Glenda Blake: A Legacy

On View July 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, July 5 from 6-9PM

Glenda Marie Blake worked as a graphic designer for many years before realizing her dream of becoming a fine artist. Her work has been displayed at numerous galleries as well as restaurants and libraries. Glenda loved to sing and performed for years with the Downtown Singers and with her a cappella trio. In her younger days, she was an enthusiastic Morris dancer and was proud of having danced in town squares and traffic circles throughout the Northeast. She died of lung cancer on May 12, 2020. This show  is a celebration of her life and the art with which she made the world a better and more beautiful place.

Exhibitor’s Statement: Sometimes it seems that Glenda, now four years gone, was just here yesterday. Other times it feels as though the 15 years we spent together were a mirage. I am fortunate to have around me pieces of her art, most executed during those all-too-few years we shared, to remind me of her. This show has two purposes: to share some of her work with the public and to seek to sell some of them for the benefit of the Glenda Blake and Leo Cotnoir Fund for Arts Empowerment at the Community Foundation of South-Central New York. That fund, established in 2016, will make grants to artists whose work helps attract to Greater Binghamton new people with fresh ideas, a positive outlook, and an appreciation for what the area offers. — Leo Cotnoir

Respiro en Relationship: Developing an Embodied, Somatic Painting Practice and Presencing Through the Visual Arts

Warner Varno

On View February 2 – 24, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, February 2 from 6-9PM

Presencing is a mindfulness and artmaking practice that Warner Varno has developed through the mark-making process, creating a space for quiet contemplation, creative risk-taking, and deep listening. She feels that presencing can be a strategy for: attending to feelings of “overwhelm” (Brene Brown, Atlas of the Heart), addressing change, and challenging our post-pandemic experience, lending itself to improved state of mental, emotional, physical and relational health. It is also a physical and spiritual practice of building compassion and empathy for ourselves and the living world, moving toward progressive change. By combining mindfulness and artmaking, Warner has created a dynamic and responsive art practice with no road map, helping to address the myriad of human emotions in response to this modern life. This practice cultivates in truth-telling as a form of self-expression through the mark-making process and physical-spiritual presencing in connection to the living world.

Respiro en Relationship is Warner Varno’s Graduating MFAIA Portfolio from Goddard College.

Figure Drawing Showcase

On View: December 2023
Opening First Friday, December 1st, from 6-9 PM

Participants in the PURSUIT open figure drawing sessions at BCAC will be exhibiting some of their favorite work from the past year. Join us for a new year of figure drawing starting in January on the first and third Tuesday of each month.

Nostalgia 2
Reda Abdelrahman

On View: 10/06/23 – 10/28/23
Opening First Friday, October 6th, from 6-9 PM

Born in Ismailia, Egypt and having studied at the University of Minya at the College of Fine Arts, being surrounded by outstanding Pharonic monuments and Coptic monasteries left a lasting impression on Reda Abdel Rahman, one of Egypt’s leading contemporary artists. It has resulted in his artistic expression focusing on the relationship between what he regards as his ancient Egyptian heritage and the demands of contemporary life.

View more of Reda’s work here: redaabdelrahman.com.

Reda Abdelrahman will be giving at Artist Talk at the Closing Reception for “Nostalgia 2” on October 26th @ 6PM at Artisan Gallery.

SENTIENT: capable of sensing or feeling : conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling.

By traversing time and space, colors assume various forms to evoke emotional landscapes that awaken our senses, delving into the depths of our being and beckoning us forward. Sentient asks us to embrace our childlike essence and attune ourselves to the symphony of senses. It implores us to embrace wonder, beauty, and awe, while serving as a poignant reminder of our profound interconnectedness with a force that transcends words, yet forever resonates within us.

Learn more about Natalie’s work here: www.nataliedadamio.com

Michael Celbar Retrospective

On View: 06/02/23 – 06/30/23
Opening First Friday, June 2nd, from 6-9 PM

Michael Celbar (1947-2016) was a gifted Binghamton artist of strong vision and originality who worked in a wide variety of mediums — photography, drawings, acrylics, printing techniques, computer art and more. He leaves behind an inspired legacy of hundreds of artworks that often express his deep vision of a dark, strikingly beautiful world. This work continues to sing and dance in his absence.

Artisan Gallery is pleased to present 180 pieces from this collection, created in various mediums including acrylic, oil pastel, silkscreen, posters, computer art, ink, photography, photo collages, mono print, cardboard collage, and large scale cardboard cut-outs.

Michael Celbar is an important and significant Binghamton artist whose artwork needs to be seen and celebrated, bringing the past forward to inspire artists of today.