Elise On Ice: Upstate...At the Esther Massry Gallery, College of Saint Rose--Bi POLAR

BiPOLAR /Journeys to the Ends of the Earth

Today, Sunday January 20, the exhibition BiPOLAR/ Journeys to the Ends of the Earth, opens in Albany. Curated and installed by the amazing Jeanne Flanagan, Saint Rose's long time gallery director, the show includes the work of Itty Neuhaus, Janet Biggs and Elise Engler. All three of us have made work as the result of journeys to the "top and bottom" of the Earth. Biggs has videos based on her time in the Arctic Circle, Neuhaus has a sculpture installation with videos as well as a large drawing/collage in the front window about Newfoundland, and my drawings paintings , books and video refer to time spent in Antarctica.

There will be a gallery reception on February 1 from 5 till 7 PM and then an artist's panel across the street at the Saint Joseph Auditorium, 985 Madison Avenue, at 7PM.

Invite

http://www.strose.edu/about_saint_rose/massry_center_for_the_arts/esther_massry_gallery

The work I have in this show includes the large painted mural installation Unpacking Antarctica with 30 small oil paint panels, the 10 -drawing series Ninety-Degree Draft, and a related text drawing. In addition there are 2 accordion books drawn and painted onsite--one at Lake Hoare field camp in the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the other at research center, McMurdo Station. There are also 2 large gouache landscapes done onsite that have color pencil drawings of significant objects drawn on the surface.
Two color pencil scrolls -one of my suitcase contents going and the other of the return contents (including depictions of all art made while there) are also part of the show as is an 18 minute video edited from hours of footage taken while in Antarctica.

The work is the result of the two months spent in two month trip to Antarctica with the National Science Foundation’s Antarctica Artist’s and Writers Program. I spent time at McMurdo Station, the penguin colonies at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier, at the Dry Valley’s field camp at Lake Hoare and and at the South Pole. Some of the art was made onsite and the rest since returning.

Here are some installation shots ---of the install, creating the giant mural (see--I am not only a miniaturist!) and the show--just before the installation was complete (I left before the extra garbage pails, carts, etc. were removed.

Saint Rose students helped with the install and I thank them--especially Kayley.

Work by Biggs and Neuhaus will be posted later....