Art at APL
Opalka Gallery is excited to partner with The Albany Public Library in the Art at APL program, a curated fine art exhibition program at the Pine Hills Branch. In two exhibitions each year, the program integrates professional artwork into public spaces within the library to enrich the library experience
and introduce patrons to art by regional and national artists. Art at APL is funded in part by the Friends & Foundation of Albany Public Library. Ask a librarian if you want to join the mailing list, get a list of artwork in the current show, or for other questions about the program.
Opalka Gallery is an innovative exhibition space on the campus of the Sage College of Albany (only 1.5 miles from Pine Hills) that showcases outstanding contemporary art and design from national and international artists. An important part of the cultural life in our Capital Region, the gallery hosts lectures, films, performances and other events in conjunction with five annual exhibitions.
Tuesday/Thursday 10 am-6 pm
Friday 12-6 pm
Repeat Play: The Art of Pattern
December 6 – May 10, 2025
Opening reception on Friday, Dec. 6, 6:00 to 7:30pm, at the Pine Hills Branch library. The reception is hosted by the Friends & Foundation of APL, and will also feature the RK Jazz and Blues, an all-female jazz trio, and light fare. The art opening is free and open to the public.
Pine Hills Library(checklist and other information)
‘Art of Patterns’ at Pine Hills library satisfies both eye, and mind, Times Union, By William Jaeger, April 1, 2025.
Ali Herrmann | Tara Fracalossi | Richard Garrison
Willie Marlowe | Jean-Marc Superville Sovak
Sara Tack | Stephen Tyson | Michael Van Winkle | Deborah Zlotsky
Repeat Play brings together nine artists who use repetitive shapes, marks, and colors to create systems and interrelationships to dazzle the eyes. What you might not see at first glance are the various reasons and ways these artists create patterns. Some of these designs are the visual translation of regular and repeated actions, obsessive observations of the everyday world. Other works refer to historical designs, exhumed for a contemporary perspective. Whether created digitally, leveraging letterforms into webs of patterned curves, or through carefully collaging found fabric, printmaking, oil, or watercolor materials, these artists bring to mind all the patterns we see in our daily lives, reminding us that the inventive mind of an artist is behind many of them.
Above:
Richard Garrison, New Fiction Color Schemes (Albany Public Library – Pine Hills Branch, June 21, 2024, watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper
Past Art at APL exhibitions:
June 7 – November 8, 2024
In Residence: Albany Barn at APL
Ashley Busby | Paula Drysdale | Frazell
Lexi Hannah | Lori Kochanski | Amanda Moore
James Paulsen | Megan Ruch | Kim Tateo
Albany Public Library (APL) and Opalka Gallery celebrate the latest Art at APL exhibition, “In Residence: Albany Barn at APL,” with an opening reception on Friday, June 7, from 6 pm to 7:30pm at the Pine Hills Branch library. The reception is hosted by the Friends & Foundation of APL, and includes light refreshments and music by the Michael Lamkin Trio. The art opening is free and open to the public.
This show presents work from a select group of artists-in-residence at Albany Barn in Albany, Electric City Barn in Schenectady, and Artistry Studios in Schenectady. Mediums include stained glass, fiber, collage, drawing, and painting. Alongside the artwork, artists have included brief statements about their valuable relationship with the programs, whether it is maintaining a studio, or living/working. “In Residence: Albany Barn at APL” features artwork by Ashley Busby, Paula Drysdale Frazell, Lexi Hannah, Lori Kochanski, Amanda Moore, James Paulsen, Megan Ruch, and Kim Tateo.
“At Opalka collaboration in support of artists is a key goal, so partnering with the Albany Public Library and Albany Barn is a perfect fit. We hope visitors enjoy learning about these artists, and the Albany Barn, Inc.’s important contributions to our region’s creative life, as much as we did,” noted Amy Griffin, director of Opalka Gallery.
