2022
The Freedman Gallery is open to the public Tues.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. & Sun., 1-4 p.m., please visit https://www.albright.edu/about-albright/buildings-facilities/gable-center/covid-19/ for information and tour requirements related to COVID-19.
“Benefit Print Project: 12 Years of Multiple Making”
Tues., Oct. 25–Thur., Dec. 8, Freedman Gallery (MG)
Since its inception in 2010, Benefit Print Project has collaborated with renowned artists from around the world who work in all media, from photography and the traditional graphic arts to ceramics and sculpture, in order to create small sets of multiples that allow a broader audience to access and collect the work of these important creatives. The Freedman is pleased to collaborate with Benefit Print Project on a comprehensive examination of these projects that include work by El Anatsui, Pavel Baňka, Herman Bas, Lynda Benglis, Olafur Eliasson, Fred Eversley, William Kentridge, David LaChapelle, Vik Muñiz, Shirin Neshat, Larry Poons, Tal R, Thomas Ruff, Paula Scher, Alec Soth, Donald Sultan, Mickalene Thomas and Massimo Vitali. As part of the exhibition, Benefit Print Project will unveil new work by Tim Hawkinson.
“Dominick Lombardi: Cross Contamination with Stickers”
Thur., Oct. 27–Thur., Dec. 8, Freedman Gallery (PS)
Artist, writer and curator D. Dominick Lombardi is currently the editor of dArt International magazine and was an art critic for the New York Times from 1998 to 2005. His curatorial practice includes ongoing partnerships with the Morean Art Center, St. Petersburg, FL, and Hampden Gallery, Amherst, MA. As a visual artist, he has shown extensively across the world in solo and group shows, and is currently represented by Prince Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. A prolific visual artist, his work is firmly rooted in Pop Arts. His 40-year retrospective is currently touring nationally. The Freedman’s exhibition includes a newer body of work that uses older drawings, often done for drawing courses he taught as an educator, with more contemporary drawings that Lombardi has converted to stickers that are affixed to the older drawings as well as painted wood and mixed-media sculptures. The cross contamination of media with drawing as the basis for both offers an interesting dialogue between old and new, progress and tradition, and practice of form versus comic illustration.
“Leah Frances: Things Were Never Normal”
Tues., Aug. 30–Thur., Oct. 6, Freedman Gallery (MG back)
Canadian photographer, Leah Frances, received her M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and now resides in Easton, PA. Her first photo book, “American Squares,” debuted in September 2019 at the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, and a second, “Lunch Poems,” will be released in the fall 2022. The exhibit highlights “third spaces:” components of an area’s social infrastructure, communal spaces outside of home and work such as taverns, church picnics, diners, restaurants and movie theatres. The images of these sites where we once gathered were captured during the pandemic and, for the most part, are devoid of people, adding a surreal quality to what might normally be seen as a bit of nostalgic Americana. Presenting scenes of idealized American mythology, while capturing what is left behind in a declining economy, the artist poses the question what was, is and will be considered normal?
“Rinal Parikh: New Interpretations of Indian Folk Painting Traditions”Tues., Aug. 30–Thur., Oct. 6, Freedman Gallery (MG front)
Trained as a biochemist, Rinal Parikh’s skill in scientific analysis combined with her passion for art has led her to win multiple distinguished awards and to be featured as a solo artist and in important group shows across the U.S. and abroad. Working in a range of media, her paintings draw on a fascination with color and composition and portray spontaneity with saturated color. Her subjects are influenced by life in India, and incorporate many different styles of Indian painting that vary from state to state. From floral motifs to landscapes to animals and birds, her exquisite paintings may reference traditional techniques but are paired with color palettes that make them thoroughly modern and unique. For the Freedman’s exhibition, Parikh created a new body of work that explores the joy and happiness of her contemporary family and life in Philadelphia while blending in aspects that honor her Indian heritage.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Celebrating Her Legacy in Prints”
Tues., Aug. 30–Fri., Oct. 14, Freedman Gallery (PS)
Last year artist and educator Melanie Yazzie organized a print exchange among nationally recognized printmakers in order to honor the legacy of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yazzie donated one of the portfolios to Albright College, which includes a print from Albright faculty member Kristen T. Woodward, among many others. With motifs from lace collars to concepts of female empowerment, this collection of prints recognizes the important contributions and quirks of a modern-day liberal hero.
