Shades of art draw in visitors

Gallery Night features wide variety of Ithacan art and artists

On the first Friday of every month, The Commons fills with people roaming from gallery to gallery looking at different local art.

Gallery Night is held in Downtown Ithaca, with the most recent night held Nov. 4. Every month, the galleries displaying art may change but there is always a wide variety of works showcasing different artists and different artistic styles.

Wendy Gherity is the owner and curator at MIX Art Gallery and helped to curate the current show, DUALITY. The exhibit features two artists: Joy Adams, professor emerita in the Ithaca College Department of Art, and Jason Griego. The exhibit features paintings by Adams and sculptures by Griego which are “mixed” together.

“The show is about duality, so a lot of these works are from different states in [Adams’] career, but they all go with the show’s theme,” Gherity said.

Inside MIX Art Gallery, visitors could see Griego's sculptures and Adams' paintings. Source: Caitlin Holtzman/Ithaca Week

Typically, sculptures are made from metal, clay, stone or wood, to name a few. She said Griego works with ground-up cow bone and resin to create his sculptures.

“He puts that together and sculpts a little bit more and paints and fires it using all natural pigments,” Gherity said. “He developed that technique on his own, so it’s very unique.”

Gherity said this work is not new to her and that MIX is her “brainchild.” She came from a production background where she curated live events. Now, she curates the variety of art at MIX.

“I really enjoyed creating [DUALITY],” Gherity said. “I so enjoyed talking to the artists about their work and bringing them in here and then producing little events.”

Rachel Fierman had her work displayed at Sunny Days of Ithaca, and Fierman was showing her digital art.

“Digital art … can come to fruition in different ways, but I use an iPad with an Apple Pencil and a program called Procreate,” Fierman said. “... I originally did traditional artwork but it kind of adapted to doing digital work.”

For years, there have been debates in the art world surrounding digital vs. traditional art methods. However, both digital and traditional art require talent and artistic skill, and perhaps these methods involve different ways of thinking about art. Fierman said she believes digital art is an interesting tool and avenue for people who already have a knowledge of traditional art mediums.

“You can take those traditional skills and you can take the digital medium and there’s so much that you can adapt from,” Fierman said.

Some of Fierman's digital artworks on display at Sunny Days of Ithaca during Gallery Night. Source: Caitlin Holtzman/Ithaca Week

She said that with painting, there is a good deal of cleaning up, setting up and taking care of paints, but with digital art the artist can pick up the work whenever and leave it for extended periods of time without having to worry about paint drying out.

“If you make a mistake you can just double tap and undo it,” Fierman said. “In a way it makes my process more streamlined and efficient.”

Fierman’s art on display featured brightly colored nature scenes like mushrooms and trees. She said that by growing up in Ithaca she has always been drawn to nature.

“Nature is one of the major drawing factors to Ithaca for a lot of people,” Fierman said.