The Department of Art at SUNY New Paltz is pleased to announce “To Ask a Question / To Carry On Without an Answer,” a group exhibition of artwork by Master of Fine Arts alumni and students, paired with works by their mentors.
The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 27, from 5 to 7 p.m., and is hosted by Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, 11-03 45th Ave., Long Island City, New York. It will be on display through Aug. 28.
While art often comes from the dark recesses of the mind, the creation of art is an act of optimism and hope. This exhibition focuses on dialogues formed between artists and mentors exploring positivity through darkness. The continued legacy in mentorship illuminates the power these relationships have to affect the future.
“To Ask a Question” spotlights five SUNY New Paltz MFAs, and five hand-selected mentors who have been influential guides and motivators to each young artist’s studio practices.
A catalog accompanying the exhibition features essays from Francois Deschamps, professor of photography at SUNY New Paltz, and Matthew Friday, graduate coordinator for the Department of Art.
Exhibiting artists:
Emily Brownawell ’19g (Ceramics) is a ceramic artist who examines the relationships between land and water. Working primarily with clay sourced from her local environment, Brownawell highlights the materiality of landscape by utilizing clay as a document of place and time. Brownawell studied with Jason Paradis at Stony Brook University from 2012 to 2015.
Jason Paradis is a Canadian-born artist and educator based in Long Island, New York. In Paradis’ work, there is a sense of reverence for the fundamental mysteries found in the landscape. In Watch Hill (2014-2019), each panel is based on observation of the night sky. Together, they create the expansive view of constellations, satellites and planets seen from the site.
Nick Rouke ’19g (Photography & Related Media) is a photographer from Pelham, New York. He is interested in the technology of photography and how viewers experience and interpret images. His photographs documenting the proposed path of the Pilgrim Pipeline in upstate New York illustrate the simultaneous reverence and mistreatment of the land by humans. Rouke studied at Marlboro College with John Willis from 2008 to 2012.
John Willis is an artist and educator based in Dummerston, Vermont. Included in this exhibition is a selection of photographs inspired by his 25-year commitment to the Lakota people. These photographs demonstrate the value of justice, spiritual uplift and the importance of helping the Earth sustain life.
Li Lin-Liang ’19g (Photography & Related Media) is a photographer, writer and trained filmmaker from the Beijing Film Academy. Her work composites cinematic realities that capture the way we process memories and time. Lin-Liang assembled the piece We Were Here with three years of photographs from the Mid-Hudson Christian Chinese Church. She developed a relationship with her mentor, Lu Yuanmin, following an interview for her book The History of Chinese Photography, which was published in 2009 in China.
Lu Yuanmin is one of the leading photographers in China and has been particularly noted for “street photography” around Shanghai. In 2001, he published a well-regarded book of this work, titled Shanghai Image. In 2007, he was the first recipient of the Shafei Photography Award for the category of Creativity. In 2013, Shanghai Image and Suzhou Creek were translated and published in English.
Bruce Robert Wahl ’19g (Photography & Related Media) is a Boston-based photographer whose work is rooted in the obsessions of the “American Dream.” His photographs depict hope in this bleak landscape as well as the desperate and rough beauty that exists within it. Wahl studied with Betsy Schneider at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2014.
Betsy Schneider is a photographer and filmmaker who documents transformations of individuals and families over time and place. Via Skype, she explores her own relationship with her son who lives abroad through screenshots of their conversations.
Betsy Lewis ’19g (Metal) creates work that narrates truth, memory and permanence. Metal objects and necklaces as long as the torso point to sites on the body to interpret the impossibilities of telling. Like the armor they have become, they at once serve as protection and give testimony to the privacy of night. Lewis studied with Kyle Patnaude at the Maine College of Art from 2013 to 2016.
Kyle Patnaude explores the coding and plurality of objects which rebound hypermasculine queerness and social constructs. Where much of queer work solicits the greater prerogative of the progressive, Patnaude chooses to cultivate from the darker regions of the queer community and alternate inceptions of its history.
Contact Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs (www.dorsky.org, [718] 937-6317) for more information about this exhibition.
If you have accessibility questions or require accommodations to fully participate in this event, please contact Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs as soon as possible.
Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs
11-03 45th Ave., Long Island City, New York, 11101
Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
