Joseph Fucigna in HyperAccumulators at Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY

HyperAccumulators opens Friday, January 18, 2019 at Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY. The exhibition considers how contemporary artists explore connections between nature, toxicity, and the potential for regeneration. The show is mutually inspired by a hyper-awareness of human impact on the climate and environment—the so-called Anthropocene, a new geological period characterized by ecosystem failures, rising sea levels, and other disturbances, and by “hyperaccumulators”—plants capable of growing in soils with very high concentrations of metals. Such plants are known for their ability to extract those contaminants, therefore helping to restore the ecosystem. The artists include Christian Bazant-Hegemark, Joseph Fucigna, Valerie Hegarty, Cary Hulbert, Lina Puerta, Erika Ranee, Dorothy Robinson, Denise Sfraga and Jeanne Tremel.

Joe Fucigna, Putty Drip 3

“I feel like we have become HyperAccumulators dealing with the everyday environmental and political climate we are living in,” says curator Alexandra Brock. “The artists are taking in all this—and helping us return to a better state.”

The nine contemporary artists presented in HyperAccumulators are, in a sense, representative of hyperaccumulators: highly engaged with materials and absorbing both the literal and figurative toxic aspects around them. Loaded in their use of color, surface and materials, the paintings, sculpture, mixed-media and site-specific works engulf the galleries in a vibrant, lush, and futuristic landscape. HyperAccumulators offers a thrilling visual experience, but also stimulates the other senses. Rushing rivers and bubbling volcanic liquid can be heard in the large paintings of Erika Ranee and Dorothy Robinson; the scent and taste of rotting flowers and fruit empowers Valerie Hegarty’s voluptuous still life compositions. The variety of selected materials from the natural and manufactured world, assembled in the works of Joseph Fucigna, Lina Puerta and Jeanne Tremel evoke the objects and substances we handle and discard everyday. The unknown—a kind of sixth sense—is located in the weird plant forms in drawings by Denise Sfraga and a painting by Christian Bazant-Hegemark (the first showing of this Austrian artist’s work in the U.S.). Cary Hulbert’s site-specific installation and prints offer utopian-dystopian visions of a man-made and natural environment. In all, there’s a tug back and forth between the natural and built environment, between decay and regeneration.

Joseph Fucigna, professor and coordinator of the Fine Arts and Studio Arts Program, is a practicing sculptor who is known for transforming common industrial materials into unique three dimensional abstractions. fucigna.com. Fucigna holds a B.F.A. from Alfred University, and an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout Connecticut and New York, and has been awarded many prestigious awards including the Molly and Albert Jacobson Award for Sculpture, the Amidar Award, and the Individual Artist Grant from the CT Commission on the Arts.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 18 from 6:30–8:00 pm. The show closes March 23, 2019.

Pelham Art Center is a nonproﬁt educational and cultural institution committed to providing public access to see, study and experience the arts, foster lifelong arts appreciation and thereby strengthen the community. The Pelham Art Center strives to create a friendly and community-based setting that offers access to free exhibits and affordable classes that serve a broad range of participants with diverse backgrounds, varying income levels and age groups. The goal is to encourage all people to participate in family-friendly art experiences by creating an environment of inclusiveness and diversity. Pelham Art Center is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 am–6:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am–4:00 pm, and is located at 115 Fifth Avenue, Pelham, NY. For more information, call 914.738.2525, or visit pelhamartcenter.org.

Joseph Fucigna in HyperAccumulators at Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY

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