Radius: The Gallery at Arc Stages presents Urban Suburban

February 22, 2020 to May 20, 2020

The Radius Gallery at Arc Stages

147 Wheeler Avenue

Pleasantville, New York 10570

914-747-6206

 

Radius: The Gallery at Arc Stages presents Urban Suburban.

 

The upcoming photography exhibition, Urban Suburban, showcases the works of several local artists, including Gina Randazzo, Chris Rivera and Randy Matusow, and opens Saturday, February 22, 2020 at Radius Gallery in Pleasantville, NY.  Radius Gallery is a non-profit, artist run exhibition space dedicated to supporting the creative, curatorial, and commercial endeavors of local artists. Our intention is to encourage active public engagement with the visual arts by presenting high-quality, innovative, and thought provoking exhibitions that spark conversation and inspiration.  

 

Historically, to escape overcrowding, traffic, pollution, and the escalating costs of city living, people flocked to the suburbs.  For those seeking an intermediary between urban and rural life, the suburbs proved to be the fulfillment of the American Dream.  But life in the suburbs has evolved over the years, as former city dwellers search[ing] for more than open spaces, lawns to mow, and quiet tree lined streets, seek communities that offer the sophistication and culture of city living. Typically the suburbs have been portrayed as a cheerful utopia of the predominantly  upper middle class, evoking images of ranch style houses, white picket fences, home baked apple pie and school science fairs. 

 

However, while the suburbs have primarily been home to the middle class, there has been a shift in recent years, from being predominantly higher income to a population that is more diverse. As a result, the suburbs have evolved dramatically, becoming more varied in race, class and ethnicity.  But with all these changes, how has our way of looking at them changed? Do we still perceive them as the stereotypical place for affluent white people who have fled city life or have they become more complex?

 

The exhibit examines how life in suburban Westchester is captured by three artists based on their own perspective[s].  Documenting the suburban experience from Peekskill to Pleasantville to Yonkers to Mt Vernon, these photographers consider whether the suburbs have been reshaped by the influx of a more culturally and economically diverse population and if our perception of them has shifted to reflect these changes.