OTHER PRESS CLIPPINGS

Best of 2006: Arts

First published: Thursday, June 15, 2006

.....BEST PERFORMANCE ART VENUE
Nicole Peyrafitte's Experimental Cabaret at Tess' Lark Tavern
453 Madison Ave., Albany. 463-9779. http://nicolepeyrafitte.com; http://www.larktavern.com

Yes, we know all about delightfully strange art happenings at iEAR at RPI, but Nicole Peyrafitte's Experimental Cabaret -- held at Tess' Lark Tavern at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of the month -- has been a marvelous boon to thinking-outside-the-box artists, and it's decidedly more democratic. Since the monthly shows began back in November, Peyrafitte has hosted a wide variety of unclassifiable multimedia performance art -- improv poetry 'n' dance, PowerPoint 'n' stand-up comedy, poetry 'n' live jazz, video 'n' DJ, whatever. You just never know what you're going to see and hear -- and that's the beauty of it. Ex Cab is on hiatus for the summer, but Peyrafitte promises to rev things up again for a second season beginning in October.

BEST PERFORMANCE ARTIST
C. Ryder Cooley
http://www.carolynrydercooley.com

It was impossible to miss her at last month's opening reception for the MFA Thesis Exhibition at UAlbany's University Art Museum. There she was: suspended in a rocking chair more than a dozen feet above the gallery floor, singing quiet, mournful songs and accompanying herself on musical saw, while a pair of silent black and white films were screened on the wall behind her. On the other walls were her drawings -- of birds, trains, portraits, deer and odd scenes -- mounted on found, weathered pieces of wood. No question about it, Cooley makes some mighty haunting and hypnotic performance art.

Whether solo or in collaboration with her frequent performance partner Sarah Gonek, Cooley has definitely made her mark on the local art scene, performing at Nicolle Peyrafitte's Experimental Cabaret, Albany Center Galleries' Menagerie Art Circus, the Bing Bamboo Room, North Adams' Contemporary Artists Center, the Gasholder Building, the Spectrum 8 Theatres and various anti-war rallies.

BEST ANIMAL BAND
Evolution Revolution
http://www.myspace.com/evolutionrevolution

Hair of the Dog? Blackcat Elliot? Monkey Gone Mad? Nope. Good bands all, but beyond their band names, they don't really have a whole lot to do with the animal kingdom. No, the top honor goes to Evolution Revolution, led by the one and only reel-to-reel tape manipulator Jason Martin. The band not only sings Martin's quirky fauna-friendly anthems, but the floating membership of musicians also regularly performs in animal costumes, too. And they're at home in such high-art venues as MASS MoCA and the Albany Institute of History & Art, as well as such rock 'n' roll spots as Valentine's and Positively Fourth Street. Check out their self-titled five-song debut, which comes tucked inside a 50-page book brimming over with stories and drawings by Martin....

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previous issue | next issue Spring/Summer 1998 Volume 3, Issue 1 Contributors: Danielle Erin Storm Brown Deborah Byrne Jim Cohn Jim Cohn/bobby johnson Doretta Cornell Charles Cote` Norm Davis Nick DiChario Bob Drojarski Maria J. Estrada Lauren Farrell Elizabeth V. Flanagan K. C. Francis Sarah Gonek Gene Grabiner Scott Hassall Larry Hilf M. J. Hilfiker bobby johnson Tracy Keenan Tom Kempkes Michael Ketchek Marie Mandiak Linda McCabe Stan McDonald Robert Emmett Michie Elena Morabito Tony Nelson David Michael Nixon Salvatore J. Parlato Lee Price Robert Ralph Reed Marta Ruderman Heather Ruffalo Catherine Smith & Jean McDonough Bruce Sweet J. F. Swiontek Keith G. Tidball H. W. VanLonkhuyzen

FROM:

HazMat Review
Clevis Hook Press

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