The Figure Five Ways
4/8/10-6/27/10
The Schick Art Gallery at Skidmore College presents "The Figure Five Ways," a figurative
exhibition featuring five contemporary artists: Hugo Crosthwaite, Michael Ferris, Jr., Susan Jamison, Sophie Jodoin, and Emily Metzguer. An opening reception will take place in the gallery from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 8, and the show remains on exhibit through June 27, 2010.An artists' lecture featuring Hugo Crosthwaite and Sophie Jodoin will take place April 9 at 11 am in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. The reception, lecture, and exhibition are free and open to the public.


Tijuana-born artist is represented by Pierogi, Brooklyn. In a series of large charcoal and graphite works
on canvas that explore the immediacy and tactility of drawing, Crosthwaite breaks
the white surface with images from a personal narrative that is anguished and intimate,
but also bitterly ironic. Crosthwaite's life bordered two cities, and his work straddles
the contemporary shine of San Diego and the gritty icon-laden world of Tijuana. Revisiting
an adolescent impulse toward the grotesque, macabre, and the obscene, his drawings
convey disillusionment, unspeakable urges, humor, and dark frustrations. Crosthwaite
has had solo gallery exhibitions in Mexico and the U. S. including recent shows at
Pierogi, Brooklyn; San Diego Museum of Art; Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery, San Diego;
and the Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, Ga., among others.


represented by the George Adams Gallery, New York, makes sculptures out of recycled
wood. These forms are then surfaced with a combination of overlaid recycled wood pieces
and acrylic pigmented grout. Ferris creates a dialogue regarding the use of recycled
materials, rendering an accurate likeness of his subject with an intention to communicate
the sitter's complex "inner world" as well. A solo show of Ferris' sculpture opens
at Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, Ill. in September 2010, and he will be featured
at George Adams Gallery, New York in November 2010. In late 2009 a one-person exhibition
of his work toured Hope College, Holland, Mich.; Central Michigan University, Mount
Pleasant, Mich.; and Edinboro University, Edinboro, Penn.


's allegorical egg tempera paintings are featured at both the Nancy Margolis Gallery
in New York and Irvine Contemporary in Washington, D.C. Her paintings include a female
figure whose body is decorated with a hot pink, flowered pattern reminiscent of embroidery
that is associated with extreme femininity. The paintings incorporate plants and animals,
domestic objects, and symbols that reference culturally familiar stories and images.
Medical illustrations of the head are appropriated and modified into archetypal images
that suggest a dream state. Jamison's work is on exhibit at the Taubman Museum in
Roanoke, Va., through May 30. In addition to her exhibitions at the Nancy Margolis
Gallery in New York and Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC, other solo exhibits
by the artist include Spanierman Modern, New York, and Southeastern Center for Contemporary
Art, Winston-Salem, N.C.


Works from Canadian artist 's series Small Dramas & Little Nothings, part of a larger collection titled The War Series, are inspired in part by contemporary war imagery, graffiti, and comic-style silhouettes.
These tiny collages and drawings call into question the numbness with which today's
viewers are habituated to observing the carnage of war and domestic violence. Jodoin
has had numerous solo exhibitions across Canada, including the Edward Day Gallery,
Toronto, Ontario; Battat Contemporary, Montréal, Québec; and Newzones, Calgary, Alberta;
as well as many exhibitions throughout the U.S. and Europe.


's photography is engaged with advances in technology that have changed the ways we
share information. The artist doesn't believe that still imagery will become obsolete,
but realizes that the power a single frame commands has diminished greatly over the
past decade because of the sheer volume of imagery streaming from various media, entertain-ment,
and interactive industries. Her work challenges the viewer to once again be "still"
with an image. Metzguer recently completed an M.F.A. degree at Savannah College of
Art and Design.
Schick Art Gallery acknowledges , New York; , Washington, DC; , New York; and , Brooklyn for lending multiple works for this exhibition.
Hugo Crosthwaite, "Lion Hunt," 2007, graphite, charcoal on canvas, 72 x 72 inches;
courtesy Pierogi, Brooklyn.
Sophie Jodoin, from the series "Small Dramas & Little Nothings," 2008-09, Conté and
collage on Mylar, 9.5 x 7.5 inches.
Images below: Installation views, Schick Art Gallery
