A national juried exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
I was one of 3 jurors for PUSHING THE ENVELOPE (June 29-July 23, 2023), a national juried exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. The exhibition prospectus told artists the jury wanted to see works that break through typical boundaries of art making – aesthetically, materially, and conceptually, and asked artists to “create work primarily using non-traditional and found materials, to create edgy work whose form and content challenges viewers to broaden their notions of what constitutes a work of art.” We requested every artist submit 3 or more jpeg image files and include a statement about how their works pushed the envelope.
28 artists (72 works) were accepted for the exhibition. You’ll see paintings, collage, prints, sculpture, and mixed media with found objects, paper, pins, thread, wood and metal. We think the exhibition expands the range of mixed media. As a juror, I looked at image files and thought about how the accepted works would create a unified exhibition. As with all juried shows, not all artists who submitted images were selected. Visit the gallery at 8 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY to see the entire installation during the exhibition (June 29-July 23, 2023). Gallery hours are Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 12:30-5:30 and Saturday, 10:00-5:30. Link to the Upstream Gallery Facebook page to see wonderful images taken at the installation and reception by Paul Greco, a member of Upstream Gallery. Link here to see a slideshow with all the works in PUSHING THE ENVELOPE.
The image at the top of this post shows 7 works by 4 artists in the show. Seen left to right, installed on the wall are a black tondo by Susan Cooper, titled “Profundo I,” three works in mixed media by Mary Fennel, and a painting titled “Circle” by Jeannie Yun. The 2 works on the floor are mixed media assemblage by Debra Friedkin. I write more (below) about works by Susan Cooper, Mary Fennel, and Debra Friedkin.
Here is a list of all the artists the jury selected. Congratulations to Alan Appel, Susan Patricia Cooper, Tim Duch, Patti Ettinger, Mary Fennell, Hilary Fontana, Debra Friedkin, Marlene Furtick, Tim Grajek, Szandra None, Kate Hanley, Linda Kourkoulis, Corinne Lapin-Cohen, Alan Cohen, Mark Mellinger, Bob Mosier, Jill Parry, Rick Patterson, Kristin Reed, L. Katherine Roberts, Lily Schor, Barbara Shapiro, Moira Trachtenberg, Pamela Tucker, Coulter Young III, Jeannie Yun and Deborah Ziffer.
When you walk into the Upstream Gallery, the first thing you’ll notice when you look straight ahead is the installation of 5 funky sculptures created by Coulter Young II. Each is an assemblage of found objects and all are on roller skates. Their titles (left to right) are: Rocketman 41 x 18 x8 inches, Mediaman 58 x 19 x 11 inches, Alien Dog (alien): 58 x 14 x 16, Dog 17 x 8 x 24 inches, Sheriff. 48 x 10 x 9 inches and Travel 47 x 10 x 10 inches.
The artist says: “After a career spent in industrial electronics and media management and production, I retired and now spend my time pulling together my various interests in art, collecting, and electronics to create the 3-D assemblages I call SK-8 Art. I have a natural understanding of electro-mechanical devices and of how things work, enhanced through the formal study of electronics. My structural art started with looking at how things would fit in the space and form of a skate… I hope you enjoy them!”
Link here to the Upstream Gallery Facebook page to see images of small kids at the opening reception interacting with the 5 found-object sculptures by Coulter Young II (all on roller skates) that are the same height as the kids who are standing in front of them.
This image is a mixed media painting by Allen Hart (1925-2014), a former member of Upstream Gallery. It’s titled “Our Lady of the Waters, is 20×13 inches, oil paint, x-ray and ink on wood and installed near the entry to the gallery. His 4 other works are installed further into the gallery. Scroll to the end of this post to see an image of these additional 4 mixed media works.
Allen Hart is included in the exhibition by invitation because Upstream Gallery members who knew him, say his works always pushed the envelope and belong in this show. I visited the home of Millie Hart, his widow, with Upstream Gallery President, Mitch Goldberg, who said: “When I think of Allen Hart, it is his fearlessness as an artist that first comes to mind.” His career spanned decades, he lived in Mexico, and you can see the influence. In his bio he says: “Art to me is an adventure in which I attempt to unearth the darker realm of consciousness with irony and the absurd.” Link here to an exhibition review (dated 2015) that says: “What makes Hart’s work most powerful is how naturally it flows from his subconscious. These images are honest, albeit in many cases, brutally honest. They strike us at our core.”
Kristin Reed has two works in the exhibition. The work above is titled “Cosmic Code.” It’s a piece of rusted steel skin she found on the streets in NYC that had separated from a huge pipe. It’s 17 x 22 inches. She painted a Flower of Life circle pattern – a symbol of creation – on the rusted steel with red acrylic paint – to create a new work that she says evokes an ancient object for ceremonial use.