Annual Juried Student Exhibition 2022
Thur., April 28–Fri., May 13, Freedman Gallery (MG & PS)
Brian Cavanaugh: At Home
Thur., March 24–Sun., April 24, Freedman Gallery (PS)
For artist and alumnus Brian Cavanaugh, 2020 was an incredibly difficult year. Like so many others, juggling a career and family in a pandemic upended everything. Cavanaugh spent much of his time at home with family, but stopped working creatively. Inspired by Giorgia Lupi’s visualizations of life during lockdown for the “New York Times” he referenced his photo library of 7,870 photos from 2020 to collect data. Continuing his work with pixel and color, the works on exhibition use photos from Cavanaugh’s personal collection to create new works.
“Lisa Crafts: Glass Gardens”
Tues., March 22–Sun., April 24, Freedman Gallery (Foyer)
“Glass Gardens” is an animated allegory of the role creativity plays in the survival of the human spirit. The protagonist wanders the dystopian ruins of a consumer culture, gathering relics, and creating new works. “Glass Gardens” is a black and white graphite-on-paper, cut-out animation. The film utilizes a variety of animation techniques: cutout sequential drawings, jointed characters, drawing and erasing under the camera, replacement animation, and in-camera special effects. The original was shot on 16mm film on Crafts’ homemade animation stand.
Confronting the Empty Space: the Stage Designs of Allen Moyer
Sun., Jan. 30–Fri., April 15, Freedman Gallery (MG)
Allen Moyer’s set designs have graced some of America’s most important opera houses and Broadway stages over the last 35 years. Moyer grew up in Schuylkill Haven, attended Albright College for two years before transferring to Penn State University where he earned a B.A. degree, followed by a M.F.A. degree from New York University. His designs have appeared in celebrated productions at English National Opera, Wexford Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Seattle Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Moyer’s first Broadway production was in 1996 for the revival of “Tartuffe.” He has since designed sets for thirteen more Broadway shows, notably winning an Obie Award and garnering Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for his work on the 2006 musical “Grey Gardens.” The Freedman Gallery is pleased to present a mid-career retrospective featuring scale models, scenic and costume sketches, with photos and videos of realized works that chronicle the important contributions of this master artist and designer.
Claudia Hart: The Orange Room
Tues. Jan 25- Fri. March 11, Freedman Foyer
In the context of the post-digital, Hart imports the compositional structures of the red paintings by Henri Matisse to propose a paradigm shift in painting practice, creating monumental animations at real-painting scale. Like Matisse, Hart has constructed animated images-within-images, as architectures open onto windows and doors that in turn open onto simulated landscapes and rooms bestowed with animated paintings, carpets and wallpapers. The Orange Room presents digital, pictorial clockworks in which wheels within wheels turn at different rates and temporal schemes to mesmerize viewers, ushering them into a state of contemplation.
Matthew Garrison: Nothing Left of Time
Tues., Jan. 25–Sun., March 6, Freedman Gallery (PS)
Through sculpture, video, painting and photography Matthew Garrison’s multimedia exhibition, “Nothing Left of Time,” explores a dialog among intimate interior space, landscape and the environment. Humor and irony collide with issues of online privacy and our impact on the planet. Efforts to control nature are pushed to extremes with wit and alarm in his cloud paintings, while an ambitious photo accumulation investigates the nature of video chat and the Internet through information overload. Garrison’s video, “Night Life,” provides a glimpse into the behavior of wildlife after dark and serves as a reminder of the unwitting persistence of nature. Night and day exist side by side at any given moment when the earth is considered in its entirety. “Nothing Left of Time” distills this concept by underscoring the tensions generated when nature is shaped by the insatiable appetites of our species.