Strange Untried Project Space will be presenting a group show titled Appearances, featuring the work of six artists working in the Hudson Valley. The title is inspired by a 1972 John Berger essay of the same name in which he makes a case for the inherent coherence of our visual experience. Berger asserts that what we perceive unites with both the databank of our personal memories and our inherent sense of natural form, triggering affinities and associations which result in a kind of code or language. In this show we will put Berger’s ideas to the test and form a new appearance-coherence by exploring how artworks converse with other artworks in proximity. The selected artworks all skirt the boundary of recognition: Natalie Beall and Amy Talluto both create nonfunctional domestic objects that seem to no longer remember their use; Adie Russell creates charcoal drawings that explore erasure, loss and digital manipulation of historical photography; Judy Glantzman and Mandolyn Wilson Rosen both create representations of un-nameable faces in sculpture and assemblage, respectively; And Jesse Bransford creates color drawings of intangible phenomena inspired by his study of folk magic and the occult.
“Appearances cohere within the mind as perceptions. The sight of any single thing or event entrains the sight of other things and events. To recognize an appearance requires the memory of other appearances. And these memories, often projected as expectations, continue to qualify the seen long after the stage of primary recognition. As soon as we say that appearances cohere this coherence proposes a unity not unlike that of a language.”
Berger, J. (2013) ‘Appearances’ In: Dyer, G. (ed.) Understanding a Photograph. New York: Aperture Foundation. pp71.
Understanding a Photograph by John Berger. Edited by Geoff Dyer. Published by Aperture, 2013
Natalie Beall
With paper collage and mixed media wall sculpture, Natalie Beall (b. 1981, Atlanta, GA) invents new forms containing traces of functionality and fantasy. She earned her BFA from the University of Georgia and her MFA from Columbia University. Beall has participated in exhibitions at Fridman Gallery, Beacon, NY, Good Naked Gallery, New York, Standard Space, Sharon, CT, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, and the Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, among other venues. Residencies include the Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY, the Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY, the Cooper Union, New York, NY, and the Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY. The artist is a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. Her solo exhibition Pastimes opens at Morgan Lehman Gallery in March 2023. She lives and works in Salt Point, New York. www.nataliebeall.com
Jesse Bransford
Jesse Bransford is a New York-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally at venues including The Carnegie Museum of Art, the UCLA Hammer Museum, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center and the CCA Wattis Museum among others. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA) and is an associate professor of art at New York University. Bransford's work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Recent work has focused on the folk magic of the Norse traditions, specifically the talismanic stave spells and the seiðr traditions. Parts of this work are collected in the recently published book from Fulgur Press, A Book of Staves (Galdrastafabók). He lectures widely on his work and the topics surrounding his work. He is the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference and an editorial member of the Black Mirror Network. www.jessebransford.com
Judy Glantzman
Judy Glantzman was born in Long Island, NY in 1956 and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. She began exhibiting in the early 1980’s in the East Village art scene, at Civilian Warfare and Gracie Mansion. She followed with shows at BlumHelman and Hirschl & Adler Modern in the 1990’s and at Betty Cuningham Gallery for the past eight years. She had a 30 year retrospective at Dactyl Foundation in spring 2009. Glantzman was a painting instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design and part of the drawing faculty at the New York Studio School.
The artist’s work can be seen in numerous public collections, including the Whitney Art Museum, New York, NY; Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY; the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; The Progressive Collection, Cleveland, OH; and the Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, most notably the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 2001; the Anonymous Was a Woman Foundation Grant, 1997; the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, 1994; and the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, 1992. Glantzman lives and works in Chatham, NY www.bettycuninghamgallery.com/artists/judy-glantzman
Amy Talluto
Amy Talluto is a painter, collage artist and sculptor who lives and works in Hurley NY. She was born in New Orleans, LA and earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2018 she was awarded a NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in Painting and was an Artforum Critics Pick for her solo exhibition at Black & White Gallery (Brooklyn). She has recently shown her work at Jeff Bailey Gallery, The Berkshire Botanical Garden, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, Geoffrey Young Gallery, The Albany Airport and Wave Hill Gardens. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Saltonstall Foundation (NY), Ucross Foundation (WY), Provincetown Dune Shacks & the Byrdcliffe Colony (NY). She is also the host and producer of the Pep Talks for Artists Podcast. www.amytalluto.com
Mandolyn Wilson Rosen
Mandolyn Wilson Rosen is an artist working in painting, drawing, collage and mixed media. She received an MFA from Bard College in 2008 and a BFA from Cornell University in 1996. Her work was recently the subject of Heavy Rotation, a solo show at the Saugerties Public Library and has also been featured in notable group shows around Upstate New York as well as in venues in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Rome, Italy. Mandolyn’s awards include a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant; the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Fellowship; the Elaine De Kooning Fellowship at Bard College; and residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. She has taught art at Vassar College, Marist College, where she is an Honors Thesis Advisor, and at The D.R.A.W. in Kingston, NY. She lives with her family in Saugerties, NY. www.mandolynwilsonrosen.com
Adie Russell
Adie Russell is a multi-media artist currently based in Kingston, NY. Her work in drawing, painting, photography, and video has been exhibited in the United States and abroad, with solo exhibitions at the Leeds College of Art in Leeds, UK, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock in Woodstock, NY. Other exhibition venues include The Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz where her work is in the permanent collection. She has participated in residencies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, La Cipresssaia at Montagnana in Italy, at the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, MA, and Salem Art Works, Salem, NY. She has recently launched Strange Untried, a project engaged in facilitating and supporting artistic collaborations. www.adierussell.com