in 1976 and received her MA from the University of New York at Albany in 1979.
Rachel Baxter
Rachel Baxter is an artist living and working in Troy, NY. She received her BFA in printmaking from The College of Saint Rose (2011) and her MFA from Indiana University in 2014. She currently has a studio at The Church Troy and teaches printmaking The College of Saint Rose. [Read more…]
Universal Bond
Featuring the artwork of: Anne Sutherland, Tracy Helgeson, Dan Greenfeld, and Robert Moylan.
March 2, 2019 – April 14, 2019
Dan Greenfeld
Dan Greenfeld’s sculptures are abstract objects existing outside the restrictions of subject matter. They reference nothing in the world except themselves and art. The sculptures are made from commercially available white stoneware or porcelaneous clays and are fired in a wood burning kiln located on the edge of his daughter’s and son in law’s property in Charlton NY, not too far from Schenectady.
Anne Sutherland
Anne Sutherland is a professional artist, entrepreneur and teacher. She grew up in the rural community of Roxbury, NY, in the Catskill Mountains, influenced by the beauty of mountains and nature around her. A love of drawing, dance and music dominated her childhood. A broad educational career began in the public schools where she taught at the elementary level with a degree in Elementary Education and music. [Read more…]
7th Annual Juried Group Show “Upstate Artists”
Featuring the artwork of: Anne Sutherland, Audrie Sturnman, Betty O’Brien, Chris DeMarco, Dan Greenfeld, David Painter, Deb Hall, Dorothy Englander, Fern Apfel, Ian Creitz, James Flosdorf, Janene Bouck, Judith Plotner, Karen Elem, Leslie Parke, Linde Caughey, Lori Lawrence, Patricia Collins, Randi Kish, Rob O’Neil, Robert Gullie, Robyn Morgan Giddings, Rusell Serrianne, Steve Rosenzweig, Susan Hoffer, Tom Crowell and Tracy Helgeson.
Artwork for this show was juried by Laura Von Rosk.
December 1, 2018 – January 6, 2019
6th Annual Upstate Invitational
Featuring the artwork of: Julie Branch, Anne Francey and George Dirolf.
October 27 – November 25, 2018
George Dirolf
I am a painter, printmaker, and graphic artist. My paintings range from plein-aire oils to larger scale studio work. Subjects are the landscape, snowplows, and trains. I often incorporate relief text or images into these paintings. I also work in large scale charcoal drawings on mylar.
Anne Francey
Anne Francey lives and works in Saratoga Springs, NY. Her studio practice includes painting, drawing and ceramic. Born In Switzerland, she studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts (ECBA) in Lausanne, Switzerland, got an MFA at Hunter College in New York., and more recently studied ceramic painting techniques at the Tunis National Ceramic Center Sidi El Kacem in Tunisia.
Common Beauty
Featuring the artwork of: George Van Hook, David Lussier, Jim Rodgers and Liz Vigoda.
September 22 – October 21, 2018
Subtlety and Substance
Featuring the artwork of: Bruno LaVerdiere and Connie Saddlemire.
August 11 – September 16, 2018
Liz Vigoda
Liz Vigoda has a degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and studied ceramics at Sir John Cass College of Art, London. She has been teaching pottery and art for over 30 years including at Sage College and the Albany Institute of History and Art. Her work is represented by fine galleries and shops nationwide.
Jim Rodgers
Jim Rodgers was born in northern New Jersey. Mr. Rodgers studied at the Art Students League in New York City and also attended the Ridgewood Art Institute where he studied landscape painting. His paintings focus on the essential details emerging from a cohesive mass augmented with poetic highlights. This evolves into a hybrid fashioned from painterly and impressionistic inspirations in a contemporary sense.
Concepts & Color
Featuring the artwork of: Wendy Ide Williams, Victoria Crowell, and James Paterson.
June 16 – July 22, 2018
Connie Saddlemire
Connie Saddlemire first began “making art” while living in Taiwan, as a child, during the mid-1950’s. She also visited Japan during that time and soon afterward moved to New Mexico. The visual impressions from these locations were revealed in Saddlemire’s aesthetic sensibility as she became an artist, during the late 1960’s and 1970’s, while living in Upstate New York and Massachusetts. Frequent visits to the galleries and museums of New York City, throughout her adult years, have continued to be an influence on her work, as well.
Bruno LaVerdiere
Bruno studied at the Art Students League from 1965 to 1967. He was a monk and resident artist at St. Martin’s Abbey in Washington State from 1955 to 1969. Bruno has taught at Skidmore College, Rochster Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University, New York University, Greenwhich House Pottery, Claremont Graduate Schools, and the University of Gorgia in Catona Italy, and is currently an Adjunct Instructor at SUNY Adirondack located in Queensbury, New York.
Tranquility
Featuring the artwork of: Leslie Parke, Jeri Eisenberg and JoAnn Axford.
April 21 – June 3, 2018
Victoria Crowell
Victoria Crowell is a porcelain artist. In 1975, she received her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work is collected from upstate New York to Australia, throughout Europe and the Far East. Galleries, museums, and private collections house more than a quarter century of her art. [Read more…]
Jeri Eisenberg
Jeri Eisenberg works primarily with non-traditional and alternative photo-based techniques. She represses or subverts traditional photography’s emphasis on the representational qualities of the medium, and emphasizes instead the medium’s expressive nature. She employs a strong sense of materiality and seductive surfaces in her work, to evoke sense memories and visceral connections. Her work steadfastly serves as an affirmation of beauty in the everyday natural world, but is tinged with the bittersweet – a reminder of the temporal condition, and an elegy for life.
Leslie Parke
Leslie Parke is an artist from upstate New York. Her studio is the top floor of a 19th Century factory building in Cambridge, New York. She is a recipient of the Esther and Adolph Gottlieb Grant for Individual Support, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest grant as artist-in-residence at the Claude Monet Foundation in Giverny, France, and the George Sugarman Foundation Grant, among others.
Organic Form
Featuring the artwork of: Rob Longley, Jordan Becker, Teri Malo, Jae Schalekamp and Valerie Craig.
March 10 – April 15, 2018
“6th Annual Juried Group Show” | Upstate Artists
Featuring the artwork of: Anne Francey, Cheryl Horning, Compton Eden, Dan Greenfeld, Dana Matthews, Gail Nadeau, Gary Larsen, George Dirolf, Gina Occhiogrosso, Harry Wirtz, Jacob Houston, Jill Fishon Kovachick, Julie Branch, Kelsey Renko, Leslie Roy Heck, Linda Bacon, Linde Caughey, Mara Lefebvre, Mary Ellen Riell, Michael Valiquette, Michael Whitney, Paul Chapman,, Paul Mauren, Randi Kish , Renee Obrien, Rob Longley, Rob O’Neil, Robyn Morgan Giddings, Ruck Goldreyer and Wenda Habenicht.
Artwork for this show was juried by Robert Gullie.
