THE BUSINESS REVIEW (STRATEGIES)
Photo Credit:Donna Abbott Vlahos
Photo Caption: Top Left photo, Tommy Watkins installs work in the Arcade Building. Top Middle photo, from left: Lynn Coleman and Matti Perrott check out the Arcade Building installation. Top right photo, from left: Matthew and Kevin Hart, install their sculpture at 74 State St. Bottom photo, the art installation, 29 Maiden Lane.
AFTERS Hours
16 Windows of Art
Artist Chip Fasciana, Co-founder of Albany Underground Artists, started putting together art shows in vacant buildings because there isn’t a lot of gallery space available. In exchange for temporary use of empty space in downtown Albany, Fasciana cleans up and paints the space, making it more attractive to prospective tenants.
In May, the Albany Underground Artists held a well attended one-night show in the former Home Savings Bank at 11 N. Pearl Street. From that grew the seeds of the 16 Windows of Art, a three-month exhibition designed to show off the region’s artists, attract attention to available space and give people another reason to come downtown.
The Show, which runs until Feb. 11, has attracted artists working in a variety of media. Father-and-son welders Kevin and Matthew Hart have made a life-sized bass guitarist out of more than 100 pieces of twisted metal.
The piece, which will have “shiny, chrome appeal” is a chance to do something different with the skills from their day job, said Matthew Hart, 21. The younger Hart, who is also a painter, recently joined his father as an apprentice at sheet-metal fabricator Albany Metal/VF Conner Co.
The Harts’ sculpture will be upstairs at 74 State St. 16 Windows, part of the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District’s new branding campaign, will mostly be shown in vacant windows, but will also can be seen at the newly renovated Palace Theatre.
Other pieces in the show include Neil Colligan’s “The Traffic Button,” a mix of 35mm and digital video shot in New York City, the Catskills and Albany, in the Ten Eyck Building at 40 N. Pearl St.; a sculpture made from stone salvaged from local buildings by Samson Contompasis at 27 N. Pearl St.; and a fashion-inspired display by Marika Chornyak at North Pearl Street and Steuben Place.
For more information, visit www.downtownalbany.org
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