Online Events
Broadstone Books Poetry Reading
Stage & Stanza Honors Michael Oatman and Recinda Robinson
Nathaniel Donnett Artist Talk
Shifting Gaze Artist Panel Discussion
Stage & Stanza Honors Sheilah London and Ira Eugene McKinley
Stage & Stanza Honors Angie Smith & Jean-Remy Monnay
Virtual Artist Talk with Ann Le
Ann Le joined us live from L.A. to talk about her work which deals with identity, culture, family history, and the duality of becoming Vietnamese-American. Co-sponsored by the RSC Dept. of Visual & Performing Arts and the Russell Sage Women’s Institute.
Scrimshaw Distinguished Visiting Artist Lecture: Rudy Shepherd
April 7, 2021. Scrimshaw Distinguished Visiting Artist Rudy Shepherd spoke about his work and answered questions from a student-led panel.
Virtual Artist Talk with Saki Mafundikwa
March 17, 2021. Renowned graphic designer Saki Mafundikwa joined us live from Zimbabwe to talk about his art and career. Co-sponsored by Opalka and the RSC Dept. of Visual & Performing Arts and the RSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Virtual Artist Talk with Terry James Conrad
Feb, 17, 2021. Terry James Conrad discusses his work and his exhibition, Object Permanence.
Dispatches from the Iowa Booth: Dr. Silvia Secchi
Feb. 11, 2021. Terry James Conrad hosts Dr. Silvia Secchi, Associate Professor of Geographical & Sustainability Sciences, University of Iowa. Secchi is interested in the nexus between humans and the environment, the tools and methodologies we use to understand it, the policies we adopt to change it, and the pedagogy of teaching it.
Dispatches from the Iowa Booth: Dr. Joan Bernhard
Feb. 18, 2021. Terry Conrad hosts Dr. Joan Bernhard, Senior Scientist, Geology & Geophysics Department, University of Iowa. Joan M. Bernhard, Ph.D., is an oceanographer who largely studies microscopic marine protists called foraminifera. While Joan’s research concentrates on biological attributes, including cell biology and ecology, the questions she asks typically have geological and/or paleontological implications and repercussions.
Dispatches from the Iowa Booth: Tommy Santee Klaws
Feb. 25, 2021. Terry hosts musician Tommy Santee Klaws who performed a set of eight original compositions, four traditional songs and four soundscapes using instruments built by Terry. The instruments include cigar box guitars, microphones and the percussive sculpture Interstitial Plains, all of which are on view in the gallery as part of “Object Permanence.”
Dispatches from the Iowa Booth: Donté K. Hayes
March 4, 2021. Terry invites artist Donté K. Hayes to the Iowa Booth to talk about Terry James Conrad invites Donté K. Hayes to the Iowa Booth to talk about his work, which utilizes printmaking, performance, sculpture, and installation combined with research into the slave trade and colonization of the Caribbean and Southern US, hip-hop, and science fiction.
Dispatches from the Iowa Booth: Brian Dewan
March 11, 2021. For the last episode of Dispatches, Terry welcomes Brian Dewan to the Iowa Booth. Brian and Terry play a set of some of Brian’s instruments (that he built with his cousin, Leon Dewan) and some of Terry’s instruments, followed by a conversation with the audience about Brian’s work and interests. Brian Dewan is a visual artist and musician living in Catskill, NY.
Terry Conrad: Object Permanence Tour and Conversation
Artist Terry James Conrad and Opalka Director Judie Gilmore walk us through his solo survey exhibition and demonstrate his new sound piece, Interstitial Plains.
Unraveling Tour and Artist Conversation
A virtual reception and tour for Unraveling followed by Artist/Woman. Woman/Artist., a panel discussion with the artists, Yura Adams, Joan Grubin, Ruby Palmer, and Christina Tenaglia, and moderated by Nicole Hayes, curator at Art Omi. We were pleased to partner with the new Women’s Institute at Russell Sage for this panel discussion. A virtual reception and tour for Unraveling followed by Artist/Woman. Woman/Artist., a panel discussion with the artists, Yura Adams, Joan Grubin, Ruby Palmer, and Christina Tenaglia, and moderated by Nicole Hayes, curator at Art Omi. We were pleased to partner with the new Women’s Institute at Russell Sage for this panel discussion.
Infinite Uncertainty Opening and Tour
Showcasing artists at work in a changing world: new projects initiated, old ones revisited, creative bursts and detours in practice. Selected from over 250 submissions, 33 regional artists attempt to make sense of this unprecedented time and its persistent, frightening and painful unknowns. Juried by Sharon Bates, Stacey Robinson, Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres.
