Dorsky Museum announces special programs for September 22 and 29

NEW PALTZ – The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art announces special public programs that will take place in conjunction with its current exhibitions: Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012, Russel Wright: The Nature of Design and Shinohara Pops! The Avant-Garde Road, Tokyo/New York.

Saturday, September 22

2 pmFree Gallery talk with Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012 curator, Linda Weintraub, and artists Angela Basile, Claudia McNulty, Meadow, Kathleen Anderson, Laura Moriarty, Ilse Schreiber-Noll, and Leslie Pelino.

3 pmDemonstration/workshop: “The Language of Natural Materials”What is the language of sticks, bark, bones, and stones? Hudson Valley artist Daniel Mack will bring materials for people to make their own messages to Mother Nature. All ages welcome.

Saturday, September 29

10:30 am – 12 pmPresentations on Modern Japanese Art by Reiko Tomii and Hiroko Ikegamis, curators of Shinohara Pops! The Avant-Garde Road, Tokyo/New Shinohara Pops! (Student Union Building Conference Room 62/63)

12:15 – 1 pmDemonstration of Boxing Painting and Talk by Ushio Shinohara, artist

2 pmFree Gallery talk with Linda Weintraub, curator of Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012, and artists Raquel Rabinovich and Gina Palmer.

2:30 pm, Poetry Slam: Leila Goldthwaite – “Cheese Torte and Fish Tales: Poetry Theme Slam and Open Mic.” All poets and writers are invited to read and perform original poems, stories, memories about fish as one of Mother Nature’s wondrous creations, and enjoy cheese torte too. All ages welcome.

3:30 pm, Workshop with artist Riva Weinstein – “Lifeline” creates a link between Mother Nature and Humanity. Bring found objects. You will use them to create spontaneous and ephemeral assemblages. All ages welcome.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS

DEAR MOTHER NATURE, HUDSON VALLEY ARTISTS 2012

Exhibition curator Linda Weintraub explains, “Visitors to Dear Mother Nature will encounter many offerings to Mother Nature, a compelling metaphor that visualizes the critical condition of the environment today. This metaphor inspired 42 accomplished Hudson Valley artists to create artworks expressing heartfelt apologies, gratitude, prayers, sympathy, consolation, honor, and assistance to Mother Nature, who even receives a reprimand from one artist for being so willful.

These diverse sentiments are conveyed in the form of paintings, drawings, photographs, performances, videos, installations, and sculptures made of ceramics, paper, wood, stone, fabric, and plastic,” said Weintraub. Hudson Valley Artists 2012 is funded in part by M&T Bank, Friends of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Shinohara Pops! The Avant-Garde Road, Tokyo/New York

Curated by Hiroko Ikegami and Reiko Tomii
Sara Bedrick Gallery

This exhibition examines the 50-year career of Ushio Shinohara, an indispensable player in the field of global contemporary history. Born in Japan in 1932, Shinohara was  an enfant terrible of the Tokyo avant-garde art scene in the late 1950s with his “action art.” During the 1960s, he went on to invent such signature series as Boxing Painting, Imitation Art, and Oiran. After his move to New York in 1969, he continued with his versatile image-making endeavor, with Motorcycle Sculpture and drawings of street scenes, among other series. The exhibition consists of some seventy paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and a video documentary of the artist’s life.

Major funding for this exhibition is provided by the Friends of Shinohara Pops! Additional generous support has been provided by the Japan Foundation.

Russel Wright: The Nature of Design

Curated by Donald Albrecht and Dianne Pierce
Morgan Anderson, Howard Greenberg Family, and Corridor Galleries,
Russel Wright: The Nature of Design explores the work and philosophy of renowned industrial designer Russel Wright, whose former home in the Hudson Valley—Manitoga—is now a national historic landmark. The exhibition focuses on one of Wright’s most pervasive preoccupations, which also has much relevance today: the relationship of humankind with the natural world. While examining Wright’s entire career from the 1920s through the 1970s, this exhibition will focus on his work between 1945 and 1968, when Wright increasingly designed in experimental and innovative ways.

Russel Wright: The Nature of Design is presented by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in partnership with Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center. Funding for the printing of the exhibition catalogue has been provided in part by Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, located at SUNY New Paltz, is fast gaining wide recognition as the premier public showplace for exhibition, education, and cultural scholarship about the Hudson Valley region’s art and artists from yesterday and today. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, the Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums within the SUNY system. Dear Mother Nature highlights The Dorsky’s focus on the art and artists of the Hudson Valley, a unique region that has served as a source of inspiration and nourished artistic creation and innovation since the time of the Hudson River School painters.

For more information about The Dorsky Museum and its programs, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum, or call (845) 257-3844.