“Alchemy,” the three-person show now at the Arts Building Atrium Galley, is a stunning exploration of form in all its natural shapes and guises by a trio of accomplished area artists.
The show, which runs through Sunday, Aug. 27 – with a reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24 – features painting, sculpture and photography by Laura Von Rosk, Luis Castro and Melinda McDaniel.
“It's called ‘Alchemy' because these artists are performing artistic magic, taking the natural world and making something new and unique,” said Rachel Seligman, the show's curator. “It began with Laura's work, which I've admired for many years, and grew from there.”
Von Rosk, of Paradox, N.Y., depicts “an experience of a landscape,” with impressions of everything from gravel pits to fields to a peculiar bend in the road.
Her oil paintings have been exhibited nationally, and she has received grants and fellowships from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, the Millay Colony and other noted arts organizations.
“There is a tension between form and what's going on in the real world,” Von Rosk writes about her oeuvre. “And the form (dips, ditches, open fields) isn't just a product of what I see, but combines what I know about constructing paintings with some deep and as yet unconscious memory system with what I see in the landscape. There may be a story hidden in the painting, which I myself am still only vaguely aware of.”
Von Rosk received a bachelor's of fine art from the State University of New York at Purchase and a master's of fine art from the University of Pennsylvania.
Castro creates abstract contemporary sculpture that “references human forms and forms found in nature,” says Seligman.
With studios in Chatham, N.Y., and New York City, Castro uses found objects such as limestone from abandoned buildings and pieces of wood from his travels, which he shapes into spheres, cones, rings and other simple shapes that reflect his early interest in preservation and architecture.
“The work is a wonderful blend of simplicity and elegance,” says Seligman.
Castro holds a bachelor's in architecture and a master's in Restoration and Conservation of Monuments from the Central University of Venezuela. His numerous honors include residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.
Photographer McDaniel of Schenectady (the partner of Union artist-in-residence Fernando Orellana), explores issues of personal identity and her own identity to photographic materials as a way to transcend what she feels are the limitations of the traditional photographic process.
“When I walk out of the darkroom with a print I feel obligated to relate the image back to the reality of what was photographed,” McDaniel writes. “I feel separated from my images by the tools needed to make them. I prefer to be involved with the image by remaining tactile with the photograph.”
McDaniel deconstructs her images by slicing them into strips and squares with a manual paper cutter and then reconstructs them “in an effort to capture the information from the original image in a new way.” Her images derive from a variety of sources, including landscapes and photograms of her body.
“Her reconfigured landscapes and human forms are beautiful,” says Seligman. “They allow the viewer to see a new presence arise from the treatment of image.”
McDaniel holds a bachelor's of fine art from Florida State University and a master's in photography from the Ohio State University. She has worked as a graphic designer, lecturer, curator and studio assistant and has had group and solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio and New York City.