Breathe in NY, Exhale ART!
Opening First Friday, November 5th, 6-9 PM
Taste NY Atrium Gallery located at 840 Upper Front St., Binghamton
Breathe in NY, Exhale ART! Annual Member’s Show
On View at the Taste NY Atrium Gallery: November 5th – December 30th
“Blue Moo” by Michael Bolde
“March Green” by Lori Farist
“Otsiningo Pond” by Bernard Morille
“Courtship on the Pond” by Teri Franzen
The Broome County Arts Council and Artisan Gallery are excited to host the 2021 BCAC Members Exhibition at the Taste NY Atrium Gallery, 840 Front Street in Binghamton. The exhibition will open on November 5 and will remain in the gallery through December 30. Our theme honors the beauty and essence of New York State which is so artfully captured by BCAC member artists.
Enjoy works by member artists Joanne Thorne Arnold, Michael Bolde, Doris Cheung, Martha Colgan, Lori Farist, Teri Franzen, Ciara Heatherman, Richard Henry, Merri Markovitch, Joy McMicken, Lynette Menichelli, Jeff Miller, Larry H MIller, Bernard Morille, Gabe Morton-Cook, James Mullen, Misty Paiement, Anne Pellegrino, Nancy Ridenour, Rachael Sebastian, Jim Spano, Jeanne Van Buren, Betsy Jo Williams and Janice L. Wood.
VIBRANCE: Photography by Liam Axton and Merri Markovitch
On View at the Taste NY Atrium Gallery: October 1st – October 30th
Liam Axton was born in Massachusetts in 1995, and spent his early childhood homeschooling and moving around the United States and Australia. Liam was first introduced to photography in high school. He studied for his BFA in photography at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and graduated in December of 2018. Liam currently focuses on portrait photography in New York and the state of Maine, and recently spent time photographing in California. To inquire or view more of his work, visit his website (liamaxton.com) and on social media.
“Finding the extraordinary within the ordinary and capturing beauty in a moment of our everyday life … that’s my inspiration as a photographer! The natural world gives us so many instances of beauty, and I love to share these found moments of joy and serendipity through photos.”
Merri Markovitch has been passionate about photography since high school and through college, and has focused on art photography since the mid-1990s. She loves finding beauty in the ordinary, capturing a found moment of joy with a photograph. What she sees through the lens is what you’re viewing in all of her photographic work (with minimal-to-zero manipulation or editing).
She loves to travel (New Orleans, Italy & Tuscany, Philadelphia, France) which has inspired her photography to also include cityscapes, historical sites, architectural elements & textural nuances. Her other passions include music, theater, dance & animals.
A Pennsylvania native, she grew up in Montrose & moved to the Binghamton area when attending BU. She’s currently residing in Johnson City, and has an A.A. Degree from Keystone College (PA) & B.A. from Binghamton University.
Merri and her husband have a New Orleans Jazz band (Basin Street Jazz), a high energy, interactive ensemble featuring traditional-early Jazz/Roaring 20s/Jump-Swing/NOLA Jazz).
Out of the Holler: Traditional and Modern Appalachian Mountain Dulcimers
Bernd Krause
On View at Roberson Museum: July 2nd – July 31st
Bernd Krause, Luthier, built his first dulcimer in 1978 using the plans he found in a library book! (You’ll be able to see that exact dulcimer in this exhibition.) Inspired by the project, he attended the Guitar Research and Design Center in So. Stratford, VT in 1980.
He received his B.A. in Woodworking and Design from Empire State College.
Through the years he has built guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, banjos and other stringed instruments. He tries to use wood from already felled trees or rejected wood from lumber mills. He uses many native woods and accents many of his pieces with exotic woods.
He conducts demonstrations on dulcimer building at many festivals and at the New York State Fair. And he holds workshops on the history of the dulcimer for schools, historical societies and service organizations. In addition, he has taught high school shop classes on building dulcimers.
His skills have led him in other directions as well. He has built custom furniture for the Namgyal Monastery (The Dalai Lama’s North American Headquarters) in Ithaca, NY and builds custom boxes of many styles including Shaker boxes.
He is a member of the Guild of American Luthiers (GAL) and a member of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA).
