• Animalia
    Ann Street Gallery
    November 2, 2019 through January 11, 2020

    The animalia kingdom is defined as a diverse category, which includes over one million species ranging from human beings to giant squid. Through the works of twenty-seven contemporary artists, the ANIMALIA exhibition explores artists’ interpretations and representations of this natural world as expressed in their art.

    Since time immemorial, humans have had a complex relationship and fascination with animals. As early cohabitants, humans have relied on animals for survival; to provide food and clothing; while their beauty has provided endless creative inspiration. Throughout history and across cultures, animal iconography realistic or imaginary in representation, has occupied a central role in mankind’s artistic expression and thought. Today, this affinity to the animal realm has changed but the desire to document it continues to endure.

    The outstanding display of works in the ANAMALIA exhibit confirms this relentless human obsession and pays homage to all forms of the natural world. It also provides an alluring look into each artist’s perspective on the intricate human-animal relationship, through a variety of depictions and motifs: symbolical icons, mythical creatures, sacred supernatural beings, and portraits of favorite household pets. Expressed in a wide-ranging compilation of works, these documentations of encounters and interactions with animality, traverse a variety of dramatically striking styles and media: ceramics, textiles, drawings, sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography, beadwork, video and installations.

    Sadly, for most Western modern societies, the little exposure humans presently have to the animalia kingdom is a sentimental attachment to a domesticated pet. Or perhaps, for those seeking a slightly more authentic encounters, a hike in a national park or a visit to the zoo. ANIMALIA affords visitors an occasion to reflect on these contemporary attitudes towards our entangled human-animal bond. More importantly, it is an opportunity to renew our appreciation for the world of animality, our interconnectedness and shared existence on earth.

    Artists featured: Darcie Abbatiello, Lisa Breznak, Jodi Cachia, Vincent Dion, Rachel Eng,Jonathan Fitz, Evelyn Gardiner, Erin Gardner, Karen Gibbons, Alyssa Grenning, Jenn Houle, Dani Ives, Daniel M Long, Beth Lowell, Ryan Lytle, Michael McConnell, Caitlin McCormack, Sharon Pierce McCullough, Margaret Neher, Guno Park, Masako Roberts, Kathleen Robbins, Scott Schuldt, Joseph Smolinski, Casey Whittier, Gretchen Woodman and Lydia Viscardi.

    For more information regarding, ANIMALIA or the Ann Street Gallery contact Virginia Walsh, Director at (845) 784-1146, vwalsh@annstreetgallery.org, or visit www.annstreetgallery.org.
    Exhibition organized byVirginia Walsh
    Image: Ryan Lytle “Squeeze” Wool Felt

  • Anthropocene
    Ann Street Gallery
    February 24 - April 7, 2018

    Safe Harbors Ann Street Gallery will present a timely exhibition, ANTHROPOCENE with a reception on Saturday, February 24, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

    The human species influence on the planet is presently so profound, scientists have coined our period in the Earth’s timeline the Anthropocene – the age of humans. It is a crisis of unimaginable consequences and the effect on global ecosystems is arguably one of our greatest collective challenges.

    Our newest exhibition ANTHROPOCENE, will explore the impact of the changing climate and its devastating results on our environment, while acknowledging that humans are the dominant force of this global catastrophe and the Earth’s current transformation.

    Inspired by a variety of ecological disasters, the works featured in the exhibition are the creative response of 24 artists working in variety of disciplines. In visually compelling ways, these artists are utilizing their art as a powerful vehicle to impact the viewer and raise awareness of the wide-ranging issues related to anthropogenic climate change: flooding, tropical storms, droughts, desertification, vanishing species and human pollution.

    Climate change is now a global phenomenon that can no longer be ignored. Hopefully, within this gallery setting, visitors will take the opportunity to contemplate some of these urgent issues; humanity’s collective impact on the planet and to think differently about their own behaviors and relationship to the environment.

    Featured artists: Darcie Abbatiello, Michael Asbill, Brigitte Amarger, Caitlin Cass, Reenie Charriere, Mariah Conner, Michael Fishcherkeller, Susan Fishman, Stephanie Garon, Helen Glazer, Eloisa Guanlao, Colleen Keough, Dakotah Konicek, Rena Leinberger, Jonathan Barry Marquis, Gregory Martin, Daniel W. Miller, Sarah Misra, Itty Neuhaus, Maye Osborne, Elaine Quave, Jamie Rodriguez, John Shlichta, Gianna Stewart, and Uros Weinberger.

    The exhibition was curated by Virginia Walsh and will be on view through Saturday, April 7, 2018.

    The gallery is located at 104 Ann Street in Newburgh, and hours are:
    Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and – 1:30 – 4 p.m.
    Friday through Saturday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
    Newburgh Last Saturday until 8 p.m.

  • Masters of War
    Albany Center Gallery
    November 3- December 1, 2017

    Masters of War, curated by Brian Cirmo, features regional artists who explore, comment on, and question a multitude of perspectives on war, human conflict, and our attraction to war as a cultural phenomenon.

    Artists in Masters of War:
    Darcie Abbatiello, Colin C Boyd, Daniel Buckingham, Brian Cirmo, Danny Goodwin, Sean Hovendick, Mike Millspaugh, Michael Oatman, Gina Occhiogrosso, Ryan Parr, Ken Ragsdale, Jamie Rodriguez, Beth Scher, Jill Shoffiett, Jeff Starr, & Jeff Wigman.

    albanycentergallery.org/masters-of-war-?

