Future Memory
Megan Adams Irving, Ava Fedorov, and Ashley Norwood Cooper frequently use their art practices to digest and react to current events—including the crises humans inflict upon the natural world. Within the exhibit Future Memory, these three mixed- and multi-media artists present paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and video art that offer another perspective on the 2023 Glimmerglass Film Days theme, Messengers.
All three artists, who have lived in far-flung places, have strong local roots: Irving and Fedorov spent their childhoods in Otsego County and both studied art at Bard College, and Cooper, though raised in the South, has lived in the area for decades. Drawing upon early relationships with rural landscapes—whether of Upstate New York or embedded in Greek classics—their work looks forward into the future history currently in creation. In addition to their compelling and highly original artistic practices, each of the three also teaches, sharing vision and expertise with another generation.
FUTURE MEMORY OPENING RECEPTION and ARTISTS’ TALK
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 5-7 pm
Join Film Days Steering Committee members, gallerist and exhibition curator Sydney Waller, and others at the opening reception to hear the artists discuss their work.
FUTURE MEMORY: MEET THE ARTISTS
Friday, November 10, 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm
Sunday, November 12, 4:30pm - 5:15 pm
Chat with the artists and see the exhibit in between films. Complimentary coffee.
FUTURE MEMORY Exhibit Hours
November 9-13, 12 pm - 5 pm, November 14-18 by appointment, at The Smithy Gallery, 55 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Megan Adams Irving is a mixed-media painter and ceramic artist. Gardening and living generally close to the land in Central New York are critical to her lifelong study of the landscape and its connection to humanity. Irving was recently awarded an Individual Artist Grant through the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, to pursue a body of ceramic art inspired by wallpaper patterns reprinted from 1800s remnants found in New York States homes. She notes, “Clay is a painterly and unnerving medium well suited to work about the temporary and fragile qualities of life balanced with the persistence of nature and geological time.”
Ava Fedorov is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, activist, and educator. Using art as an intersectional social practice of bearing witness, creating a record, and standing vigil, she pulls from all realms of her creative knowledge to portray disappearing places and the implicit nexus that connects internal and external landscapes. She creates large, abstract paintings; interactive installations; experimental books; and global performance pieces. Ava is an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and currently has a solo exhibition, Let Me Hold You as You Disappear, at Boston's Laconia Gallery, open through January 14, 2024.
Ashley Norwood Cooper’s intensely colored, painterly figurative work explores the creative lives of women, the awkwardness of family relationships, and the role of the artist-mother-wife teacher. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibits throughout the US including First Street Gallery (NYC) and ZINC contemporary (Seattle). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings and on the I Like Your Work Podcast. Her recent debut at VOLTA NYC 2020 garnered write ups in the New York Times and Arcade Projects Zine (Columbia University).
