Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Check out our weekly e-newsletter, now posted on blogger courtesy of our resident Little film geek, Kelly Foster

Greetings from The Little Theatre via @constantcontact

Artists in the Cafe July 24-August 20

A trio of artists will be showing their work in the cafe: Katherine Weston, Richard Harvey and Michael Harris.

Katherine Weston is a mixed media artist who combines printmaking with painting and collage. Her work teeters between representation and abstraction--graphic form and organic movement. The mysterious quality of her work pulls the viewer in to take a closer look at the subtle nuances she has created by sanding and wiping layers of paint and the inclusion of fabric and other objects in her work.

She is on the steering committee of the Arena Art Group, a member of the Rochester Art Club and a member of the Print Club of Rochester. Her work has been shown in National shows in New York, Chicago, Toledo, Harrisburg, Baton Rouge, Estes Park, Tallahassee, and Rochester. She has won numerous awards for both her printmaking and mixed media art.

In February of this year she took on a new project that consists of the complete renovation of an old building in Brockport. When completed later this year, the 2-story building with it’s new name, A Different Path Gallery, will house an art gallery, a retail shop and her private studio on the first floor. The second floor will consist of 4 or 5 studio spaces to be rented out to professional artists in the area. For more information visit the website: www.DifferentPathGallery.com.

Richard Harvey earned a BFA in Communication Design with a Fine Art Minor from RIT in 1972 and later took graduate work in fine art digital imaging. His fine art pursuits continued alongside a career in graphic design during which he enjoyed a twenty year representation by the Austin-Harvard Gallery in Pittsford NY. The interplay of graphics and fine art remain very evident in much of his work.

The subject matter of Richard Harvey's mixed media work is predominantly human faces or full figures that tend to portray deeply expressive, even haunting, emotional imagery. This quality is also evident in his ruggedly carved, contemporary primal sculpture, which is inspired by tribal masks, rituals and ancient artifacts.

Though the human figure is a constant theme, experimentation in process is a driving force in his work and he thrives on trying a variety of approaches, including the use of encaustic wax, metal sculpture, and imported digital images such as graffiti.

Michael Harris
ARTIST STATEMENT

While leaving the door open to the expressive possibilities of abstraction, my current work seeks to reintroduce imagery into painting. Found images and an attraction to less than conscious ideas begin the process, which is also informed by past experience with printmaking, a love of the paper surface and working methods. Perception of contrasts or dualities in the field of time (peace/turmoil, light/dark, expansive/constricted, rough/smooth, ancient/modern, etc.), provide fuel as the formal elements are explored and balance is sought. Process and search for artistic quality are uppermost concerns in what is sensed as a healing enterprise.

One night only-Herb and Dorothy!

Wednesday, July 21st at 6:30 pm • Tickets $8.00
Followed by a talkback discussion with Deborah Ronnen (Deborah Ronnen Fine Art) and Douglas Dreishpoon (Chief Curator, Albright Knox Art Gallery). The Little Talkback Series is made possible through support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

About the film

HERB and DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.

After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. "Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment," recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They've refilled it with piles of new art they've acquired.

HERB and DOROTHY is directed by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film received the Golden Starfish Award for the Best Documentary Film and Audience Award from the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival. It has also received Audience Awards from the 2008 SILVERDOCS Film Festival and the 2009 Philadelphia Cinefest. Palm Springs International Film Festival named HERB and DOROTHY one of their "Best of Fest" films in 2009.

Watch a PBS clip as Herb and Dorothy Vogel travel the festival circuit with filmmaker Megumi Sasaki, sharing their passion for art and the story of their extraordinary lives. At museums and theaters across the country they are feted by crowds of artists, collectors and admirers.

Take the Collector Challenge at PBS.

Bios.
Deborah Ronnen is a private art dealer and curator,focusing on modern and contemporary art ,with special expertise in fine art print-making, and contemporary photography. Through Deborah Ronnen Fine Art, she has curated exhibitions of work by Pablo Picasso,Vik Muniz , Alison Saar, Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns, to name just a few.

She is a Trustee of the Albright Knox Art Gallery where she serves on the Acquisition Committee, and a past Trustee of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, where she also served on its art committtee.

She is a Member of the New York State Council on the Arts, and Chair of its Visual Arts Committtee. She also serves as a Member of the Empire State Plaza Art Commission.

