Art Gallery at CSI

Image
wall arrange of small abstract paintings

Howard Smith: Less and More

September 16—October 17, 2024
Artist Reception: Thursday September 19, 4:30-6:30pm

A solo exhibition of abstract paintings and drawings from across a 50-year career of sustained studio practice. “Universes” of miniature paintings presented in open structure arrangements, quasigrids, and other works from an internationally renowned artist who has taught at CSI for 35 years.

Curated by Siona Wilson
With a catalog essay by Barbara A. MacAdam

Howard Smith and Nate Ethier: A Conversation about Color, 
chaired by Siona Wilson (PCA)  
Wednesday Sept 25, 5 - 7:30pm

Radical Painting with Howard Smith, Michael Smith (UT Austin) and David McDonough (PCA), 
chaired by Siona Wilson (PCA) 
Monday Sept 30, 12:30 - 2pm

Art and Dementia: A Conversation with Howard Smith, Dr. Dan McCloskey (Psychology), Cynthia Epstein (Clinical Supervisor NYU Family Support Program), and Masters' Students from the M.S. Program in Neuroscience and Developmental Disabilities, 
chaired by Siona Wilson (PCA) 
October 9, 6:30 - 8PM

Miguel Aragon (PCA)
Catherine Lavender (History and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies)
Edward Miller (Media Culture)
Beatrix Reinhardt (PCA)
Nanette Salomon (PCA)
Valerie Tevere (Media Culture)
Chris Verene (PCA)
Marianne Weil (PCA)
Siona Wilson (PCA) committee chair

The Gallery of the College of Staten Island is dedicated to presenting a rich diversity of professional artistic practice by both contemporary and historical artists. Through high quality exhibitions and related events, the gallery strives to introduce and engage the college community and the wider New York public to a global breadth of creative output. Our programing serves as a springboard for introducing a broad range of issues including, but not limited to, personal, intercultural, social, historical, scientific, health-related, economic, political, and transnational subjects. We aim to use the visual and interdisciplinary arts to facilitate difficult discussions about new ideas while fostering curiosity, developing critical thinking and encouraging a respectful understanding of divergent points of view and experiences. Exhibitions and related events seek to enrich our students and the diverse communities they come as well as the college community as a whole, making connections across the educational divisions and schools through the unique communicative power of the visual and interdisciplinary arts. 

Exhibitions are curated by members of the faculty with an expertise in the visual arts. The curatorial position rotates annually. An advisory committee of faculty and staff oversees the programming.  

Contact Information

Siona Wilson

Director

Email Siona Wilson

Siona Wilson

Curator for Fall 2024

Miguel A. Aragón

Curator for Spring 2025

Email Miguel A. Aragón

CSI Art Gallery
2800 Victory Blvd
Building 1P, Room 112
Google Maps Location
Monday to Thursday,  12 - 4 p.m

Previous Exhibitions

Image
10 drawings arranged as a circle.  The drawings are a t-shirt, painting, head with baseball cap, dagger, flowerpot, Verrazano Bride, bottle, snakes, woman's head, and clown, and they are all connected with a line.

May 16 - May 23, 2024

Preview: May 16th, 4:30-6:30 PM
Closing Reception: May 23rd, 1:00-3:00 PM 

This group exhibition features the BFA Senior Projects of the Performing and Creative Arts Department at the College of Staten Island/CUNY.

BFA candidates: Ashanti Alston, Raya Atayeva, Stephanie Caputo, Marianne Carlina, Gabriel Rey Guzmán, Tyla Lanovoi, Gabriela Muniz, Ita Ruiz, Daryn SantaMaria, Samantha Wilkinson

Exhibition Catalog

Image
a shadowy figure leans over chairs arranged in rows in a rubble strewn nighttime outdoor setting.

The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata

March 28-May 9, 2024
Opening reception Thurs March 28, 4:30-6:30pm

Does an artwork dream? Let’s imagine that the material, the medium of a created thing can also be a medium of another kind. A mystic, a clairvoyant, a soothsayer that augurs better futures, purges injuries of the soul, and connects us with the unhappy ghosts of our cruel world. The artwork as medium might be a channel to awaken other pasts (and the pasts of others), transform the present, and reshape what is to come. We might be soothed, healed, redeemed, but fear that we cannot. Perhaps the dream begins as a nightmare. These are, after all, times of plague. The Waking Dreams of Phantasmata Traumata explores the psychic lives of artworks when the artist is forgotten. The exhibition presents supernatural collaborations, invitations for paranormal visitation, psychic predictions, and uncanny mediations. Join us at the Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island for an exhibition of paintings, objects, moving image, and otherworldly guests.