Kristin Reed is a Reiki Master/Teacher who practices and teaches hands-on energy healing. She works with a group that exchanges knowledge with indigenous Maya and Amazonian populations, training them to run their own acupuncture and Reiki clinics. These women use Reiki with their indigenous Mayan knowledge to heal and train their own community.
Susan Cooper’s mixed media wall sculpture (above) is titled “Two Hands from the Same Family.” It’s 50 x 20 x 2 inches and made with gloves, wood, metal, applique and black acrylic paint. Her 2nd piece, titled Profundo (see the top image), is mixed media painted black, 24” in diameter, and created with wood, a glove, found objects and applique. The artist says: “I collect and use disparate objects and parts of things to create a series of sculpture (Artifacts) and assemblages (Noli Timere) that overlay personal, literary, historical, and elegiac themes.” She says her more recent pieces “have undergone a shift where individual parts become more unified through a single color of black paint and sometimes writing.”
The 3 images here are by Mary Fennell. She calls her works mixed media constructed assemblage. The work on the left is 30 x 30 x 12 inches and is titled “Games of Chance.” The work on the top right is 24 x 12 inches and is titled “Duality and Those Illusive Pearls of Wisdom.” The work on the lower right is 28 x 24 inches, includes a book within a frame, and is titled “The Lands of Man.” It’s a treat to see all three installed together in the gallery.
Mary Fennel says “For me, pushing the envelope in my work is about both form and content. The formal aspects entail combining mixed media methods and materials with a variety of meaningful found objects. My intention is to construct works that take on echoes of the past and come to life in a new form. She adds: “Most works touch upon personal issues, and some works are statements about the human condition.”
Debra Friedkin has 3 works in the exhibition, and the image seen here is a mixed media assemblage she’s titled “Stanley Dog Bench.” It’s 30” tall and 30” x 12” in width and depth. Friedkin says she had a lot of fun challenging herself to find ways to create a work that was “greater than the sum of its parts.” She says she found a vintage clamp on a tabletop vise that became the muzzle for the dog’s head. It reminded her of a Doberman dog. How interesting that a dog that bites has a muzzle that’s a utilitarian clamp that bites. The artist says she completed the head with toy parts, rubber, plastic and paint. At the reception she talked about how she selected the fabric that wraps the bench that’s the body, and says she found the lucite furniture legs on EBay. She adds: “The leather collar and tags belonged to my first dog (not a Doberman) so I felt this was a fitting tribute to him.”
Friedkin’s other 2 works in the exhibition are small sculptural assemblages titled “Deer Skull Fetish” (12 x 9 x 4 inches), and “Elephant Skull Fetish” (13x8x7 inches), assembled with metal seats and bars with animal bones she found in the park, a hemp belt and beads. She says her works are based on concepts of recycling, repurposing, deconstruction and reinvention. Her provocative themes range from whimsical to darkly humorous, and pay homage to sleek modernism, pulp science fiction and spiritual symbolism.
The image above is Marlene Furtick’s 14 x 17 inch portrait collage she titled “Serial Puffs in Aisle 4.” It’s a portrait of Travis Scott (born April 30, 1991), a world-famous American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer whose life story is about PUSHING THE ENVELOPE. He has achieved four number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 80 total charted songs, has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won a Billboard Music Award, Latin Grammy Award, MTV Video Music Award and multiple BET Hip Hop Awards. His huge fan base is anyone age 25 and younger who loves Hip Hop music. Link here to read about him at Wikipedia.
Marlene Furtick told me her grandson Elijah, age 25, gave her 6 “limited edition” Reese’s Cocoa Puffs cereal boxes that show an image of Travis Scott as an action figure. He asked her to cut up the cereal boxes and create “whatever comes to mind.” She created this collage portrait with the cereal box, magic marker, fabric and painted papers, and title it “Serial Box in Aisle 4 – a play on the action figure’s serial killer image. Marlene Furtick still has 5 cereal boxes and can create more collage portraits that are a tribute to her grandson’s passion for the Hip Hop genre and the artist Travis Scott.
The image (above) is Corinne Lapin-Cohen’s painting titled “Letting the Light In.” It’s 30 x 34 inches, mixed media with paint and hand-embellished with pastel chalk marks on a ripped drop cloth she stitched with gold and silver threads. It’s one of two works by the artist accepted for the exhibition. She says this work connects the act of stitching to the Japanese philosophy called “Kintsugi” where you repair broken objects with gold lacquer to create a more beautiful object through the act of repair. She says the title “Letting the Light In” is a phrase that is synonymous with insight, wisdom and peace.