December 2, 2017 – January 7, 2018
Jae Schalekamp
My nature-inspired paintings are more in the manner of a portrait, rather than a landscape. Looking at all different shapes and sizes of plants, mingled and tangled, yet keeping their own growing directions toward light, I find myself trying to identify simple truth and wisdom. [Read more…]
Rob Longley
After high school I attended the Boston University School of Fine Arts and I received a Bachelor of Fine Art in May of 1973. Among my more influential teachers at B.U. were Reed Kay, who taught both Materials and Techniques and Drawing, and Jack Kramer, who taught Anatomy. [Read more…]
Upstate Artists 2017
Please allow us to introduce and congratulate the artists chosen for this exciting new exhibit: Anne Francey, Cheryl Horning, Compton Eden, Dan Greenfeld, Dana Matthews, Gail Nadeau, Gary Larsen, George Dirolf, Gina Occhiogrosso, Harry Wirtz, Jacob Houston, Jill Fishon Kovachick, Julie Branch, Kelsey Renko, Leslie Roy Heck, Linda Bacon, Linde Caughey, Mara Lefebvre, Mary Ellen Riell, Michael Valiquette, Michael Whitney, Paul Chapman,, Paul Mauren, Randi Kish , Renee Obrien, Rob Longley, Rob O’Neil, Robyn Morgan Giddings, Ruck Goldreyer and Wenda Habenicht.
5th Annual Upstate Invitational
Featuring the artwork of Andrea Hearsh, Christopher Murray, and Regis Brodie.
October 28 – November 26, 2017
Orlyk & Wickham
Featuring the artwork of Harry Orlyk and Regina Wickham.
September 16 – October 22, 2017
Shifting Focus
Featuring the artwork of Charles Bremer and Leslie Ferst.
August 12 – September 10, 2017
Andrea Hersh
Andrea Hersh holds a BS in painting and drawing from Skidmore College and an MFA from the University at Albany. Her work has been widely exhibited, including the Flash Art Show in Milan, Italy, the Albany Institute of History and Art, Gallery Boreas, and the AAF Contemporary Art Fair. She received a New York Foundation of Art in the category of Painting. She lives and works in Slingerlands, NY.
Regis Brodie
My methodology of making art is exploratory in nature. It deals with the direct manipulation of materials and processes. My vessel or sculptural forms are elegant and classical. The surface painting, drawing, and textural treatment on the other hand, is out of the Abstract Expressionist and Post Modernist Schools. [Read more…]
Cartography & Choreography
Featuring the artwork of Erik Laffer and John Van Alstine.
June 17 – July 30, 2017
Leslie Ferst
Born in Atlanta, Leslie Ferst studied ceramics at Boston University (MFA cum laude), Art History at Skidmore College (BA) and Syracuse University in Italy and Amsterdam. For artist residencies, she traveled to Montana (Archie Bray Foundation), Georgia (Ossabaw Island Foundation), and Maine (Watershed Center) where she was a founding Board Member.
Fields of View
Featuring the artwork of Ann Larsen, James Coe and Virgina McNeice.
April 22 – June 4, 2017
Beyond Color
Featuring the artwork of Josh Smith, Gary Zack, Zack Lobdell and Elisa Sheehan.
March 11, 2017 – April 16, 2017
Cartography & Choreography
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Cartography & Choreography”
Featuring John Van Alstine and Erik Laffer
June 17 – July 30, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 17, 5-8pm
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y., June 1, 2017 — In honor of our 5th Anniversary, The Laffer Gallery is proud to present Cartography & Choreography, an exhibition of works by renowned artist, John Van Alstine and gallery founder, Erik Laffer. Join us for an opening reception on Saturday, June 17 from 5-8pm to view inspirational works, enjoy live music with Hot Club of Saratoga, mingle with artists and celebrate the gallery’s growing success as one of Saratoga and the Capital Region’s leading independent fine art gallery.
Cartography & Choreography brings together two prolific artists exploring the connections between the natural, the man-made, and the personal.
Assembling stone and found-object metal, Van Alstine contrasts the timelessness of stone with industrial elements of the 20th Century. His works create a poetic balance between the choreographed, floating earthbound stone and strength of metal.
Laffer’s abstract personal narratives are logical and experimental explorations of place– past, present and future. Identifying his own struggle to understand self, family and society, his paintings re-describe the world with a language of symbols, reminiscent of cartography.
John Van Alstine
John Van Alstine is an American sculptor living and working in Wells, NY in the Adirondack region of New York State, best known for stone and metal abstract sculptures exhibiting exceptional balance and poise. The works are often multi level with references to the figure, classical, nautical, celestial and western mythological themes.
During the span of his more than 35 year career his central theme has been the exploration of motion and balance through the natural forces of gravity and inertia in monumental, large scale and smaller works located in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. He has participated in more than 80 solo and group exhibitions.
Van Alstine has won numerous awards, fellowships, grants and citations from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Gottlieb Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Yaddo Fellowship, the Louis C. Tiffany Foundation, New Jersey Council of the Arts and most recently the Merit Award in Beijing for his construction of a large-scale public sculpture in the Olympic Park Garden. He is recognized as a leading artist of his generation emerging from the tradition of David Smith, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Kenneth Snelson and Mark diSuvero.
Van Alstine’s works are in many major museums, institutions, public and private collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg, Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington D.C., Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., Museum of Fine Arts Houston, National Museum of American Art, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ and the Phillips Collection Washington D.C. Overseas his work is in the collections of Tsinghua University Museum Garden Beijing, Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Beijing Olympic Park Collection 2008, and in the U.S. Department of State “Art in Embassies” collections in Bolivia, Chile, Jamaica and Nepal.
Since 1970s, his sculpture has been reviewed in several publications such as the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, USA Today, New York Times, Art in America, Art Forum, Art News and Sculpture Magazine. “John Van Alstine has created an ambitious body of remarkably interrelated outdoor and indoor sculptures, site-specific installations, public art projects and drawings. His prolific and consistently engaging output, ranging in size from small and delicate to vast and monumental, has earned the artist a reputation as one of America’s most important sculptors of the late 20th” and 21st century, according to Nick Capasso, curator of DeCordova Museum near Boston.
In 2000, Grayson Publishing Co. published a mid-career survey entitled “Bones of the Earth, Spirit of the Land” connecting Van Alstine’s sculptures, drawings, photographs and large-scale works to the landscape in the Western U.S. and Adirondacks. It was based on an extensive interview conducted by Sculpture Magazine editor Glenn Harper with an accompanying essay by DeCordova curator.
Erik Laffer
Born in Smithtown, New York, in 1982, I was the seventh of eight children. At the age of three, my family moved to a small town in upstate New York, where I lived until I was 14. Then we moved again, to Delmar, a suburb of Albany, New York. I have been moving ever since. Given my nomadic background, it’s almost natural that I’ve come to express myself—rather look to shape my identity and better understand myself—in maps. While my early landscapes and figurative works were influenced by the rural environment I grew up in, as well as the feelings of isolation I felt as a child with a learning disability, the representational abstracts that make up my current Cartography Series are not so much a study of emotion, as my earliest works were, but more of a logical and experimental exploration of where I’ve been, where I am now, and where I hope to be tomorrow. My goal with the Cartography paintings is to, as J.B. Harley writes, “redescribe the world,” or at least the small world of Erik Laffer. And just as there is a language of mapmaking, there is style and body of symbols in my paintings that define the landscape of each work and identify my struggle to understand self, family, home, and culture: boats, clocks, buildings, bridges, anatomy, arrows, and, among many others, lines, color, and texture. There’s a popular expression: “you’ll learn more about a road by traveling it than by consulting all the maps in the world.” While I recognize the truth in this, I also believe there is great value in history and charting where we have been and where we are going. And this is what my Cartography Series represents. After all, some roads—racism, sexism, classism, poverty, and all other forms of oppression and discrimination—are better to understand than experience.
