Rochester, NY

I drove out to Rochester, NY last night to attend the opening reception of the exhibit "Saints Preserve Us" at The Yards Gallery, to support my friend and fellow artist, Tom Nettle, who had two (and a half?) pieces in the show. I hadn't been to Rochester in a number of years. As I drove to the gallery, I was very impressed with the public art (e.g., sculpture, murals) that I saw throughout the city neighborhoods. It was so nice to see. I couldn't help but think "Why can't Utica be more like this, as a city"? I mean, Utica has a very active "arts scene" in a variety of small and larger galleries. But the "vibe" across the city is quite different than what I experienced driving in Rochester. Although the exhibit at The Yards was fairly small, it was interesting and impressive in terms of the quality and thoughtfulness of the works. I was happy to see that the exhibit included a number of collages and assemblages. Here are some photos from the evening...

These are Tom Nettle's works. I said two (and a half?) pieces because of the red bowling pin. If you look carefully, you will find that Tom has included an image of the red bowling pin within the paintings. 

So cool!

"The Lats Judgment" by Nancy Radzik

"No Other Knowledge is Purposeful" by Laurie MacFarlane

"The Universal Salty Taste" by Laurie MacFarlane

"A Reliquary for a Visible Woman" by Jim Herrmann

"Cobbled x200" by Michelle L. Miller

"Night School" by Erica Bryant

This was a cool interactive piece.

I feel badly that I did not get the artist information for this VERY cool piece.

Reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp's Étant donnés, when you looked through the eyepieces, you saw

other images. In this case, images including minataurs. VERY cool; and technically intriguing.