Upstate Art Weekend

Solo Shows Upstate Art Weekend

Matthew Gilbert: Pick-up trucks, no pink carnations

Contributed by Bill Arning / Plunked in the middle of Matthew Gilbert’s solo exhibition “Pretend Till It Hurts” at Jane St. Art is a five-foot-tall steel construction crane buckling under the weight of a rented bouncy castle. Titled Until the Whole City Falls Over, the sculpture turns an ordinary suburban party rental into something strangely unsettling. Inflatable castles felt perfectly natural at children’s birthdays until Gilbert reminded us what castles actually are: military edifices built to withstand siege and slaughter.

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Gallery shows Upstate Art Weekend

Idyll and crisis at The Re Institute

Contributed by Lawre Stone / The Re Institute – a dairy barn built in the 1960s that Henry Klimowicz has repurposed as rustic art gallery – seems to arise sublimely out of nowhere, exuding the freedom and wonder of the open road. Presently installed on the ground floor is “Seven Women Chase Icebergs” – paintings, drawings, and works on paper by seven women convened by Brenda Zlamany for a residency at Pouch Cove in northern Newfoundland in spring 2025 to respond to the remote landscape. The thrill of yielding to an unknown environment permeates the exhibition.

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Solo Shows Upstate Art Weekend

David Fix, Jr.’s existential retrenchment

Contributed by Bill Arning / Comments at openings such as, “I just can’t look at another painting by a hot young artist showing off a dreamy life in Fire Island Pines” are all too familiar – “hot” referring to both the bronzed, gym-sculpted bodies on display and the artists’ meteoric careers. The field has become crowded enough that it now seems nearly impossible for a young gay painter, even one emerging from a prestigious MFA program, to develop a genuinely distinctive visual language. That is why David Fix, Jr.’s first solo exhibition, “The Cusp of Magic” at The Fireplace Project, is such a welcome surprise.

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Solo Shows Upstate Art Weekend

Peter Acheson: The edge of composure

Contributed by David Whelan / Peter Acheson’s paintings and sculptures live on the edge of composure through seemingly dashed-off operations, loose frameworks, and blurred boundaries. By making artwork with such a loose grip on solidity, Acheson invites us to step away from the known towards an enchanting oblivion. The title “Fifty Miles” comes from poet Gary Snyder’s response to the question of how famous he wanted to be: “Fifty miles seems about right”. Fifty miles is a human scale – not the span of global art fairs or finance but that of friendship, shared resources, and habitat. It is also roughly the distance between the gallery and the artist’s studio, which put a smile on my face. The show is curated by Teffia Primary and hosted at Maiden Lane Gallery, an old two-story building full of oddball characteristics. The space is connected to the local YWCA, whose preschool playground can be seen from the second-floor window, reminding us we are in a space of growth and play.

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