Virginia McNeice
Born in New York City, Virginia McNeice attended Pratt Institute of Art and has studied at the Art Student’s League, SUNY Albany, Skidmore College and the Vermont Studio Center. McNeice’s work in pastel and oil is inspired by nature, and her primary focus is upon color relationships, contrast and the effect of light at various times of the day. She lives and works on an old farm in Cambridge, New York which is surrounded by her personal garden.
5th Annual Juried Group Show
Featuring the artwork of Alex Waters, Andrea Hersh, Annea Francey, Audrie Sturman, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Channing Lefebvre, Cheryl Horning, Chris Duncan, Christopher Murray, Cyndy Barbone, Dan Greenfeld, Darcie Abbatiello, Deborah Bayly, Dolores Thompson, Fern Apfel, Gary Larsen, Gary Maggio, Gretchen Kelley, Ian Creitz, James Coe, Jenny Hutchinson, Kathryn Kost, Kevin Cleplensky, Laura Cannamela, Lori Lawrence, Mary Pat Wager, Matt Chinian, MiChelle Vara, Nicholas Warner, Regis Brodie, Robyn Morgan Giddings, Sonja LaPointe, Susan Hoffer, Susan Williams and Virginia McNeice.
December 3, 2016 – January 8, 2017
Josh Smith
Josh Smith graduated from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University with honors in 2014. He was first introduced to ceramics while at Alfred and felt an immediate connection with the material, and the pottery wheel. A few weeks before graduating from Alfred, Smith was recruited to help open the first US branch of Spin Ceramics in New York City. He completed a four month residency at Sculpture Space NYC during my time in the big apple.
Elisa Sheehan
Elisa Sheehan lives with her 2 kids, 2 dogs, and lovely husband. Together they explore the world and place a premium on their time together. She prefers to do her exploring outdoors and almost all of her inspiration comes from nature. She and her husband home school their 2 children and seeing them learn in their own ways informs Elisa’s own process and artistic growth. The sky really is the limit and sometimes making a giant mess is the best way forward!
Gary Zack
Gary Zack has been involved with glass since 1978, as a successful commission stained-glass artist and, more recently, as a blown glass artist in Upstate New York. Zack has been involved with blown glass since 1990 and is mostly self-taught. His love of hot glass is founded on the immediacy and spontaneous nature of the material, as well as the interplay of color and light. [Read more…]
4th Annual Upstate Invitational
Featuring the artwork of Anne Diggory, Janice Medina, and Russell Serrianne
October 22, 2016 – November 27, 2016
Russell Serrianne
Russell Serrianne lives in Glens Falls, NY where he has maintained his studio at the Shirt Factory since 2006. Raised in Niagara Falls, Russell attended the New School of Art in Toronto, Ontario with a concentration in drawing and screen process printing. He then studied printmaking at the Center for Music Drama and Art in Lake Placid, and lithography at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.
Janice Medina
Janice Medina is an artist, designer, and educator living and working in Albany, NY. Raised near Syracuse, she studied Building Conservation (MS, 2008) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after attending Syracuse University (BFA, 2006). She is committed to design education and has taught interior design at the college level for over seven years. She has a passion for materials and the built environment. Her work is influenced by architecture, landscape, and the passage of time. Recently, she has been exploring the use of concrete as a sculptural medium.
Symphony in Color
Featuring the artwork of Peris Carbonell and John Van Orsouw
July 23, 2016 – August 28, 2016
Nurture Nature
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Nurture Nature”
Featuring Mikel Wintermantel, Takeyce Walter, Karen Elem, Nancy Magnell, Leslie Peck, Kate Edwards, David Hill, Celeste Susany, and Audrie Sturman
September 10 – October 16, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 10, 5-8pm
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y., September 5, 2016 — The Laffer Gallery today announced it will open a new exhibit, “Nurture Nature,” on Saturday, September 10, at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, N.Y. The exhibit will run through October 16, 2016, and will feature artwork by nine New York artists. An opening reception will be held at The Laffer Gallery on Saturday, September 10, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“We’re excited to bring together such a fine collection of talented New York artists. Their work is mixed across various mediums and either originates from nature, with materials, or finds inspiration in nature, through theme,” said Erik Laffer, owner, The Laffer Gallery.
Artists featured in the show include:
Audrie Sturman works full time in two studios, one in Albany and the other at The Saratoga Clay Arts Center. Sturman’s works are represented in numerous collections in the U.S., as well as private collections in Canada, Europe, Israel and Australia.
Celeste Susany is recognized as one of the nation’s premier equine artists and is regularly commissioned to do artwork for racetracks and private clients worldwide. She has had a presence in Saratoga since 1984 when she first exhibited her art at the Saratoga Race Course. Her work was feature on the Saratoga Race Course program from 1998 to 2015. Celeste has also enjoyed successes as a portrait and landscape painter.
David Hill has had a relationship with nature that he translates through oil paintings. Born and raised in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, he found water and waves to be the inspiration for the subject matter that he continues to focus on. Hill studied painting in many locations including Hawaii, Italy and Boston (BAF, Art Institute of Boston).
Karen Elem received her degree in art education from the State University of New York at New Paltz. After retiring from a 37-year career teaching ceramics, sculpture, drawing and painting at Saratoga Springs High, she is now a resident studio artist at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville, N.Y.
Kate Edwards gains inspiration from the change of seasons and the daily movement of light. Through landscape paintings, her observations and interpretation of nature connects her to the world. Her work currently reflects the agricultural landscapes she experiences as a resident of Northeastern N.Y.
Leslie Peck is a New York native educated at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she received her bachelor’s degree in fine art. She then spent a year studying art in Italy at the Scuola di Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, before apprenticing in Rome with renowned illustrator Alessandro Biffignandi. Peck began a freelance career in romance book cover illustration in 1988. While still successful in the publishing field, her love for portraiture of people and animals has found its expression in her most recent oil paintings.
Mikel Wintermantel is an artist schooled in tradition and raised in a modern world. His paintings cross the advancement in modern materials and tools with his deep respect for old world methods. Through years of exploration his method and materials have become almost transparent in the creation process.
Nancy Magnell is a Saratoga-based artist specializing in the rare art of reverse glass painting. Her unique application of the Hudson River aesthetic to the reverse painted glass medium brings an enhanced sense of depth and mood to the traditional landscape, and her subtle manipulation of light and color create a sense of drama and suspense that makes these works recognizably emotional and personal.
Takeyce Walter works in oil and pastel, and her paintings feature the rural landscape of upstate New York, the Adirondacks, Cape Cod and Vermont. She is especially inspired by and drawn to the water—rivers, lakes, marshes, streams and the ocean. Walter exhibits her paintings online, through her blog, and in local venues throughout the Northeast. Her work is also found in many private collections across the world.
The “Nurture Nature” exhibit will be open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., from September 10 to October 16. Showings are also available by appointment.
The Laffer Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery and custom frame shop owned and operated by artist Erik Laffer. The gallery showcases nationally established and emerging contemporary artists working across a variety of mediums. Exhibitions ranging from realism to abstraction rotate every 4 to 6 weeks, with opening receptions for each exhibit.
Karen Elem
Karen Elem received her degree in art education from the State University of New York at New Paltz. After retiring from a 37 year career teaching ceramics, sculpture, drawing and painting at Saratoga Springs High, she is now a resident studio artist at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville, NY.
