Ceramics by Carles Vives

Remember to stop by this week and check out our Wild Card exhibition "Ceramics by Carles Vives"! Delavan Art Gallery is one of two outside venues chosen to exhibit selections of works by Carles Vives, on loan from Onondaga Community College where the ceramicist recently completed a residency. “Ceramics by Carles Vives” runs through this Saturday, March 28 at the Delavan, concurrent with a similar display featured on loan at the Everson Museum.

In the interest of a cultural exchange, Vives was invited here by OCC art professor Andy Schuster to do workshops and an exhibit at The Gallery at Ann Felton Multicultural Center. Schuster and Vives are long-time friends who once shared a studio in Spain. From his home in Catalonia, Vives traveled to the United States for the first time and set to work with OCC students, redoing and firing his architectural and sculptural pieces influenced by the different environment of their world. The artist says that some of the work he created here in February reflects Syracuse’s nature, especially winter tree branches.

With regard to community outreach, Professor Schuster planned to give more of the public the opportunity to view and experience Vives’ multiple talents before his show ends at the college in mid-April. “Doing a show at the Delavan Art Gallery was a likely choice,” he says. “Bill Delavan is known for his untiring efforts to enrich the community. His art gallery, readily accessible to the public, is home to many regional artists and their diverse works of high quality art.”

Bill Delavan says of his gallery’s Wild Card show: “The Delavan Art Gallery, along with the Everson Museum of Art, is honored to host “Ceramics by Carles Vives.”

Gallery hours this week are Thursday and Friday, noon-6pm, and Saturday 10am-4pm. Stop by and see this stunning exhibition!

Interning at the Delavan

Before I begin to rave about my internship experience at the Delavan a little background information will be helpful. My name is Kari O'Mara and I am a Studio Arts,with a Specialization in Photography, major with minors in English and Art History at Cazenovia College and I am in my Junior year. Last semester I began hunting for an internship site for the spring semester. I over heard my professor, Anita Welych, talking with another student about an internship opportunity with the Delavan. The other student did not seem very interested but how Anita was describing the Delavan it seemed very interesting and fun. I hounded Anita until she got me in communication with Caroline, the gallery manager at the Delavan. After email transactions and an interview I became the new intern at the Delavan.

I'll admit I was unsure what I had gotten myself into. I had visited galleries before, mainly photographic exhibits, but what it was going to be like to intern for a gallery I had no idea. Naturally I was nervous before I started and looking back now it seems silly because interns are not welcomed to the Delavan with basic training and gradual acceptance; interns are pulled right into the Delvan experience with open arms and a vast supply of sugary sweets. While Caroline made sure she did not give me tasks in which I was in over my head or overwhelmed, she would give me a task, make sure I understood, and then she would let me at it and feel confident in my abilities to continue on unsupervised and I greatly appreciated that. It is odd to be writing about my experience as an intern because honestly I do not feel like an intern at all, because at this gallery tasks are assigned and done by all, everyone puts in the same amount of hard work, and every one's ideas are written down and stored away for the perfect time.

Listening to the other internship experiences of my classmates I am confident that interning at the Delavan was the best place I could have picked. I have been able to talk with amazing and highly creative artists, I have been able to put my artistic insight to use,and I have been able to walk into a gallery and see all of the hard work that is put into a show come together and see how people react to it.

The task that I have enjoyed the most at the Delavan would be deciding and hanging art in the gallery. That task, while enjoyable, is also frustrating, tiring, and humbling. One day I was left alone for two hours before Kathy, a gallery volunteer, arrived to help with this simple task "redo the continuing artists section". Sounds easy? Oh boy. Kathy and I worked for four hours trying and hanging pieces. There were sections we had done that we loved and sections we were not so fond of. When I came back two days later wondering the final outcome of our work I was delighted to see the section I was the happiest with remained, for the most part, the same. But it is a lesson of working in a gallery that not everything you do is enjoyed by all and some of what Kathy and I had done had been changed or removed. I learned that lesson early on at the Delavan and realized not the take it personally but there are still times when you are disappointed with changes to your ideas.

Overall and by far, I am so happy and content with my experience at the Delavan. And although my merger ideas of what interning at a gallery was going to be like were squashed, they were replaced by great, odd, and fun experiences. And I will never forget how silly and wonderful the staff at the Delavan is, even when they are trying to force feed me everything edible they have stocked.

-Kari O'Mara, Gallery Intern

Delavan Art Gallery Welcomes New Staff

Delavan Art Gallery in downtown Syracuse welcomed two new additions to the gallery staff in January. Jessica Heckman was named Marketing Coordinator and Gloria Romeo assumed the position of Public Relations Coordinator, formerly held by Courtney Rile.

Jessica Heckman received her BA in Corporate Communications from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA, and her MS in Public Relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is currently the Promotions Coordinator for Light Work, a non-profit photography organization located at Syracuse University, as well as the Marketing Coordinator for Delavan Art Gallery. She has managed her own business, and completed internships in both the Publicity department of a prominent London publishing company and the Media Relations department of MSNBC.

