Alberto Rey Exhibit Opens Monday at JCC’s Weeks Gallery

Alberto Rey (b. 1960) – Biological Regionalism: Risley Falls, Fredonia, New York (oils on plaster, 32 by 47 inches). Courtesy of the artist.

JAMESTOWN – The Weeks Gallery at Jamestown Community College will be presenting its first exhibit of the new school year with the opening of an exhibit entitled Alberto Rey: Biological Regionalism on Monday. According to Weeks gallery director Patricia Briggs, the exhibit focuses on the waterways of Western and Upstate New York. As Dr. Briggs notes in her “Scene Unseen” art blog, Rey’s installation “…cuts through the veil of artistic wishful thinking that so often comes between the environment and its depiction as landscape.”

A reception and artist’s talk by Rey, a distinguished professor of art at the State University of New York at Fredonia, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 12.

The Weeks Gallery will also feature special public presentations by naturalists that underscore the unique nature of the Chadakoin and its importance to the area habitat.

Twan Leenders, president of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, will lead a nature walk from 5-6 p.m. on September 15, introducing participants to the spiny softshell turtle population that inhabits the Chadakoin River and hatches in late summer. The walk begins in the parking lot of the Gateway Center, 31 Water St., Jamestown.

Leenders and John Jablonski, executive director of the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, will discuss “The State of Jamestown’s Waterways and Their Surrounding Habitats” from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the Weeks Reception Hall.

And Briggs will lead an informal conversation about the exhibition during a brown bag lunch at noon on Sept. 10.

Access to the gallery and all related program is free and open to the public. The exhibition is on display until Oct. 3.

WRFA will have more information on the exhibit as well as details on future exhibits at the Weeks gallery when we talk with Briggs during this week’s Arts on Fire program, which airs at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon (Aug. 22, 2014) on WRFA.