Albany Museum of Art members will get first view of new art exhibits

Jan. 19—ALBANY ─ Four new art exhibitions at the Albany Museum of Art will open to the public at 10 a.m. on Friday.

From 5-6:30 p.m. on Thursday, the museum will host an opening reception for AMA members, who will have the first opportunity to see the exhibitions, which will be on view in the galleries through April 23.

The new exhibitions are "The Way of Life," featuring works by Southwest Georgia artist Ray Pierotti, in the Haley Gallery; "Prismatic," with new works by artist Melissa Huang of Statesboro, in the East Gallery; "Ordo naturalis," with new works by Atlanta artist Eric Mack, in the McCormack Gallery, and "African Artifacts of Spirituality and Identity" from the permanent collection of the Albany Museum of Art in the Hodges Gallery. Mack and Huang's artworks are exhibited courtesy of Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta.

The AMA is located at 311 Meadowlark Drive adjacent to Albany State University's West Campus, and admission is free for everyone.

"The AMA is delighted to share the work of three marvelous artists whose work reflects themes based on the ancient admonition of nosce te ipsum, or know thyself, including the abstract stages of self-actualization, the identity of the individual and how it shifts and is shifted in the digital landscape, and the way sight shapes the construction of the self," museum Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf said. "It is also time to celebrate the return of the AMA's permanent collection to our galleries, which have not been on view for several years."

Pierotti, a native of Bountiful, Utah, has a BFA and an MMS in Musicology and Music Composition from the University of Utah. An artist and musician, he and his life partner, Gene Lewis, have operated the Center for Art and Rehabilitative Energies since Pierotti moved his studio from Atlanta to Shellman, where they have resided since the 1990s.

Pierotti has dedicated his career to exploring, through art, aspects of the unseen realities of the world. His focus has been diverse and inspired by both examination of the physical world and the world of things not explained by phenomenological observation. His painting process consists of the multilayering of three media on untreated cotton and paper. Pierotti says his process is similar to an individual's physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development over time.

After two years of military service, Pierotti worked at the American Library in Paris and conducted French tours for American students and U.S. tours for foreign students in the late 1950s and early 1960s. After moving to New York City, he owned the Kipsbay Gallery for two years before becoming the assistant director of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts and later associate director of the American Crafts Council, both in New York City.

Pierotti is the former director of The Arrowmont School in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and was an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He was an arts teacher in Michigan at Port Huron College, opened and directed the Sawtooth School of Visual Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., reopened the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts in north Georgia, and directed the International Museum of Art & Design (now the Museum of Design Atlanta).

He has exhibited at the Albany Museum of Art; the Sawdust Gallery, New York City; the South Carolina Museum of Art; the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tenn.; the Fine Arts Museum at the University of Idaho; the University of the South; the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem; the Greenville (S.C.) Center for the Arts and other public and private galleries.

Mack is an Atlanta artist who creates mathematically-based renderings with a distinct post-modern twist. His works are informed with superimposed grids, patterns and portals. Layered surfaces are created with paint, found objects, natural fibers, and synthetic substrates that explore the systems of the visual world.

The Charleston, S.C., native has explored the use of a variety of materials, such as architectural blueprints, mineral-derived pigments, peat-free soil, natural fibers, recycled packing paper, natural dyes, synthetic ultraviolet shade screens, hand-made paper, and seeds sourced from his home garden. This combination of materials represents a harmonic vision of seamlessly intertwined natural plant systems and geometric composition. Over the last four years, Mack has immersed himself into the study of nature, plant propagation, and architectural design.

Mack, who has a BFA in Illustration from the Atlanta College of Art, has had solo exhibitions at the Stone Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C.; the Reginald Ingraham Gallery in Los Angeles; the South Dallas Cultural Center/Cultural Affairs, Dallas; Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta; Whitespace Gallery in Winston-Salem, N.C.; the Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.; the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta; the Roy C. Moore Gallery at Gainesville College in Gainesville; the Bank of America Corporate Plaza in Atlanta; the Beverly Libby Gallery in Atlanta, and the Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta.

Huang is an interdisciplinary artist living in Statesboro, where she is assistant professor in 2D Foundations at Georgia Southern University. Her glitch-inspired painting and video self-portraiture studies the desire, failure, and dissonance associated with portraying an idealized self for a largely digital audience.

She has an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University and a BFA in Fine Arts Studio form the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Huang has exhibited nationally and abroad with a 2021 solo exhibition at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art and has been included in group shows at the Hongik Museum of Art, Whitespace Gallery, and Kyoto International Community House. She has a background working in galleries, museums, archives, and art appraisal, and has been featured in publications including Fresh Paint Magazine, Art House Press and Stone Canoe.

The Albany Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is open to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is free.