Gloria Romeo has long been active in the arts and regional community relations. Director of the "On My Own Time" visual arts program that introduces and celebrates artists employed in the area's work force and is produced annually by Cultural Resources Council and the Everson Museum of Art. Romeo is a recipient of the Post-Standard Achievement Award for Cultural Development. She continues to manage her own consulting business in Public Relations and Special Events and has worked with Central New York Chambers of Commerce to create and coordinatre seasonal events. Romeo serves on Armory Square Association's Board of Directors and coordinates the Association's annual Candlelight Series.

'Feel Lucky' on Friday the 13th Event

Delavan Art Gallery invited the public to dispel the bad-luck myth of Friday the 13th by joining us for a program of Songbook hits by Jazz vocalist Marcia Rutledge, accompanied by the intimate guitar sounds of Doug Robinson.

Based in Syracuse NY, Marcia Rutledge is a recording artist who has performed throughout Central New York for some 15 years with swing, accappella and jazz ensembles in a wide range of venues. Nominated three times for Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMY), she includes in her repertoire a select list of jazz and pop standards, blues, and R&B tunes, along with original songs she has composed with longtime musical associate, David Solazzo. Her interpretation of the Great American Songbook is enhanced by song selections from the 70's pop era.

When asked about her career in music thus far, Ms Rutledge replied, "I sing what I like. It usually strikes a sympathetic chord in my listening audience, since beautiful, sincerely interpreted songs are what we are all about. Music is constantly available to all of us now, electronically, but live music will always have a special place."

For accompaniment at her Delavan Art Gallery gig, Rutledge chose the intimate sounds of guitarist Doug Robinson, a musician, vocalist and producer whose extensive talents include touring and recordings with British guitar legend Martin Simpson, a multi-year stint as a staff musician at the famous "Festival D'Ete World Music Festival in Quebec City, Canada, European tours and Carnegie Hall appearances with Jazz trumpeter Johnny Russo and his East Hill Classic Jazz Group.

Paintings by Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh

Above: (Left) Koh - Afternoon, (Right) Koh - Birth & Son


Born on Jeju Island, South Korea, Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh shares some of his heritage in his paintings that reflect the 'Integration of human life and historical space through time.'

"Paintings by Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh" opened in Delavan Art Gallery's Wild Card space on February 12 and ran through February 28.

In his background bio, Koh tells the story of Jeju Island's one thousand year old black stone statue called Dol-hareubang or Grandfather Stone that is carved out of porous basalt rock. One of the best known symbols of the Island, the statue of bulging eyes, long flat nose, clenched lips and big hands resting on the belly illustrate the simple and humorous nature of people. Koh describes that inspiration to "bring the historic aesthetic of the stone carving to my life subjects."

"As an architect, I work with designs of all kinds of space form for one to experience the relationship between human life and place through time. I try to interpret how the past relates to the present," he says. His bright, colorful paintings feature the human figure with a variety of facial expressions, posed before venues of space that represent all moments or actions of life.

Stone Canoe 3 Exhibition

For the third consecutive year, Delavan Art Gallery hosted the Stone Canoe visual arts exhibit that brings to the Syracuse site a diverse array of works produced by regional artists and those beyond who otherwise have a distinct tie to Upstate New York.

The Stone Canoe 3 exhibit opened on Thursday, January 22 and ran through February 28. The exhibition significantly coincided with the third annual edition of the prestigious Stone Canoe Journal, a diverse collection of arts and ideas published by Syracuse University to promote "the cultural and intellectual richness that characterizes life in Upstate New York."

Gail Hoffman, Journal Visual Arts Editor and show Curator said: "What is striking about this diverse group of well-known, established and emerging artists is their depth of voice, vision, and their ability to surprise, evoking a sense of place that is unique to Upstate New York in images of local landscapes, towns, and people caught in familiar seasonal cycles." Robert Colley, Journal Editor adds, "It is deeply satisfying to see all of this work come together as collective proof of the creative spirit that is nurtured within, or touched by, our region."

Delavan Art Gallery Director Bill Delavan said, "The opportunity to host Stone Canoe extends the Gallery's own mission to celebrate noted regional artists and introduce new ones."

Among the artists featured were: Marianne Barcellona, Marty Blake, Lauren Bristol, Elaine R. Defibaugh, Sylvia de Swaan, Donna L. Emerson, Paul Farinacci, Lisbeth Firmin, John Fitzsimmons, Emily Fleisher, Bob Gates, Jon Gernon, Thomas Gokey, Fred Gonyea, Erica Harney and Aldo Lira. Also, David R. MacDonald, Jennifer Marsh, Lalit K. Masih, Deloss McGraw, Rebecca Murtaugh, Mary Nelson Zadrozny, Steven Pearlman, Stephan Phillips, Awenheeyoh Powless, Mark Robbins, Roger Shimomura, Nancy Sirkis, Yolanda Tooley, Gary Trento, Kim Waale, and Phil Young.

Image information: (Left) Stone Canoe 3 cover, (Right) Lalit K. Masih, "Ramp Cafe"