Celeste Susany
Celeste Susany is recognized as one of the nation’s premier equine artists. Her formative years were spent among the pageantry of Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar. Celeste received her degree from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. After graduation, she became an art director for Nehi, a large record distributing company.
David Hill
Born and raised in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, David Hill has had a relationship with nature that he translates through oil paintings. Being surrounded by water in St Thomas, David found water and waves to be the inspiration for the subject matter that he continues to focus on. David studied painting in many locations including Hawaii, Italy, and Boston. (BAF, Art Institute of Boston). In 2005, David opened his own gallery in St Thomas that he owned and operated for six years.
Symphony in Color
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Symphony in Color”
Featuring Peris Carbonell and John Van Orsouw
July 23 – August 28, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 23, 5-8pm
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y., July 5, 2016 — The Laffer Gallery today announced it will open a new exhibit, “Symphony in Color,” on Saturday, July 23, at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, N.Y. The exhibit will run through August 28, 2016, and will feature artwork by international artist Peris Carbonell and Capital Region artist John Van Orsouw. An opening reception will be held at The Laffer Gallery on Saturday, July 23, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“We’re excited to bring Peris and John together for this exhibit. Their work is vibrant and energetic, full of color, joy and movement,” said Erik Laffer, owner, The Laffer Gallery. “This show is truly representative of the growth the gallery has achieved over the years. We’re proud to be able to present such acclaimed and accomplished artists to our audience.”
Peris Carbonell is a Spain-based artist known for his colorful, expressionist paintings. He started painting at the age of 12 and studied at the San Carlos Fine Arts School in Valencia, Spain. He has made more than 60 solo exhibitions and 30 permanent exhibitions in Europe, including the Peris Carbonell Museum opened to the public in July 2012 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. In addition, he and his artwork have been the subject of 30 books. Art critic Rafael Pons has stated: “Peris Carbonell belongs to the long line of great Iberian artists and is the maximum exponent of the contemporary Spanish mystic expressionism.”
John Van Orsouw is a resident of Palatine Bridge, N.Y., and considers himself a lifelong “doodler.” His bright, playful work is marked by a sense of childlike wonder and is influenced by children’s toys and folk and indigenous art forms. When working, he considers himself to be “the center of a three-ring circus…ringmaster to children of all ages.” He plays with the idea that art is a toy and works the shapes into shape and superimposes, imposes and just plain poses these shapes within the spontaneous, organic and sometimes conscious scribbles, squiggles and doodles.
The “Symphony in Color” exhibit will be open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., from July 23 to August 28. Showings are also available by appointment.
The Laffer Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery and custom frame shop owned and operated by artist Erik Laffer. The gallery showcases nationally established and emerging contemporary artists working across a variety of mediums. Exhibitions ranging from realism to abstraction rotate every 4 to 6 weeks, with opening receptions for each exhibit.
Woodcuts and Sculptures
Featuring the artwork of Allen Grindle and Mary Pat Wager
June 4, 2016 – July 10, 2016
Woodcuts and Sculptures
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Woodcuts and Sculptures”
Featuring Allen Grindle and Mary Pat Wager
June 4 – July 10, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 4, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery is proud to present Woodcuts and Sculpture, a two-person exhibition with artists Allen Grindle and Mary Pat Wager. Join us for an opening reception on June 4th, from 5-8pm.
Allen Gindle’s dynamic woodcuts speak powerfully to the constant change in nature and the human condition.
Mary Pat Wager carefully assembles objects made from diverse materials – a mix of personal, historic, industrial and natural – into sculptures that explore the interplay between visual and psychological relationships.
Allen Grindle received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham in 1973 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. After graduating college, he received his Master of Arts (studio art) from the State University of New York in Albany, New York in 1978. Over the years Allen Grindle has produced many works of art including sculptures, black and white prints, and paintings.
Allen has been featured in many shows all over the world including the First International Printmaking Triennial of ULUS at the Art Pavillion at Kalemegdan in Belgrade, Serbia and the SAGA (Society of American Graphic Artists) Members’ Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery in New York, New York in 2011. The 4th International Digital Mini-print Exhibition at the Center for Visual Artists Voice in Ottawa, Canada in 2009. The Allen Grindle: Woodcuts and Sculpture at the Koussevitzky Art Gallery, Berkshire Community College in Pittsfiield, Massachusetts and the Then and Now at the Albany Center Galleries in Albany, New York in 2006.
Mary Pat Wager has been a sculptor for over thirty years. Her work is included in many public and private collections. Her sculpture employs the use of found objects, as well as, fabricated metal components.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards for her work in sculpture. These include a National Endowment for the Arts grant and representing the United States with her work at the Small Works International Exhibition in Budapest, Hungary. She lives and works in upstate New York.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
Two Winters
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Two Winters”
Featuring Harry Orlyk
April 9 – May 29, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 9, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery presents a new exhibition for the early-spring 2016 season entitled “Two Winters,” running from April 9th through May 29th, 2016.
The Laffer Gallery will be holding an opening reception for their new exhibition featuring renowned local landscape artist, Harry Orlyk on Saturday, April 9th from 5pm – 8pm at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, N.Y.
Harry Orlyk was born in Troy, New York in 1947. In 1971 after graduating college, he went on to receive a graduate degree at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Over the next nine years, several Nebraskan artists including still-life painter Robin Smith, photographer Lawrence McFarland and painter Keith Jacobshagen influenced Mr. Orlyk. Orlyk currently resides with his family in Salem, New York near the Vermont border. In the artist’s own words:
“For the past 40 years, winter has been my favorite season to paint, finding a way to be in the midst of my subject even on the most inclement days. Cold wind, rain, and snow are little trouble in my comfortable steering wheel studio.
This past winter’s thin snow cover kept the fields open unlike the winter of 2015, during which deep snow closed the fields to wheeled vehicles for 3 months, a period of painting snow piles at the edges of roads and cleared lots.
The 2016 winter season, by contrast, was much like a long autumn. Even if there was snow cover, it was thin, letting any brittle blade of grass scumble through, darkening the fields, when a year earlier it was a thick, glistening, frozen mantle which flattened the stoutest stalks of golden rod and milk weed.
Since the subjects of my work are light, the seasons of the year and their combined effect on the land, I thought it might be interesting and informative to exhibit these two winters together.
The Laffer Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery and custom frame shop owned and operated by artist Erik Laffer, showcasing nationally established and emerging contemporary artists working across a variety of mediums. Exhibitions ranging from realism to abstraction rotate every 4-6 weeks, with opening receptions for each exhibit.
We invite you to join us, and the artist, Harry Orlyk on Saturday, April 9th, from 5pm – 8pm for a night of fine art, hors d’oeuvres and great conversation at The Laffer Gallery, located just minutes from downtown Saratoga Springs.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
Space + Volume
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Space + Volume”
Featuring Robert Gullie and Gyula Varosy
February 27 – April 3, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 27, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery is proud to announce Space + Volume, bringing together artists Robert Gullie and Gyula Varosy in a dynamic exhibition that stirs our emotions and understanding of form, function, space and volume. This exhibition will open February 27th with an opening reception from 5-8pm, and be on view through April 3rd.
Gullie’s vibrant, surreal collages and Varosy’s bold abstract, figurative sculptures reflect one another. The figure is a central reference in their pieces, where it can take on many forms and shapes, from the obvious to a most fleeting gesture, affinity, or association of forms and relationships – together, their works unveil unique narratives waiting to be explored.
