WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE

September 6 - October 25, 2025

Black Rock Arts is pleased to present Water, Water, Everywhere, a group exhibition for fall. Water, Water, Everywhere brings together fourteen artists working in photography, painting and film, all of whom have drawn material and meaning from the unique freshwater ecologies of the greater Niagara region. Inspired in part by the forthcoming Erie Canal bicentennial, this exhibition explores diverse artistic responses to the waterways of Western New York and is an opportunity to reflect upon our own relationships to the rivers, lakes, gorges and falls that define our shared natural landscape. 

Water, Water, Everywhere features works in painting by Angela Bidak, Jay Carrier, Pam Glick, Dorota Kolodziejczyk and Dana Murray Tyrrell; photography by Sebastien Bowen, Jason Contangelo, Tim Kujawski, Eric Maurice, C.H. Nielson, John Opera and Mark Severson; and works in film by Kalpana Subramanian and Jeannine Swallow. 

The Niagara River and Falls loom large in this exhibition, which opens with a 19th century albumen print by C.H. Nielson. As a window to a time before the region’s development and commercialization, this photograph is a poignant reminder of the sublime beauty of the Falls and what has been lost over time.

Though the landscape of the Buffalo-Niagara region has changed immeasurably in the century since that photograph was made, artists continue to draw anew from the natural wonders around us. For Jay Carrier, the Niagara River and Gorge have been an essential source of inspiration, invention and renewal throughout his 45-years of painting. His quietly moving paintings of Three Sisters Islands capture a unique and oft-overlooked perspective of the River, and are a delightful and surprising departure from the monumental paintings for which the artist is widely acclaimed.

Pam Glick’s painterly abstraction employs intuitive mark-making to emulate the rushing flow of the Niagara and what she calls “the hypnotic pull of the Falls.” Dana Murray Tyrrell also works with a personalized, pictorial vocabulary of abstraction, although to an entirely different end, altering and obscuring vintage postcards of the Falls to evoke geological erosion and our shifting perceptions and memories of the Falls through time.

Angela Bidak’s paintings of “bathers” depict the female body in a constant cycle of transmutation between human and geological form, probing a darker side of the Falls. Dorota Kolodziejczyk’s abstracted waterscapes also traffic in ambiguity and instability, shifting the viewer’s perception from the flatness of gestural brushstrokes to illusions of depth and space, and back again.

Jason Contangelo’s photographic negatives are soaked in water collected from Niagara Falls to randomly mark the film, generating surreal effects of light and unexpected color - a kind of pictorial vandalism which brings to mind the region’s environmental degradation. Chance and accident is paramount in Tim Kujawski’s practice, encouraged through his use of obsolete and outdated photographic films and papers, resulting in an unpredictable, uncanny beauty.

A somewhat more classical approach to photography is evident in the works of Mark Severson and Eric Maurice. Severson’s hand-processed and toned silver prints lovingly depict scenes, from the Letchworth Gorge to the Black Rock Canal, with formal elegance and technical precision, while Maurice mines the unique qualities of analog color film to celebrate the majestic beauty of the Lake Erie Watershed.

The beauty of analog motion picture film resounds in the works of Jeannine Swallow and Kalpana Subramanian. Swallow’s watery landscapes form the backdrop for, and are a mirror to, her deeply personal ruminations on loss, grief and transformation. Her use of hand-processed Super 8 film heightens allusions to memory and passing time.

Subramanian’s “Liquid is Light” is a study of light and water. The title is inspired by a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in a correspondence between experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage and writer Guy Davenport. Also shot on Super 8, this film explores the idea of cinematic breath, using in-camera editing to explore a Brakhagian landscape.

Water’s presence is implied in works by John Opera and Sebastien Bowen. Opera’s ostensibly lyrical, abstract cyanotype on closer inspection reveals itself as something comically banal. And bookending the exhibition are two works from Bowen’s “Survey of the Erie Canal”, in which the artist references historical geographic surveys in his document of the current state of the former Erie Canal. Bowen shows us the Canal’s absence, highlighting the irony that, despite having been filled-in a century ago, the use of its pathway remains essentially unchanged.

Water, Water, Everywhere opens to the public on Thursday, September 4, with a reception from 5 to 8 PM. The gallery will also be open Friday, September 5, from 5 to 8 PM. Thereafter, the exhibition will be open every Saturday, from 11 to 3, through October 25. To inquire about available works or to make an appointment to visit outside of regular hours, please call (347) 469-0646 or email info@blackrockarts.biz.