Bulletin News
01/28/2010
An exhibition of imagery from social networking sites showing Cortland area residents, titled “Townie!,” will run through Thursday, March 11, at Main Street SUNY Cortland’s Beard Building Gallery, 9 Main St.
The Beard Building Gallery is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The exhibit, which opened on Feb. 4 with a gallery reception, is free and open to the public.
The gallery’s first Spring 2010 semester exhibition, “Townie!” was curated by Cortland native Colin Albro, who in 2007 graduated with honors from SUNY Cortland with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History.
Albro’s exhibition is the first show at this gallery to be curated by an alumnus of the College as well as the first solo-curated exhibition there, observed Kathryn Kramer, associate professor of art and art history.
“This will be an important showcase of what is known as ‘vernacular photography,’ which is a genre of amateur photography that focuses on the everyday,” Kramer said.
“Townie!” explores the experience of Albro and his friends as natives of Cortland through their photographs of each other and their activities. He has selected visual biographies that celebrate the playful, creative human spirit.
“Deriving primarily from social networking sites such as Facebook, the exhibition’s photographs truly represent the most current kind of vernacular imagery, which is that of the very private made very public,” Albro said. “Such images represent a relatively new, rather dramatic format by which to question ideas about the boundaries of the human self. I encourage the public, while viewing these portraits and self-portraits, to discover the intimacy of the lives of Cortland’s young adults: their fun, their flaws, their vulnerabilities, their truths, their beauty.”
Albro aspires to become a successful art museum curator. As the collections management and resident caretaker at the 1890 House Museum in Cortland from 2006-08, he developed, researched, designed and installed exhibits and oversaw many other aspects of the local historical site.
As assistant curator with the College’s Dowd Gallery from 2006-07, he participated in the initial exhibit design, catalog and installation of the gallery’s popular exhibit, “A Passion for Porcelain: The Crocker Collection of Decorative Arts.” He installed two other exhibits, “Beneath the Surface: Ralf-Jean Baptiste” and the “Studio Art Faculty Biennial.”
A President’s List and Dean’s List student at SUNY Cortland, Albro received the College’s J. Catherine Gibian Award for Excellence in Art History, its Department of Art and Art History Award for Excellence in Art History and its Part-Time Student Award for Academic Achievement.
Outside the classroom, Albro served as secretary of the SUNY Cortland Art Exhibition Association and participated in many community volunteer activities.
Presently an accounting clerk with Intertek Testing Services in Cortland, he also has an associate’s degree in chemical dependency studies counseling from Tompkins Cortland Community College.
A grant from the College’s Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC) supported the exhibition. The gallery is a collaboration between SUNY Cortland, the Cultural Council of Cortland County and the Cortland Downtown Partnership.
For information, contact Kramer at (607) 423-4475 or kathryn.kramer@cortland.edu or Albro at (607) 591-1358 or colinalbro@yahoo.com.
CAPTION: This “Townie!” exhibition image is titled “Children of the Corn.”
