Exhibitions at City Hall
City Hall is proud to serve as both a municipal building, and a gateway to the City of Kingston. In an effort to bring art to our local public spaces, the ground floor of City Hall will transition into a space for the exhibition of art. In 2019, the Ground Floor Gallery will host four exciting displays of Kingston related artwork. Each show will run for three months, with opening receptions on First Saturday, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The Ground Floor Gallery has been developed through the collaboration of prominent local arts organizations, including Arts Mid-Hudson and the Midtown Arts District.
If you are interested in displaying your work at City Hall, please contact
The Department of Art & Cultural Affairs or The Kingston Arts Commission.
CURRENT EXHIBITION:
The PUGG Alumni Exhibition
On Display from January - March 2019
UPCOMING EXHIBITION:
Pauline Oliveros: Still Listening in Kingston
Opening Reception: April 6th, from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
The PUGG Alumni Exhibition
The PUGG Alumni Exhibition is currently on display through the end of March, and available to view during regular City Hall hours.
The P.U.G.G. Alumni Exhibition is a collection of work created by the talented professional artists who have participated in the Pop Up Gallery Group. The Pop Up Gallery Group (P.U.G.G.) began as collaboration between the City of Kingston and Kingston City Schools to create a work-study program for high school students based in arts management. The original P.U.G.G. program was designed with the intention of turning empty storefronts in midtown Kingston into exhibition opportunities for Kingston High School alumni. The featured alumni artist works closely with the current Kingston High School students enrolled in P.U.G.G. to create a solo exhibition of their work. By connecting aspiring artists with professional artists, the P.U.G.G. program inspires and encourages the pursuit of creative careers. Many of the artists featured in The P.U.G.G. Alumni Exhibition continue to engage in local art initiatives, and maintain strong connections in our community.
Since its debut, the P.U.G.G. program has continued to offer arts management experience to students at Kingston High School, along with facilitating exhibitions for Kingston High School Alumni. P.U.G.G. highlights the excellence of the art program at Kingston High School, which continues to produce talented professional artists. Currently, The P.U.G.G. program is managed by The Department of Regional Art Workers (The D.R.A.W). The D.R.A.W is led by Executive Director Lara Giordano and Artistic Director JoAnna Ruisi. Their mission is to strengthen the local community through expansive art education. The D.R.A.W. offers workshops, open studios, and encourages the development of art-based curriculum for local organizations. The D.R.A.W. believes in collaboration as a tool for building a stronger community.
For more information on PUGG and to view upcoming events, visit www.drawkingston.org .
Amy Ackerman- Kingston High School Class of 2003
PUGG Exhibition: The Ackermans
"Amy Ackerman has been living and breathing art since she was
old enough to hold a paintbrush. She found her passion in water colors,
blending emotion and life experiences into moving shades and fine ink
detailing. At an early age, Amy began showing her work in galleries in New York
City and the Hudson Valley, including Karma, Darmstadt, Lovebird Studios
(Rosendale), Marketplace Gallery (Albany), BSP Gallery in Woodstock,Art
Upstairs in Phoenicia, and "Sing for Hope" in NYC. Amy is an
intuitive painter and the magic and mystery that nature provides is always somewhere
in her art. Once focused on an idea, she works quickly and surely from
her heart, not planning the outcome, yet finding the result to be exactly what
it ought to be. Illustrating children's books is where Amy sees her
future as she wishes to inspire children's imaginations and give them hope
through the stories her art completes, as only Amy, with her unique vision and
style, can do."
Scott Ackerman - Kingston High School Class of 2000
PUGG Exhibition: The Ackermans
"Scott Michael Ackerman is a self-taught artist from upstate New York. Although he is not one for labels, Ackerman is known as an ‘Outsider’ artist because his unconventional and primitive approach to painting rejects the boundaries of traditional culture. Rather than start with a blank canvas, Ackerman prefers to use ‘found objects’ with rough character such as old wood, windows, and doors to help inspire him. Also unique to Ackerman’s personal style is his playful use of words in his artwork. His paintings are celebrated for being honest, raw, and relatable. "
https://www.lovescottart.com
Christian Gallo- Kingston High School Class of 2006
PUGG Exhibition: Louis Shotwell's Day Off (2017)
"The seediness found in my work evolved from the passion for skateboarding. Endless days prowling the streets helped me develop and eye for things that the average person would most likely look over. The majority of the photographs reflect the squalid destinations and circumstances I have experienced. I was gifted a Polaroid camera at a young age and was constantly shooting everything with it. After the film started to get harder to attain, I fell out of it. Later of, I received a digital point-and-shoot, and mostly documented graffiti I came across and concerts I would attend. Not until I took a Fine Art Photography class in high school did my passion for the art form really develop. I continued to take photos after high school and eventually spent a summer in Queens taking photography classes and building my craft. Growing up in Kingston and bouncing around the Hudson Valley has had a great influence on my work. The continuous exposure to New York City and traveling the country has created this juxtaposition in some of my subject matter, but I always seem to find the seedy, dark, and damp essence of whatever major city or small town I find myself in. I have gone on to show my work throughout the Hudson Valley as well as exhibitions in Brooklyn and Asheville."