What started with one location—the Albany Barn—has now grown to three buildings that stretch from Albany to Schenectady. They all provide valuable space and community for artists to continue the development of their work. Albany Barn, Inc., on 2nd St. in Albany provides live/work studio space as well as work-only, private studio space. Electric City Barn on Craig St. in Schenectady offers co-working space. And Artistry Studios on Eastern Ave. in Schenectady provides private studio space.
According to Christie Rose, site director of the Albany Barn, “Albany Barn, Inc., is dedicated to developing the infrastructure and culture necessary to support a thriving and equitable creative economy in the communities we serve. By providing personal and professional development opportunities to artists and emerging creative businesses, we’ve created a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment to produce, share, and sell creative work. Residency options include subsidized live/work apartments, private work-only studios, and project-based youth and small business residencies in our maker space.”
December 1, 2023- December 1, 2024
Long term installation: Dream Work, 2023, by Victoria van der Laan
Secondhand and repurposed textiles, stainless steel wire
Conceived with themes of interconnectedness (weaving/knotting/draping), diversity (of form, color, and size), and energy (bold colors and movement) in mind, Dream Work is a joyous manifestation of abundance and belonging for all. Each of the elements of the work was individually created and intuitively brought together with hand stitches to embody a vision of community care and support that mirrors the sanctuary of the library. This installation was accompanied by a free quilt collage workshop led by the artist andfree and open to everyone age 7 and up.
This installation was made possible in partnership with Opalka Gallery with funds from the Statewide Community Arts Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Arts Center of the Capital Region. Art at APL is generously sponsored by the Friends and Foundation of APL.
December 1, 2023- May 11, 2024
Extra/Ordinary
“10 Exhibitions to See in Upstate New York This March,” Hyperallergic, Taliesin Thomas. Read here.
Opening reception Friday, December 1, 2023, 6:00 to 7:30pm
Cyndy Barbone | John DeSousa | Kathy Greenwood |Lori Lawrence | Joy Muller-McCoola | Mark Olshansky | Jess Stapf | Barbara Todd
“Extra/Ordinary” highlights works by contemporary artists whose creations straddle craft and fine art. Artists from the region are using braiding, sewing, quilting, embroidery, felting, tufting, and needlepoint tapestry to expand domestic visual approaches to artmaking. The results mark time, include images of contemporary culture, are full of carefully embellished surfaces commemorating life, and represent a materiality that tricks the eye.
In Extra/Ordinary, Barbara Todd pays homage to the history of craft with her work, Talking to History (After Center Star with Corner Stars), a quilt completed in black and white, like a memory, identical to an adored colorful historic quilt, “Center Star with Corner Stars.” Kathy Greenwood’s braided rugs gone wild allude to the kind of utilitarian objects women in the late 19th might have made using all of their household fabrics. Here, Greenwood’s titles—Hot Mess, In Labor, and Waste Not—allude to the intensity of domestic production. Cyndy Barbone also refers to “women’s work” by weaving portraits of women she knows personally who are facing various contemporary personal issues. Joy Muller-McCoola’s felted wool artworks trick the eye with her juxtaposition of soft materials and hard-as-a-rock subject matter. Jess Stapf’s work also interferes with our sense of reality; her soft rug surfaces resemble cloud-filled skies. In the needlework realm, Lori Lawrence and Mark Olshansky embrace repetitive and detailed processes of embroidery and needlepoint tapestry that embellish landscape or abstraction. At 94 years old, Olshansky is the oldest artist in the show, and Johnathan DeSousa is one of the youngest. DeSousa’s work shows a fixation with the digital age. In his sewn assemblages, fabric imprinted with images from the internet are sewn together creating a mashup of narratives.
June 2- Nov. 4, 2023
Tag, You’re It!
For APL’s Centennial Anniversary, we invited artists to collaborate on Exquisite Corpse drawings(a unique parlor game started about 100 years ago by the Surrealists)in a show we are calling, Tag, You’re It. 76 artists from the Capital region and beyond, in an orchestrated and “blind” mail exchange, worked together yielding 25 collaborative drawings. Groups of three artists were each assigned a section(“head, torso, legs”) and had to follow a specific mailing schedule. These pieces will be auctioned off in the Fall to fund more ART @ APL programs. Make note of the ones you like!
