4 Syracuse art exhibits that highlight current political, cultural issues
Courtesy of Bill Pfohl
The Everson Museum of Art’s new exhibit, UNIQUE, was a collaboration with local nonprofit ARISE to highlight works of art by artists with disabilities.
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For new and returning students looking for a weekend activity, the museums and galleries on and near campus are a great way to become familiar with the Syracuse art community. Whether at the I.M. Pei-designed Everson Museum of Art or the Syracuse University Art Museum by the College Place bus stop, these museums are all exhibiting work by artists aiming to confront the cultural and political issues of our time.
Syracuse University Art Museum: “Each One, Inspired” — Aug. 19 to Nov. 19
“Each One, Inspired” is located in Shaffer Hall on Main Campus. The exhibit boasts 52 works of contemporary art, all on loan from the New York State Art Museum. These include works from artists of all six Haudenosaunee nations — an indigenous confederacy that stretches across most of New York state, including Onondaga County.
Vanja Malloy, director and chief curator at the Syracuse University Art Museum, has been compiling this exhibit since August 2019 but wanted to wait to display it until after the pandemic ended so people could experience the work to its fullest extent.
“So many of these objects aren’t two-dimensional. They’re three-dimensional, and they have so much intricacy,” Malloy said. “There’s beadwork that’s reflective. They have different textures. And when you see it in person, you notice so much more about it. So I do think about this as an example of where Zoom will fail you.”
“Each One, Inspired” celebrates the history of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy with art that reflects Indigenous communities, families, ancestors, treaties and connections to land.
Malloy said it was important to show these works on SU’s campus as a step toward making the museum more inclusive and reflective of the student body.
“We are very connected to many of these artists geographically and culturally, and it’s an opportunity for visitors to learn about Haudenosaunee art,” Malloy said. “It’s really fantastic art, and I feel like it hasn’t always been given the platform in art museums.”
This exhibit is in the main gallery of the museum, where community members can visit Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on the weekend by appointment. On Aug. 26, Malloy will hold an in-person introduction and tour to the museum for students new to campus.
Everson Museum of Art: ‘UNIQUE’ — Aug. 19 to Sept. 26
ARISE, a nonprofit based in Syracuse, collaborated with the Everson Museum to exhibit “UNIQUE,” a show composed of works from almost 60 artists with disabilities. The organization expands rights and inclusivity for disabled people, and CEO Tania S. Anderson said the art created for “UNIQUE” is an essential part of that process.
“It’s particularly important for artists who happen to have disabilities to have their work on display because it’s just one more avenue in which we are making sure that people with disabilities are valued for the whole person that they are,” Anderson said.
The exhibit displays works by artists of all ages, from high schoolers to adults. Many mediums are represented, including sculpture, photography and literary work. Some pieces are on sale at the discretion of the artist, Anderson said, and 100% of those profits will go directly to the artist.
The museum is located at 401 Harrison street, and it is open from noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Sunday as well as from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Everson has presented “UNIQUE” since 2011, and new works of art are displayed with each iteration of the exhibit. Each year’s exhibited works are also compiled into an annual magazine.
Anderson said the works in last year’s exhibit were distinctly “darker,” as they addressed the fears and anxiety people had in the midst of the pandemic. This year, though, the art reflects a different attitude.
“This year, the pieces seem to be more expressing the feeling of ‘we’ve made it, we’re coming out,’” Anderson said.
Everson Museum of Art: ‘AbStranded’ — Sept. 18, 2021 to Jan. 2, 2022
“AbStranded” focuses on abstract art using textile to communicate larger themes of craft, race and gender. The exhibit includes a collection of fiber-based art by 10 contemporary American artists, and it will be on display starting Sept. 18.
The pieces in this exhibit address how textile creation, one of the oldest forms of art with a deep historic significance, has been adopted by contemporary artists and combined with abstract principles to create original textiles that confront this convergence head on.
Julia Bland has seven of her large-scale, intricately knotted textiles in the show. The pieces in this show address themes of feminine spirituality through a mix of fabrics —including wool, linen, canvas, string and more — which she hand-dyed and tied in different geometric formations. The Brooklyn-based artist said she doesn’t shun imagery, but she has found that abstraction lets her explore her love of the textiles themselves to its full extent.
“I wanted to have a more physical relationship with image-making so that the imagery comes from the different tools and the different materials, how I manipulate different materials, and different processes that are combined,” Bland said.
Artist Bill McLaughlin took this portrait of a woman named Ruth as part of his “Retratos con Dignidad” project. The photo will be displayed with others by McLaughlin in ArtRage Gallery’s ‘Living in Limbo’ exhibit.
Courtesy of Bill McLaughlin
ArtRage Gallery: ‘Living in Limbo’ — Sept. 11 to Oct. 30
Bill McLaughlin put down his oil pastels and temporarily abandoned painting hazy landscapes of his upstate New York homestead in December 2019. He switched mediums and started taking crisp, black-and-white digital portrait photographs of immigrants detained in shelters at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
For three weeks, McLaughlin stayed in Tijuana, creating what he calls “Retratos con Dignidad” (“Portraits with Dignity”). He embarked on the project to bring the photos back home to New York so that people geographically far-removed from the border would have to come face-to-face with the complex issue of immigration.
His photos will be on display in the “Living in Limbo” exhibit at the ArtRage Gallery, which specializes in art that challenges existing societal structures and incites “cultural and social change.” The gallery — located on 505 Hawley Ave. — is open Thursday and Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
“Indifference is the big enemy — getting people out to see things, to care about things that are far away,” McLaughlin said. “This is a good way to maybe cut through that indifference by bringing those images here.”
McLaughlin focused on using photography to tell the stories of immigrants detained in shelters at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, like this one in Tijuana.
Courtesy of Bill McLaughlin
In the months leading up to his trip, U.S. immigration established the “Remain in Mexico” policy that returned many asylum seekers to Mexican shelters around the border. Instead of the photos that show faces of pain, hurt and fear that McLaughlin said were plaguing the media during that period, many of his portraits instead show smiles, hope and determination.
Because stories and video clips about immigration are in the daily news, on our phones and on social media, McLaughlin said the gallery printed his photos large — two feet by three feet — to encourage viewers to look closer and longer.
“I don’t want to say they can meet them, but they could at least confront their images and hopefully they would see in them themselves, the humanity in them, the commonality between us and them,” McLaughlin said.
Published on August 23, 2021 at 12:50 am
Contact Sydney: sypollac@syr.edu
