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Germantown, Catskill artists win grants

Feb 08, 2011 10:39 am
Alban Plotkin of Catskill and Pamela Wallace of Germantown were named recipients of the 2011 Individual Artist regrant awards through the Community Arts Grants Decentralization Program for Columbia and Greene Counties (DEC) from the Greene County Council on the Arts and Columbia County Council on the Arts.


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Plotkin holds a B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and creates in electronic assemblage, installation, mixed-media, and paint. Most of his recognition as an artist has been achieved here in the Hudson Valley through solo and juried exhibition at galleries such as the Wilder (Catskill), the Wright (Kingston), and UpFront Art (Kingston). In 2003 Plotkin was invited to participate in the Rhine-Hudson Bridge Artists’ Exchange in Cologne, Germany. The $2,000 DEC award will enable him to undertake “The Nature of Paint and The Painting of Nature” – ten large-scale abstract oil paintings based on the landscape celebrated by Cole, Church, Durant, and others of the Hudson River School. Wallace holds a M.F.A. in Sculpture and Blacksmithing from Southern Illinois University and a BA in sculpture from Bard College. Selected awards include a NYFA Mark (2010) program invitation and a Dutchess County Arts Council Individual Artist’s Fellowship in Sculpture (2001). Exhibitions include: “Marks that Matter” at the Vanderlyn Gallery (Ulster Community College, 2010), “Sculpture Invitational” at the Kobalt Gallery (Provincetown, MA, 2009), “The New Steel II” at the National Metals Museum (Memphis, TN, 2009) and others. Contrast and rhythmic tension between industrial, and what she describes as “ephemeral,” materials are frequent elements in Wallace’s abstract and provocative compositions. The $2,000 DEC award will support the creation of “Extending off and on the way down” a mixed-media wall installation constructed of cast paper, forged iron, beeswax, and plaster. Finished, the work will be approximately 10’ X 20’ and project 12” from the wall. Studio arts students from Germantown High School will be trained and assist Wallace in casting paper sphere forms and some of the plaster molds.