Artists: Yura Adams, Fern Apfel, Polly Apfelbaum, David Austin, Ever Baldwin, Richard Barlowe, Sharon Bates, David Behl, Judith Braun, Farrell Brickhouse, Donnabelle Casis, Beth Casper, Ashley Norwood Cooper, Pauline Decarmo, Andrew Evans, Jean Feinberg, Rebecca Flis, Peg Foley, Rich Garrison, Danny Goodwin, Kathy Greenwood, Niki Haynes, Andrea Hersh, Juan Hinojosa, Natasha Holmes, Tana Kellner, Jenny Kemp, Anna Kenar, Hedya Klein, Chad Kleitsch, Henry Klimowicz, Lucretia Knapp, Jacqueline Lake- Sample, Madison LaVallee, Jessica Loy, Iain Machell, Jeff Mack, Willie Marlowe, Mindy McDaniel, Josh McPhee, Catherine McTague, Jeanna Mead, Susan Meyer and Jeff Starr, Paul Miyamoto, Laura Moriarty, Michael Oatman, Gina Occhiogrosso, Sara Farrell Okamura, Fernando Orellana, Ruby Palmer, Ahndraya Parlato, Giselle Potter, Tatiana Potts, Ken Ragsdale, Steve Rein, Ben Schwab, Dana Sela, Claire Sherwood, Gail Skudera, Greg Slick, Kamilla Talbot, Kim Tateo, Christina Tenaglia, Melissa Thorne, Barbara Todd, Rebekah Tolley, Rebecca Shepard, Stephen Tyson, Anya Ulinich, Jason van Staveren, Hanna Washburn, Jeff Wigman, Immanuel Williams, Lynne Yamamoto, Deborah Zlotsky
December 2, 2022 through May 6, 2023
Neither Here Nor There
The liminal, the in-between, middle ground, limbo, and the venn diagram. When do we feel at home or familiar with a place? These artists recognize and work within those feelings and places of the in-between—that feeling of being not a tourist, yet not a local. Some do this with materials, some more conceptually, but together they show us that experiencing the complexity of someone else’s view can reveal a new shared intersection of understanding.
Anna Kenar, Ann Le, Iain Machell, Arnela Mahmutović, Miraj Patel, Sarah Pezdek, Karen Schupack, Anya Ulinich
June 3, 2022 to November 5, 2022
Lasting Impression
“Lasting Impression,” a new Art at APL exhibit curated by Opalka Gallery opened on June 3, 2002 at the Albany Public Library Pine Hills Branch. “Lasting Impression” can be viewed by the general public during operating hours at the Pine Hills Branch (517 Western Ave.) from June 4 through Nov. 5.
Art professors often have dual roles: making art and turning students into artists. Eleven regional printmaking professors were asked to exhibit and to, in turn, invite a current or former student to exhibit alongside them. “Lasting Impression” reveals both the range of printwork being made in our region and the lasting impressions students and faculty make on each other. Ten regional colleges are represented in the exhibition: Bard College, Bennington College, Dutchess Community College, Middlebury College, Rensselaer Polytechnic University, Skidmore College, SUNY Oneonta, University at Albany, University of Hartford, and Union College.
The “Lasting Impression” artists are: Jesse Alsdorf, Allison Conley, Leona Christie, Thorsten Dennerline, Andrew S. Evans, Jr., Charlotte Fairless, Bekka Goedde, Lindsey Guile, Jon Greene, Hedya Klein, Alexandra Lake, Branden Law, Kate Leavitt, Nathan Meltz, Catherine McTague, Farhad Mirza, Madeline Montero, Rhea Nowak, Tatiana Potts, Sydney Samele, Rebekah Tolley, and Immanuel Williams.
The exhibit is in conjunction with the Screenprint Biennial and Graphic Liberation exhibitions opening at Opalka Gallery on September 6. The Lasting Impression reception and exhibit are partially funded by the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library.
