Life has many of us bouncing between sleepless concern over relentless waves of serious issues and the desire to walk into the woods and never look back. Maybe it’s always been that way. But, good news: this season, the roster of offerings at local and regional art houses has something for both needs (and we do need both). Keep eyes on the important things; yes, that includes the flowers, the trees and the sky.
There’s still time to see the 69th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition before it wraps at the Memorial Art Gallery on Oct. 5 — and with the work of 90 regional artists featured this year, it’s worth scooting in there during the final month. This show is always a great way to gain a wider sense of what a multitude of area artists are currently thinking about and creating. And through January 25, the MAG is presenting “William Gropper: Truth, Beauty, Justice, Humor,” in its Lockhart Gallery (a smaller space reserved for showing off objects from the museum’s permanent collection; always worth popping into whenever you’re in the building). Gropper was a painter, printmaker, muralist and political cartoonist whose work appeared in “Vanity Fair,” “New-York Tribune,” and other pubs during the 1930s and ’40s, including radical journals “New Masses,” “The Liberator” and “The Worker.” Proto-memes that they are, political cartoons have always taken the piss while speaking truth to power, at times satirizing the foibles of society’s overlords and at other moments, providing daring insight and calls to action. Sadly, many of the themes immortalized by Gropper’s critical hand are as relevant today as they were in his day. The show includes paintings, drawings, and prints from his four-decade career. mag.rochester.edu
The word ‘visibility’ is often repeated when we speak of groups and communities whose rights are threatened by the whimsy of legislation and whose lives are under attack by hateful masses further empowered by bad leaders. Through October 26, George Eastman Museum’s Gallery Obscura has launched “Seeing & Being Seen: LGBTQ+ Visions of Rochester,” an exhibition that acknowledges the city’s deep history of activism and liberation movements and the enduring existential struggles that queer and trans people face, while it spotlights queer and trans Rochesterians themselves, each of whom are crucial threads in the fabric of our community. You’ll likely see some familiar faces in the photos, but even if you don’t, here’s your chance to get to know more of the neighbors who make Rochester such a vibrant home. Curated by ImageOutArt.
Revisit for “Peggy Ahwesh: The Night Sky” (through November 2), a pair of experimental videos that layer time-lapse cinematography with long exposures of trees and other terrestrial objects against the vastness of space, reminding small beings to slow down, look up and breathe.
“American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy” (Sept. 26–March 1, 2026) A look at pioneering artistry that emerged from backdrops of persecution and perseverance. eastman.org
The field of fiber arts has long received an undeserved dismissal as mere ‘women’s work’ — as though that alone should make the craft less-than. But as much as any other medium, the work is rife with meticulously honed talent, and has often served to communicate hidden messages: perhaps the most famous example is the Underground Railroad coded quilts, many of which are now displayed as important historical objects in institutional collections. Continuing this tradition of weaving and sewing hard truths into soft, innocuous materials are the artists of the New Jersey and New York regions of Studio Art Quilt Associates, who present “byCONTRAST: Apparent Contradictions” at Rochester Contemporary Art Center through September 20. The exhibition features dozens of fiber artists who have created visual and tactile works with linguistic tension, tackling politics, climate, banned books and beauty for its own sake — which is also important. rochestercontemporary.org
Earth’s cap is an icy sea, but its crown is sylvan, with primeval trees soaring toward shifting rainbow pathways in the night sky. The boreal forest rings the planet in the far north, and was a source of shared inspiration for a group of early 20th-century modernist painters across Scandinavia. The essence of the place — its sights and spirit — is captured in “Northern Lights,” featuring 62 landscape paintings on view at Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Jeffrey E. Gundlach building through January 12. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch may be the only ‘household name’ included in the show, depending on whether or not you’ve heard of Hilma Af Klint — the masterful, mystical painter is a personal favorite — so this is a wonderful opportunity to take a niche-y look at one corner of the world and the artists that celebrated its bewildering glory. buffaloakg.org
Take a day trip east to the Everson Museum of Art, where through October 19 you can immerse in the darkly dreamy works of Colombian American artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez. Her solo show, “Dream Map and Cornucopia,” is an homage to her roots, history, and the natural world, and is filled with monumental black Tyvek ‘canvases’ that she’s inked with visions of bright flora and fauna overflowing traditional ceramic vessels. There are subtle hints of tension between Indigenous and colonial cultures — look for tiny helicopters dwarfed by a forest spilling from a patterned pot — but the paintings are also pure pleasure to behold. everson.org
