West African Masquerade Photographs by Phyllis Galembo

Monday, 16 July 2007 00:33

Saratoga Springs, NY - Large-scale color photographs from 2005 to 2006 reflect the ritual adornment and spirituality of masquerade in Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso in West Africa. These portraits of masqueraders build on Phyllis Galembo's work of the past twenty years photographing the rituals and religious culture in Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as the homegrown custom of Halloween in the United States. Organized by Ian Berry, Malloy Curator of the Tang Museum, in collaboration with the artist. On exhibition until 29 December, 2007.

At the heart of the Tang Museum's activities is an ambitious exhibition program. Of the twelve exhibitions the museum organizes per year, several involve individual faculty or groups of Skidmore community members as curators and advisors. These large-scale projects often combine a wide variety of objects from antique maps, scientific equipment, and Rube Goldberg cartoons, to Shaker furniture, hair dryers, and astronomical atlases with new works of international contemporary art. The Tang also originates traveling survey exhibitions of contemporary art. These have included important and scholarly investigations into the work of Kara Walker, Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler, Trisha Brown, and Richard Pettibone, among others.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College is sited dramatically on Skidmore’s scenic campus. The Tang’s designation as a “teaching museum” signals Skidmore’s intent to make Tang exhibitions, collection, and programs a significant aspect of the Skidmore education. Visit : www.tang.skidmore.edu/