PRESS RELEASE: Real Places, Imagined Spaces Opening September 6

Exhibition: "Real Places, Imagined Spaces"
Featuring abstract paintings by Michael Berman, mixed media by Sandy Clift, photography by John Dowling, Finger Lakes photography by John Francis McCarthy and metal sculptures by Michael Moberg.

Dates: September 6 – October 6, 2007
Location: Delavan Art Gallery, 501 W. Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY 13204
Hours: Thursdays and Fridays 12-6 p.m., Saturdays 10-4 p.m. and also by appointment
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 6, 5-8 p.m.
Also open for Th3, The Third Thursday: Thursday, September 20, 2007, 5-8 p.m.

MEET THE ARTISTS!
Artists in Attendance:
Saturday September 8, noon - 3 p.m.- Sandy Clift
Saturday September 15, noon - 3 p.m.- John Francis McCarthy
Thursday September 20, 5-8 p.m.- Michael Berman (Th3)
Saturday September 22, noon - 3 p.m.- Michael Moberg
Saturday September 29, noon - 3 p.m.- John Dowling

Special Events:
Saturday September 8 at 1 p.m. and October 6 at 12:30 p.m.- Presentation and demonstration by artist Sandy Clift about the process of creating her series "While I Was Sleeping"
Thursday September 20 from 5 - 8 p.m.- Th3, The Third Thursday, Syracuse's citywide visual arts night. For more information please visit www.th3syracuse.com
Saturday October 6 at 2 p.m.- Stone Canoe Poetry Reading featuring performing poet and sound artist Duriel Harris, professor of English at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. For more information on Duriel Harris and the publication Stone Canoe, please visit www.stonecanoejournal.org


SYRACUSE, New York -- August 22, 2007 --  Delavan Art Gallery is pleased to present the exhibit "Real Places, Imagined Spaces" featuring abstract paintings by Michael Berman, mixed media by Sandy Clift, photography by John Dowling, Finger Lakes photography by John Francis McCarthy and metal sculptures by Michael Moberg. The exhibit opens on Thursday, September 6 and continues through Saturday, October 6, 2007.

Michael Berman paints large abstractions using geometric formations and bright contrasting colors on a variety of materials including burlap and corkboard. The Syracuse native studied under a three year scholarship at the Art Students League of New York where he received the "Best of Show" distinction for two years. For over twenty years since then, his work has been shown extensively in the metropolitan areas of New York and New Jersey, in Utah and throughout Central New York. Berman once said he finds working on a large scale, "the most challenging and the most satisfying in (his) working process."
Michael Berman - Untitled, oil and acrylic paint on burlap, 72" x 72"

After retiring from thirty-one years of teaching elementary school in Fulton, NY, Sandy Clift returned to the State University College at Oswego to pursue art and has been exhibiting nationally and regionally ever since. This exhibition features a series of art called "While I Was Sleeping." In these works, Clift combines technically detailed drawing with unique surfaces creating using tissue paper, packaging paper, matte medium, glue, pastels, Caran d'Ache, watercolors and acrylics. About the imaginative subject matter, Clift writes in her artist statement, "I had a collection of plastic animals when I was a child. I still have some of them, and it is still amusing to consider what they might be up to while I am busy."
Sandy Clift - Where Is Our Alto from the series While I Was Sleeping, mixed media, 23.87" x 19.75"

John Dowling has over twenty-five years of experience as a professional photographer in the corporate, advertising and editorial markets. A former staff photographer for the Syracuse Newspapers with a Masters degree in Photojournalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Dowling has an impressive list of clientele. Through photo assignments for the New York based photo agencies Black Star and Liaison, Dowling's list includes Subaru, DuPont, General Motors, Corning Glass, HBJ Publishing, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. The stock photo collection at John Dowling Photography has been an essential source of images used to market the area for tourism and economic development. The exhibit features photographs from Dowling's travels around the world.
John Dowling - Maui Sunset, photography

John Francis McCarthy is a well established Finger Lakes photographer with five photography books in print. In the traditions of America's great landscape artists, McCarthy captures the majestic scenery around Watkins Glen, Ithaca, Skaneateles, Naples and Canandaigua. He records the rich landscape with all the brilliance that we recall places in memory and dreams: luminous- bathed in light, mist, color, reflection. His biography explains that his vision "is drawn from a rich vein of color and imagination once found in life on Tipperary Hill," an Irish neighborhood in Syracuse's west side where McCarthy grew up. Although he has photographed around the world, McCarthy has focused on the Finger Lakes as his home and the subject of his art.
John Francis McCarthy - Emerson Park, Owasco Lake, photography

Michael Moberg has twenty years experience working as an ironworker and is currently employed at Raulli Ironworks in Syracuse. He first started working creatively about around nine years ago when he made a large-scale "Bride of Death" out of steel as a wedding present for a friend. The work proved very popular and became a local landmark for several years at John's Bayside Restaurant in Constantia, where the owner dressed the Bride for holidays like Valentine's Day. She later went on tour with bands including One Hard Crank and The Naturals. Like the Bride, Moberg's creative career has had a life of its own. Since his friends' wedding, he has made hundreds of metal sculptures and in 2006 was the premiere artist at the Swap Meet, the biggest motorcycle show in New York City.
Michael Moberg - Deep Red, metal sculpture, 67" H

Delavan Art Gallery is a 3,800 square foot showcase and sales venue for fine art created by area artists. Conveniently located downtown at 501 West Fayette Street in Syracuse, the gallery is free and open to the public. Off-street parking is available and the gallery is handicapped accessible. Delavan Art Gallery opens “Real Places, Imagined Spaces” from 5 - 8 p.m. on Thursday, September 6. The show is on exhibit through Saturday, October 6 on Thursday and Friday afternoons from 12-6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. -  4 p.m. and at other times by appointment. For more information visit www.DelavanArtGallery.com.