“Vibrations” series by Marcus Kwame Anderson. (Indiana Nash)
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Through bizarre and brightly-lit sculptures, eerie, snow-covered landscapes, and vibrant digital drawings, the latest exhibit to open at Saratoga Arts contemplates the ever-changing American identity.
The first works to catch one’s eye in the show are eccentric sculptures by Scott Reynolds. Referencing everything from architectural movements to politics and celebrity figures, Reynolds’ work challenges the traditional idea of the American Dream.
One piece, featuring a central column lit up with LED lights and suspended from the ground by a silver tripod, references futuristic Googie architecture, which was popular from the 1940s-1970s and was influenced by the Space Age, the Atomic Age and car culture (Think Seattle’s Space Needle). Reynolds’ sculpture is appropriately titled “Monument to the Death of Googie Architecture.”
Another, called “A Portrait of Andy Warhol as a Chandelier,” features blindingly bright columns of LED lights, brought together to echo a stick figure, its head made out of white plastic with lights aglow in the center. The figure is suspended from a film tripod.
There are a few other works by Reynolds throughout the exhibit, each inspired by the interplay between social and structural environments.
Across the way, Marcus Kwame Anderson’s work offers a stark contrast to Reynolds’, both in terms of tone and medium and it speaks to an often underrepresented aspect of American identity.
A series of digital drawings, done in a rich color palette, depict Black people in profile, each with headphones in. The background illustrations seem to echo whatever music the figure is listening to.
In a painting nearby, a Black man stands in a field full of wildflowers and surrounded by trees, looking toward the sky with a peaceful expression on his face.
Through his work, Anderson aims to celebrate the lives of marginalized Americans, especially Black people whose narratives have long gone underrecognized in the country.
“I thought of how social invisibility impacts the lives of many marginalized Americans,” Anderson writes in his artist statement. “My ink drawings and paintings are a celebration of Black people in particular. Our identity in the American imagination has too often been distorted by pop culture and shaped externally rather than by ourselves.”
Tucked away in the hallway gallery space are stunning lithographs by Amy Silberkleit. Done mostly in greys and blacks, the pieces play with the dramatic effects light can have on a landscape, capturing a mist hanging over a bend in the road or the way a sunset can stretch the shadows of trees in a forest, casting eldritch lines on the forest floor.
The landscapes, which mostly depict rural and natural areas, seem distinctly American. Set in the context of the other works featured in the show, they bring to mind the mutable structures, both natural and manmade, and the narratives at the foundation of the country’s identity.
Rounding out the exhibit are several vivid abstract paintings. Painted by Olivia Hoover Mahoney, the colors drip and bleed from one to the next.
The diverse exhibit, which is part of Saratoga Arts’ juried exhibition series, is open through September 24. For more information visit Saratoga-arts.org.
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