Saturday, January 26, 2013

Terra Non Firma: Steve Nyland & Ty Marshal, Recent Paintings February 2013, The Galleries at Mohegan Manor, Baldwinsville NY


Terra Non Firma - Steve Nyland & Ty Marshal, Recent Paintings February 2013, The Galleries at Mohegan Manor, 58 Oswego Street Baldwinsville NY 

The Galleries at Mohegan Manor will be featuring the work of Syracuse area artists Ty Marshal and Steve Nyland for the month of February 2013. Ty Marshal is Artist in Residence and Curator of The Galleries at The Tech Garden in Syracuse and has played a vital role within the Syracuse arts community as a promoter & advocate of the performing and visual arts. Steve Nyland is a graduate of Syracuse University, University at Albany and Empire State College art programs who has been exhibiting his paintings across the CNY region to great success. Both artists have backgrounds in the realms of performance, multimedia and time based digital arts but bring their vision for painting to Mohegan Manor with "Terra Non Firma", featuring an abundance of colorful works to brighten the Central New York chill. The exhibition runs from Wednesday January 23 through Tuesday February 26th and is open to the public during the Mohegan Manor's regular business hours.

Please join us on Wednesday February 6th from 5pm to 7pm for a public reception for the exhibition including a wine tasting hosted by Mohegan Manor's renowned staff of experts. If planning on attending the wine tasting please RSVP Mohegan Manor in advance at 315-857-0079 or using the links below. For more information on the exhibit please contact Steve Nyland via his public Art By Nyland Facebook page linked below.


Mohegan Manor, 58 Oswego St. Baldwinsville NY 13027
email: moheganmanor@yahoo.com
tel: 315-857-0079


Art By Nyland on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtByNyland



Ty Marshal at The Tech Garden's "Phonography" Opening Reception, September 20 2012.


Steve Nyland at the Utica Greens Fest Live Murals Performance, September 15 2012.



Maria Rizzo - Trees Are Life - SUNY Closing Reception, January 25 2013


Syracuse based artist Maria Rizzo brought her marvelous "Trees of Life" exhibit to the SUNY Health Science Library foyer for a very effective alternative venue showing for January. Friday the 25th was her closing reception and while skeptical of the choice it is a FABULOUS viewing area, with a great little presentation solution just perfect for the short-term "pop up" gallery exhibits we discussed in Utica the other evening.



I liked how these display fixtures both avoided intrusion upon the space's function and focused attention on the individual artworks by making little viewing booths.





Maria talking about her work with the audience at the reception, something I've never thought of doing before. Another new idea here -- Maria is a trendsetter for me! and I did take the liberty of passing off a business card to the space's curator. We'll be talking!  ;]



Video documentation courtesy of Dan the Man.


Maria doing her press. This is work! including the outfit, the hair, the refreshments, the networking, the publicity, the footwork, the effort of transporting the paintings there. Think this is easy? 


Maria's musician husband Dan Wagner, the crazed genius behind Syracuse based art/rock/performance group Wagner 3000, enthused about the turnout for Maria's reception.



Syracuse area artists Kristen Starowitz, Kathryn Petrillo and Nate West.


Maria with Syracuse based artist/photographer Michael Moody, whom I finally got to connect with.


Maria with Syracuse area artist & businesswoman Angela Arrey-Wastavino, who has proven to be an impeccable on the spot advisor for me at some key moments over the past year.


Artist/curator Linda Bigness, who hooked me up with the Mohegan Manor gig, and Angela Arrey-Wastavino.


Trying to get my jacket's cuff unsnagged off my watch for a picture with Maria ... As I always like to say, a guy can do a lot worse than a picture with Maria Rizzo. Worth the effort ...


There we go! Syracuse based artists Maria Rizzo and Steve Nyland at the closing reception for Maria's January 2013 "Trees Are Life" exhibit on the SUNY medical campus at Syracuse University.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Project-U Artist's Group Meeting, Tramontane Cafe Utica NY January 23, 2013




Project-U Artists Group meeting at the Tramontane Cafe in Utica on Wednesday evening (January 23, 2013), with a healthy turnout of artists, designers and small business owners looking to grow their influence via public arts projects in downtown Utica. A function of the not for profit Downtown Utica Development Association, which I was invited to contribute to by my hero Regina Bonacci. And much to my surprise Wednesday evening I was appointed chair of this discussion group ... it will be a busy spring.

Special thanks to our guest Tina Dillman for taking the time to join us! With Vartan Poghosian, Tan Nguyen, Patrick Vedder, Jenna North, Tom Martin, Steve Nyland, Tony Thompson, Richelle Maki, Grim Works, Tim Schram, Marc Tucci, Erick Florez, Aaron Falzarano, Julie Angerosa and Timothy Rand.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Steve Nyland & Ty Marshal, Recent Paintings at Mohegan Manor Galleries, Initial Setup January 21 2013


 

http://www.moheganmanor.com/


Back in October Delevan Center based artist & homegirl Linda Bigness invited me to help her take a month off from her duties as curator of the gallery spaces at the historic Mohegan Manor in Baldwinsville. At first I thought she was just offering to let me show my paintings but indeed she wanted me to run the whole train for a station or three. Presented with the idea of actually curating the space the instant thought was of a two person exhibition of paintings by myself and fellow Syracuse artist Ty Marshal.

