Annual Call For Artists

"The Arts Project operates one of the best art galleries in the area…” - The Chronicle, Glens Falls, NY.

 “So often it’s the smaller galleries tucked in surprising places that offer up the best art exhibitions. The Courthouse Gallery in Lake George is no exception.” - The Saratoga Post, Saratoga Springs, NY.

Lake George Arts Project  2008 Courthouse Gallery Schedule:

Paintings by Robin Arnold, January 19 – February 22.

Robin Arnold’s large scale paintings blur the boundaries between natural and artificial, human and animal, actual and imagined.  In these peculiar narrative scenes animals and toys play out themes of power and vulnerability.  She says: “To my eye, toys vibrate with schizophrenic energy. Their exaggeratedly strong & appealing (thus marketable) character seems at odds with their intended role as carriers of narrative: in play, they are meant to transform into whatever we imagine.  Animals and animal toys are often mute receptors of complex human projections, even in adulthood. Thoughts and emotions we have difficulty showing each other are lavished on pets or animal talismans. Steeped in nostalgia, these objects of our affection also serve corporate capitalistic interests.  As a quirky microcosm of the world, toys perhaps suggest a means to transcend our political quagmires. Toyland narratives evolve freely... All players start as equals on a clean slate, with fresh solutions possible daily. Applying this concept visually gives me great freedom to manipulate the image”.

Robin Arnold received her B.F.A. from the University of Memphis, Memphis TN, and her M.F.A. from Michigan State University, East Lansing MI.  Her recent exhibitions include  Small Works National, Art Dialogue Gallery, Buffalo NY; Long Story Short: New Work by Robin Arnold; HVCC Gallery, Troy NY; Postcards from the Edge, Robert Miller Gallery, New York NY; Artists in the Studio: 30 Years at the Millay Colony, Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, NY; Lost Worlds: Apocalyptic & Utopian Visions, Axel Raben Gallery, New York NY; Six Approaches, Marist College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie NY; and Factory Direct.2, the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy NY.  Last year she received an award for Best of Show at the Small Works National, Art Dialogue Gallery, Buffalo, NY.  Other awards include a Residency Fellowship at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz NY, and a Ford Foundation Grant.  She has been a Professor in the Painting/Drawing Program at SUNY New Paltz since 1985.

Douglas Durning (drawings) and Myung Rye Kim (ceramics), March. 15 – April 18.

Douglas Durning

Myung Rye Kim

Artists Douglas Durning and Myung Rye Kim are inspired by the natural world, natural forces and cycles.  Nature becomes a metaphor for certain experiences or memories.  Durning’s intricate abstract drawings stem from close observations of the cycles of the seasons, particularly the cycles of growth and decay in his garden.  Kim’s ceramic works often resemble exotic flowers, peddles, pods, or underwater sea plants, with clusters of spiky leaves or swirling tendrils.  They are rich in color, delicate and intricate in detail.

Douglas Durning received his BFA from Skidmore college.  His work was recently exhibited at Riverfront Studio in Schuylerville, NY, and The Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY.  His awards include Full Fellowship Residiencies at Vermont Studio Center and Hungarian International Artist Retreat.  He lives and works in Saratoga Springs.

Myung Rye Kim received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and BFA from Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea.  Her work has been widely exhibitited in Korea, and recently she was part of a four person show at The Caelum Gallery in New York.  Her recent awards include a 2007-2008 Baltimore Clayworks Fellowship.  She currently lives and works in Baltimore, MD.

This exhibition is partially underwritten by    

Paintings by Yasemin Kackar Demirel, May 10 – June 13.

Yasemin Kackar Demirel uses paint and various other media such as ink, graphite, watercolor, pastel, threading, knitting, and resin to create large abstract paintings, drawings, and installations. These ephemeral works stem from experiences and memories of particular places.  Yasemin says “Being a Turkish native residing in the United States, I have been influenced by both the architectural, physical and emotional aspects of certain environments, and view them as great potentials to narrate stories through my works. When I am finished with a certain work, I wish my viewers to experience a process similar to the one I experienced in creating it—spontaneous, fluid, buoyant and unconstrained.”

Yasemin received a B.F.A. from Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul, Turkey, and M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University, IL.  Recent exhibitions include a solo show at McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington IL, and a solo show titled “Synthetic Lands” at The Gallery at Mamara, NY, NY. She has been included in group exhibitions at Stamford Art Association, CT; Art Gotham Gallery and Soho 20 in New York City; and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.  Her awards include “1^st Prize, Emerging Illinois Arts Juried Exhibition”; a Jack Eleanor Olson Art Scholarship from Northern Illinois University; a Summer Studio Residency at the School of Visual Arts in NY; and inclusion in the 2005 publication “New American Paintings”.  She currently lives in New York City. More information about the artist and images of work can be found at www.yaseminkackar.com.

This exhibition is underwritten by    

Photography by B.A. Bosaiya, July 15 – August 15.

Charles Steckler is a stage designer, printmaker, painter, collage and assemblage artist whose work is often characterized by intense, densely orchestrated compositions - both highly complex and utterly harmonious.  His assemblages, which he refers to as dioramas, possess a rhythmic layering of objects which fill the space, creating an almost horror-vacuii effect.  The works reveal a meticulous attention to surface detail while at the same time exuding a playful energy and humor, the artist’s sense of joy and pleasure in the materials and in the juxtapositions he creates.  The “dioramas” are inspired by the memory of those shoebox scenes he made in elementary school, scenes like “The Pygmy Rainforest” and “When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth.” It was in making those larger worlds fit into smaller containers that Steckler first learned about condensed space and what he calls “the mystical transubstantiation of common materials.”  His extensive use of found materials, “things too worthless to save”, invests his works with a familiar tang of recognition and the pleasure of subtle and crafty translations. 

Steckler received a B.A. from Queens College, City University, NY, and M.F.A. from Yale University, CT.  He has designed the stage sets for over one hundred plays. In 2006 the Mandeville Gallery at Union College presented a retrospective exhibition of Steckler’s work.  His work has been in numerous exhibitions, most recently at Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY, Emma Willard School, Troy, and Hooker-Dunham Gallery, Brattleboro, VT. He has been a Yaddo Fellow, an Associate at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, a Resident Artist at the Vermont Studio Center, and a Prix de Rome Finalist and Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.  He is presently is Professor of Theater/Designer in Residence in the Department of Theater and Dance at Union College, Schenectady, NY. More information about the artist and images of work can be found at www.charlessteckler.com/main.php

Prints by Kristine Corso Tolmie,  November 15 – December 19.

Kristine Corso Tolmie’s prints are a juxtaposition of traditional etching techniques with contemporary silk screen processes.  She says the images are a reflection of the intangible quality of observations and experiences with natural schemata.  “The information that I garner as a reference for my work comes in the details of my surroundings, rather than the wholes.  Thus, I see the world as a palette full of visual stimuli that is arranged in thickly layered, intricate complexities that compose an interrelated network of ever-changing patterns, textures and colors”.

Kristine Corso Tolmie received a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design, as well as a Master of Science in Art Education from the College of St. Rose, Albany, NY, and a Master of Fine Arts from SUNY New Paltz. Her work was included at recent exhibitions at The College of St. Rose; The National Print Exhibition at Monmouth University, Monmouth, NJ; Samuel F. Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY; The State University Art Gallery, Albany, NY.  She currently teaches in the Art Department at the College of St. Rose, Albany, NY.

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