Press

ALBANY – Expressions in Blue: A Feeling, A Place, A Color, A Sound opens at the New York State Museum on Saturday, November 17, featuring the work of 22 artists of the African Diaspora.

The works in the exhibition explore the meaning of the word “blue,” whether it is the musical legacy of the Blues, the natural environment of sea or sky, or the portrayal of a mood. The artists or their representatives submitted works that interpret a deceptively simple word and express it in their own unique style. The exhibition encompasses various media, including photography, sculpture, textile collage, and painting.

Open through March 16, 2008, the exhibition is organized by Black Dimensions in Art, Inc. (BDA), a Capital District volunteer, non-profit organization founded in 1975. BDA’s mission is to educate the public about the unique contributions of artists of the African Diaspora within the American art scene through exhibitions, publications, television and other media. BDA also provides exposure and sales opportunities for artists of African descent and supports Emerging Artists and Summer Arts programs, which offer young people the opportunity to work with professional artists and mentors to develop their artistic skills.

Artist Stephen Tyson, the exhibition’s co-curator, says Expressions in Blue “represents an achievement in the continuum of creative ingenuity and artistic integrity within the African Diaspora —and beyond."

“BDA is ever searching for artists of the African Diaspora who not only express the shared experience of culture but also of community," says Jacqueline Lake-Sample, artist, BDA co-treasurer and the exhibition’s other co-curator. BDA has a board consisting of artists and art enthusiasts from the Capital Region. It reaches beyond the local scene, however, to work with artists both nationally and internationally.

Artist Jerome Meadows of Savannah, Ga. has exhibited internationally since 1988 and his works are found in museum, university and private collections. He has received numerous public and private commissions for sculpture and environmental site designs. Bennu’s Bounty, displayed in the exhibition, is part of his Blue Ball Barn series, a body of work created using old slate roof tiles from a historic barn inWilmington, Del. and other found objects and handcrafted components.

The works of Francelise Dawkins of Saratoga Springs are also known internationally through exhibitions, magazines and books. A Parisian “textile collagist,” she uses colorful cloth from Asia, Africa and Europe “to create a blurring of boundaries between such cultures.”

Expressions in Blue is the fourth BDA exhibition hosted by the Museum. The first, an exhibition of quilts and textile art, was featured at the Museum in 2003. The following year, BDA produced, with the Albany District Links, Passing the Legacy: Reflections of Our Elders, which featured portraits of honored community members by photographer J. El-Wise Noisette. In early 2006, Tyson explored an emerging area of interest in the art world in Driven to Abstraction. This presented abstract expressionist work by African American and Caribbean artists, ranging from those emerging in the postwar years of the 1940s and the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and ‘60s, to the postmodern era of the 1980s and ‘90s.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department, the University of the State of New York and the Office of Cultural Education. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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