First Friday, Rochester’s gallery night, has become a victim of of its own success. It been a shot in the arm for the local art scene but the overcrowding made it impossible to find the good art. Every night would be gallery night in a perfect world.
Last week we were sitting in our neighbor’s living room listening to Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby on First Friday but we easily got our art fix this weekend. Art dealer, Deborah Ronnen, who threw the wildly successful Culver Road Armory Bash last year has a knockout show of Contemporary African American printmakers at Nazareth College. There are some big names here and for few thousand dollars you could take home a Kara Walker, Alison Saar, Mickalene Thomas, Martin Puryear or the Trenton Doyle Hancock pictured above that reminded me of Anne Havens work. Or how about some beautiful quilt like prints from the sensational Gee’s Bend artists?
Our neighbors let us borrow the Australian movie, “Ten Canoes.” They had recommended it to us and took it out of the library for us so we offered to return it and their short stack of books and movies. We stopped at gallery in the tunnel to the old Central Library building to see Scott McCarney’s prints that were done in response to the 2007 car bombing of Baghdad’s historic book district. Scott’s book art, enlarged and reproduced here as prints are stunning.
Most artists wear multiple hats. Jaffe who plays and tunes pianos also creates portraits of musicians in marquetry. His show at the Genesee Co-Op Federal Credit Union is a delight on multiple levels. Jaffe often sits in with with Margaret Explosion.
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am I wrong or is there a Guston vibe in this painting?