Syracuse University Art Museum will celebrate Professor Emeritus Sarah McCoubrey’s 34-year artistic legacy with a closing reception and artist talk Sept. 10 at Manhattan’s Bernard and Louise Palitz Gallery. The event is open to the public and will highlight the acclaimed artist’s multimedia environmental narratives featured in the exhibition “Currents: Sarah McCoubrey.”
Sarah McCoubrey
The exhibition features a survey of McCoubrey’s exploration of a variety of media and output, including themes of ecology, technology, landscape and humanity. This retrospective exhibition examines McCoubrey’s career, showcasing her well-known landscape paintings alongside recent and never-before-seen paintings and drawings.
“Sarah has made a lasting impact not only on the landscape art genre but also on the lives and careers of countless students and members of the Syracuse community,” says Emily Dittman, director of the Syracuse University Art Museum, reflecting on McCoubrey’s impact on the University’s campus. “We are proud to showcase the breadth of her creative achievements and the profound influence she continues to have as both an artist and educator.”
The exhibition is timely for McCoubrey, who recently attained professor emeritus status after 34 years as a professor of painting in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Over the course of her career, she has been represented by the Locks Gallery in Philadelphia and has held significant solo exhibitions at institutions including the Everson Museum of Art, the Clifford Gallery at Colgate College, The Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College, the Luther Brady Gallery at George Washington University, and the Morris Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. McCoubrey has also been the recipient of prestigious awards and fellowships including both a 2010 and 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting and a 2006 New York State Council for the Arts Fellowship.
Fellow Syracuse University professor and Currents curator Andrew Saluti notes that McCoubrey’s work explores diverse themes and media with unexpected range. Saluti continues, “[McCoubrey] nimbly exposes the seriousness of man-made environmental disaster alongside the playfulness of a flying potato escaping that same terrible terrain, inviting us into a world that is both beautiful and disturbing, amusing and sober. As an educator, she has inspired generations of emerging artists in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University to think beyond traditional approaches and to be fearless in that process.”
“Currents: Sarah McCoubrey” will be on display until Sept. 18.
