First Friday opening reception Jan. 2, 6 to 9 p.m.
By Alison Rooney
Winter is a hopeful season if youth embodies hope. Celebrating the colder months and the promise of nascent artists, Gallery 66 NY is bringing both to its gallery with a January exhibit titled The Face of Winter.
The gallery extended an open call to all high school–age artists living in Philipstown, Newburgh, Beacon, Peekskill and Wappingers Falls, soliciting their work for a juried art exhibition, asking them to interpret “The Face of Winter,” connecting it somehow to their own lives, moments in time, favorite landscapes, etc., in either literal or abstract form.
Responses came from students at three regional schools: Haldane, Newburgh and Hopewell Junction’s John Jay. Of these, 20 were chosen for the exhibit. The gallery describes the entries as “a trove of rich and diverse pieces that will be a pleasure for the visitor to view, while providing a rare opportunity for our local young artists to exhibit their work in a major Hudson Valley gallery.”
The young artists will be in attendance at an opening night reception, Jan. 2, from 6 to 9 p.m., and will discuss their art.
Also on display, in the gallery’s two other galleries, are donations of artwork and services from local professional artists as well as students, collected into a silent auction fundraiser for Haldane’s class of 2015 senior service trip to New Orleans. In a repeat of last year’s very successful inaugural trip, this year’s seniors will be traveling and working with Habitat for Humanity to rebuild homes.
Services from the class of 2015 that can be bid on include babysitting, snow shoveling and makeovers, while donations include limited edition silkscreen prints commemorating this event, vintage art prints, rare photographs, paintings and ceramics. The collection, dubbed Winter Mardi Gras, will be on exhibit from Jan. 2. A Mardi Gras party and auction, with a suggested donation of $10 at the door, will take place on Jan. 17; reservations are requested by Jan. 9.
The high school artists exhibiting in The Face of Winter are: Tabitha Barnett, Allisen Casey, Grace Cham, Patricia Cobey, Melissa Diakantonis, Anna DiFede, Gianna Galazzo, Cameron Henderson, Gregory Jagelski, Kassie Lerman, Nubia Lorenzana, Talia Mistretta, Eleni Neckles, Zoe Provan, Matthew Reinhold, Eduardo Salazar, Julia Sweeney, Jenna Van de Merwe, Randy Wilson and Claire Wu.
Both exhibits are on view from through Jan. 25. Gallery 66 NY is located at 66 Main St., Cold Spring. Regular winter hours are Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit gallery66ny.com or call 845-809-5838.
Snow Day photograph by Allisen Casey
“The face of winter to me is cuddling up in your bed on a snow day, and the light that leaks in from your windows is pure and bright from its reflection on the snow, so I decided to portray that in a photo. I wanted the white sheets to seem endless, and for my model to look small and comforted. I used my Sony 3100 DSLR camera.”
Building Snowmen multimedia work by Cameron Henderson
“Building Snowmen was actually inspired by a song of the same name by a Danish jazz trio (the Vestbo Trio), as well as the work of Czech animator and illustrator Jaromir Plachy. I wanted to make something whimsical that embodied a large number of materials and approaches, as well as the playful side of winter. It consists of watercolor, colored pencil, marker, ink, graphite and a number of papers combined through collage.”
Below Zero photograph by Talia Mistretta
“I really enjoy the crisp look of the water and the air that winter provides. In this image you can feel the crispness of the air by looking at it. I used my Nikon D5100 DSLR.”
Images courtesy of Gallery 66 NY
