An Unfortunate Show with Great Artworks in York College

What Are They Up to? The York College Faculty Biennial Art Exhibition

The York College Faculty Biennial opened in the York College Galleries on November 4th with an evening of pleasant music and light refreshments. Despite the rain, the exhibition enticed a lot of curious visitors.  The show is a great opportunity to further strengthen the bridge between students and faculty and shed light from a different angle on the individuals exhibiting here. Visitors of the exhibition met the diverse face of visual art represented in the multiple media of the works. Installation, painting, sculpture, jewelry, drawing, illustration, photography, and printmaking are all part of the show, so there is a good chance that everyone will find something close to their interest, like or dislike.

 The Brossman Gallery showcases seven artists works neatly arranged on the octagonal walls. As we step in on the right we see three oil paintings by Ophelia Chambliss. She uses the powerful juxtaposition of light and dark. Her limited color palette of black and white shades and earth colors give a lively presence to her work. Crescendo (2010) very well conveys the dynamic movement of dancers to a gradually increasing volume of music.

A political tone is evident in the three woodcut prints of Matthew Clay-Robison. The beautiful colors and interesting abstract forms of Drill, Baby, Spill (2010) and Slick Contaminant (2010) woodcut prints’ subject matter is the ugly scene of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The prints wavy lines also recall the material, wood, used in the process of making these pieces. These works evolved from Clay Robison’s three-year series of abstract work dealing with the structure of disease processes.

The dominant wall of the gallery is occupied by the projection of colored zigzagging lines of the installation and performance work of Laure Drogoul. Apparatus for Orchestral Knitting invites the visitor to participate in the work. By knitting, the participants compose the sounds that change with different speed of the needle work.

Pinki’s Tussle (2010) is the last of several black and white drawings with ink exhibited by Ry Fryar. Gentle black lines form the sinewy slim body of four whippets. In this piece Fryar introduces pink and brown colors to the dominant black and white hues of the other illustrations. The placement of this colored work brings alive all of his black and white pieces on the wall. The interaction between the dogs and the seven works create a dynamic circle of play and tension of flee or stay.

 The Cora Miller Gallery received the difficult task of showcasing the sundry works of 16 faculty members, and despite its efforts the limitation of space resulted in an unsuccessfully crowded arrangement of unrelated works.  The close juxtaposition of several media and styles suffocate the individual works and instead of complementing one another they disturb each other’s entity.

 Entering the Gallery Rebecca Quattrone’s sculptures of defenseless female torsos greet us.  Proibito Cinque (2010) is a clay sculpture of a lightly curved beautiful female body bathed in golden bronze and fastened to weather and termite damaged wood planks. The shoulders of the statue are slightly pulled upfront like a body crunching from pain, not necessarily physical but emotional pain. The cracked opening under the right breast and the fracture following the left breast’s line further conveys the vulnerability of the female body.   Two other sculptures by Quattrone are placed close to Proibito. They both reflect the same theme and forms but use different materials to communicate the vulnerability of female soul.

The installation Water Doilies (2009- ongoing), on the back wall of the gallery, takes the visitors to the launching of embroidered plastic shopping bags on a body of water. JoAnne Schiavone used found materials: plastic bags, plastic bottle caps, artificial sponges and created her ornamental pieces that she then laid on water as a protective shelter. But, is it protection or abuse of the natural waters? By using plastic bags Schiavone poses several questions about human impact on nature, in this case the ecosystem of oceans, rivers and lakes.  Several of the crocheted colorful flower-like forms are “floating” in the gallery on transparent plastic bases, while a projection on the wall carries these three-dimensional pieces further into the floating images of embroidery.   

Two similar works CGXXXII (2010) and CGI (2010) are Joseph P. Cassar’s contribution to the show. The abstract forms of these collages play with color and imagination. The artist applied thin layer of gouache to parts of the works to bring together, contrast, emphasize or deemphasize the forms and colors, creating a harmonious whole of very different hues.

On the most hidden wall of the Gallery neatly arranged into a rectangular form are 12 drawings by Kristin Kest, titled Fables (2010). The surprisingly risqué illustrations are Kest’s interpretation of well-known fairy tale and folklore characters like Little Red Riding Hood.  Her skillful drawing of slightly repulsive figures kindles one’s interest in the stories behind Kest’s work. Her drawings place these characters into modern life and rebel against the history of teaching young women of moral life through these familiar faces and fables.

The show, by providing only the titles of the works, gives the viewers the freedom to interpret the art works and stimulates conversations of subjective understanding. This exhibition is a great way to show the students and the general public what our professors are up to outside the curriculum. The show will be on view until December 1, 2010, and hopes to see you in the Galleries.