Souvenir

Photography by Beth Mickalonis

Souvenir
June 30 – December 27, 2023

A souvenir is something that is kept as a reminder of a person, place or event. While travel is often a reason for collecting such mementos, objects and images can signify all sorts of occasions and connections. Souvenirs can represent deeply personal experiences, or tokens of some shared public happening. They can even mark a fictional occurrence, or something that is wished for.

This exhibition features artwork submitted to Cut Me Up, a participatory magazine of visual call and response. Each issue presents a call – a curated selection of original collage images that will become the raw material for reader-artists to respond to by cutting, reconfiguring and transforming into new artworks. The newly created responses will form the content of the next issue.

Artists: Patty Armstrong, Todd Bartel, Sharon Bates, Jac  Batey, Andrea Burgay, Dan Cameron, Laura Cannamela, Cheryl Chudyk, Monica  Church, Sandra  Dwileski, Susan Graham, Everest Hood, Tim Janchar, Stephenie  Knight, Iain Machell, Emily Marbach, Anthony Naimo, Michael Oatman, Bradley Parsons, Lori Petchers, Gaetano Rizzi, Lisa Sheets, Amy Talluto, Katharine Umsted and Stephanie Statham-Witchger.


Souvenir was conceived and curated by Albany Airport Art & Culture Program Director Kathy Greenwood, and this is the first in-person exhibition of the magazine’s entries. In the spirit of offering a more expansive view of souvenirs, this exhibition also includes some specially invited guests.


The artists Katharine Umsted and Cut Me Up’s founder, Andrea Burgay, both independently created a series of works based upon postcards that they called Wish You Were Here. Michael Oatman produced Stella by Starlight out of two seemingly unrelated souvenirs, Frank Stella’s 1971 MoMA retrospective catalog, and Astronomy, a British astronomy textbook from 1966. Oatman’s compositions and their relationship to his life-long interest in space travel serve as potent companions to the souvenir collection of Albany Airport’s very own Virgil Sager. Since he was a boy, Sager has been compiling news articles and memorabilia about space travel, and a portion of his vast and interesting collection is on view here.


As the Airport marks the 25th Anniversary of its Art & Culture Program in 2023, it seems fitting to reflect upon the way that objects and images can remind us of the places we’ve been as well as those we long to see.

You can learn more about Cut Me Up magazine, here: https://www.cutmeupmagazine.com/