PERRY — The Genesee Valley 100 community art project has just two rules: create something inspired by the Genesee Valley and use the provided 12-inch-by-12-inch canvas or wood board.
The rules are meant to challenge artists and keep the focus on the landscape of the Genesee Valley, says Benjamin Gajewski, executive director of the Genesee Valley Conservancy, the land trust that organizes the annual exhibition.
This year, 86 artists have created a collection of mixed media pieces that have just gone on view at Silver Lake Brewing Project, 14 Borden Ave. The exhibition may also be viewed online.
Artists, who picked up their canvases in March, have spent much of the preceding months thinking, planning and creating the works that went on view this week.
Participating artists bring a range of abilities and styles. Participants include both professional artists and hobbyists who have never had a piece hang in public. No one is turned away.
“Part of what makes this show so wonderful is that everyone is invited to show their views of the landscape and pick a subject that is meaningful to them,” said Gajewski.
The exhibit includes photography, quilting, drawing, painting and combinations of styles.
Pieces include familiar locations such as the Five Arch Bridge in Avon and Letchworth State Park, sometimes from unique perspectives, or “That Tree on Reservoir Road,” a photograph by Rose Sherwood that was mounted on the wood block; and detailed pieces such as “Monarch on Zentangle Flowers” by Linda Maloney, which combines acrylic painting, micro pen, and pencil. Other works include a tribute to Table Rock Farm by Mary Lee Page, that combines photography, acrylic, pencil, on canvas, and a wool, needle felted sculpture of a dining chipmunk created by Lynn Wright, who called her creation “Woodland dining … table for one.”
This is the sixth edition of the project. Past exhibitions have focused on painting (2018, 2020, 2022), photography (2019), and fiber arts (2021).
The project, organized by Genesee Valley Conservancy, was created to draw attention to the local landscapes the organization is working to protect: the habitat, open space, and farmland of the Genesee Valley region. These landscapes are a familiar site, but with busy lives people often do not stop to appreciate the beauty and importance of these places and how they relate to livelihoods, quality of life and the local environment, Gajewski said.
Creating time to stop and consider the landscape that surrounds us is the primary goal of this project.
The project also has the added benefit of highlighting many remarkable artists that live locally. Artists from 33 towns participated this year, creating the 100 pieces that hang in the show.
As for the rules: the choice of a square canvas was meant to challenge the artist. Squares are not the norm, especially for a landscape, and this rule was to force an artist to slow down and give extra thought to how they would create a piece to reflect the Genesee Valley, Gajewski said.
Practically, this format also makes the work of volunteers hanging the show easier as they layout a grid pattern at Silver Lake Brewing Project that then allows the entire collection to become a large work of art.
While each individual piece is wonderful to take in, Gajewski said, the sum total of the project is a beautiful mosaic that creates a whole new piece of art when viewing all of the works from afar.
“To really appreciate each individual piece and the techniques, one needs to see them up close and in person” says Gajewski. “By viewing the pieces in person, you also get the added benefit of the diverse mosaic of styles and colors that is created. It is very reflective of our local landscape – a diverse mix of types of land that have different functions and benefits for the community, and all are equally important. We need local farmland, local habitat, and local places to recreate.”
The other rule was to keep the focus of the project on the landscape of the Genesee Valley: the lands which support the region’s agricultural economy, the views enjoyed by people who live and travel here, and the region’s natural resources. Anything in the Genesee Valley was fair game.
The Conservancy wants to keep the project local and highlight the lands it is working to protect in and around Genesee Valley communities.
The Genesee Valley is defined for this project as the vast geographic region stretching from the New York-Pennsylvania border to Lake Ontario, including the entire four-county region of Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties.
Art and land conservation have a long history together, Gajewski noted, dating back to the days when the country’s population was predominantly on the east coast and travel was something afforded to very few. Paintings were the primary means to showcase the western landscape to the public. These early paintings helped inspire Congress to create the National Park Service in 1916 to protect natural landscapes so they would not be privatized and exploited by development, but owned by the people and maintained for their environmental benefits.
