‘Passages: Creatures & Curiosities’ Exhibit To Open at Art Garage July 20
COOPERSTOWN
Passages: Creatures & Curiosities,” the high summer show of the Art Garage season, will kick off on Thursday, July 20 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. with a reception to celebrate the art of Petey Brown, Ava Fedorov, and Helen Quinn.
All three artists have regional roots: Brown divides her time between studios in Gilbertsville and SoHo; Fedorov grew up in Schenevus and now teaches in Boston; and Quinn divides her life between Jamaica, Queens and, in the summer, Treadwell.
The show celebrates inventive quirky “passages,” whether the visual and cultural wonders Quinn and Brown experience and find inspiration from on their daily New York City subway rides—one of the miracles of modern mass transit—or the mysteries of the animal kingdom witnessed by Fedorov, imagery she further modifies in multiple dreamlike iterative passages. Quinn will also offer a series of “face-pot” ceramics, clay heads as semi-functional vessels—glazed brown pots melding into creature faces and animation.
On Wednesday, July 26 at 6 p.m., Fedorov will discuss her haunting “Strange Creatures” series, the first of three free artist talks offered in conjunction with the exhibition.
Fedorov’s “Strange Creatures” began as an exploration of the strangeness of the natural world.
“The bizarre creatures that actually exist, defying fiction, truly as weird as any human imagination could devise,” she noted.
“As a journey is built of layers—of days, of miles—these images are the result of the layering of many cycles,” Fedorov explained. “They began as very basic pencil drawings of interesting animals, which were then scanned, printed, drawn on again, scanned and printed and drawn on in repetition.
“In the process, as the line of unconscious inspiration is blurred, so is the line of the drawing itself: its origin and its completion. Evolution proves to be a more powerful force than the conscious intention of the artist. As a result, this work has an organic mind of its own,” she added.
The Art Garage will also be open on Saturday, July 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., subsequent Saturdays through September 9, and always daily with a text or call to (315) 941-9607.