Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
A year-round schedule of changing exhibitions is offered to the college and the public, presenting a variety of contemporary artists, collections, traveling exhibitions, and faculty and student artwork.
Exhibitions
Venues include the Rockwell Kent Gallery located in the Feinberg Library as well as the Burke Gallery and Myers Lobby Gallery located in the Myers Fine Arts building.
Joe Remillard: Adirondack Visions
June 7 – August 5, 2022
Location: Burke Gallery, John Myers Building
Reception: Friday, June 10, 2022 5 to 7 p.m.
Gallery Walkthrough with Joe Remillard: Saturday, June 11, 2022 1 to 2 p.m.
The Plattsburgh State Art Museum is pleased to host the work of contemporary realist,
Joe Remillard. Joe is a native of Peru, New York currently living in Georgia where
he is a professor of drawing and painting at Kennesaw State University. Although he
practiced law for several years in New York, his desire to create art led him to return
to school to earn an M.F.A. Degree.
Since then, Remillard’s work has been recognized by various international and national
realist organizations. Including the ARC Annual International Salon and the Portrait
Society of America. His work has also been featured on the cover of International
Artist Magazine and in a feature article in America Artist Magazine.
The people and places he paints are ones with which he has a personal connection.
Many of his works have a narrative, and in all of his pieces he strives to capture
a sense of beauty. He is attracted to images which have a distinctive sense of light
and is inspired by various American realists including the Wyeth family and Homer.
Echoes of Mesoamerica
A Look at Consumable Art & Their Ancient Counterparts
June 7 – August 5, 2022
Location: Slatkin Gallery, John Myers Building
Closing Reception: Thursday, August 4, 2022 5 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
This exhibition juxtaposes gift-shop replicas with to-scale photographs of the archaeological
artifacts they mimic, opening up conversations around visibility, ownership, misinterpretation,
and appropriation of cultural artifacts. Viewers are also challenged to compare gesture,
ornamentation, proportion, material, and consider why decisions were made that might
result in a loss of fidelity when translating to a memento.
Guest co-curator, Dr. Justin Lowry is an assistant professor of archeology and the program coordinator of the Latin American studies program at SUNY Plattsburgh. His is focused on the archaeology of trade, exchange, and the development of societies in Mesoamerica. Co-curator Walter Early is an artist and the museum preparator for the Plattsburgh State Art Museum. His work includes large scale sculpture, casting, ceramic pieces, and large format drawings.
Past Exhibitions
2022 B.F.A. Senior Exhibition
April 9 – May 21, 2022
Location: Myers Lobby Gallery and Joseph C. and Joan T. Burke Gallery
The Plattsburgh State Art Museum is pleased to present this year’s B.F.A. Virtual Thesis Exhibition. This exhibition features work created by graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts students in the SUNY Plattsburgh Department of Art. This represents the culmination of each undergraduate student’s experience of developing a body of work. The exhibition features student work from a variety of studio areas: ceramics, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
For more on the B.F.A, please visit the B.F.A Senior Exhibition page.
North by Nuuk: Greenland After Rockwell Kent
February 1 – March 11, 2022
Location: Burke Gallery
North by Nuuk is an intimate, contemporary look at the people and the social and primal geographic landscapes of Greenland. Photographer Denis Defibaugh presents his journey from Nuuk to the settlement of Illorsuit, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, following Rockwell Kent’s earlier footsteps and offering a fresh look at timeless Greenland. Learn more about North by Nuuk: Greenland After Rockwell Kent at the Burke Gallery.
Rockwell Kent’s Greenland
February 1 – March 11, 2022
Location: Slatkin Gallery
This companion exhibit features original works completed by Rockwell Kent during his
time in Greenland, interviews with current Illorsuit residents conducted by Denis
Defibaugh, hand-tinted lantern slide images and ephemera made during his residence
in Greenland. The majority of these works are generously on loan to us from private
collections.
Pursuing Beauty in Bewilderment at its Profusion: Reflections on Gender & Sexuality in Rockwell Kent’s Greenland Materials
Susan Vanek & Jette Rygaard
Location: Yokum Room 200
When: Friday, March 4 from 3 – 4 p.m.
The paintings, writings, and other artistic materials produced by Rockwell Kent during his time in Greenland are some of his most iconic works, displaying vast, mountainous expanses as well as intimate glimpses into quotidian. At a time when travel to the island was highly restricted, these works provide insight into not only the history of the island but often-unseen everyday life and activities. However, it must be remembered that the materials Kent produced are situated within a particular time, place, and perspective, produced by a visitor to Greenland, and, while beautiful, offer a subjective view of life in the country.
This presentation explores the representation of gender and sexuality in Kent’s Greenland
works, focusing on the depiction of women as “beautiful and unmoral”, caretakers of
men and objects of desire. Revealing far more about norms in the United States in
the early 20th century than understandings of gender and sexuality in Greenland at
the time, Kent’s descriptions nonetheless fit well within a broader common narrative
that positioned Indigenous women as knowable and childlike but also exotic — a trope
in which constructions of gender and sexuality were key and continues to permeate
representations of Arctic Peoples today. This presentation interrogates these representations
and their lasting legacy as well as our role as researchers when approaching such
one-sided historical accounts.
New Light on the Friendship Between Rockwell Kent & Knud Rasmussen
Erik Torm
Location: Online
When: Friday, March 4 from 5 – 6 p.m.
Author of When the Colour Ceases to be Just a Color| Rockwell Kent's Greenland Paintings
Research Fellow Uummannaq Polar Institute
Knud Rasmussen was a famous Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the “father of Eskimology” and was the first European to travel the entire Northwest Passage via dog sled. He was the son of a Danish missionary, the vicar Christian Rasmussen, and an Inuit–Danish mother, Lovise Rasmussen. Although never formally educated, Rasmussen's contributions to anthropology and polar exploration are recognized by academic authorities worldwide. He died having recorded and documented vast knowledge about the native people of the Arctic.
I
n the archives of the Royal Library in Copenhagen are some handwritten letters from
Kent to Peter Freuchen and Daugaard-Jensen, which only a few have been aware of. The
lecture is about the content of these letters.