Rebecca Hellard- Kingston High School Class of
PUGG Exhibition: Familiar Strangers (2018) & The Limits of Empathy (2017)
"My
work is an exploration of an alternate world where we become children again,
and meet the parts of ourselves we abandoned as we became old—the anxieties,
the joys, and the dreams—with those parts reimagined into monstrous creatures.
The creatures are as complicated as we are, and I explore that ambiguous line
between concepts that are conventionally at odds—the beautiful and the ugly,
the tender and the horrific, the funny and the tragic. I juxtapose the soft,
storybook quality of watercolor painting with the rich and harsh darks of
graphite to reflect these concepts. I often start with a random application of
paint, which I then interpret into characters in a Rorschach-like process—a sad
looking bean monster, or a celery stalk of a person-thing. I explore the limits
of empathy in these works: how much can I make the viewer feel for a jumbled
shape-of-something if I give it human features, and at what point do we stop
feeling for these beings? I want to create unease as well as compassion for
these otherworldly creatures, the pieces of ourselves that we have left behind,
and tap into and reflect upon something both viscerally. "
Frank Pesko - Kingston High School Class of 2008
PUGG Exhibition: Effects: A Show of Paper and Clay (2016)
"Inspired by pop culture’s obsession with self destruction, Pesko’s work explores the increasingly possible reality of both global and domestic catastrophe. Through the intense graphic quality of block printing, his work offers a vision of post- apocalyptic America that serves both as a warning and a call to action.
Frank Pesko graduated in 2013 from Purchase College (SUNY)
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking and SUNY Ulster in 2017 with
an Associates degree in Advertising Design and Graphic Technology. He has
exhibited work in a variety of venues, from traditional galleries to college
dorm bathrooms. Pesko currently lives and works in Kingston, New York."
http://www.sunyulster-webclass.com/wordpress-peskof64
Vincent Pidone - Kingston High School Class of
PUGG Exhibition: Moire Patterns
"These works are based on moire patterns. That is an interference pattern created between two overlapping patterns. While I have made occasional moire drawings for about ten years, the colored drawings are recent. And while other artists such as Sol Lewitt, Francois Morlett, and Jesus Raphial Soto, have explored moire in the past, there are none that I know of who worked with the moire pattern's ability to influence color perception. These pieces are made using only three colors; cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black. The appearance of any other colors in the work is the result of interactions taking place in the viewer's eye. That is to say, the appearance of green in the pictures is an illusion caused by the moire pattern. The paintings both have the same cyan, magenta, and yellow background. The black overlay differs from one to the next in the angle it forms with the background lines, so the differing colors are the result of the interference pattern as it changes with the angle."
vincentpidone.tumblr.com/
Matt Pleva - Kingston High School Class of
PUGG Exhibition: Top Secret; The Work of Matthew Pleva (2017)
www.matthewpleva.com
Kelli Sillik - Kingston High School Class of 2012
PUGG Exhibition: Effects: A Show of Paper and Clay (2016)
"Art educators are not recognized enough for the time, effort, and patience they provide their students. As a student, I was fortunate to have some of the most engaging creative thinkers guide me through my academic career to become the artist and the individual I am today. Through hand-sewing I evoke my mentors and their impactful lessons as a way of expressing my gratitude. The slow paced, intricate process reminds me of their patience while helping me develop my own artistic voice. Quilts are often given as gifts to commemorate life changing events like births and weddings. It is this idea of celebration that drives me to create quilts that reflect the individualities of my mentors and the lessons they taught me. Each quilt represents a mentor through the colors, shapes, and patterns that I associate with them, whether it be their artwork, their dispositions, or conversations we shared together. Recording and displaying my appreciation for my mentors, their wisdom, and their friendship is my way of saying, 'thank you."
https://kellisillik.squarespace.com/