Artist Lecture Series @ Opalka
Co-sponsored with Art+Design at Russell Sage College
Spring 2020
Laetitia Hussain
Laetitia Hussain is a process artist who works across multiple media including drawing, installation, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, sound and video. Her imagery and forms address psychological and emotional responses to environmental issues, including challenges related to mental illness. She has exhibited at John Davis Gallery (Hudson), Sculpture Space (Utica), Clermont Historic Site, and Basilica Hudson. A graduate from SUNY Purchase, she was born in Marseille, France and currently lives in Hudson, NY. Laetitiahussain.com
Fall 2020
Melinda McDaniel
Melinda McDaniel grew up in Florida, inspired by the visual overload of Walt Disney World and the endless light at the center of the state’s predictable weather. Her current work involves collaged ceramic figurines that play out and exaggerate the complexities of human emotional connections. She received a BFA in studio art from Florida State University and an MFA in photography from The Ohio State University. Her work has exhibited at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the Governors Island Art Fair in New York, the BRIC Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois. In 2014 Melinda received the Emerging Artist Award from the Arts Center of the Capital Region in New York. She calls Albany, New York home where she is also an assistant professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Russell Sage College. https://www.melindamcdaniel.com/
Lisa Maione
Lisa J. Maione is an art director, designer, and educator. Lisa cut her teeth in New York City at various studios including 2×4, Pentagram, mgmt. design, Wolff Olins, and Metropolis magazine before starting an independent studio practice. Lisa holds a BFA and an MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a post-graduate certificate in Typeface Design from Type@Cooper NYC. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri. http://lisamaione.com
Yura Adams
Yura Adams recently received a Pollock-Krasner grant and exhibited at the Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, Collar Works, Troy, New York and produced a large-scale, hand-made paper installation for her one-person show at the Courthouse Gallery in Lake George, New York. She has been presented as a visual and performance artist in numerous venues in California and New York, and has had many one-person shows at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson New York. Adams is curator/director of contemporary art of the Foundation Gallery at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, New York. yuradams.com
Christina Tenaglia
Christina Tenaglia has been a recipient of a purchase award grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018, a NJ State Arts Council Fellowship Award for Sculpture in 2014, the W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts in 2011, and has received fellowships for residencies at The MacDowell Colony, I-Park, and Catwalk. She has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York and elsewhere and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Vassar College, living and working in Saugerties, NY. https://www.christinatenaglia.com
Conversation @ Opalka
Spring 2020
Rear View Artist Talk: Paul Miyamoto with Carolyn Callner
In partnership with Albany Public Library and the APL Foundation, Opalka Gallery curated “Rear View: Life Examined” about artists and memory at the Pine Hills Branch featuring:
David Austin, Leona Christie, Gavin Christie, Daesha Devon-Harris, Meighan Gale, Paul Miyamoto, Kenneth Ragsdale, Steve Rein, and Gail Skudera. Here, Paul Miyamoto shares the inspiration for his images of the internment of naturalized citizens and Americans of Japanese descent from 1941 to 1946. Paul’s father, mother, two sisters, a brother and both grandparents were sent to Poston Camp in Arizona. Miyamoto talks with Carolyn Callner, a Nisei and an internee at the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming.
Regional Curators and the Pandemic
An informal conversation with regional curators. Judie Gilmore and Amy Griffin of Opalka Gallery chat with Julie Lohnes of the Mandeville Gallery at Union College and Julie Torres and Ellen Letcher of LABspace in Hillsdale, NY about the challenges artists and galleries face at the outset of the 2020 COVID19 pandemic.
Happy Hour with Michael Oatman and JoAnne Carson
Opalka director Judie Gilmores chats with artists Michael Oatman and JoAnne Carson.
Careers for Art School Students
To help students gain broader knowledge about career opportunities for individuals with degrees in the arts, we gathered regional artists/creatives about their diverse paths after art and art history programs and hear about their obvious and not-so-obvious jobs and the choices that led them to their current careers.
Panelists: Belinda Colon, curator at Arts Center Capital Region and Spring Street gallery director, Caroline Corrigan, graphic designer and illustrator, Jamel Mosely, multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur, Fernando Orellana, associate professor of digital art at Union College, Jake Winiski, Research Biologist, Ecovative Design. Moderated by Judie Gilmore, Opalka director
So You Want to Go to Art School?
As part of our High School Regional exhibition, we are hosted a panel discussion all about art school: applying, getting in and what to expect. Hear from Russell Sage faculty and staff and one student in the Art+Design program.
Panelists: Lynn Capirsello, Interior+Spatial Design, William Fillmore, Art+Extended Media, Amy Griffin, Exhibitions and Marketing Manager, Opalka Gallery, Matthew McElligott, Graphic and Media Design, Leah Rico, Graphic+Media Design, Madison Scisci, Senior in Art+Extended Media. Moderated by Opalka Director Judie Gilmore.
Creative Careers Panel Discussion
Hosted by and in partnership with The New York State Art Teachers Association, Region 6, Russell Sage College, Opalka Gallery and the Capital Area Art Supervisors.
A panel discussion about careers in the arts, from what to get a degree in to what to expect in the workplace. Brought to you in partnership with The New York State Art Teachers Association, Region 6, Russell Sage College, Opalka Gallery and the Capital Area Art Supervisors.
With Keynote Speaker Russell Sage College President Christopher Ames and guest speakers: Leah Rico (Graphic Design), Jamey Stevenson (Game Design), Jayana LaFountaine (Photo), Darian Henry (Video), Matt McElligott (Fine arts/Illustration), Tara Fracalossi (Arts admin/Museum), and Beth Thomas (K-12 Art Education). Moderated by NYSATA Region 6 co-chairs Melanie Painter and Anne Manzella.