LOL at ALB
Perhaps not ROFLMAO, but definitely smile inducing.
No, the Joe Bruno bust isn't at Albany International right now. But there's other stuff to see -- and funnier.
If you're heading out of town, or delivering/picking someone up to/from ALB over the holidays, take a few minutes to stop up at the 3rd floor gallery to check out the LOL exhibit.
You might even want to just take a trip out to see it -- even if you're not going anywhere -- just for giggles.
We've been fans of the art gallery at Albany International for a long time (more airports need art galleries). We try to make time to check out the exhibits anytime we're there.
Sharon Bates, the director of arts and culture programs for ALB, does most of the programming with her assistant Kathy Greenwood. The LOL exhibit came about last year when they'd had enough of bad news.
"The two of us felt like we'd just been so inundated with all this news of calamity," says Bates, "we just wanted to do something that would make people laugh."
LOL will make you alternately laugh, smile, chuckle and groan and think.
Fourteen artists express their sense of humor. Some of it is less laugh-out-loud funny than it is wry. Here's a little of what you'll see:
The Giant Forest Freshener
As you enter the exhibit you'll see Brian Kane and Michael Oatman's giant forest air freshener:
Part of a one day challenge, they thought it up, created it, took it to the forest and photographed it, all in one day.
The Lord's Typewriter
On the typewriter keys in this Andrew DeGraff painting are the abbreviations for the periodic table of elements.
Shaker Air
Roger Bisbing's Shaker Air was created specifically for the LOL exhibit. It was inspired by the airport and the Shaker land where it was built.
It's an imagined Shaker airline with Shaker seats...
and a Shaker style rest room...
Toe Truck
Yeah...
The Upstate Olympics
The multi-media installation includes video of artist Tim Davis demonstrating sports like lawn jockey jumping and snowman jujitsu in a fictional Upstate Olympics.
Complete with trophies:
Bad Art
19.96 plus tax, Salvation Army is just one of the pieces where Gregor Wynnyczuk has fun with old paintings.
This one's called I Think I Want To Live at Mom's Full Time
Cesar Lombrosso's House of Pizza
Using art from Pizza boxes and narrative printed in a pizza box Michael Oatman examines the stereotyping of the Italian Pizza guy.
There are lots of other interesting pieces to check out. The LOL exhibit will be up through March 25.
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