Robert Gullie:
“After 25 years of working in the medium of hand-tinted photography, which for me often involved creating and directing surreal photographic tableaus, I found myself curiously drifting toward mixed media collage as a way to create a contemporary folk art experience. Collage gave me the artistic freedom to curate my dream world in a way that photographs could not. Collage also gave me the means to share it with others.” – Robert Gullie
Robert Gullie of Cohoes, NY creates in the mediums of mixed media collages, hand-tinted photography and in the photopolymer gravure printing process. Gullie’s work has been included in over eighty exhibitions including over twenty-five solo exhibitions. He is the recipient of numerous awards a NYFA Arts Residency Project Grant; the Gilliand-Weinheimer Oakroom Artist Award; 1st place in the photography category from Columbia County Council of the Arts and was named “Best Photographer” by Metroland Magazine (1997). His work has also been included in the permanent collections of The Kinsey Institute, University at Albany Art Museum, Mohonk Mountain House, Frances Kinnear Museum, Albany Medical College and the historic Mission House in Stockbridge Massachusetts in addition to many private collections. He has been commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (2010-2013) to create images for such celebrated arts organizations as The New York City Ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra and MOMIX Botanica. His work has also appeared on the covers of several regional periodicals and has been used as cover art for a number of CDs.
Gyula Varosy:
“Inevitably, the figure comes back. I am drawn to it, it is central and ever present. It can take many forms and enter many shapes, from the obvious to a most fleeting resonance, a gesture, an affinity, an association of forms and relationships that stirs something…And they are all connected and reflect on one another, whether carved and constructed in wood, modeled in clay or plaster or cast in bronze, completed today or years ago…It’s like you are working on the same piece, trying to find a solution…It will be gratifying if this congregation assembled here speaks to you.” – Gyula Varosy
Gyula Varosy was born in Hungary and came to the United States as a refugee in 1957. After receiving degrees in Architecture from Pratt Institute and Harvard University, he lived and worked in New York City, with a concentration in housing design. He moved to Greenwich, New York in 1990, when sculpture finally became his main focus. He has exhibited at various galleries in the northeast, including the Southern Vermont Arts Center, New York University, and the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
4th Annual Juried Group Show
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “4th Annual Juried Group Show”
Featuring Ann Larsen, Anne Diggory, Ben Schwab, Carolyn Kibbe, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Cheryl Horning, Chris DeMarco, Chris Duncan, David Waite, Gary Larsen, Gordana Vukovic, Harry Wirtz, Ian Creitz, James Sankowski, Janet Marie Yeates, Janice Medina, Jim Flosdorf, Jackson Bryant, Karen Elem, Linda Hinkle, Linda Motzkin, Mary Pat Wager, Matthew Hopkins, Michelle Winnie, Rachel Nolte, Regis Brodie, Rob O’neil, Russell Serrianne, Sarah Pezdek and Takeyce Walter.
December 5, 2015 – January 10, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 5, 5-8pm
We are excited to officially announce the featured artists for our 4th annual juried group show entitled “Upstate Artists” for the 2015 Holiday Season.
“Upstate Artists” features a diverse cross section of the Upstate New York arts community. Exhibited work was chosen from over 130 entries in response to an Open Call for Submissions to local artists.
Please join The Laffer Gallery and our selected artists for an opening reception on Saturday, December 5th from 5pm until 8pm for an opportunity to meet the artists and view their amazing work.
Please allow us to introduce and congratulate the artists chosen for this exciting new exhibit:
Ann Larsen, Anne Diggory, Ben Schwab, Carolyn Kibbe, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Cheryl Horning, Chris DeMarco, Chris Duncan, David Waite, Gary Larsen, Gordana Vukovic, Harry Wirtz, Ian Creitz, James Sankowski, Janet Marie Yeates, Janice Medina, Jim Flosdorf, Jackson Bryant, Karen Elem, Linda Hinkle, Linda Motzkin, Mary Pat Wager, Matthew Hopkins, Michelle Winnie, Rachel Nolte, Regis Brodie, Rob O’neil, Russell Serrianne, Sarah Pezdek and Takeyce Walter.
Artwork for this exhibition was selected by John Van Alstine. Van Alstine received his MFA from Cornell University and his BFA from Kent State University. He primarily creates abstract stone and metal sculptures. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the US, as well as Europe and Asia. Van Alstine has been awarded fellowships, grants and citations from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, National Endowments for the Arts, Yaddo Fellowship, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the Merit Award in Beijing for his construction of a large-scale public sculpture in the Olympic Park Garden.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
3rd Annual Upstate Invitational
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “3rd Annual Upstate Invitational”
Featuring Mary Ellen Riell, Chad Smith and JoAnn Axford
October 24 – November 29, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24, 5-8pm
SCHUYLERVILLE, N.Y., October 14, 2015 – The Laffer Gallery today announced the date for its upcoming exhibit 3rd Annual Upstate Invitational. With artists Mary Ellen Riell, Chad Smith and JoAnn Axford. These distinguished artists were honored with last year’s 3rd Annual Upstate Artists Best In Show Award, juried by Paul Hobart, and invited to exhibit their works in this dynamic new exhibit at The Laffer Gallery.
We invite you to join us opening night on Saturday, October 24th from 5pm – 8pm for an evening of fine art, lively conversation and hors d’ oeuvres.
3rd Annual Upstate Invitational will be on view through November 29th.
Featured artists in the 3rd Annual Upstate Invitational include:
Mary Ellen Riell – A former professional illustrator and college instructor, Mary Ellen Riell received her art training at the Art Student’s League in New York City, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Brooklyn College, where she studied with painter Sam Gelber and sculptor Sylvia Stone, before receiving a Master’s degree in art education from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.
JoAnn Axford – JoAnn Axford lives and maintains her studio in Glenmont, New York. She received her bachelor degree at the University of Bridgeport, Conn. and her masters from The College of Saint Rose. Her interest in botanical imagery led her to post-graduate study in Botanical Illustration at The New York Botanical Garden
Chad Smith – Chad Smith prefers a direct yet studied approach to plein air painting. It has been said of his work: “Not just ‘a scene’ but a real statement about something, yet not forced or melodramatic.” Smith has gallery representation in New York, Colorado, Florida, South Carolina and is collected internationally.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
John van Orsouw
John van Orsouw is completely self-taught which is not to say that he is not schooled. His schooling, however, has been the museums, the ideas, the movies and the streets of urban life both in the U.S. (New Orleans, New York City) and in Europe including his childhood home in Holland. Presently he is selling his work in New York City. His recent exhibitions include the 2011 New York Outsider Art Fair, The 6th annual Outsider Art Exhibition at Galerie Belage in West Hampton Beach, New York, Musee de la Creation France and Van der Plas Gallery in New York City.
Two Winters
Featuring the artwork of Harry Orlyk
April 9, 2016 – May 29, 2016
Space + Volume
Featuring the artwork of Gyula Varosy and Robert Gullie
February 27, 2016 – April 3, 2016
4th Annual Juried Group Show
Featuring the artwork of Ann Larsen, Anne Diggory, Ben Schwab, Carolyn Kibbe, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Cheryl Horning, Chris DeMarco, Chris Duncan, David Waite, Gary Larsen, Gordana Vukovic, Harry Wirtz, Ian Creitz, James Sankowski, Janet Marie Yeates, Janice Medina, Jim Flosdorf, Jackson Bryant, Karen Elem, Linda Hinkle, Linda Motzkin, Mary Pat Wager, Matthew Hopkins, Michelle Winnie, Rachel Nolte, Regis Brodie, Rob O’neil, Russell Serrianne, Sarah Pezdek and Takeyce Walter.
