Visual Poetry: New Vistas

Curated by Willie Marlowe, Joseph Mastroianni, and Bella Burnett.
Opening Reception: November 17th, 6pm-8pm
Exhibition Dates: November 13th – December 20th, 2023

Visual Poetry is a work that is to be seen as well as read. In this exhibition, artists are invited to create a visual or concrete poem that relates to their work or to consider it as an invitation to experiment in uncharted territories.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Drea LaRose, Kelsey Renko, Kim Tateo, Laura Frare, Marisa Cavanaugh, Mary Kathryn Jablonski, Willie Marlowe, Yeachin Tsai 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Drea LaRose
Drea LaRose is an upstate New York-based artist working in photography, digital painting, and sculpture. Her art has been shown locally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In January 2020 she opened an alternative exhibition space, The Hallway at Second Street Studios located in downtown Troy where she has curated exhibitions both virtual and physical. She is currently working and living in Troy, NY.

Laura Frare
Laura Frare is a visual artist, experimental filmmaker, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist. Since earning her MFA, she has worked as an adjunct art professor, art handler, and exhibition installation assistant. Laura’s recent work focuses on composing short films and soundtracks in a suite of visual poems without words. She also collaborates on projects involving live soundtracks for dance performances, original scores for silent film screenings, and video poems. Her creative process involves experimenting with audio and video imagery captured at home and while traveling.

Marisa Cavanaugh

Marisa Cavanaugh’s paintings are the embodiment of wrapping up anxieties and putting a bow on them.
Instead of allowing the disruptive and deafening thoughts to consume the space in her mind, she uses
paint to work through the fears. By coupling this with bright colors and excessive amounts of tiny details,
she is able to turn her dark thoughts into a piece of work that is bound to put a smile on your face. Marisa
has a background in graphic design and currently works out of her home studio in Troy, New York.

Kim Tateo
Kim Tateo’s work is inspired by a profound moment with a disco ball, which led her to reflect on the perception of self and others. Her piece invites viewers to contemplate how they see themselves, how they believe others perceive them, and who they are at their core. Kim encourages self-reflection and mindfulness through her art. She asks viewers to observe their surroundings and senses, ultimately recognizing their uniqueness and value.

Kelsey Renko
Kelsey Renko’s paintings capture the essence of intimacy and human experience. Her work features layers of paint, emphasizing the physical and emotional closeness of figures. Kelsey’s art combines vibrant colors and expressive gestures, blurring the line between abstraction and figuration. She holds an MFA from the University at Albany and a BFA from the College of Saint Rose. In addition to her art, she works at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, curates exhibitions, and serves as an artist assistant to Sarah Cain. Kelsey has exhibited widely in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley.

Willie Marlowe
Willie Marlowe has exhibited paintings in the USA and abroad. She has had artist’s residencies and has been a guest artist in the USA and Europe. Born in North Carolina, she holds a BS from East Carolina University and an MFA from the University of Idaho. Willie is now a Professor Emerita at Russell Sage College. Her work in Visual and Concrete Poetry includes painted poems, found poems, asemic writing, and poems in ziggurat matrix formations. Her visual poems have been featured at The Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville, NC, Albany Institute of History and Art in NY, and Artpool in Budapest. Her poems are also published in various European publications, including The New Croton Review (NY) and UNI/vers(;) (Germany).

Yeachin Tsai
Yeachin Tsai received her BFA at National Taiwan Normal University and her MFA at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Known for her rhythmic forms and decisive brush marks rooted in Chinese calligraphy and painting dynamics, she works with layered ink, acrylic, and oil colors on various surfaces. Yeachin’s paintings, both intimate and colossal in scale, generate tension and vibrant energy. Her work has been exhibited at notable venues such as the Painting Center in Manhattan, the New York State Museum in Albany, and the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY. Her original pieces are held in private collections worldwide, including corporate collections at renowned venues.

Mary Kathryn Jablonski
Mary Kathryn Jablonski is a visual artist and poet, serving as the Senior Editor in Visual Art for Tupelo Quarterly. She is the author of “Sugar Maker Moon” (Dos Madres Press, 2019) and her poems have appeared in various literary journals. She was awarded a NYSCA Individual Artist’s Grant in Poetry, resulting in the collaborative poetry/film project “Compass” (created with filmmaker Laura Frare), which received “Best Experimental Short” at the 2023 New York State Writers Institute Film Festival. Jablonski has lectured on Visual Poetry and has exhibited her artwork throughout the Northeast U.S., held in both public and private collections.