In My Neck of the Woods
Opening First Friday, May 7th
6PM – 9PM
In My Neck of the Woods
Stephen Appel
On View: April 2nd – May 1st
I was born and raised in The Bronx, NYC. My work as a photographer began when I covered anti war movement protests in Washington, DC and Albany in the late sixties as a stringer for UPI. My career as a photographer began fifty years ago (September, 1971) when I was hired by a daily newspaper. I worked at the paper for a year and then spent the next two years traveling throughout the US and Europe. When I came back I worked in a custom photo processing lab. Following that I worked as an assistant in the photo studio of a large industrial corporation.
In 1978 I opened my own studio. My emphasis over the years has been industrial, commercial and portraits. I produce images in my studio and on location of products and the people who manufacture them. My images range from technical documentation to abstract conceptual images.
Being a photographer has given me opportunities to meet all kinds of people, from Presidents to superstar athletes to prominent entertainers.
All of the work I have done has been very gratifying, but I still look forward to getting out to see what nature has to offer. And that is what this show is about.
Broome County Artists and Members | 2nd Annual Spring Flower Show
Scott Yurko | The Fierce and Fantastic Flower
On View: April 2nd – May 1st
The Second Annual Spring Flower Show highlights the beginning of the Spring season, gathering floral art from near and far to celebrate new life and renewal. Forty artists have submitted their work into this community show.
Included in the show will be a collection from Scott Yurko, whose mini exhibition is entitled “The Fierce and Fantastic Flower.”
THE FIERCE AND FANTASTIC FLOWER
As artists, we inevitably paint our own lives. Those who live in the city find their subject matter in the high paced action and movement of urban life. They may tend to paint buildings and cabs, people moving about seemingly unaware of one another.
Those who reside in a more rural setting may tend to paint landscapes of country life, chickens and cows, dragonflies and flowers.
Personally, I have always had one foot on the pavement of the big city and one foot in the soil of the country. For me it creates emotional balance not limiting myself or the images I desire to create. Consequently, my subject matter tends to be more open and wide ranging. I find enormous joy in painting all of the above and so much more. As an artist I never know what I’ll be painting next nor, as a viewer, one never knows what to expect. I’m definitely not the guy who just paints portraits or pets, landscapes or shapes but rather anything that may be interesting to me at the moment. I live life and make paintings as if I’m on vacation snapping photos of everything new. Over the years, my collection of paintings has become the “scrapbook” of my life, the people and things I find so important as well as the most trivial images meant to accomplish nothing more than to touch the viewer in some way, to make them think or give them a smile, all equally important in my eyes.
After a year of lockdown and stress due to Covid 19, I and the people of the BCAC Artisan Gallery felt like it was time to give you, the viewer, something simple, delicate and beautiful to look at, breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the fierce and fantastic flower.
I believe that although this collection of flower paintings is calm, pretty and easy to look at, it is not void of content. I, and the gallery, encourage you to take a mental break and enjoy this collection, let your mind wander as you turn the page in this artist’s scrapbook.
Scott Yurko was born in Upstate New York and received a dual A.S. in Commercial Art and Photography in 1986. In 1989, he graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a B.F.A. in Illustration and was later accepted into The United Scenic Artist Local 829, a union of artisans who make and paint scenery for movies, television and theater, in 1992.
Although he has worked in all of these venues, Mr. Yurko spent the vast majority of the past 25 years at The Metropolitan Opera Association in New York City painting the scenery for the Opera, working with many of the top designers, and making their creations come to life, while learning a vast array of products and techniques. He resides on a farm in downstate New York and enjoys traveling, tending his chickens, and painting for “art’s sake” in his spare time.
Broome County High School Students
Regional High School Emerging Artists Competition and Exhibition
March 5th – March 27th
Broome County Arts Council and Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier presents the Emerging Artists Competition and Exhibition. Open to all high school level students, this juried exhibition will be on display at the Artisan Gallery throughout the month of March. Six awards will be granted for Composition, Line & Color, Originality, Use of Medium, Level of Difficulty and Best in Show. Our jurors this year include David Zeggert, Professor of Arts at SUNY Broome, Claire Kovacs, Curator and Director of the Art Museum at Binghamton University, and Janice Wood of Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier.
