“Swan Song,” a group exhibit at the Edgewood Gallery, features a bevy of mixed-media pieces by Ben F. Stahl, Michael Hughes’ ceramic forms, and a selection of Lily Tsay’s necklaces and earrings. The exhibition showcases works created by the late Stahl during his last years, as well as Hughes’ bowls and cylinder-shaped sculptures and Tsay’s porcelain and glass jewelry.
Artist Ben F. Stahl is best known for the numerous book illustrations he did for Bantam Books, Houghton Mifflin, Random House and other publishers. He created cover illustrations for the best-selling Anne of Green Gables series, for The Immigrants by Howard Fast, and many others. He was known for his attention to historical accuracy and ability to craft vivid illustrations.
Like many artists, Stahl had multiple areas of interest. Towards the end of his life, he turned from figurative artworks to abstract pieces and landscapes. “Swan Song” provides a fine introduction to the latter body of work.
Viewers will note several mixed-media works from his Muse series. For example, “Muse II” features an image of a female face at its center, flanked by a slew of letters on her left and right. In “Muse V,” another mixed-media piece, there’s a female face surrounded by over a dozen smaller images; some depict only eyes, and others portray a larger view of a face. And “Muse IV” documents Stahl’s fertile imagination. Here he started with an image of a female face and cut it up, spreading the segments all over the canvas.
Elsewhere, “Big Blue” merges a blue border, tiny pieces of burlap with blue forms positioned on top of them, and a centerpiece filled with many shapes. The exhibit also displays “Three Graces,” an interesting mixed-media artwork, and “Tiny Dancers,” one of the most striking works in the collection, complete with a small centerpiece enveloped by a circular pattern made up of tiny spaces, each covered by an image.
Beyond that, “Texcatlipoca-Eyes and Spheres” further documents the depth of Stahl’s imagination and helps make the case for his versatility as an artist. Clearly, he’s best known for his illustrations. They were the backbone of his career, the work from which he made a living. Yet Stahl had a range of interests and was able to complete a substantial portfolio of abstract works before his passing in 2024.
Michael Hughes, meanwhile, has a variety of ceramic forms on view at Edgewood— bowls, a lidded jar, curved vessels and towers, and sculptures with a vertical orientation. The towers demonstrate the artist’s ability to play skillfully with color and surface; one has a rough surface and appears to be metallic; another, a small vessel, resembles a piece of pipe. Most of his pieces in the current show are stoneware vessels, but he also works in porcelain. His ceramic forms seem both straight-forward and elegant.
Finally, Lily Tsay has a range of her jewelry on view: glass earrings and necklaces; pearl earrings: and porcelain earrings. She has indicated that she’s influenced by architecture in her work.
“Swan Song” is on display through August 14 at the Edgewood Gallery, 216 Tecumseh Rd. The venue is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 315-445-8111.
About the Author
Carl Mellor covered visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2016. He writes reviews and artist profiles for CNY Arts as a community partner.