December 5, 2015 – January 10, 2016
Gyula Varosy
Gyula Varosy was born in Hungary and came to the US as a refugee in 1957. After receiving degrees in Architecture from Pratt Institute and Harvard University, he lived and worked in NYC, with housing design as the work focus. Setting up a sculpture studio was parallel to this. He and his wife, a toddler and a baby moved to Greenwich, NY in 1990. In the years that followed, apart from architecture, there was more time in this beautiful environment to make art. Finally sculpture became his main focus.
3rd Annual Upstate Invitational
Featuring the artwork of Chad Smith, Mary Ellen Riell, and JoAnn Axford
October 24, 2015 – November 29, 2015
A Delicate Balance
Featuring the artwork of George Van Hook, Mark Tougias, Ann Larsen, and James Sankowski
September 16, 2015 – October 18, 2015
A Delicate Balance
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “A Delicate Balance”
Featuring Ann Larsen, James Sankowski, Mark Tougias, and George Van Hook
September 16 – October 18, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery today announced the date for its upcoming “A Delicate Balance” art exhibition. Featuring artists Ann Larsen, James Sankowski, Mark Tougias and George Van Hook, the exhibit will open Wednesday, September 16, and run through Sunday, October 18. An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 19.
“Each of the artists in this show thrive in the natural environment,” said Erik Laffer, gallery owner. “Whether they work on canvas or shape clay with their hands, they are inspired by nature, which is evident by how well their works complement one another.”
Ann Larsen is an accomplished oil painter who received the 2014 Award of Excellence at the Paso Robles Invitational. She has been featured as an “Artist to Watch” by Southwest Art Magazine and is a signature member and past president of American Women Artists. She is also a member of American Impressionist Society, Outdoor Painters Society, Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, Oil Painters of America and Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.
James Sankowskie is a potter from Ballston Lake. His pots create a balance between form and design to yield pottery that is both durable and functional. Sankowskie has exhibited work in numerous regional, state, and national shows and art fairs, and his pottery has appeared in such publications as Studio Potter, Ceramic Monthly, and The Art of Contemporary American Pottery.
Mark Tougias is a self-taught artist whose inspiration comes from his immediate surroundings in Vermont and upstate New York. His work is defined by the use of light, tonality, atmosphere and composition to depict the poetic and spiritual qualities of place rather than an exact rendering of location. Tougias has exhibited in more than 40 galleries and has had more than 25 one-man shows.
George Van Hook has been exhibiting his paintings for more than 35 years throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Van Hook’s painterly style follows in the tradition of the impressionists. Inspired by both a love of nature fostered by long hours painting “en plein air,” he paints with gusto and passion, bringing freshness and immediacy to the rural scenes where he lives in upstate New York. His work has been featured in En Plein Aire Magazine and he has twice been featured in American Artist Magazine.
About the Laffer Gallery
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
Summer Salon 2015
Featuring Caroline Ramersdorfer, Erik Laffer, Robert Gullie, Teri Malo, David Seiler, Harry Orlyk, Randi Kish, David Miller, and Jon Van Alstine
August 8, 2015 – September 6, 2015
Double Vision
Featuring Caroline Ramersdorfer and Jenny Kemp
June 27, 2015 – August 2, 2015
Mark Tougias
Mark Tougias is a self-taught artist who has been busy painting since childhood. His earliest surviving drawings and paintings date back to when he was eight years old. From an early age he learned by studying the masters and at age sixteen he began exhibiting. At the University of Massachusetts he studied education and art history. He began painting full time in 1990.
[Read more…]
James Sankowski
Jim Sankowski lives in Ballston Lake, New York where he has maintained his studio Ballston Lake Pottery since 1975. He attended Central College, Iowa (BA-Art ‘72) and Bowling Green State University, Ohio (MFA-Ceramic Art ‘74).
Summer Salon 2015
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Summer Salon 2015”
Featuring Erik Laffer, Caroline Ramersdorfer, Robert Gullie, Teri Malo, David Seiler, Harry Orlyk, Randi Kish, David Miller and John Van Alstine
August 8 – September 6, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 8, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery today announced the date for its upcoming Summer Salon art exhibition. Featuring nine artists, the show will open Saturday, August 8, and run through Sunday, September 6. An opening reception will be held Saturday, August 8.
Featured artists in the Summer Salon exhibit include:
Caroline Ramersdorfer – Ramersdorfer studied philosophy in Paris and sculpture in Carrara, Italy. Both large and small scale, her sculpture work is a study in contrasts—tense and fluid, weighty and ethereal—and speaks to the mutability of perception and experience.
Erik Laffer – Laffer’s paintings re-describe the world with a language of symbols, reminiscent of map-making. His abstract personal narratives are logical and experimental explorations of place from the past into the present and future.
Robert Gullie – A resident of Cohoes, N.Y., Gullie is a photographer specializing in the early 1900’s technique of Hand-Tinted Photography, a multimedia collagist and most recently has begun working in the photopolymer gravure printing process.
Teri Malo – Malo’s landscape paintings primarily explore place, whether in her series on the mill towns of the Blackstone Valley or in her more recent coastal New England series.
David Seiler – Seiler’s art operates in the space between painting and photograph—object and print. His equine works represent a new starting point in the continuum of his process. In each work, collage functions both to break the image down into component parts and to create a cohesive whole.
Harry Orlyk – A native of Troy, N.Y., Orlyk’s landscapes are influenced by Nebraskan artist Robin Smith, photographer Lawrence McFarland and painter Keith Jacobshagen.
Randi Kish – A retired public school art teacher, Kish is a full-time ceramic artist working out of the Saratoga Clay Arts Center.
David Miller – Miller is one of the most well-known and respected artists in the upstate New York region. His paintings, which underscore the irresolvable tension between wonderment and memory, are included in a wide range of public and private collections.
John Van Alstine – Van Alstine is sculptor based in Wells, N.Y. He is renowned for stone and metal abstract sculptures exhibiting exceptional balance and poise. The works are often multi-level, with references to classical, nautical, celestial and western mythological themes.
Located at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, The Laffer Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. For more information call 518-695-3181 or visit thelaffergallery.com.
Double Vision
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Double Vision”
Featuring Caroline Ramersdorfer and Jenny Kemp
June 27 – August 2, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery is proud to announce, Double Vision, with painter Jenny Kemp and sculptor Caroline Ramersdorfer. Double Vision captures the nuances within the artists intricate abstractions and translucent layers, leaving the viewer to experience simultaneous perceptions within the works.
Jenny Kemp’s interest in abstraction comes from her desire to create images that serve to represent unseen phenomenon. The results are paintings that are dense, intricate and often abstruse. Biologically-inspired imagery, stemming from contemplations on our relationship to organic matter is built through lines and planes of subtly shifting hue intensities and gradations, generating form through a slow additive process of layering line work by hand that parallels growth and changeability in the natural world.
These investigations are furthered by capturing macro shots of her paintings and manipulating them into small stop-motion videos, which spark a conversation about the tensions between depth and flatness, movement and stillness, handmade and digital.
