Sergiy Lebedynskyy is not an old school photographer but he went old school when the situation called for it – photographing the mineral/mud springs of Arabat Spit in his native Ukraine. His photos, on display now at Lumiere, were taken with a Horizon camera, a Russian film panoramic camera, and he printed them on a Russian photographic paper that was discontinued in 1990. The results, yellowed and unpredictable, fit the subject matter and paint an exotic picture of people caught between the Soviet era and an uncertain future.
Abba’s “Dancing Queen” was echoing through downtown as we walked over to RoCo to see the annual Member’s Show without the crowds. The sound was surely coming from the ice skating rink at Manhattan Square Park. I would like to have been on the ice for that one. This RoCo show is always one of my favorites but you have to work a little harder this year to outdo the efforts of Director, Bleu Cease to boost membership. We took our time and found plenty of gems.
First Friday Fanatics that we are, we pushed onward and climbed the four flights of stairs in the Hungerford building to find the Rochester Art Club doors closed. A woman in the hall told us, “They’re pretty good at getting out of here on time.”
7 Comments
Will someone please say what needs to be said about RoCo and their constant curatorial gimmicks? I think it is wonderful that they are thriving financially and thank Bleu for that. But the shows suck. The member show is awful and a gimmick to raise money. 6×6 is the same. The goal as curators should not be to do shows in which 10% of the ‘art’ is not amateur. And those ‘artist’ talks- ugh. That is pure pandering to members who pretend they are artists but don’t actually put in the time.
Some time I’ll tell you how I really feel.
I wish you would.
One fifth of their annual show schedule is devoted to bad amateur art only shown for its fundraising potential. One fifth. It’s why I’m not a member. A ‘contemporary’ art gallery should challenge the visitor and the community, not coddle it.
How’s that Paul? 😉
6×6 is so successful they would be foolish to stop. It brings in new members and raises enough money to support the not-for-profit organization. The non-juried Members Show is the only opportunity many members have to show their work without the 6×6 size constraint. Not all of it is good but you get to do your own curating. I enjoy looking and determining what works and why. And I always find plenty of surprises and rewards in the show. You should join and take this up with the organization.
“It is only by seeing bad art AND good art, that one learns to tell the difference.” Wise Master
Certainly the curatorial success (or not) of RoCo is a topic worthy of discussion but in a space more friendly to thoughtful give and take. A couple of points are worth noting here however. First, the member’s show was rooted in the anti-curatorial ethos of Artist Spaces like our old Pyramid. Bleu’s opinion is that the artist space movement is dead.
In matters organizational (fund-raising, physical plant, organizational networking, etc) most people give the current director very high marks (including me). I sometimes hope he is building a NFP that he believes will be strong enough to carry a higher risk curatorial program but that may be my wishful thinking… Or maybe the two objectives are just in inevitable conflict.
Last, although i am no longer associated with the place, to condemn RoCo to the particular hell of amateurism is less than newsworthy. In years past we had amateur administrators (and BOD) striving for strong programs. Now we have an effective manager but…
Tom Burke
A couple of things. First, in my first comment I laud Bleu for making RoCo financially viable which is a huge achievement. And I get that 6×6 was a big piece of that. I have less issues with 6×6 than the member’s show which I believe should be juried like the Finger Lakes. As for bad art there are more places to see it in Rochester than places to see good art so I don’t think we have any problems making comparisons. Artist spaces: The Yards has had more innovative work consistently than either MAG or RoCo. Ditto for 1975 and Wall Therapy, both arguably artist’s spaces.
I think the answer here would be to separate the manager and curator roles.