An opening reception for Madison LaVallee’s Soft Power: Yearning to Stretch is planned for 5-7 p.m. on Friday, April 29, in the Center Gallery on the SUNY Jamestown Community College Cattaraugus County Campus. The gallery is located on the second floor of College Center.
LaVallee is an artist, curator, and educator who resides in Jamestown and is in her first year as a full-time instructor at SUNY JCC. Her work has been exhibited nationally, with recent solo exhibits at Joyce Goldstein Gallery in Chatham, NY, and Community Arts Network of Oneonta in Oneonta, NY. She has also contributed to group exhibitions at the Albany Airport and Opalka Gallery in Albany, NY; The Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY; LABspace in Hillsdale, NY; Ferrovia Studios in Kingston, NY; Wired Gallery in High Falls, NY; The Re-Institute in Millerton, NY; and Woodstock Artists Association and Museum in Woodstock, NY.
LaVallee’s work explores everyday, often overlooked objects, and reimagines them as sculptural compositions and art installations. Her recent works highlight recognizable objects such as family heirlooms, like her great-grandfather’s wooden ladder and her grandmother’s lawnchair. She uses these pieces to explore how the past influences new growth, vulnerability, and change. LaVallee explores her role as a woman sculptor through the use of soft forms, domestic objects, and family treasures.
This event is free and open to the public, and runs through May 26. More information can be found at sunyjcc.edu/galleries.