Saratoga Arts New Exhibitions: Spirit Rappings, Brighten the Corners Open July 1

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Two new exhibitions – Sprit Rappings, and Brighten the Corners – will run concurrently at Saratoga Arts from July 1 to Aug. 14. 

Spirit Rappings features collaborations and work by artists Judy Glantzman and Jeffrey Hargrave, Ben Gocker and Helen Macro, telling and retelling familiar stories and history by repurposing imagery and/or objects.

Spirit Rappings is borrowed from a song with the same title published in 1853 describing the Victorian practice of spirit rapping to communicate with spirits, which began in western New York State in the 1840s with the rise of spiritualism. Messages received through a series of knocks or taps were interpreted by a medium and shared as truths. This exhibition asks us to reexamine commonly held truths and reconsider what we hold as valuable.

Brighten the Corners: Art of the 1990s from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection, is part of All Together Now, a regional collections sharing project organized by the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, with support of the Henry Luce Foundation.

This exhibition features more than 15 works of contemporary art including painting, sculpture and photography from the Tang collection with a focus on identity, race, gender and storytelling by artists such as Nayland Blake, Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler, Wendy Ewald, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Frank Moore, Lorna Simpson and Tim Rollins and K.O.S.

An opening reception will be held at Saratoga Arts noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 3, and an Artist Talk takes place on July 10 at 2 p.m. 

Saratoga Arts is located at 320 Broadway. For more information, go to: www.saratoga-arts.org.