Jenny Kemp received her Bachelors degree in studio art from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and her MFA in Painting from the University at Albany. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country, most recently at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, NY, a two-person show at Middle Tennessee State University and an invitational exhibition at The Painting Center in NYC. She has been featured in publications such as 100 Painters of Tomorrow published by Thames & Hudson, The Huffington Post, Seattle’s City Arts, LUXE, NY Times, Fabrik, and Apogee magazines. She is the 2015 recipient of The Arts Center of the Capital Region’s Emerging Artist Award. She is also currently a Visiting Professor of Studio Art at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT and sits on the board of Collar Works, a not-for-profit, artist run exhibition space in the Capital Region of New York.
Caroline Ramersdorfer’s sculptures are expressive abstractions capture light through delicate, translucent layers of marble to convey the passage of time and evoke an emotional response from the viewer. Symbolism and cross-cultural references are important to her work, representing an interior world both physical and spiritual, something she called architecture of the soul.
Since moving to the Adirondacks, Ramersdorfer has found inspiration in her rural environment. Her work has opened up, breaking through the rigid angularity of her earlier work into more expressive abstractions. With nature more of a guide, the new works provide a refreshing fluidness and unpredictability.
Caroline Ramersdorfer studied philosophy in Paris in 1979, before enrolling in the International University of Art in Florence, Italy, where she studied African art history, museum science, and Renaissance fresco restoration. She received her MFA in sculpture in 1988 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, Italy.
After completing her studies, Ramersdorfer’s career took off, thanks in part to grants from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and the Arts and Culture and the Federal Chancellery in Vienna to work abroad, most notably in Japan in the early 1990s. A grant from UNESCO supported the Carambolage Project, a 1998 exchange with artists of the Caribbean.
In 1995 she returned to Austria where she established studios in Vienna, and in Vorarlberg, in the home designed by her father, the architect Mag. Willi F. Ramersdorfer (1922-2010). Over the next few years, she worked in both Asia and Europe on the Energy series, developing the Ring Project in Fukuoka, Japan, and the Inner View series in Vienna. Since then, she has participated in exhibitions worldwide and won commissions to create a number of large-scale, site-specific works at nearly two dozen international sculpture symposia. Her sculptures are installed in private and public art collections in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Egypt, Canada, U.S.A., China, Belize, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she was awarded first prize at the 2005 Emaar International Art Symposium for Inner View. In early 2009 Ramersdorfer was one of 17 artists participating in the Abu Dhabi International Sculpture Symposium. She produced a 15-ton sculpture in white marble, which took five weeks to create.
After spending summers in the Adirondack Region of upstate New York, Ramersdorfer became a permanent resident of the US in 2009 and has a studio in Wells, New York.
Mary Ellen Riell
Landscape and figurative artist Mary Ellen Riell received her art training at the Art Student’s League in New York City, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Brooklyn College, where she studied with painter Sam Gelber and sculptor Sylvia Stone, before receiving a Master’s degree in art education from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.
[Read more…]
Chad Smith
Chad Smith prefers a direct yet studied approach to plein air painting. It has been said of his work: “Not just ‘a scene’ but a real statement about something, yet not forced or melodramatic.” Smith has gallery representation in New York, Colorado, Florida, South Carolina and is collected internationally.
[Read more…]
Jenny Kemp
Jenny Kemp received her Bachelors degree in studio art from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and her MFA in Painting from the University at Albany. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country, most recently at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, NY, a two-person show at Middle Tennessee State University and an invitational exhibition at The Painting Center in NYC. [Read more…]
From the Earth
Featuring Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, Valerie Craig and Jill Fishon-Kovachick
May 16, 2015 – June 21, 2015
Matter of Form
Featuring Artists Tim Kadish, David Miller, and Gary Zack
February 21, 2015 – March 29, 2015
Stone | Steel | Paper
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Stone | Steel | Paper”
Featuring Artist John Van Alstine
April 8 – May 10, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 11, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery is proud to announce its upcoming exhibition Stone| Steel Paper, a solo exhibit featuring John Van Alstine. This exhibition will run April 8 – May 10, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 11th from 5-8pm. Join us for a wonderful evening of thought provoking art, hors d’oeuvres and conversation.
John Van Alstine, widely known for his large scale outdoor sculptures made from stone and found object steel, has notably become one of America’s most important sculptors over the past decade.
For more than thirty-five years, the focus of Van Alstine’s sculpture has been the exploration of motion and balance through the natural forces of gravity and inertia, as experienced in his monumental, large scale and smaller works located in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. The combination of natural elements with the man-made creates a poetic and choreographed visual balance, often referencing figurative, classical, nautical, celestial and western mythological themes.
Van Alstine, born in 1952 in Upstate New York. He received his BFA from Kent State University and his MFA from Cornell University in 1976. Since then he has participated in more than 80 solo and group exhibitions and has won numerous awards, fellowships, and grants from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Gottlieb Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Yaddo Fellowship, the Louis C. Tiffany Foundation, New Jersey Council of the Arts and most recently the Merit Award in Beijing for his construction of a large-scale public sculpture in the Olympic Park Garden.
Van Alstine’s works are in many major museums, institutions, public and private collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg, Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington D.C., Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., Museum of Fine Arts Houston, National Museum of American Art, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ and the Phillips Collection Washington D.C. Overseas his work is in the collections of Tsinghua University Museum Garden Beijing, Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Beijing Olympic Park Collection 2008, and in the U.S. Department of State “Art in Embassies” collections in Bolivia, Chile, Jamaica and Nepal.
Since 1970s, his sculpture has been reviewed in several publications such as the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, USA Today, New York Times, Art in America, Art Forum, Art News and Sculpture Magazine.
Yuta Ishino
Yuta Ishino creates paintings where tiny figures interact with animals among the natural world. What remains is a beautiful world in which we all share, bringing our own personal stories to the collective experience. [Read more…]
Paul Kant
Born in Lithuania, Paul Kant experienced the war and refugee camps first hand. He attended school in Germany as a refugee until 1953, when he immigrated to the United States. Paul attended high school in Albany, and graduated from Niskayuna High School in 1959. His teaching degree was earned at SUNY Buffalo. [Read more…]
Closing Reception for “Matter of Form” Exhibition
The Laffer Gallery Announces Date of Closing Reception for the “Matter of Form” Exhibition
Timothy Kadish, David Miller & Gary Zack
February 21 – March 29, 2015
The Laffer Gallery today announced it will hold a closing reception for the “Matter of Form” exhibition on Friday, March 27, at The Laffer Gallery on 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, N.Y.
“Due to inclement weather throughout the exhibition, as well as a snow storm during the opening exhibition, I wanted to give our patrons a final opportunity to view this great collection of artwork,” said Erik Laffer, owner, The Laffer Gallery.
The exhibit features artists Timothy Kadish, David Miller & Gary Zack.
