Seventy-four New York state-based artists comprise the current MINY art exhibition at Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY, including my middle school art teacher circa the 1970s, Mrs, Joyce Homan!
Her piece, “COVID Bubbles” is a watercolor.
(From the Schweinfurth website)
Jurors
A New Hartford native, Gary Sczerbaniewicz currently lives and works in Buffalo. He earned degrees at Munson-Williams Proctor Institute School of Art, Alfred University, and the University at Buffalo.
“My recent sculptural work investigates the concept of cognitive dissonance as articulated through an architectural lexicon,” he says on his website. “I am drawn to create works in which an unknown, sudden, violent event has rendered a space inert, transforming it from its original intended function into a hybrid and liminal zone. A recovering child of both Catholicism and the Cold War, my works possess an acute fondness for cultural marginalia: the post-apocalyptic, the science-fictional, the Fortean, the weird and the eerie (as articulated by theorist Mark Fisher), the occult, and the many bewildering worlds of alternative history and conspiracy theory.
Sczerbaniewicz has had solo exhibits in Buffalo, Niagara, Philadephia, Connecticut, Delaware, and Florida, and has been included in group exhibitions in Toronto, New York City, Cleveland, Indiana, and Texas. His entry to Made in NY 2020 at the Schweinfurth won Best in Show award.
Theda Sandiford, mixed media artist
Based in Jersey City, NJ, Theda Sandiford creates multi-disciplinary experiences that provide a safe space to explore themes such as equity and inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being.
“Using personal conflict as a starting point, I juxtapose various fibers with a variety of found materials using free form weaving, coiling, knotting, wrapping, and jewelry-making techniques,” Sandiford told Artwork Archive. “Meticulously collected materials, transformed by their collective memory become ‘social fabric’ weaving together contemporary issues and personal narratives.”
Her work has been selected for Excellence in Fibers, curated by Fiber Art Now; displayed publicly in installations in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and more; and displayed in solo exhibits in New Jersey, New York City, Chicago, and more.
Kevin Larmon is a retired professor emeritus and Program Coordinator Art, Design, and Transmedia in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. He received a BFA from Harpur College at SUNY Binghamton, and currently resides in Upstate New York.
For over three decades, Kevin Larmon has received critical acclaim for creating paintings that lyrically explore the divide between abstraction and referential imagery. His work has been associated with the post-conceptualism and neo-conceptual art movements, which were prominent aspects of exhibitions of the early 80s East Village Gallery Nature Morte and with critics/curators Tricia Collins and Richard Milazzo shaping the nature of painting after the rise of conceptual art.
His work is included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, and Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the recipient of an Atlantic-Pacific Fellowship and a Pollack Krasner Foundation grant.
Pattern and texture is at play here. So many paintings, prints and mixed-media pieces are visually embellished with intricate segments of color, while macrame and other crafts, including crochet, embroidery and weaving adds the tactile component, which creates a cohesive bond to the exhibit. After perusing the jurors’ individual dossiers, it all makes sense.
It is a wonderful show. The art is for sale. Made in New York 2023 opened last night and continues through May 28, 2023.
The museum is open Wednesdays-Saturdays 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sundays 1:00 – 5:00 pm. Visit their website for details.
