FOR 11/2

‘FARSIGHTED’ ON VIEW AT ALBANY GALLERY

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ALBANY, N.Y. — The Albany International Airport Gallery presents “FarSighted,” on view through March 30.

Thirteen artists traverse 13 countries, from Morocco to Iceland, Cuba to India, Belize to the Czech Republic in this exhibition, which combines photographic prints and projections, sculpture and travel ephemera that resonate with the lure of distant lands, people and cultures.

For the photographers featured here, travel is a catalyst for art. Some seek insight into localized customs and experiences inaccessible to common tourists. Phyllis Galembo’s images of ritual bathers at the waterfalls of Sodo, Haiti are ventures into such rare territory. Others, like Kate Menconeri, examine the very notion of travel — the age-old romance of the journey and the thrill of the unfamiliar through her black and white studies of books about foreign lands.

Still others document the patterns of private and public life enfolded within layers of modern and ancient culture. Martin Benjamin’s diptychs of Vietnam reveal contrasts between rural and urban life, economic bounty and hardship, youth and tradition. A physical voyage can also transport one spiritually, and many of these photographs reveal an internal exploration that conveys through the medium itself a deeply personal vision. Sarite Sanders’ infra-red photographs of Egyptian pyramids and temples invoke an ethereal world of gods and goddesses.

Immersed within the cacophony of a busy marketplace or the isolation of a windswept ancient ruin, among festival celebrants or rocky glaciers, the artists featured here transport the viewer to a province of experience, as well as a place of rich visual texture.

A book signing and artist talk with Craig Barber, Kevin Bubriski and Phyllis Galembo will be Wednesday, November 7, at 6:30 pm in the Albany International Airport’s Observation area, on the third floor of the airport terminal, before the security checkpoint.

For information, 518-242-2222.