Nov 15, 2018
The main gallery at the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council is full now with vibrant paintings, thought-provoking photos and intense drawings. But by the end of the year, the walls could be stripped bare, leaving only a hollowness in the great room.
While that may sound lonely or even depressing, especially at holiday time, Gregory Hallock says that would actually be “awesome.”
You see, the gallery currently holds the annual members exhibit. More than 40 pieces from 21 different artists adorn the walls and even the tables following the exhibit’s opening last week. And they’re all for sale. This is the only time throughout the year that art pieces included in an exhibit can be sold and come off of the wall immediately.
“In every other show, if someone buys a piece, it has to stay up throughout the show,” explained Hallock, GO-Art’s executive director. “Not this time.”
If all the pieces sell, there will be nothing left to display, which is kind of the idea.
To further the agenda of selling out the exhibit, GO-Art! will offer 10 percent off all pieces on Plaid Friday (the new name for Black Friday that encourages people to shop locally) and Small Business Saturday in the days immediately following Thanksgiving next week.
The exhibit itself is as eclectic as the members themselves. It includes landscapes, collages and abstract images that combine the familiar with the strange.
“I like to see what all the members have been doing,” said photographer Don Fryling, who actually has art included in three of the four exhibits currently on display at GO-Art!, 201 East Main St. “We have photographers and painters and all kinds of art coming together at one time.”
Fryling’s photographs capture the night-lit facade of the old county courthouse, the solitude of a barn on a cold winter morning and a dew-touched closeup of a hosta flower. They’re the favorite images of a man who has spent the past 20 years snapping shots to savor moments.
“I was never able to paint. But when I joined the Batavia Photography Club, it helped my scene photographically, my photographic eye,” Fryling said. “I just enjoy saving the moment, basically. When you see something out there that strikes you, that’s really beautiful, you can save that moment.”