Douglas Dreishpoon is Chief Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. He has worked in museums for more than nineteen years, as curator of collections at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1995 to 1998, and as curator of contemporary art at the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida from 1991 to 1995. His essays, interviews, and reviews have been published in numerous catalogues, magazines and journals, including Art in America, Art Journal, Art News, and Sculpture. His essay, “Sculptors and Critics, Arenas and Complaints,” was published in Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976 (Yale University Press, 2008). Other recent publications include The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2007) and Petah Coyne: Above and Beneath the Skin (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2005). In 2009 he organized for the Albright Knox Robert Mangold: Beyond the Line, Paintings and Project 2000-2008.
He also organized the currently traveling exhibition: Everything: Guillermo Kuitca, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980 – 2008 (Miami Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Walker Art Center, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2009-2011) . A former board member of the American Section of the International Association of Art Critics, Dreishpoon holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the City University of New York

Marlene Logory displays her art in the Cafe through July 23rd

Marlene Logory has been an active watercolorist for more than 10 years. Her works span reality to abstraction. Drawing and painting were childhood loves. They grew to telling stories while drawing to her own children and those at St. Joseph's Villa, on to grandchildren. Her works have been in several local galleries and she has conducted workshops. She feels her works are a latent enthusiastic display of childhood joy.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Opens July 7

"Joan Rivers — where have you been all my life?"—from the NYTimes Review

From the AV Club Interview:

AVC: There’s some conventional wisdom that good comedians tend to come from troubled and angry backgrounds. Do you think this is true across the board?

JR: I think it’s very true across the board. I think anyone who’s perfectly happy isn’t particularly funny. And when you’re very, very happy, you’re not very funny. You’re just happy. I’d rather be damaged and funny because I’ve been laughing for 76 years.

AVC: Some of the funniest jokes in the film are when you’re talking about trying to get out there more often, and not getting the bookings you want.

JR: Again, if it’s a fact of life and you laugh about it, it’s okay. Everything is okay if you laugh about it. And that’s a great weapon. That’s a cliché, but clichés come out of truth. The glass is always half-empty for me, because I say it’s filled with poison. Even now, as everyone is adoring this movie and loving this movie, I keep saying to Ricki, “Yeah, but we’ll see, well see.” But I’m also not stupid. I’m delighted and savoring the moment, too.

AVC: A lot of people are fascinated by the movie, but also wary of seeing it, because they have a very negative image of you going in.

JR: I worked at The Bitter End years ago, owned by a man named Freddie Weintraub, and we all came out of there—Woody [Allen], Bill Cosby, and George Carlin. There was a whole group that was going through there. Peter, Paul & Mary, The Mamas & The Papas; we were all mixed up together. Freddie would stand at the door after the shows and he would listen to the comments, and if people loved the act or hated the act, he brought them back. He said, “That means they have a quality people watch.” When people hate me, that’s good. They know I’m there. You’re not a chorus kid. Remember in A Chorus Line, she’s having trouble and he keeps saying, “You’re standing out,” and she’s trying not to? They hate me? That’s good.

Read the whole interview here.

Exit Through the Gift Shop Sepcial Event-Tues. June 29

The Little Theatre is excited to screen Exit Through the Gift Shop for Rochester audiences beginning on Friday, June 25th. An exclusive talkback event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 29th, following the 6:30 PM screening. Tickets are $8. The film will have a full theatrical run.

Talkback guests include: The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective comprised of Sarah Rutherford, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Lea Rizzo, and Erich Lehman. They will also be holding a free, one night artshow in the downstairs lounge of the Little 1.

“We hope to explore some of the conspiracy theories about the flick and people's reactions—there's so much to talk about in this film; the audience I saw it with earlier this year was definitely buzzing afterwards,” said Erich Lehman, owner of 1975 Gallery and talkback discussion moderator.

About Exit Through The Gift Shop
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, "It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed."

About the speakers:
Erich Lehman, Owner/Curator, 1975 Gallery
http://www.1975ish.com

Building on over 14 years of art collecting experience, owner/curator Erich Lehman started 1975 as a means of sharing his love of art and helping others learn how to build their own collections while exposing the countless gifted artists he has become friends with over the years to an audience that might otherwise not encounter them.

1975 Gallery
1975 is a mobile gallery living in a semi-permanent space within SURFACE salon in the South Wedge neighborhood in Rochester, NY. We are dedicated to exposing talented artists to a community that might otherwise overlook them and facilitating the would-be collector. 1975 is born of a labor of love. As with all great love, it needs to be shared.

The Sweet Meat Co., Artist Collective
http://www.sweetmeatco.com

The Sweet Meat Co. is an art collective out of Rochester, NY. We have come together, young artists all navigating our ways through our chosen creative paths, dealing with the distractions of everyday life, of the jobs that pay our way, and feed off each other’s struggle, passion and talent. We seek to celebrate the artistic heartbeat of Rochester and expose its beautiful, raw potential. Together, we play off our mutual loves and skills and grow through exposure to each others' unique specialties.