Saltonstall Alumni Exhibition

Saltonstall presents Intricate Universe, a group exhibition of Saltonstall alumni featuring the work of Thea Gregorius (’18), Paula Overbay (’15), and Jayoung Yoon (’17) at the Corners Gallery in Ithaca, NY. The show is open October 8 – November 23 with a reception for the artists’ on Friday, October 18, 2019.

Thea Gregorius (’18)

My work is instinctual in its origins and process oriented; a build up and disintegration of thought rendered through mark making. I reference abstract worlds comprised of units functioning on both a micro and macro level simultaneously, reducing form down to the most simplistic unit and then reconstructing form through multiplicity. These worlds within worlds generate a condensed energy, the eye shifting between individual units and a field of tone.

Utilizing the grid as a tool to map out the infinite, my work exists as a series of systems that function as abstract maps or visual networks. My practice is heavily inspired by celestial and natural phenomena, the circle making reference to cosmic unity and transcendentalism within nature. The obsessive mark making technique becomes meditative in its practice, allowing for transcendence in both time and space. I am interested in developing a visual reproduction of thought as a way to gauge and constitute spatial awareness and clarity.  I emphasize a level of fluctuating consciousness and experiment with a shifting level of control within my process. A balance of order and chaos is maintained within both the process and formal constitution of the work.

Paula Overbay (’15)

I imagine nature at a cellular level: molecules as metaphor. The power that runs through our cosmos interests me: the charged particles in storms, the movement of constellations, cells jostling under microscopes and the nerve impulses in our complex brains.  I can imagine how these forces may cause molecules to change at a micro level and I can imagine the movement of constellations at a macro level. They are compelled by the natural cycles that transfer energy and create growth.  Everything pulsates with life.

The dots represent this world of throbbing particles as mass, line and pattern. Moving dots smoothly from one element to another represents the transference of energy and remain one of the most important criteria in considering a piece to be done.  The journey starts from a single point and continues into color masses that coalesce and disintegrate like the murmurations of birds or run in long strings like beads and curl into snails. Thousands of dots turn into form and the edges float into atmosphere and fade away like stars or fireflies in the morning. Sometimes a single dot flies solo.

Jayoung Yoon (’17)

My art draws upon diverse spiritual practices that emphasize clearing the mind and directing attention into a heightened awareness of the present, and often the body. To convey those concepts, the artworks are a synthesis of hair sculpture, video, performance, and painting.

Human hair, at once tactile and ephemeral, has become my visual nexus for the intersection between the physical and spiritual realms. As a material, hair is intimately corporeal and focuses the viewer’s attention on the body. As it grows, hair represents the accumulation of time. Since its physical properties make it last long after death, it is an especially appropriate symbol of remembrance.

I use the hair sheared from my head, then transform the hair into wearable sculptures. It comes back to my body with new symbolism, which represents invisible thoughts. In the videos, I connect the ‘invisible thoughts’ to my head, often lifting slowly into the air and disappearing, as a cleansing gesture. The videos become ritualistic meditation ceremonies. My head is shaved –as monks do–representing a detachment from materialist identity. I meditate with my back to the camera, embodying a detachment from gender, culture, and thought. The immersive quality of videos in conjunction with my androgynous appearance invites viewers to inhabit my body, and experience the process of clearing the mind.

Also I make stand-alone (non-wearable) sculptures, which I sometimes use in video and performance, or collectively they become an immersive installation. I tie hair lengths together piece by piece. Weaving and knotting the hair by hand instead of using machinery creates unique, organic shapes both in the details and in the larger form. The weightless hair sculptures move from the airflow created by a viewer’s movements and from the environment. Those small movements in space, on an intricate scale, shift the awareness toward subtle perceptions that are often taken for granted.

We were thrilled to host an alumni exhibition at eye Gallery on the Ithaca Commons in October,  2017.  Thank you to all who came out for this special two part exhibition!  And a special thank you to Petrune Vintage Clothing and the eye Gallery for the use of your lovely space. 

Urbia

Gary Sczerbaniewicz ’16 & Elena Soterakis ’12
October 6 – November 19
Opening reception: Friday, October 6, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Urbia 2

Lisbeth Firmin ’04
November 3 – 19
Reception: Friday, November 3, 5:30 – 7:30pm
From curator Julie Simmons-Lynch: “Elena Soterakis and Gary Sczerbaniewicz’s work of boarded-up buildings and children playing knee-deep in rubbish exposes the over-gentrification and displacement of our communities and is a stark proclamation of a world gone mad.

Lisbeth Firmin’s thought-provoking paintings of the people living in these communities is a perfect complement to that message.”

During the months of June and July in 2014, we organized a group show in Ithaca at the ArtSpace gallery of the Community Arts Partnership.

Made at Saltonstall: Art from the Residency

Since 1996, the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts has supported New York State visual artists, photographers, and writers with summer residencies at the Saltonstall Arts Colony. Juried and competitive, our residencies attract talented and dedicated artists in all stages of their career.

Saltonstall provides valuable time and space to develop new work. Visual and literary works that begin during a Saltonstall residency often grow into complete and complex forms: a new poetry manuscript, the outline for an essay, the backbone of an exhibition.

“Made at Saltonstall: Art from the Residency” featured twelve visual artists and photographers from the 2014 season and ten past Fellows from 1998 – 2013. Many pieces submitted by alums were, in fact, “made at Saltonstall” during the artist’s residency.