Corinne Lapin-Cohen’s background is botanical art. She painted traditional watercolors for 25 years and now draws in silver and gold metalpoints, paints in oil on canvas or on torn and ripped drop-cloth canvas. She says: “Experiences, sensations and stored memories, inspire me to give visual voice to the beauty, fragility and ephemeral nature of our world. These works are open-ended improvisations, allowing me to be spontaneous as I move, make marks, and dance my way over the surface.”
Patti Ettinger has 3 works in the exhibition. The image here is titled “The Last Monarch.” It’s created with pencil, xerox, and painter’s tape, 60 x 30 inches. The artist says: “The figure lies at the heart of my artwork. Recently, I have been incorporating themes of the spiritual, mythological and the natural world. My process leads me to investigate societies that incorporate concepts of totemism and animism as an essential part of their culture. My preoccupation and artistic examination of the dichotomies and similarities between human and animal, myth and religion, life and death, have led me to this place in my journey. “
The mixed-media mosaic above is by Kate Hanley and titled “Desert Journal.” It’s a sculpture, 39 x 18 x 6.5 inches. The artist has 3 works in the exhibition, each created with a 3D substrate with tiles, glass, metals, and other elements added. The artist says her goal is to create a new way of seeing the essence of the objects and explode the meaning of the object.” She says her approach is always meant to relay a story, and her challenge is finding the tesserae that elevates the structure to new levels of narrative.
The jurors selected 4 works by Bob Mosier. Each one is part of his “Obfuscation Series.” The works here are small 7 x 7 inch thread paintings on fabric. Enlarge the image to see the detail. Bob Mosier’s statement for the exhibition says he ponders the question “How are we able to overlook the barriers before us to see what lies behind?” This statement makes you look a little longer at the four works to see what’s behind and how the work is created. The artist says most people look at life like it’s the back of a tapestry… seeing only the tangle of knots and loose threads (see images Obfuscation 1 & Obfuscation 2). He says the back is so much more interesting than the front… you see a ghost image that will resolve itself given time. His final comment: “I find this is another great Metaphor for how we move through our life and how we eventually learn to see.”
Rick Patterson has 3 works in the exhibition. The image here shows all three works: The work on the pedestal is titled “The Landmark” and includes bark, mica, and an antique clock case. It’s 12 x 19 x 4 inches. The two framed works on the wall are: (top) “Meteor Shower,” created with bark, sea stars, selenite, and antique frame, 9 x 16 x 1.5 inches, and (bottom) “Hale Bopp,” created with bark slate, selenite, an antique clock case, 14 x 11 x 4.5 inches.
Rick Patterson says: “With the onset of the pandemic I found myself unable to access flea markets and yard sales, the main sources of material for my art. Instead, I began taking long walks in the woods where I began finding interesting pieces of bark that reminded me of western vistas where I grew up. The variety of shapes, colors and textures continue to amaze me. Each time I think I’ve finished the last in the Bark Series I find another piece of special bark and the process starts again.”
The image above is by Alan Cohen and shows 2 mixed media works installed in the gallery on a box pedestal. The work on the left is an open, deconstructed box, 14 x 17 x 6 inches, and titled “What Happened.“ The title is a statement, not a question. You see tiny figures on top of the box and inside and around a deconstructed instrument the artist calls a TRUMP et . The work seen on the right is titled ‘How Men View Women.” It’s another open box, 10 x 9 x 10 inches and includes a tiny nude female figure reclining on the open box lid with 3 tiny male figures standing nearby. Notice there’s an upraised arm on the outside of the box and googly eyes peering out from within the box. Both works by Alan Cohen provoke a closer look. Both works ask questions and ask you to supply the answers.
Alan Cohen retired 10 years ago from a practice as an oral surgeon, and now devotes full time to making art. His mixed media wood boxes push the envelope as a personal, political commentary that’s both serious and humorous. He says he hopes viewers will invent their own interpretation.
This final image shows the remaining 4 mixed media works by Allen Hart. Left to right, the works are:
(1) “Harlequin Mocking Death,” 28 x 11 inches, mosaic and acrylic on canvas (diptych), (2) “Icon,” 40 x 14 inches, mounted airplane wing with collage on canvas, (3) “Mexican Skeleton with Hat,” 16 x 13 inches, mosaic and acrylic on canvas and (4) “Armistice,” 18 x 18 inches, cow skull, 1918 newspaper collage on wood.
Thank you for looking at this exhibition review for PUSHING THE ENVELOPE. I hope you get to see all the works in the exhibition in person at Upstream Gallery. It’s worth the visit. If you can’t see the show in person, visit the Upstream Gallery Facebook page.
Art of Collage 
This exhibiti