Ephemeral Exhibition at Adelphi University Engages the Public

The annual Ephemeral art exhibition curated by Adelphi University Associate Professor Carson Fox, celebrates the temporary and fleeting.  The community is welcome to view works by internationally renowned artists and performers, and participate in the immensely popular Chalk Up!, which transforms the campus sidewalks with chalk images and text.  Over the past three years, hundreds of students, faculty and staff have created a wide range of spectacular works in a rainbow of colors across campus.

For the 2015 Ephemeral exhibition, titled The Spirits Among Us, contemporary artists grapple with issues of human physicality, mortality and belief.  Artists include Kiki Smith, Lesley Dill, Mark Fox, Fred Tomaselli, Peter Drake, Virgil Marti, Margo Humphrey, Jennifer D. Anderson, Cynthia Thompson, Fred Stonehouse, Maureen Cummins and Clarissa Sligh.

The exhibition will be on view from September 29 through November 11, 2015 at Adelphi University’s Ruth S. Harley University Center Gallery, 1 South Avenue in Garden City. An important aspect of the exhibition series is to serve as an opportunity for the Adelphi community to creatively play, experiment, and collaborate using the theme as a launching pad. Be sure to mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 29, where visitors are invited to be a part of the Ephemeral exhibition and several supporting events:

• 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Chalk Up!—an open-invitation celebration of chalk art

The community is invited to join students, faculty and staff in “chalking up” the Adelphi campus with images and text; chalk will be supplied to participants; meet in front of the University Center.

• 2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Ghost Stories — an interdisciplinary, campus-wide performance

Ghost Stories is an inter-disciplinary performance marshalling the creative forces of dance, theatre, written word, sound, and visual arts. Drawing spectators from across campus through dance and music, Ghost Stories will begin at multiple sites on campus, before gathering in force on Levermore Lawn, and finally culminating in the University Center Ballroom with the performance of original tales of the spirit world.

• 3:30 p.m. Curator’s Tour of “The Spirits Among Us” exhibit
• 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Opening Reception for “The Spirits Among Us”

On October 29, from 4:00-5:30 p.m., a panel of artists and critics will gather to discuss Ephemeral in the Adelphi Performing Arts Center, Concert Hall. Please join Lesley Dill (artist), Edward Gomez (critic), Leonard Primiano (folklorist), Katie Reing (Wiccan practitioner), Susan Petry (psychologist) and Carson Fox (moderator) for a lively conversation on Art and Ritual. In this roundtable discussion, ritual and art making will be examined, with special emphasis on the connections between religious folk practice, art making and compulsive behaviors. 

Adelphi intends to make the celebration of ephemeral art an annual event extending an open invitation to the community to join in exploring the fleeting nature of creativity and its creations.

The Ruth S. Harley University Center Gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To learn more about the artists and view glimpses of the exhibition, please visit the Adelphi University Art Galleries; or “Like” the Adelphi University Galleries Facebook page.