Friday, July 18, 2008

Contemporary Gallery, 230 Harrison Street, Syracuse





all photos copyright 2008 Larry Hoyt
- click on photo to enlarge image -
from the top:
-- gallery co-founder Courtney Rile (at an nightime TH3 reception)
-- gallery co-founder Roslyn Esperon (overseeing the gallery during the day)
-- a decorated pillow on a too-comfortable chair
-- "Dancing Mother and Child" (Lowenstein)
-- large lizard sculpture
-- "Cityscape" oil painting (Catherine Weiss)
-- "Charting" mixed media (Sean Ward)
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There's an exciting new art gallery in Syracuse, and it's only going to be open for another two weeks!
(until August 1, 2008)
To anyone and everyone who loves high-quality art, and who wants to support the growing art scene in Syracuse - my strong suggestion is get yourself down to the Contemporary Gallery at 230 Harrison Street.
They're having a closing reception at the gallery on the evening of Friday, July 25.
And even though this will be a closing reception, I am sure that this art community get-together on the 25th will also be very much a celebration.
From everything I've seen and heard about this art space, and from I've read in the Post-Standard and also in the Syracuse New Times, the Contemporary Galley has been a much needed temporary shot in the arm for the local art scene.
(Without going into detail here, I'll just mention that another fine local gallery, the Orange Line Gallery, was recently forced by its landlord to vacate its space at the Coffee Pavilion at Hanover Square... but that's a blog for another day.)
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This past Thursday, July 17, I had the great pleasure of meeting and chatting with Roslyn Esperon and Courtney Rile, the two energetic young ladies who co-founded and operate the Contemporary Gallery.
These two former Syracuse University students had met last summer while working at the Delavan Art Gallery.
They devised a plan, asking several real estate companies and landlords if they could renovate a downtown space, install and operate a temporary gallery, and then leave that space in better condition than it was when they first moved in.
J.F. Real Estate agreed, and Contemporary Gallery opened it's seven-week run on June 11.
The impressively diverse exhibit mounted by Courtney and Roslyn is entitled "Whimsy: Celebrating the Power of "Why Not?" -- which may in fact describe at least part of the reasoning behind opening such a temporary gallery in the first place. I mean, why not?
Of course, real-world answers to that whimsical question are many and daunting.
It takes an incredible amount of time, energy, passion and commitment to pull off such a project, and thank goodness (literally), both Courtney and Roslyn seem to be the right people at the right time to make this project a success.
Hopefully, their work will inspire others.
I was very impressed by the artwork in this exhibit, and I shot photos of a few of the many pieces (displayed above).
I also want to thank Roslyn and Courtney for allowing to shot a few photos of them.
More information about their gallery, and more photos, can be found at
The gallery is open 11 am to 7 pm, Wednesday through Friday.
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more photos by Larry Hoyt can be found at
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