Contributing artists: Susan Bee | Nancy Bowen | Kerry da Silva Cox | Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson | Gallery for Ghosts | Hilma’s Ghost | Melinda Kiefer Santiago | Christopher Santiago | Francisco Soto

This exhibition is curated by Siona Wilson

Catalog in PDF format

Image
unfinished pink crochet doily unravelling

February 13-March 14, 2024 1P-112
Opening reception, Thursday, February 15, 4:30-6:30pm, 1P-112.
The Art Gallery is open Monday through Thursday, noon to 4:00pm.

Miguel Aragon was in the planning stages of a collaborative art project with his mother, a skilled maker of crochet work, when she suddenly died. Left with a vast collection of her decorative doilies, he picked up the conversational thread as an act of mourning. His mother’s handwork, and other objects that she collected, figure centrally in the prints and animation works he has produced in the past 4 years. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of their unfinished conversation.
This exhibition is curated by Dr. Cynthia Chris and Dr. Siona Wilson.


The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Bertha Harris Women's Center.

Events

“A Screen Printing Workshop with Professor Miguel Aragon."
Tuesday Feb, 20, 3-4:30pm, 1P-112 then 1P-105
Co-sponsored by the Verrazzano Honors Program


“Looping and Linking: Crochet Circle Panel Discussion”
March 11, 4:40-6:20PM
Panelist: Miguel Aragon (PCA), Catherine Lavender (History and Director of the Bertha Harris Women’s Center), Mildred Bertre (visiting artist), chaired by Siona Wilson and Cynthia Chris
In Association with Women’s History Month
Co-Sponsored by the Bertha Harris Women’s Center


Catalog in PDF format

November 2-December 7, 2023
1P-112

Image
13 Bracelet

Opening reception, Thursday, November 2, 4:30-6:30pm, 1P-112.
The Art Gallery is open Monday through Thursday, noon to 4:00pm.

The Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island presents Jason Simon’s Request Lines Are Open (Remix), an exhibition of sound, photography, and sculpture sampling how a volunteer upstate NY radio soul and funk deejay earned an audience from the area's incarcerated populations. Outside of the gallery, Simon also presents In and Around the Ohio Penn, a short digitized Super-8 film shot at the derelict Ohio State Penitentiary, with music by Chris Marker. Jason Simon is Professor Emeritus, Department of Media Culture, CSI.

This exhibition is curated by Dr. Cynthia Chris and Dr. Siona Wilson.

September 21 - October 19, 2023
1P-112

Image
oil on canvas, abstract  painting , densely layered, with rich color palettes
Kate Horsfield, Calliope, oil on canvas, 18x14in., 2018

Opening reception Thursday, September 21, 4:30-6:30pm

Kate Horsfield’s paintings and ceramic sculptures are abstract, densely layered, with rich color palettes. Ever experimenting, Horsfield explores how an artwork can contain the tension experienced between one’s interior consciousness and an external world that may feel, at times, joyfully luminous, or, at other times, seems to be spinning backwards. Her works can be playful and exuberant, or they can be enigmatic, elusive, as if dissolving before our eyes. Horsfield was director of the Video Data Bank at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the leading distributors of artists' video and interviews from 1976 to 2006.
The Art Gallery of the College of Staten Island is proud to be the first institution to present this work to the public. The Art Gallery is open Monday through Thursday, noon to 4:00pm.

This exhibition is curated by Dr. Cynthia Chris, with Dr. Siona Wilson.

Image
Support Systems Poster

Mikhael Antone-D’Angelo, Dillon DeWaters, Jade Doskow, Nate Ethier, Mike Kenney, Kate Pollard Hoffmann, Naomi Safran-Hon, Liz Sales, & Christina Werkmeister 

March 27 - April 27, 2023

Opening reception Thursday, March 30, 2023; 5-7pm, 1P-112

This group exhibition features artwork of artists who are on the faculty of the Performing and Creative Arts Department at the College of Staten Island. The exhibition highlights diverse media that our adjunct faculty use within their practices.

Image
Art Exhibit: Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty

Margaret Meehan, Christa Carleton & Tonja Torgerson

February 14 to March 10, 2023

Opening Reception Thursday February 16, 5-7pm, 1P-112

Co-sponsored by the Department of Performing and Creative Arts (PCA), the Program in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS), and the Bertha Harris Women's Center.

A group exhibition of screen-prints, woodcuts, banners made from WWII parachutes, and an installation of archival photographs strapped to bricks by three artists addressing contemporary feminist protests and their legacies to destabilize current ideas on gender roles and our bodies by fusing struggle and poetry in the artworks presented.


RELATED EVENTS:     
Artist Talk with Tonja Torgerson (Zoom), March 7th, 2:30-3:30pm   
contact Miguel.Aragon@csi.cuny.edu for zoom call information

Clue Credit

November 10-December 6, 2022

Opening Reception Thursday November 10, 5-7pm, 1P-112

Image
Girls + Eggs

Co-sponsored by the Center for Global Engagement in association with International Education Week and the Bertha Harris Women’s Center.