  • 5th Annual Juried Group Show
    The Laffer Gallery, Schuylerville, NY
    December 3, 2016 – January 8, 2017

    Featuring the artwork of Alex Waters, Andrea Hersh, Annea Francey, Audrie Sturman, Catherine Wagner Minnery, Channing Lefebvre, Cheryl Horning, Chris Duncan, Christopher Murray, Cyndy Barbone, Dan Greenfeld, Darcie Abbatiello, Deborah Bayly, Dolores Thompson, Fern Apfel, Gary Larsen, Gary Maggio, Gretchen Kelley, Ian Creitz, James Coe, Jenny Hutchinson, Kathryn Kost, Kevin Cleplensky, Laura Cannamela, Lori Lawrence, Mary Pat Wager, Matt Chinian, MiChelle Vara, Nicholas Warner, Regis Brodie, Robyn Morgan Giddings, Sonja LaPointe, Susan Hoffer, Susan Williams and Virginia McNeice.

  • 2016 Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region
    October 30, 2016 - December 31, 2016

    In the fall of 2016, The Hyde Collection will present the 80th anniversary of the Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region. The Hyde will mark this special occasion with a campus-wide exhibition juried by Michael Oatman, artist and associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Beyond work for The Hyde’s Wood Gallery, this year, Oatman and the Museum will accept proposals for interventions in Hyde House as well as sculpture on the grounds.

    The Mohawk Hudson Regional provides a leading benchmark for contemporary art in the Upper Hudson Valley, and artists living within a 100-mile radius of Glens Falls and the Capital Region are invited to submit works for the juror’s consideration. Founded in 1936, Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region is the oldest running regional juried show in the country.

    Oatman is known for his large-scale collages and installations integrating found, modified, and handmade components, including artifacts of material culture, painting, drawing, and video. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad.

    The exhibition will take place from October 30 through December 31, 2016. The Hyde Collection is happy to continue its affiliation with the Albany Institute of History and Art and the University Art Museum at the University at Albany as the third collaborative sponsor of this long-standing exhibition, hosted by the three organizations on a rotating basis.
    http://www.hydecollection.org/

  • The Partial Observer
    Collar Works Gallery, Troy, NY
    Drawings and Paintings by Darcie Abbatiello and Richard Moninski
    August 26 through September 18, 2016

    Curator's Statement:
    The works in this exhibition reveal a unique sense of truth in relation to place and time.

    Though seemingly quite different at first pass, both artists overlay a sublime mixture of emotional content and juxtaposed iconography onto layers of discovered information in a way that allows the resulting imagery to be equally and satisfyingly tangential to their inspirational sources.

    Sources that are masquerading as, or asserting to be, or might be, factual.

    There is a finely weighed mixture of historical fiction, documentary, and the front page of yesterday’s newspaper in both Moninski’s and Abbatiello’s work.

    We, and the artists, take a Flaneur-like psycho-geographical walk through these historical environments, finding those spaces and connections of personal interest that reveal everything of momentary importance.

    What they give us so generously and beautifully is the privilege to constantly revisit those places of reflection and poignancy, yet never remember or rediscover them in the same manner or from the same direction.

    “Making art is a way of arriving at knowledge that is not subject to cross-examination.” William Kentridge

    Kenneth Ragsdale, Curator

  • Written Response Requested
    Albany Public Library, Pine Hills Branch
    November 7, 2014-March 21, 2015
    Opening Reception Friday, November 7, 2014 6-8 pm

    “Written Response Requested”: A Collaboration with the Albany Public Library

    Some of the best inspiration for creating art comes from other pieces of art. When an artist creates a work and sends it out into the world, it’s up to the viewer to interpret it, to make meaning out of it. Often that meaning is wildly different than what the artist originally intended. In this sense, viewing art is a collaboration or creative exchange between artist and viewer.

    This exhibition, a collaboration with the Albany Public Library’s Pine Hills Branch, takes that idea one step further, introducing creative writing prompts as a way for viewers to interact with and respond to the art. Each artist was selected because his or her work hints at narratives, but leaves much for the imagination. Writers from around the region provided writing prompts for each piece of art, and four writers were asked to answer their own prompts. Their responses are displayed alongside the artwork and provide a window into the rich, complicated ways in which we both search for and find meaning in art.

  • Body Language
    Albany International Airport Art and Culture Program
    April 5 - September 7, 2014

    Without saying a word, we speak to one another through gesture, gaze and composure. Interpreting the nuances of this language requires intuition and a certain degree of empathy for those around us. Perhaps more than any other subject matter in art, the body invites associations with our own sense of self, as well as our notions of other. In this exhibition, the human form becomes a source of allegory, personal narrative, cultural sensibility and transformation.

    In contrast to the tradition of aiming for a faithful likeness, the artists assembled here present subjects that are not at once who they seem. Features are intentionally distorted or hybridized; environments and events are laced with incongruities and inversions. We are prompted to consider – as these figures do –how our individual story, with its reflections on the past and aspirations for the future, fits within a collective human identity.

    Artists: Darcie Abbatiello, Melanie Baker, Leona Christie, Brian Cirmo, Sean Hovendick, Sergei Isupov, Paul Miyamoto, Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison, Amy Podmore, Lin Price