Ty is the artist in residence and galleries curator for The Tech Garden, not only as a thank-you for including me in two of the exhibitions he curated last fall -- "Phonography: Cell Phone Photography" and the first "Five" showcase of local artists ready to bust loose -- but because I knew he was reliable, professional, punctual, had work ready to go on need and has been a trusted friend & advisor during my professional regrowth. Probably most importantly by getting me past the hangup I'd had about the Syracuse arts scene, which I had always viewed from a self-imposed marginalized perspective until this fall. That is over, and this is my first exhibition effort since having the page turned.


The centerpiece of my contributions, which I am now referring to as Wonderland #28: The Syracuse Door. Also known as The Practice Door and Door #1. Literally being the first of three efforts at painting my soup can landscape motif onto a blank closet door skin. And ultimately done as a practice run for the Golden Artist Colors commission from December 2012, where I drew & painted on two similar doors at the Golden Foundation Artist Residency studios barn for a promotions project they had undertaken. Above is the practice door's final state, arrived at just before 8am the morning the show was installed.


Last weekend my dad put his formidable skills as a woodcrafter to good use in his fully equipped workshop to help prepare the door to hang on any standard plaster/drywall wall. I'd sweated the details for about two months, he polished it off in less than 20 minutes. 


The madness I assembled to unleash on the poor Mohegan Manor, a very down to earth but upscale establishment which has a lounge, dining area, banquet hall (very nice!), and a sushi bar in the basement. I'd been instructed that the work had to be inarguably professional looking with attention paid to presentation. I had been itching for a display opportunity for just the landscape pieces I've been working on for a while and the door was a sucker bet. 

But I played a hunch and picked out a baker's dozen of zombies & cosmonauts, excluding any featuring projective vomiting, drug use, graphic gore and sexual references. Idea being to put them up in the lounge's bar area where folks would have a drink or two then encounter "Zombie Dad Reluctantly Digging Out A Few Dollars For Gas Money". At forty to seventy five dollars each they can potentially be an impulse buy that won't require an OK from the wife. 

;D


Syracuse based artist Ty Marshal with some of his Pink Cloud paintings, which I thought would work marvelous juxtaposed against the landscape pieces.


Flanked by Ty Marshal paintings & pleased as punch to have the Syracuse Door up on the wall thanks to some timely help by the maitre' d. There's still another door painting back at home! and Golden Artist Colors still has one. And you know what? I hope they ask to keep it. Or at least have it on display for a while to help promote the materials to tours at the plant. No rush, none at all guys! Like seriously, what a resume score that would be.









Steve Nyland at left, Ty Marshal at right.



The original "Landscape With Soup Cans & Trees" painting from 2009, the early version of what became the "Wonderland" theme. The story behind the motif is that in 2008 I took up painting and drawing again after a six year hiatus. Like with any activity one needs to stay in practice with I'd literally forgotten how to paint. To teach myself I started with the most basic of forms: Letters, soup cans, simplistic trees, sketchy cheesy landscape forms, and eventually the small round table & folding metal chairs that had populated my drawings during the 90s. 

On a whim one day I started combing the elements and found it to be pleasing to my bent for surrealist concepts. The soup cans also played a post modernist role as an Andy Warhol reference, though to my surprise viewers did and continue to read them as oil cans or drums of toxic waste. And this fall when pressed to come up with a motif for a mural sized painting on the spot with five hours to complete it I chose this, a theme I'd been intending to get back to. I have not stopped painting it since! and my contribution to the exhibition was to be the results of that exploration in the hopes someone or two might want to take one home and help me have the chance to paint some more of them.


Ty Marshal




Our only casualty from the day: When swiveling one of the spots for a better light spread the bulb slipped out. Other than that it went off without a hitch and I got labels up for everything except Ty's work and four of the smaller zombie fragments up in the lounge.



Ty Marshal at left, Steve Nyland at right. The table with legs is usually covered with a cloth and floral display, the banquet table for an event they were hosting the next day.




Looking from the gallery space back towards the sushi bar.


Now upstairs in the lounge area adjacent to the bar with the zombie, cosmonaut and small Pink Cloud paintings display. Hung em up with thumbtacks and in all it took about half an hour to get the arrangement just right.






Just happened to bring the bar painting along on a whim, more as a potential replacement for the zombies if the management found them a bit much. Then noticed a nail on that wall ... ;D


A bar, right around the corner from the bar. 


The piece which gave the show it's collective title, and check what's on that device next to the green X. Didn't even notice it at the time  ;D


So, there we have it. With #18 looking sharp under that spotlight.


Victory Pizza scored on the way home.