 

An explosive group exhibition of drawings, paintings, photographs, and objects by European and US artists working in solidarity and fury in response to parallel attacks on abortion rights and sexual citizenship in Poland and the United States. First presented in Krakow in June 2022, Girls + Eggs uses humor and beauty to delight and challenge viewers to share our outrage.

 

 

Image
Installation Shot Eric Aerts

September 19 - October 20, 2022

Opening reception Thursday Sept 22, 5-7pm

(Exhibition preview, Saturday Sept 17, 2-4pm,
for guests attending the opening of the Willowbrook Mile)

Center for the Arts (1P-112)

In 1971, a year before the Willowbrook State School became the focus of national outrage, the photographer, Eric Aerts, brought the first images to the local Staten Island public. Seen in their entirety for the first time in this exhibition, the Willowbrook images are seen alongside other documentary photographs depicting life and protest in early 1970s New York.

Fall 2019

painting by contemporary folk artists from West Bengal

Village Newsreels: Narrated Scrolls from West Bengal

September 23 -- October 26
Opening reception: September 26, 5-7pm.
Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday 12:00-4:00, Saturday 12:00-3:00

An exhibition of narrative scroll painting by contemporary folk artists from West Bengal. This centuries-old tradition by Sufi Muslim painters—who uniquely do not adhere to the Islamic ban on representing the figure—is being reinvented in the digital age. The painters were traditionally also songwriters and itinerant performers and many still are. With entertaining and serious topics ranging from Hindu and Muslim religious narratives, to major news events such as the 9/11 terror attacks, and information about preventing HIV-AIDS, these inventive and vividly decorated narrative scrolls have long functioned as a kind of handmade village newsreel.

Thursday, September 26, 3:30-4:30pm, The Gallery of the College of Staten Island, 1P-112
Gallery Talk
Changing Traditions: a discussion of the recent history of Patua Scroll painting in West Bengal. With Geraldine Forbes, Professor emeritus of modern women’s history in West Bengal, and the collector. 

Brian Mercedes Jayden and Amber
Chris Verene: Home Movies

November 7 -- December 7
Gallery hours: Monday-Thursday 12:00-4:00, Saturday 12:00-3:00

An exhibition of films and photographs by CSI's Chris Verene, documenting the struggles and joys of his family and friends in rural Illinois over the last two decades. The works weave together true family stories, personal experiences, and economic hardship to reveal a moving account of the political and social transformations seen by many Americans.

Tuesday, November 19, 3-4:30pm, The Gallery of the College of Staten Island, 1P-112
Chris Verene: Home Movies - panel discussion

Fall 2018

Dear Tomas

 

Media Culture Faculty Exhibition: Fall 2018

This exhibition features the work of artists and filmmakers who are on the faculty of the Department of Media Culture. Incorporating various media forms–film, video, photography, performance–the show highlights the diverse modes our adjunct and junior faculty use within their practices.

Artists include: Lily Benson, Cecilia Dougherty, Jessica Green, Bang Geul Han, Emma Hedditch, Hillevi Loven, Tara Mateik, Gigi Polo, Farideh Sakhaeifar, Buzz Slutzky
On view:Thursday, September 20 – Saturday, October, 20 2018
Opening reception:Thursday, September 20, 5:00 -7:00pm
Additional events include:
Screening:Tuesday, October 9, 2018, 2:30pm in 1P-223
Artist Performance by Tara Mateik:Thursday, October 11, 2018, 6:30pm in the Gallery, 1P-112
Artists Talk:Thursday, October 18, 2018, 2:30-4:30pm in the Gallery, 1P-112

PINA BAUSCH

 

Stephanie Berger: Crossing the Lines 

This solo exhibition features the work of New York-based performance photographer Stephanie Berger who has been shooting live dance and rehearsals for over 25 years. Her photographs provide a perspective on the architecture of recent modern dance; included in the show are works choreographed by Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Trisha Brown, Mark Morris, and Bill T. Jones.

On view:Thursday, November 8 – Saturday, December 8, 2018
Opening reception:Thursday, November 8, 5:00 -7:00pm


Spring 2019

Interference Archive compilation postcard

If a song could be freedom… Organized Sounds of Resistance

an Interference Archive compilation
Thursday, February 21 – Saturday, March 23, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, February 21st, 5:00 -7:00pm
This exhibition looks at how music has shaped the manners in which we understand ourselves in the past, present, and into the future. if a song could be freedom… features the picture sleeves of over 200 political recordings from across the globe that expose the broad scope of the intersection of music and politics. In addition, flyers, lyric sheets, buttons, publications, and other ephemera are on display, and visitors are invited to collectively listen to a series of mixtape podcasts available throughout the run of exhibition

Additional events include:

Sound Effects: Discussion and Book Party with Professors Jillian Báez, Racquel Gates, and Reece Peck of the Department of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island Art Gallery. Tuesday, March 5th at 2:30pm. Clue certified.

