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Installation view of Connections. Photo William Jaeger

Francelise Dawkins, Verdoyance, 2022. Cotton fabrics on paper. Photo William Jaeger

Francelise Dawkins, Verdoyance, undated. Cotton fabrics on paper. Detail. Photo William Jaeger

John Hampshire, Labyrinth 339, 2015. Ink on panel. Detail. Photo William Jaeger

Lori Lawrence, Mexican Thistles (Monkey Faced Bat Flower), 2020. Embroidery on canvas, traces of paint. Photo William Jaeger

Langdon Quin, View from Mazzolla toward Volterra, 2002. Oil on canvas. Photo William Jaeger

Installation view of Passports at Albany Center Gallery Photo Willim Jaeger

Installation view of Passports at Albany Center Gallery. Photo Willim Jaeger

Ruby Silvious, Cassis, France, 2022. Watercolor and gouache on used tea bags. Photo William Jaeger

Ruby Silvious, Pastry Roll, 2022. Markers on adding maching roll. Photo Wm Jaeger

“ Passports ” at Albany Center Gallery looks both inward and outward. All 14 artists are veterans of the Albany scene, gathered by area artist and curator Willie Marlow, and the artworks are meant to be about far- flung places and people.   

This is a potpourri, for sure, but there are some truly exceptional pieces.  

The small watercolor and gouache paintings by Ruby Silvious are in a league of their own. They are miniatures in the old idea of being small, finely executed, and representationally true, but these are not portraits. Exquisitely detailed, and just an inch or two (or three) in size, they tug on invisible strings in your heart.   

Her series of teabag paintings show what you might see on a relaxing trip to Europe: a view of some cafes packed with people, a quaint little street. The fact they are on teabags makes them intimate beyond their size. In “ Pastry Roll, ” a series of small drawings of cakes and pastries made with colored markers appear one after another on a roll of adding machine paper. You wonder whether the drawings go beyond the twenty or so pictures on the several feet unspooled on the pedestal — maybe there are hundreds of them. (You hope so.)  

Phyllis Galembo ’ s colorful, stark, anthropological photographs are statements that surpass any simple documentation of subjects in the African diaspora. Shown on location wearing genuine, and often startling and gorgeous, costumes and adornments, these individuals are not immortalized so much as brought to life, in all their detailed, photographic stillness. The large examples here are just a sliver from a remarkable decades-long project beholding these varied, memorable subjects around the world, from Africa to South America to the Caribbean .  

Lori Lawrence ’ s mixed media paintings go beyond the apparent prettiness you enjoy at first — the embroidered flowers in “ Mexican Thistles ” are sharp and very present, setting up a contradiction against the softly blurred landscape painting behind. Francelise Dawkins builds busy, entrancing patterns u sing layers of cloth fabric that depend on both cut shapes and printed floral imagery for their concentrated effect.  

There are layers almost invisible in the complex figurative works of D. Jack Solomon, who plies the canvas in a mixture of focused detail and broad strokes. They are portraits, of sorts, one called “ Mystic Man #5, ” based on Solomon ’ s travels to Malaysia in 1996. They have a confident, playful fortitude, the rounded figures barely fitting onto the canvases, and they convey the influence of three principal religions there.  

Clearly, we are seeing a range of responses to places outside the U.S., and often the works make no attempt at insight, but rather use these new subjects for inspiration. Some, like Landgon Quin ’ s restrained landscape paintings, speak with subtle sincerity, and others, like collages by both Dawkins and Lawrence, strive for an honest essence of life in a foreign land.  

In the other half of the main gallery, salon-style works cover the walls in celebration. Yes, it turns out it is the 45th anniversary of the Albany Center Gallery, so alongside “ Passports ” is “ Connections, ” featuring gallery members who pair their work with work by artists they have invited. Around a corner, you can find a display of milestones in the gallery ’ s history, with emphasis on Les Urbach and his years running what was then called Albany Center Galleries.  

It seems the gallery ’ s name could well revert back to the plural, as they expand deeper into the historic building on Broadway in an ever-growing involvement with artists, artmaking, and the community. Under current director Tony Iadicicco, the gallery has nurtured artists on every level, and you can feel and admire the grassroots vigor everywhere.  

Albany Center Gallery, 488 Broadway, Albany, NY   

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday , noon to 5 p.m.  

Info: https://albanycentergallery.org/events/passports-curated-wille-marlowe  

Jaeger has been teaching in the Art Department at the University at Albany for over twenty years. He identifies as a photographer and also writes about photography and art. He avoids social media as much as possible. You can reach him at wmjaeger@gmail.com.