November 20 - December 17, 2021

Opening Reception
Saturday November 20, 5-7pm

Free and Open to Public, Masks required indoors

Adam Frelin

Website | CV

Biography

Adam Frelin (b.1973, Grove City, PA) has shown widely at venues such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and College Art Association. Frelin has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MacDowell Colony, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, and Yaddo, among others. He has published two books of photography and has had several public artworks commissioned throughout the world. Most notably, he and his team were award a $1 million Public Art Challenge grant through Bloomberg Philanthropies to be lead artist on Breathing Lights, a multi-city temporary art installation that involves illuminating abandoned buildings with a breathing effect created with light.

Frelin received a BFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA University of California, San Diego. Currently he is an Associate Professor of art at the SUNY University at Albany, and lives in Troy, NY.

Artist Statement

Throughout my career, my focus has been on creating artwork for outdoor locations and public places. My work takes the form of sculptural, performative, and event-based projects. Landscapes and cityscapes are the stage where they are set, often taking place at points where our natural and constructed worlds intersect.

Whether my artwork involves photographic imagery, light, or invented forms, I conceive of each project in relation to the place where it will exist. While the sites I work in vary widely, my aim is to create work that complements a place, while also attempting to expand the meaning of that place. At best, my artwork connects to its site in a logical and aesthetically natural way, while also being understood as a creative addition to that place.

Although I work in a variety of materials and media, it is important to me that a wide audience is able to connect with my artwork. For each piece, clear and intelligible visuals direct an initial reading, followed by more nuanced references pertaining to the site and its history. My choice to make artwork for outdoor locations and public places comes from a belief that art should be a part of our shared world.

Kristian Brevik

Website

Statement

Engaging with the pressing ecological crises we face can feel daunting. With my work I endeavor to draw people in to contemplate these issues, without being overwhelmed by grimness and despair. Through light and sculpture I explore the interactions and relationships between humans and other species. This leads me to focus on our often harmful impacts on many beings, particularly whales and other marine wildlife. Coming to terms with the grief caused by the endangerment and extinctions of plants and animals which we humans are responsible for is a monumental challenge. I work to find ways that art can help to foster a sense of deep connectedness with the nonhuman kin with whom we share the world.

I create illuminated sculptural lanterns representing the breadth of biodiversity in the living world. When lit, these lanterns reveal skeletons, colors, and patterns of the creatures they represent - they cast a warm glow, drawing the viewer in. These works encourage the consideration of these beings, their role in ecosystems, and their wellbeing in the world. Inspired by open, public, inviting events, I work to facilitate the co-creation of large, participatory art installations, rooted in the places and ecologies they represent. 

Example of works below:

Linda Schmidt

Website | CV

Biography & Artist Statement

Linda Schmidt creates fabric pieces and installations with layers of colorful transparent panels. She considers the ways that fabric is used publicly (celebrations, marches, banners and fairs) and privately (quilts, clothing, home furnishing). In addition to these practical uses, she is interested in how fabric can also function as an incubator for thought and contemplation. While working she remembers the makers and sewing and design skills that have been passed down through generations of women in her family.

Fabrics from thrift stores, remnants in the bargain bin, and expensive high quality silks are intuitively pieced together. Panels are layered and arranged to interact with each other, creating space and capturing ambient light and air. The geometric structures facilitate beautiful color mixtures and lighting transitions. In the larger, unframed work, strips or "tails" on the bottoms and/or sides of the panels move when there is a breeze. Edges that are unfinished and frayed add a gestural and ephemeral quality to the work.

Schmidt is originally from Kansas and received an MA in drawing and an MFA in painting from the University of Iowa. Solo and Group shows have included AIR Gallery (New York, NY) Ann Street Gallery (Newburgh, NY), Art Helix Gallery (Brooklyn, NY)Art Mora (Ridgefield Park, NJ; Seoul, South Korea; New York, NY), Carroll and Sons Gallery (Boston), Chazou Gallery (British Columbia), Cheryl Hazen Gallery (New York, NY), Curious Matter (Jersey City, NJ), Denise Bibro Fine Art (New York, NY), Main Window Dumbo (Brooklyn, NY), NX2 (Berlin)Praxis Gallery (New York, NY), Readywipe Gallery (Holyoke, MA), Saunders's Farm (Garrison, NY), State of the Arts Gallery (Hong Kong), The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (New York, NY)The Port Washington Public Library (Port Washington, NY), and other venues. She is represented in collections around the world.

Megan Mosholder

Website | CV

Biography

Megan an artist who operates in the real-world setting of the social-political landscape through site-responsive, sculptural installations. With the creation of three-dimensional drawings often enhanced by light, she emphasizes obscured elements within recognizable places and correlates the symbolic with lived experience. 

A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MFA in painting, Megan has received numerous awards from institutions such as the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Her diverse exhibition history includes an installation in Sydney, Australia (2017), a body of site-specific work that speaks of the lasting impression a fully immersive, multi-sensory artwork can leave on a viewer. Megan currently resides in Atlanta, GA where she is a Professor at Kennesaw State University and has been working as a full-time, professional artist for seven years. 

She is also a burn survivor. In September 2018, Megan flipped her car and the gas tank ruptured and ignited with the artist trapped inside. She was burned over 60 percent of her body. Megan doesn’t feel defined by her accident but cannot deny that it has influenced both herself and her work in several ways, one of which is her mobility. Regardless, she continues to reach for the sky through her large-scale installations.

Statement

I am intrigued by space. Specifically, the way certain landscapes can acquire meaning based on decisive events or how a site-specific installation can transform the white cube of the gallery. Most often, I convey this fascination by creating compositions out of thousands of feet of white twine brushed with an invisible ultraviolet acrylic. As the sun sets or the light dims, the strings are illuminated with black light, mimicking twilight. The completed piece is a multi-sensory experience intended to engulf the visual senses and reawaken the simple intrigue of looking.

Steven Pestana

Website

Biography

Steven Pestana’s multidisciplinary artwork explores the relationship between speculative thought and the visual codes of authority. Using immersive installation, sculpture, mixed media and painting, Pestana draws big-picture connections among unspoken historical, social and cultural tensions at play in everyday life. He was raised in South Florida before obtaining a BA in Art History at NYU and MFA from RISD.