On the Water
on view August 27-September 19th
an exhibition of sculpture, installation, photography and painting on the topic of water, presented at Art Buoy's waterfront location (274 East Stand, Kingston, NY)
EXTENDED THROUGH SEPTEMBER 26TH, OPEN SAT. & SUN. 12-5PM
curated by Front Room Gallery, in conjunction with ArtPort Kingston, the exhibition will feature Peggy Cyphers, Beth Dary, Jessica Hargreaves, Sean Hemmerle, Sascha Mallon, Stephen Mallon, Melissa Murray, Stefan Saffer, Kathleen Vance, Grace Villamil, Julia Whitney Barnes and others.
Front Room Gallery is proud to present “On the Water” at Art Buoy (274 East Strand Street in Kingston, NY) organized in conjunction with ArtPort Kingston. The exhibition explores themes of water and the environment and includes site specific installations outdoors, and a well ventilated indoor exhibition of sculpture, painting, installation, photography and sound art. Featuring works by Peggy Cyphers, Beth Dary, Jessica Hargreaves, Sean Hemmerle, Sascha Mallon, Stephen Mallon, Melissa Murray, Stefan Saffer, Kathleen Vance, Grace Villamil, Julia Whitney Barnes and others.
Artists have responded to the site along Kingston’s Rondout Creek and Art Buoy’s water’s edge location, with artist Beth Dary installing hand-sculpted porcelain barnacles along an imagined heightened waterline. Dary’s series, entitled “Emersion” visualizes sea level rise and the effect of climate change. Jessica Hargreaves has created a tableau complete with wallpaper, gilded mirror wall sconces and a central sculpted painting. Hargreaves' narrative has three female protagonists in hallucinatory allegorical scenes that relate to global warming and other man made disasters. Stephen Mallon wraps the exterior of the building in banners depicting his series, “Next Stop Atlantic” in which NYC subway cars are tossed in the ocean to make artificial reefs. Artists included in the exhibition are local to the region and in some cases their work directly relates to sites in the area, such as Sean Hemmerle’s photograph, “Fall Kill at Salt Point Turnpike”, taken in Poughkeepsie, NY. Audio elements of the exhibition are presented with Grace Villamil’s sound piece, “Thoughts on Ujjain” and the gurgling of water from Kathleen Vance’s “Traveling Landscape” sculptures.
“On the Water” exhibition continues through September 19th, and is open for visitors Saturdays and Sundays from 12-5PM and by appointment.
Featured works in “On the Water” Exhibition
In Jessica Hargreaves installation, “Girls at the End of the World (or more precisely, the Holocene period)" the artist presents a tableau complete with wallpaper, gilded mirror wall sconces and a central sculpted painting. Hargreaves' narrative has three female protagonists in hallucinatory allegorical scenes that relate to global warming and other man made disasters including the pandemic, sculpted, painted and designed into all elements of the installation. The wallpaper that accompanies the paintings and mirrors depicts endangered species that the girls are trying to save. The mirrors are hand gilded and sculpted with endangered animal species, and carved with the text “nunc tempus est” (“the time is now”).
Julia Whitney Barnes, “Atlantic Ocean, 8/12/21” detail of large scale cyanotype created from collected materials, bricks, stones, seaweed, and shells
Melissa Murray, “Days Between” 60in x 40in, 2021- Acrylic and gouache on paper, unframed
From the series, We breathe in, We breathe out presents deeply personal, metaphorical environments that represent moments in the artist’s life. Domestic interiors and exteriors create an imagined space that anthropomorphizes its content. In this way, Murray produce narratives that are more self-portrait than still life. Melissa Murray models her work as a literary outline, presenting an overlying theme that gradually dissects into smaller moments creating an environment of emotional effect.
Sean Hemmerle, “Fall Kill at Salt Point Turnpike”, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2018, Dye Sublimation on Vinyl Mesh, Signed on Verso, 2018
Beth Dary, site specific installation, “Emersion” of tea & rust stained porcelain “barnacle” sculptures
Stefan Saffer, “Refugees” colored pencil on archival cardboard (30"x20")
Beth Dary, site specific installation, “Emersion” hand-sculpted porcelain “barnacle” sculptures
Kathleen Vance’s “Traveling Landscape: Precious Cargo” installation incorporates multi-stacked rows of found and reclaimed vintage luggage, replicating the look of passenger cargo on a steam ship. Light emanating from the raised lids of the suitcases, steamer trunks and luggage attract the viewer to discover miniature natural scenes of forests, rolling hills, and grassy knolls; active with sound of trickling streams and running rivers.
We will present a series of large outdoor prints from Stephen Mallon’s series, “Next Stop Atlantic” in which he captures the recycling of New York subway cars being dropped into the Atlantic Ocean. The decommissioned train cars are intended to serve as artificial reef habitats designed to promote life along the eastern sea board. Also presented will be Mallon’s series of photographs, “Volare” which capture the construction of the roller coaster as it was being build in Coney Island, New York.
Sascha Mallon, “Stillness and Bliss” is an installation of numerous individual sculptures composed of ceramics, mirrors, paint, cashmere yarn, and found ceramics. The centerpiece of the work is a large teardrop-shaped ceramic sculpture with images of birds detangling from a net and female swimmers painted on the side. The sculpture rests on a mirror with a crocheted edge that reflects the painted swimmers, other objects in the installation, as well as the viewer, referencing the dreamlike nature of reality in the sense that we experience reality through the lens of our own experience and it is fleeting like a dream. Mirror in this sense reflects all objects impartially, yet is without substance. It is a symbol for the lack of inherent existence. Throughout the installation there are images of fish, a woman falling backwards into a mirror and a woman standing on a little mountain of crystals. The work rests on a wooden base painted in various shades of blue to represent water and ice. The edge of the base contains artificial snow and porcelain bones.
Peggy Cyphers, “Canyon Mist” and Waterfall Cove” (acrylic, sand, leafing on canvas)
Grace Villamil, “Thoughts on Ujjain” mixed media and sound 2021 (20"x25"x10")
Art Buoy • 274 East Stand, Kingston, NY • Open Saturday and Sunday 12-6PM and by appointment • contact for appointment