Art

THE BRONX River Art Center, 1087 E. Tremont Ave., presents its annual end-of-year student exhibition and benefit sale, which is now taking place through Saturday, July 11. This show highlights the accomplishments and creativity of the center’s students, and it features a wide range of works, including ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, black and white photography, cartooning and graphic design. Admission is free and open to the public. Selected works will be for sale and the proceeds will help to support BRAC’s ongoing educational programs. All art purchases are tax deductible and only cash or checks will be accepted. For more information, call 718-589-5819.

THE RIVERDALE gallery of Elisa Tucci Contemporary Art, located at 5622 Mosholu Ave., presents the new exhibition, “Fantastic Worlds: Landscapes and Cityscapes,” now on display through Wednesday, July 29. This special installation features drawings and other types of work from a group of emerging and mid-career artists, including Rosa Ruey’s utopian cities, new Asianinspired works by Riverdale artist Carole Naggar, mythical lands from Amy Cheng, organic naturescapes by Miriam Brumer and fantasy creatures by Michael Barletta. A wine and cheese opening reception will be held on Wednesday, July 8, from 5 to 8 p.m. The show can be viewed on Fridays, from noon to 5:30 p.m., Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or by appointment. For more information, call 212-729-4974.

THE HUDSON River Museum, located at 511 Warburton Ave., in Yonkers, presents “Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture,” a major new exhibition that explores the history of Dutchinfluence in New York City and the Hudson Valley, now on display through Jan. 10, 2010. This special installation marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage to the New World by tracing the growth of New York’s own Dutch heritage, beginning with the Half Moon’s arrival in New York Harbor and on up to the present day. This story is illustrated through a rich array of more than 250 objects and images, including paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, furniture, decorative arts, maps and more. For more information, call 914-963-4550.

THE RIVERDALE -Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture, 4450 Fieldston Road, invites local residents to join its upcoming “Exploration through Art” workshop, which will be held this summer, from July 1 through Aug. 27. Participants can choose to sign up for either the Wednesday sessions, which run from 2 to 5 p.m., or the Thursday sessions, which take place from noon to 3 p.m. The course, which is ideal for beginners as well as intermediate art students, is designed to promote individual artistic expression through an exploration of creative painting and drawing, while using several different materials, tools and techniques. Riverdale resident Abdelilah Ennassef will be leading the classes and the cost for all nine sessions is $200. For more information, call 718-548-4445.

THE BRONX Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse, at 165th Street, presents its 29th annual Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) exhibition, now on display through Sunday, Sept. 13. The showcase features a wide range of works, including photography, video, collage, sculpture, paintings, multimedia and more, made by a group of 36 emerging artists from New York City. This year’s show, titled “Living and Dreaming,” reveals a powerful depiction of the current era, by presenting personal narratives on various contemporary themes — from cultural collisions to political changes to the unstable economy — while also immersing viewers in realms that conjure the fantastical, the ethereal and the mythological. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 718-681-6000 or go to www.bronxmuseum.org.

THE AMERICAN Folk Art Museum, located at 45 W. 53rd St., presents the unique exhibition, “Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Art of Paula Nadelstern,” which is now on display through Sunday, Sept. 13. This installation highlights a collection of creative quilts that depict kaleidoscopic images made by Ms. Nadelstern, who is a Riverdale resident and has achieved international recognition for her innovative and complex designs. The artist takes jewel-like fabrics and joins them together like slivers of colored glass to create crystalline patterns of wheels, snowflakes, shifting ellipses, and other movements across the surfaces of the textiles. For more information, call 212-265-1040 or go to www.folkartmuseum.org.

THE HEBREW Home at Riverdale, located at 5901 Palisade Ave., presents the new exhibition, ‘Joseph Squillante/Icons of the Hudson: Portrait of a River,’ now on display through Sunday, Sept. 13. This special installation, which is being held in conjunction with New York State’s Hudson River Quadricentennial celebration, showcases more than 20 photographs of iconic sites along the Hudson River, from its source on Mount Marcy, which is the highest point in the state, to a night view from atop the World Trade Center. While Mr. Squillante’s photos primarily explore the river’s majesty, they also serve as a reminder that those who live and work along its shores today must take responsibility for its future. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 718-581-1596.

WAVE HILL West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, presents “overture to Whirl,” a new exhibition by New York artist Janelle Iglesias, now on display in the Sunroom Project Space through Sunday, July 19. For her project, partially shown above, the artist has mimicked the nesting strategies of the bowerbird to create an immense, intricately adorned sculptural environment. The bowerbird, an avian installation artist, is known for its obsessive scavenging of debris to decorate into elaborately designed habitats, or bowers. Accordingly, the artist collected natural and discarded materials, from the grounds of Wave Hill as well as its immediate vicinity, and has assembled them to create her own bower in the Sunroom space. For more information, call 718-549-3200 or go to www.wavehill.org.

THE AMERICAN Museum of Natural History, located at Central Park West and 79th Street, presents the major new exhibition, “Extreme Mammals,” which is now on display through Jan. 3, 2010. This attraction will explore the ancestry and evolution of numerous extinct and living mammal species, ranging from huge to tiny and speedy to sloth-like. Among the fascinating specimens that visitors will encounter are the egg-laying platypus, the recently extinct Tasmanian wolf, fleshed-out models of extinct mammals like the “walking whale,” one of the oldest fossilized bats ever found and a giant life-size replica of the largest land mammal that ever lived. There will also be several dynamic media displays, dioramas, interactive computer animations, hands-on activities, touchable fossils, live animals and more. For more details, call 212-769-5100 or go to www.amnh.org.

This is part of the July 2, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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