Past Exhibitions 2020 - 21
These exhibitions were exhibited virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All related public programs were also held virtually. For more information, please click “Learn More” under the section of each exhibition.
The Rising: A Photography Exhibition by Fiona Lee
Fiona Lee (b. 1986), a recent alumna of the Visual Arts Department, SUNY College at Old Westbury, documented Black Lives Matter protests in New York City and Long Island from May to July 2020. Dissatisfied with how BLM has been covered by mass media, Lee took matters into her own hands, deploying her Nikon D750 to seek authenticity amid the unfiltered truth of the protests. Lee ventured into the field every other day during her two-months of reporting, witnessing the protests unfold firsthand while committing herself to unbiased coverage.
MOBE: Music of the Black Experience
.Music of the Black Experience is a virtual exhibition devoted to highlighting the cultural contributions of Black people of the United States of America through their music. Fifty songs, dating from the early 1900s through the present day, are offered, accompanied by notes describing the history related to each song. Some selections convey the horrors of marginalization and oppression, while others express pride of identity and a desire for racial equality. Several songs were chosen to expose the corruption of white-owned record labels that exploited Black artists. The list is compiled by Jonathan Gusman, a Visual Arts student and intern, appointed by Professors Ronnie Burrage and Hyewon Yi. MoBE: Music of The Black Experience was coined by Ronnie Burrage, whose companies, World Rhythm Academy and RoBurrage Productions, have used the title for educational purposes.
Another World: The Textile Art of David B. Smith
Another World is an invitation to explore kaleidoscopic worlds crafted from image and fabric, a space for you to envision ways of being and relating. There are many ways to experience the exhibit - viewing and questioning individual works, relating them to one another, and listening to your own impulses as you navigate. Online you will find that each piece has its own page, where you will find audio guides, texts, writing prompts, and activities meant to spark your own world building process. Feel free to reach out with questions or to share your experiences or work through Instagram at @davidbsmith_
Confronting Wilderness: The Art of John Day
John Day's work has been involved with nature and the environment since 1980. His art practice includes installation, assemblage and drawing, focusing on wilderness experience, a concern for our relationship with nature, and the changes that we have wrought upon the natural world. In numerous journeys through forests and nature preserves in the northeast US, his encounters with natural phenomena are the source for his work, and comment on humanity's fragile, conflicted relationship with nature, with works that refer to journeying within, experiencing and confronting wilderness, revealing its mystery, power and unknowability.
Laurie Riccadonna: Eternal Bloom
The exhibition consists of paintings and works on paper selected from several of Riccadonna’s series: Garden series, Hanging Garden series, Puzzle series, Tile series, and Plastic Pollution series. An observer and admirer of nature since childhood, as well as a critic of environmental pollution, Riccadonna composes images filled with patterns and decorations inspired by motifs she finds in nature and cities. A striking quality of Riccadonna’s work lies in her tendency to frame “close-up” views rather than wide vistas, thus creating a sense of depth with in a very shallow space. Riccadonna is significantly influenced by the P&D (Pattern and Decoration) Movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, pioneered by Miriam Schapiro, Robert Zakanitch, and Joyce Kozloff, who reacted against Modernist constraints. Petah Coyne, Beatriz Milhazes, and Ebony Patterson have also fascinated her. Floral motifs, insects, seasonal changes, and the cycle of growth and decay are frequent subjects expressed in sumptuous color.
Imagined Futures
The artists included in Imagined Futures offer individual expressions that allow for a fork in the road of the expected tendencies that shape ways of viewing and analyzing the future. It is through their creative vision that dominant paradigms can be subverted, even shattered. It is through the artist’s imagination that we can move beyond notions of a binary worldview, beyond the cultural status quo. We can imagine, through their actions and expressions, the many ways we can view the world and its inhabitants as time continually moves us into the future.
FF, 2021
“Pandemic Diaries” presents works by four women artists who respond to the Covid-19 global pandemic from the perspective of their personal experiences. Largely isolated in their homes during the first several months of the pandemic, they produced works out of fear, boredom, self-care, a desire for social connection, and an intense drive for survival. The pandemic instilled a sense of urgency in these artists to express their personal struggles by making a record of the time as they confronted their own mortality with spurts of creativity, turning to their art to cope with an uncertain future and a longing for reconnection with loved ones. Their experiences are strikingly similar to many of our own feelings of isolation and horrific memories. The results are intimately scaled, diaristic expressions of deeply personal concerns that are nonetheless universal. Spanning drawings in immersive installation to collage, the exhibition is filled with strong figuration and abstraction, each artist attempting to restore humanity under the attack of the invisible virus. Their work is a reflection of our time that invites us to consider the common experience of the global pandemic and what may lie ahead.