Music and Movements: Discussion and Listening Session with Josh MacPhee of Interference Archive at the James Gallery of the Graduate Center of New York. Wednesday, March 13th at 6:30pm.

 

Camel Collective Video Still

Playthings and Performing Objects 

April 4 – May 11, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, April 4, 5:00 -7:00pm
This exhibition explores how objects and images can be constituted to manifest themselves and enlisted toward statements and positions that resist current political culture. Featuring works that reveal the theatricality of the art gallery, the show includes video by Camel Collective, slide/sound projection by Maryam Jafri, panoramic painting by Zoe Beloff, sculpture by Thiago Szmrecsányi, and a toy theatre by Great Small Works. 

Additional events include:

Thursday, April 18th at 6;30 pm. Segal Theater, Graduate Center of City University of New York. Screening/performances by participants in the exhibition Playthings and Performing Objects.

Gnome King

 

Curator of these exhibitions: Miguel Aragon

Kalle Mustonen: Gnome King of NY
Tuesday, Sept. 19 to Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017

This exhibition is a collection of work and documentation of the latest addition to permanent sculpture on campus built by artist Kalle Mustonen from Finland, with help from CSI students, created during the 2017 summer.
Opening Reception: Tuesday, Sept. 19 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Gallery event: Building a Gnome: Assisting an Artist as Inspiration:
Tuesday, October 3 during Club Hours (3:00pm to 4:15pm) in the Gallery

Kalle Mustonen (http://mustone.blogspot.de/) is a Finnish pacifist sculptor born in 1979. He graduated from Institute of Fine Arts of Lahti (BA) in 2004. After graduating he has gained a steady position on the edge of Finnish art scene. Large wood objects in space have become his trademark.
In his works Mustonen combines tradition to pop and kitsch. In 2013, Kalle started GnomeStudies, a series of sculptures, paintings and installations dealing with Garden gnomes as indicators of Human’s failure to live in balance with the nature. “Death of the Gnome King”, a huge wooden gnome opened doors to Finnish museums as he had his first Solo show in the Art museum of Hyvinkää and curated a wood sculpture exhibition in his hometown Lahti.
This summer the Gnome King is shown in South Bank Centre of London. At the moment Mustonen is finishing his MFA studies in Academy of Fine Arts in University of the Arts Helsinki.

Ganter's Studio

 

Wolfgang Ganter, De:Composing
Thursday, Nov. 9 to Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017

This solo exhibition is a collection of works from German artist Wolfgang Ganter who uses methods of science as an instrument as well as pictorial rendition to create Artwork. This unique interplay leads to compulsory, out of control coincidence and allows the unimaginable to emerge.
Opening reception: Thursday, Nov. 09 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Artist Talk: Tuesday, Nov. 14, during Club Hours (3:00pm to 4:15pm) in the Gallery

Wolfgang Ganter (http://www.wolfgangganter.com) born in Stuttgart in 1978 lives and works in Berlin, Germany. As a former master student of Prof. Andreas Slominski, Ganter studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe Germany from 1999 until 2005.
His work has been exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions and has received numerous Awards and performed Artist Residencies both nationally and internationally.
Ganter infects photographic slides with bacteria, which eat away at the original image thereby creating a new picture. The infected slides are then photographed under the microscope, hence enlarged, resulting in interplay of old and new perspectives.
In 2018 Ganter will be joining a work scholarship of the Australia China Art Foundation in Shanghai.


 

Migrating Heritage

This group exhibition is a collection of works based on immigration and cultural heritage. The showcased artists utilize personal narratives and iconography to represent their own experiences and ideas on settlement and heritage.

Exhibiting artists are: Annalise Gratovich, John Hitchcock, Michael Menchaca and Ernesto Ortiz Leyva.
On view: Thursday February 22, 2018 – Saturday March 24, 2018
Opening reception: Thursday February 22, 2018; 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Artist Talks: Thursday February 22; 6:00pm – 7:00pm at the Gallery 1P-112
Artist lecture and Demonstration by Annalise Gratovich:
Tuesday February 27; 2:30pm – 4:00pm in the Printmaking studio 1P-103


Argolic Abyss

 

Lighting the Past

A solo exhibition of sculpture and monotypes by Associate Professor of Sculpture Marianne Weil.  After exploring new materials and techniques, past ideas and aesthetics resurface-- providing light into an exciting new body of work.
On view: Thursday April 19 - Wednesday May 16, 2018
Opening reception: Thursday April 19, 2018; 5:00pm -7:00pm
Artist Talk: Thursday April 19; 4:15pm – 5:00pm at the Gallery 1P-112