October 1, 2021 through April 17, 2022
Pieced Together
The exhibit showcased artists who transform cut paper and other discarded materials into new compositions. Whether through model making or collage, these artists find inspiration in scrap paper, fabric remnants, old maps, photos, or magazines. For some, the allure of a commonplace material like cardboard is the freedom inherent in it—it isn’t precious or perceived as valuable so anything goes. For others, it’s the history of the material—all the other stories it has told and can yet tell. Often it’s simply the economy of re-using scraps. Ultimately, the satisfaction comes from piecing it all together into something new.
Artists: Fern Apfel, Paula Drysdale Frazell, Danny Goodwin, Chloe Harrison, Niki Haynes, Beth Humphrey, Henry Klimowicz, Juan Hinojosa, Melinda McDaniel, Michael Oatman, and Kenneth Ragsdale.
Watch a video about the exhibition here:
December 2021
Creative Curbsides
During the COVID19 pandemic, the library was closed to the public, with only curbside service. Instead of an indoor exhibition at the Pine Hills Branch, we proposed a public art initiative to feature local artist’s work in the windows of two branches, the Bach Branch on New Scotland Ave. and the Arbor Hill/West Hill Branch on Henry Johnson Boulevard. A public call was issued and out of 14 proposals, two were chosen. Eight Plums (Gracelee Lawrence and Ben Seretan) created the Bach Branch installation while Dana Sela in collaboration with Kim Tateo of the Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm created the one for the Arbor Hill/West Hill Branch.
See the Albany Times Union article about the project here.
And on Albany Made, an Albany Public Library podcast, Opalka Director Judie Gilmore and Exhibitions and Marketing Manager Amy Griffin, spoke with APL’s Head of Branches (Bach & Pine Hills) Deanna DiCarlo about the project. Listen here.
December 6, 2019-May 2, 2020
Rear View: Life Examined
Rear View: Life Examined featured artists whose work begins with memory. Whether starting from oral histories, (Daesha Devón-Harris and Paul Miyamoto), from old snapshots (David Austin, Steve Rein, and Gail Skudera), or from actual memories (Leona and Gavin Christie, Meighan Gale, and Kenneth Ragsdale), these artists examine the ways we try to hold on to, reconstruct, and reckon with memories throughout our lives. This process knits together our past to our present, forging a narrative of a life, examined.
Read William Jaeger’s review of Rear View in the Albany Times Union here.
Rear View coincided with the installation of Kenneth Ragsdale’s “A Melody with Embedded Harmonies,” a temporary installation by artist Kenneth Ragsdale, made possible by an Upstate Coalition for a Fairgame Arts Grant. The installation was extended due to the pandemic.
June 7 through November 2, 2019
Picture This 
Picture This was the first Opalka/Art at APL collaboration. Dive into any good book and vivid imagery appears in your mind. Great authors use words to create new worlds, guiding readers through carefully chosen descriptions, metaphors, and the rhythms of language. Similarly, artists can create stories and characters through pictures, using color, style, and scenery to suggest imagined places and narratives. In both cases, the reader (or viewer) plays a part in the creation of the fictional world.
Picture this: a young girl learns about her grandfather, a cacao farmer in the Ivory Coast; a fan gets the opportunity to sit with his idols; a girl asks her older sister what to dream about; a cat presides over a multigenerational family. These are some of the stories told by the artists in this exhibition, all whose work has a whimsical or fantastic quality, suggesting larger stories for authors or viewers to fill in with their imaginations. Some of the exhibited artists are indeed book illustrators and writers (Jeff Mack, Matthew McElligott, Giselle Potter, Stacey Robinson and Elizabeth Zunon), and some are painters (Darcie Abbatiello, Brian Cirmo, and Ann Wolf) whose work is not created primarily for books. But these artists all share a similar studio practice–creating pictures that tell a story, introducing us to new places and characters. We, as viewers, get to fill in the blanks.