Arts Blog

A solo show featuring the paintings, drawings, and sculpture of Jacquie Alberga Germanow opened at Geisel Gallery (1 Bausch & Lomb Place) on First Friday. The overarching theme in Germanow's work is water, whether expressed in figurative work, portraits, or symbol-heavy sculpture.

"Clearly the glass forms I have created are for me translations of water energy, and their fluid transparency a metaphor for truth and clarity," she says. But the portraits she paints also have an aquatic element as well, sometimes in unpredictable ways.

In "Transition," a painting of a reclining man, Germanow has given her subject a yellow shirt that is seemingly made of waves of light. The bright, undulating material is as kinetic and chaotic as the sea, while its translucence reveals the powerful form and warm skin underneath.

"The human form is the most complex organization of water than I have drawn into focus," she says. She also links human expression and gesture to flowing water. "Water and spirit are metaphorically inseparable in this works."

Though some of Germanow's art seems to have religious undertones -- such as three crucifix-looking, mixed-media sculptures in the rear space of the gallery -- the artist says this is not intentional. The concepts she's working with are much more universal. One of these, a staff-shaped work, "Forgiveness," can be interpreted as a body distorted by the weight of hate, but striving toward a state of grace. Finger and talon-shaped protrusions sprout from the carved and painted oak form, but as the eye follows upward, the acidic colors calm.

See the show through November 30. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, email [email protected], or visit thegeiselgallery.com.

Richard Harvey and Nancy Valle both have work showing in the Little Theatre Café (140 East Avenue) through November 30. The exhibition, "Reveal," includes Harvey's figurative paintings, collages, and sculptures, and Valle's ceramic sculpture.

"As a figurative artist, I explore the psychological and emotive potential of the human face and figure in a contemporary expressionistic style," Harvey says.

His subjects are less people than they are embodiments of emotions and states of mind, and each confronts the viewer with pared-down countenances of vortex eyes and weatherworn hides. Moon-shaped faces preside in atmospheric skies, features sketched out expressively and conveying a sense of calm unease.

Valle's hand-built work is even more pared down, her figurative forms often composed of head and bust shapes but covered in patterns and textures also representative of human conditions.

"Since beginning in sculpture with clay, a broad theme has been central to my work: the relationship between the physical cycles of the natural world and our place within it," she says. "My new work is informed by observations, memories and ideas about who we are as individuals and how we reveal ourselves within nature, community, and culture. These ceramic figural forms are reactions to traditional portraiture: people represented at milestones in their lives from birth to the obituary photo."

See "Reveal" when the Little Theatre Café is open: Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.; Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 5 to 11 p.m.; and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m. For more information, email [email protected].

Slideshow Three to See

6 slides

Three to See

By Rebecca Rafferty

Click to View 6 slides

A small exhibit of stencil and spray paint work by Rochester street artist Ax opened at Surface Salon (658 South Avenue) on Friday night to celebrate Surface's 7th anniversary. "Lost Axiom" features eight large paintings on wood panels, each with a not-so-subtle poke at humanity.

In "It's okay, I don't want to admit we are related either" a chimp covers his eyes in shame while holding a sign that with the title on it. Another piece features a beaming graduate in cap and gown, presenting her diploma with the words "Crippling Debt" in austere calligraphy. A painting of an iPhone locked screen shows a line of "Ax News" headlines, all topical tragedies, with the opportunity to "slide to ignore."

It's cool to see Ax pull together work for a gallery show -- you can usually spot his art painted on walls around Rochester on cardboard that he leaves zip tied to fences and posts for people to find and take home. Ax's work will remain on the walls at least through the end of the month. For hours and more information, call 360-4446 or visit surfaceonsouth.com.

The George Eastman Museum announced this week it had acquired more than 700 Bollywood, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu films, a wide array of related audio recordings, as well as 6,000 film posters. This announcement came shortly after Eastman's announcement of the exciting acquisition of South African artist William Kentridge's oeuvre. The donation of the Bollywood collection makes Eastman Museum the owner and caretaker of the world's largest collection of contemporary Indian cinema held by any museum or film archive.

The collection consists of 775 prints representing 597 film titles, all in 35mm format and made between 1999 and 2013, and about 6,000 film posters. The collection's films come from the Hindi-language film industry commonly known as "Bollywood," as well as Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu productions. Many of the titles are from acclaimed masters of Indian cinema, such as Mani Ratnam, Ashutosh Gowariker, Anurag Kashyap, Nagesh Kukunoor, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

In addition to exposing Rochester audiences to the magical and melodramatic Bollywood aesthetic, the collection contains a wide array of diverse languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

This major collection was discovered in late 2014 in an abandoned California multiplex. The prints had been shipped from India for release in specialized theaters in the United States, but since the multiplex was unable to convert to digital projection, it closed in August 2013. All of the release prints, posters, and projection equipment were left behind.

Dino Everett, archivist of the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, knew the collection would find an appreciative home in Rochester. Everett alerted the Eastman Museum to the existence of the films and posters, and with financial assistance from the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, Eastman Museum rescued the collection.

If the Eastman Museum had not taken ownership of the material and provided an appropriate environment for preserving the collection, it would have been destroyed when the multiplex was razed earlier this year.

"The Eastman Museum has a longstanding interest in South Asian cinema, dating back to the founding curator of our film collection, James Card, and his determined efforts to obtain major works of Indian cinema," said Paolo Cherchi Usai, senior curator of the Museum's Moving Image Department.

"As part of our museum's collection, they will be an invaluable resource for exhibition and scholarly research in Indian cinema," he said.

Slideshow Contemporary Indian cinema acquisition

6 slides

Contemporary Indian cinema acquisition

By Rebecca Rafferty

Click to View 6 slides

Eastman Museum's dedication to preservation plays a key role here, as Indian film studios do not actively preserve their prints after theatrical and home video release, meaning that many titles are lost after their initial premiere. Though the Indian motion picture industry is an important center of cinematic creativity in the world, underfunded collecting institutions in India are unable to offer preservation at the level that Eastman Museum can.

"Having rescued all those prints from destruction is not only a heroic feat," said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and director of the Film Heritage Foundation in Mumbai. "It is a strong commitment to preserve and celebrate the beauty of Indian cinema as part of the world's cultural patrimony. We look forward to working with the Eastman Museum towards a broader and deeper knowledge of the creative energy displayed by contemporary Indian filmmakers through their work."

For more information, visit eastman.org.