The Roz Steiner Art Gallery at Genesee Community College is hosting a group exhibition called Handicraft Habitat. This invitational explores the world through the eyes of artists. It aims to showcase the beauty of both the natural environment and the manufactured realm. This exhibition plays with the dichotomy between abstract art and realism, as well as being a multi-media experience. The gallery is excited to be working with three incredibly talented artists from Western New York to bring this stunning new show to life.
David Burke is lifelong resident of the Rochester area where he raised and homeschooled his two children. He began his artistic journey by drawing, painting, and taking photographs sporadically while doing other work. In 1999, he received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from SUNY Brockport, where he studied ceramic sculpture and painting. In 2015, David realized making art was his passion and what he wanted to pursue for the rest of his life. His focus since then has been acrylic painting. His artwork is inspired by nature, and to a greater extent, his connection to the life of the earth and the mystery of the world. David uses light, shadow, color and composition to evoke memories and emotion. In the past few years, he has been getting away from purely figurative painting to explore different ways of applying paint and experimenting with abstraction. This enables him to express the subtle, intangible energies of life. A collection of David’s abstract expressionism and his realism paintings will be part of this exhibition.
Julie A. Lambert is a master papermaker; creating, transforming and exhibiting the unusual art of handmade paper. The artist has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from SUNY Oswego. While attending Oswego, a professor introduced the artist to papermaking; a medium she spent over 25 years enhancing her techniques, and understanding both her perspective and relationship with her surroundings. Nature has become her muse. Her work explores the natural and mankind’s created impacts on the landscape. The pieces she creates are based on landscapes that convey a mood that speaks to the artist. To the surprise of the viewer, Julie’s works are often first mistaken for paintings. But as the viewer is drawn in, they realize that the works of art are individual pieces of handmade paper, dyed, textured, cut, torn, and layered by the artist to express how she sees the world. The viewer steps back with a greater understanding of the complexity required to render her visions.
Originally a native of southeast Kansas, Steve Piper moved to the Finger Lakes region in 1978 to pursue his graduate studies in photography at RIT. He is a freelance photographer (Gelfand-Piper Photography), specializing in photographing people and events for publications and annual reports.
Major clients have included Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Mr. Piper taught photography at St. John Fisher College, and is currently an adjunct instructor of photographic arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His artistic vision is greatly inspired by his rural life growing up in the mid-west. Through color, texture, and composition, he is able to take a recognizable image and create something representational. The viewer finds meaning and emotional response through the sumptuous color and intriguing lines. Steve’s colored abstract photographs of railway cars will be on exhibit in Handicraft Habitat.
The Handicraft Habitat exhibition will run from December 7, 2023 to February 1, 2024. Gallery hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m., as well as Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Check the gallery’s social media pages for any updates or changes to the schedule.
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