David Zeggert is a classical painter, illustrator, and Professor of Art at SUNY Broome located in Binghamton New York. David produces oil paintings with natural tendencies as fine art and illustration focusing on portraiture, resulting in various works being part of private and public collections, internationally. Currently, Zeggert received a gold medal from The Philadelphia Sketching Club for his portrait of Lennon as part the Phillustration annual exhibition. Recent exhibitions include Figuratively Speaking, Salmagundi Club, NYC and Cooperstown Art Association 83rd National Exhibition and a yearlong exhibit of portraiture displayed at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany New York.
Claire Kovacs is the Curator of Collections + Exhibitions at the Binghamton University Art Museum. Kovacs obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Case Western Reserve University – all in art history. Before coming to Binghamton, she curated exhibitions at the Figge Art Museum, Coe College, and the Krasl Art Center, and the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art. Her strategies for programming and exhibitions emphasize the ways that academic museums explore contemporary issues, foster interdisciplinary inquiry, create space for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, and function as a site of dynamic community engagement. She emphasizes intersectional equity, diversity, accessibility and inclusion in collections, exhibitions, and programming.
Janice Wood is a native of Broome County and enjoyed drawing from a very early age. She has a Master’s Degree in Health Services Management but never had formal art training. Janice has always had a very creative side all through school, college and as a NYS Healthcare Administrator. Prior to her retirement, she became interested in the art and educational opportunities offered by the Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier (FASST). She became a member and was elected to serve on the Board of Directors where she immediately assumed the role of Board Treasurer and later Board President. Upon retirement, Janice began taking visual art workshops, attending demonstrations and participating in trips to museums in the area and aboard to enhance her art knowledge and technique. Janice prefers oil as her medium, but experiments with pen, pencil and acrylics. She continues to participate in educational programs and explores new venues in the area to display her art.
Melissa Restuccia
Crow Talk and Winged Whispers
February 5th – February 27th
I am fascinated with the similarity of crows to humans- the ability to be playful, their attraction to small “precious” shiny things, their cunning behavior and their need to be the center of attention. The butterflies and moths in my collection on the other hand represent for me a whisper of beauty-just out of our reach, elusive like long ago memories. As a child I would chase butterflies and moths in the yard and dream of having a mini collection in my bedroom. My collection, Crow Talk and Winged Whispers, melds our everyday human constructs with our more elusive dreams and yearnings. The heavily patterned backgrounds are a nod to past events and historical textiles.
Melissa Restuccia is currently a high school Art Educator and K-12 Art Department Chairperson at Vestal Central Schools. Her teaching career has spanned 27 years in five local school districts. Melissa received a Master’s Degree in Social Science from Binghamton University, Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education from Marywood University and an Associate’s in Fine Arts from Keystone College. She also received a full Presidential Scholarship to the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she attended for one year and studied Illustration.
Richard B. Henry
Paintings of the Northeast Region of America
January 8th – January 30th
The landscape has always been the focus of my interest, and the Plein Air movement that has been gaining momentum over the past several years has really been exciting. I feel that I have grown as an artist and my work has benefited as a direct result of working from life. There are challenges when painting in this manner but it’s rewarding to see what you get after a few short hours. Conditions such as the changing light, clouds, rain, wind, bugs, bees and an occasional wild animal are just a few. Painting from life forces you to really look at your subject and it requires you work faster and make decisions in a more spontaneous manner. That result is a fresher painting and although not every piece works out the way I may have envisioned the benefits are a better connection to the work I do. Many of the paintings here are painted in that manner.
Richard Henry began his formal art education at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh under the watchful eye of American Master Harold F. Edmonds and went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (BFA) from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1979. After college, Richard entered the workplace as a commercial artist, building an outstanding career as art director and technical illustrator with technology firms, including IBM and Lockheed Martin. Throughout those years, Mr. Henry also continued his devotion to fine art, mastering many different paint mediums including oil, watercolor and graphite, developing his unique artistic language and continuously exhibiting his paintings at galleries and art shows throughout the Northeast and New England.
