The Biennial Finger Lakes Exhibition at MAG has been up all summer and we finally got over there to see the show before it closes on October 5th. The Sol Lewitt wall drawing on the way in is a marvel and the newly acquired pieces by Anthony Pearson and John Rhoden (above – an especially inspired pairing by the way!) had me really jacked up for a good show.
Entering the Docent Gallery for the Finger Lakes Show and working clockwise the first piece we saw was an impressive Lee Hoag assemblage. A curator could have built a show around this one piece if there was anything else at all to put in dialog with it. Timothy Peterson, MAG’s Curator of Contemporary Art, served as juror this year. The exhibition is open to artists working in all media in a 27-county area in western and upstate New York. There should have been plenty of material for a cohesive show and yet it felt uncomfortable. It was not fun to look at. And now I have to explain my reaction.
I rule out academic, cute and garish and I am drawn toward either expressive or distilled. Stopping me in my tracks is a good starting point and if I find myself looking at something for long time I call that a winner. I like Joe Ziolkowski’s pinhole photo.
I could live with Pauline Wegman’s painting of Spanish oranges.
Francis Pellegrino’s photo still has me puzzled. The glossy presentation looks like an image on a monitor or a Lightbox. I really couldn’t be sure that it was of a miniature. The sensation is like something a surveillance camera would catch. I’m not done with this one.
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