Biblio Spectaculum Exhibition to Open in Upstate NY

Clifton Springs, NY — Despite the pandemic, exhibition programming was never paused at Main Street Arts. Exhibitions were installed in the gallery and opened to online audiences in an interactive format on April 1. The pandemic did, however, create uncertainty for the likelihood of holding the scheduled national juried exhibition, Biblio Spectaculum. Originally scheduled to open in May, this exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, June 27.

Biblio Spectaculum is a national juried exhibition of artist books and text-based visual works juried by Rochester, NY artist, designer, and educator Scott McCarney. This exhibition features 33 artists from 12 states and includes artist books, painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, video, and mixed media pieces. A full list of artists can be found on the gallery's website.

“While the idea for this juried exhibition started as a show of artist books, we are pleasantly surprised by the range in media, materials, and execution of the selected artwork.”—Bradley Butler, executive director and curator

There won’t be an opening reception for this exhibition, as the gallery is open by appointment only. Visitors can book appointments on the gallery's website for Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between the hours of 11am and 6pm. Main Street Arts is open by appointment and started operating in this way during phase 2 of New York state's re-opening.

“The criteria I used in selecting these works was drawn from the overall themes of “book” and ”text” presented in the prospectus for Biblio Spectaculum. This includes work that investigates formal representations of letterforms, the meaning of words, as well as conventional and unconventional uses of language. The variety of media employed, from ink on paper to pixels on screen, illustrate the multiple uses of text in contemporary art practice. Text operates on so many different levels, the selections follow suit: some cut and burn; inform or instruct; shape, mold and color; trick and entertain — the common factor being they all make you think.”—Scott McCarney, exhibition juror

About the exhibition juror
Scott McCarney is an artist, designer, and educator based in Rochester, NY. He received formal design training at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA in the 1970s, and earned an advanced degree in photography from the University at Buffalo/Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY in the 1980s. His primary art practice has been in book form since 1980 and spans many media, from offset and digital printing to sculptural and site-specific installation. His works are widely distributed and can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and Yale University Art Gallery, among others.