Hours for the reception are 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Tracy Silva Barbosa
Tracy Silva Barbosa’s paintings create delicate narratives that address issues of age, sensuality and transcendence. Whether it a spare flight of birds or twisted stalks of flora, there is a lyrical motion that reflects the passage of time. Often sequential moments of time are animated with asymmetrical compositions, creating rich psychic realms full of color, balance and harmony. [Read more…]
David Seiler
I operate in the space between painting and photograph — object and print. These works of horses represent a new starting point in the continuum of my process. In each work, collage functions both to break the image down into component parts and to create a cohesive whole. At the heart of my process is the desire to see things differently; to build an image literally in order to come to an understanding of the visceral nature of form. [Read more…]
Tom Schottman
For me, the “creation of unknown beings” requires the collaboration of my companion, CLAY. I do not approach CLAY with a preconceived notion of what will result from our encounter. The process of handling the clay stimulates and informs my creative process. Much depends on the plasticity of the clay, which can vary considerably. Much also depends on the tools which I use to shape the clay and create textures. [Read more…]
Donald Saaf
For the past 20 years I have been exploring the place where fine art and folk art intersect. My subject matter draws from the local experience of community, family and immediate surroundings as well as an internal dream place. Although some of the imagery is very personal, I am always striving for the universal. The figures in the pictures are simultaneously ‘me’ and a sort of ‘Everyman’. [Read more…]
Julia Zanes
Julia Zanes mixed media paintings read like fairy tales unfolding in intricate visual patterns. Rich interiors and lush, fertile landscapes are populated by ethereal figures, birds, and houses. [Read more…]
Timothy Kadish
My work is an ongoing account, a product of negotiating stimuli from “everyday” happenings I refer to as “visual education.” I respond to the varied visual phenomena with forms and ways of marking. To be clear, it is the organization of the elements that I am interested in. To arrange and record is to acknowledge and to reconcile. [Read more…]
David Gordon
“The creative process for me is varied and yet finite. I have my boards, my paint and my solitude, which stimulates me. Painting is a private, intimate and passionate obsession. I feel blessed to have this time to create a piece of art that someone else can enjoy.” [Read more…]
Elizabeth Coyne
Elizabeth Coyne was born in Minnesota, raised in California, Canada and Indiana, before moving to New York in the early 1980’s. Ms. Coyne had numerous exhibitions in New York during the 80’s and 90’s. She has been a working artist for more than 30 years. She has Masters of Fine Arts in painting from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, a B.A. in fine arts from Purdue University and has studied and lectured at the Art Institute of Chicago. [Read more…]
Robert Cartmell
Painter Robert Cartmell, who is also a renowned roller coaster enthusiast, works in a tradition that could be loosely connected to Philip Guston and other members of the so-called second generation New York School, who preferred a more lyrical variation on the blood-and-guts formula of abstract expressionism. [Read more…]
Matter of Form
The Laffer Gallery Presents: “Matter of Form”
Timothy Kadish, David Miller & Gary Zack
February 21 – March 29, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21, 5-8pm
The Laffer Gallery is proud to announce its upcoming exhibition Matter of Form, with artists Timothy Kadish, David Miller & Gary Zack. This exhibition will run February 21- March 29, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 21 from 5-8pm. Join us for a wonderful evening of thought provoking art, hors d’oeuvres and conversation.
Matter of Form showcases three artists who embrace form as a way to unite the visible elements in their works, such as color, light, line, shape and dimension.
Timothy Kadish’s paintings embody a space of becoming: a diagram and structure for the gathering of matter, represented as signs and symbols. Painting from the premise of research, exploration and communication, Kadish is inspired by atomic structures, graphic image, diagram, mathematics, biochemical formulae or written languages, and is driven by the eagerness to clarify his relationship with the creative condition.
David Miller’s whimsical and dreamlike paintings investigate the phenomenon of time and memory, and its relation to gravity. Gestural layers interact to suggest fragments of reality, while curious shapes and marks express visual, emotional, sociological or text-based events significant to the artist’s narrative. The resulting chaos becomes a visual fantasy much like a puzzle waiting to be solved.
Gary Zack’s impressive glass pieces encompass rich colors and luxurious forms. His love of hot glass is founded on the immediacy and spontaneous nature of the material, as well as the interplay of color and light. Zack makes handblown glass vessels, vases and sculptural installations in his Saratoga Springs, NY glassblowing studio.
Artist Biographies
Timothy Kadish received his MFA from Boston University and is a graduate of the Diploma and 5th Year Certificate programs at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He has exhibited nationally and has been published in numerous arts related sources. Kadish’s most recent selected exhibitions are New Paintings at The Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA and at Alphonse Berber Gallery in Berkeley, CA.
David Miller, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College, received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MS in painting from the University of Wisconsin. Miller, one of the most well-known and respected artists in upstate New York is included in a wide range of both public and private collections, including Carnegie Museum of Art, School of The Art Institute, Key Bank Headquarters, Pepsico Corporation, Siena College, among many others. His work had been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Tang Teaching Museum, exhibits at The James Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA and The Stephen Haller Gallery in New York, NY. Recently, Miller has exhibited his works at The Arts Center Gallery in Saratoga Springs, NY and at The Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, NY. His works are represented by Sorelle Gallery and The Laffer Gallery.
Gary Zack has been involved with glass since 1978, as a successful commission stained-glass artist and, more recently, as a blown glass artist, in Upstate New York. Zack has been involved with blown glass since 1990, and is mostly self-taught.
Gallery closed Jan 21 through Feb 20 | Available by appointment
Upstate Artists: 3rd Annual Juried Show
Featuring Best in Show Honorees: Chad Smith, Mary Ellen Riell and JoAnn Axford
December 6, 2014 – January 11, 2015
The Laffer Gallery Presents “Upstate Artists” | 3rd Annual Juried Group Show
The Laffer Gallery will be holding an opening reception for our 3rd Annual Juried Group Show, “Upstate Artists,” from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 6, at 96 Broad Street in Schuylerville, N.Y. This exhibition for the 2014 Winter Holiday Season will feature artwork by over 20 local artists from the Upstate New York area.
The Laffer Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery and custom frame shop owned and operated by artist Erik Laffer, showcasing nationally established and emerging contemporary artists working across a variety of mediums.
We invite you to join us for a night of fine art, hors d’oeuvres and to meet the artists at The Laffer Gallery, located just minutes from downtown Saratoga Springs.
The Laffer Gallery fall/winter hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12pm to 5pm, and by appointment. The gallery is closed for business on Mondays and Tuesdays.
2014 Upstate Invitational
Featuring Artists Robert Augstell, Susan Stuart, and Laura Von Rosk
November 1, 2014 – November 30, 2014
Landscapes
Featuring Harry Orlyk
September 20, 2014 – October 26, 2014
Visions
Featuring Artists Victoria Crowell, David Gordon, Donald Saaf, and Julia Zanes
August 9, 2014 – September 14, 2014
Form and Fire
Featuring Artists Erik Laffer and Randi Kish
June 21, 2014 – August 3, 2014
Four Seasons
Featuring Artists Leslie Peck and George Van Hook
May 3, 2014 – June 9, 2014
Second Nature
Featuring Artists Elizabeth Coyne and Noah Savett
March 22, 2014 – April 27, 2014
Once Upon a Time
Featuring Artists Cheryl Horning and Christopher Murray
January 19, 2014 – March 16, 2014
Upstate Artists: 2nd Annual Juried Show
2013 Upstate Artists
November 29, 2013 – January 5, 2014
Tribute To Nature
Featuring Artists Teri Malo, Valerie Craig, Kate Edwards, Clarence King, Robert Moylan, Thomas Schottman, Mark Tougias, George Van Hook, and Laura Von Rosk
September 28, 2013 – November 17, 2013
Equine Concepts
Featuring Artists Robert Cartmell and Paul Kant
August 9, 2013 – September 22, 2013
Interiors
Featuring Artist Nick Patten
June 28 – August 4, 2013
Adventures in Space
Featuring Artist Regis Brodie
May 17, 2013 – June 23, 2013
Plain Air
Featuring Artist Harry Orlyk
April 5, 2013 – May 1, 2013