On View September 5-November 8, 2018

Gallery Hours:

Mon-Thurs 10a.m.–3p.m.

Tues & Wed 5:30-7:30p.m.

Jan Balet is a German-born artist whose work explores a variety of mediums and subjects. The exhibit will show the breadth of his talents as a commercial artist, painter, printmaker and children’s book illustrator. Curated by Dr. Sheldon Hurst, Portland, Oregon Art Curator and Professor Emeritus at SUNY Adirondack, What Was He Thinking? highlights Jan Balet’s masterful lithography and features the artist’s humorous and personal perceptions of human relationships and situations. It also includes several large paintings and many miniature watercolors Balet painted as part of his inspirational process. The juxtaposing of the watercolor sketches with the artist’s acrylic paintings and subsequent lithographs illustrates the breadth of his work and the attention he paid to detail, color and form. 

Well known for his paintings and prints which were widely collected in Europe, particularly in Germany, Switzerland, and France, Balet is better remembered in the US for his commercial art in the mid-twentieth century, when he worked as an illustrator and art director in New York for the likes of CBS Television, Vogue, Seventeen, Mademoiselle, and Saturday Evening Post. However, the art he produced in Europe in the latter part of his life was available and collected in the US. The lithographs that serve as the basis for the exhibition are part of an extensive group owned by California collectors Michael and Alison Paolercio.

Lithographs and associated watercolor renderings by German-born artist Jan Balet (1913-2009) travels from the Plattsburgh State Art Museum to SUNY Adirondack Community College.

Jan Balet Art Preservation LLC was established by the artist’s son and his wife, Marie, to expand interest in and enjoyment of the full breadth of Jan Balet’s art. For more information concerning the exhibition, contact pelcharr@sunyacc.edu or info@janbalet.com. To learn more about the artist and his works, visit www.janbalet.com. 

Look around the hallways, library and offices on campus, and you will find artistic inspiration.

The SUNY Adirondack Art Collection began in 1999 with a gift of 150 pieces from the estate of poet William Bronk of Hudson Falls and now has more than 1,000 works of art by more than 300 local, national and international artists. The diverse work represents artists from the United States, Canada, Cuba, Italy, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Japan and Russia. Artistic mediums include paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, photography and mixed-media. 

The collection also includes a selection of broadsides by selected American poets.

The Visual Arts Gallery, located in Dearlove Hall since 1984, schedules a variety of exhibitions throughout the year that emphasize creativity, vision and imagination  Included are group and solo shows by artists of local, national and international reputation. Each exhibition includes an informative and interpretive brochure. A juried exhibition of student art takes place at the end of the Spring Semester.

The Visual Arts Gallery offers a chance for students to become exposed to the works of artists from within, as well as outside of, the Lower Adirondack and Capital Regions. Receptions, musical performances, lectures and formal dialogs provide the opportunity for the sharing of ideas, opinions and responses that feed a sense of community as well as provide a link for the student to what lies beyond the academic life.

SUNY Adirondack’s Theatre and Music programs offer rich and diverse programming unexpected at a community college.

The Theatre department is known for its professional-level productions of bold and innovative plays. Past productions have included D.W. Gregory’s “Radium Girls,” a true story of the women factory workers who fell ill from exposure to radioactive paint, and Moises Kaufman’s “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later,” a drama tracking the hate crime murder of openly gay student Matthew Shepard.

Catch musical performances each semester by the college’s talented faculty and staff, including vocal concerts, instrumental recitals and jazz sessions.