Exhibit: Worlds within worlds

The Eugene Arcieri Creative Legacy Exhibition will be on display during August at the Seligmann Center in Sugar Loaf.

The exhibition, entitled "Worlds Within Worlds, The Surrealist Works of Eugene Arcieri," focuses on the vast oeuvre of his abstract surrealist canvases and phantasmagorical dioramas.

About the artist

Arcieri was born in New York City and started drawing and painting at the age of 10. He attended the Art Students League, studied the masters in this country and in Italy; painted in the West – Wyoming and Idaho.

He returned to New York City and settled in Greenwich Village among artist friends who formed groups and counter-groups in the late 1930’s to 1950’s.

During the Depression he worked on the Federal Arts Project – Mural Division and assisted Philip Guston on a New York World’s Fair Mural in 1938.

Arcieri exhibited widely in museums and galleries in New York, Washington, D.C., the New England states and throughout the country.

He was a founding member of the Spiral Group (New York City - 1950’s), an active member of the Woodstock Artist’s Association, where he served on the Board of directors and as chairperson of Exhibits in the 1980’s.

Arcieri and his wife, Marcella, lived in Woodstock from 1950 to his death in 2005.

'A kind of listening with your eyes'

Arcieri described his work as “... the forms are expressions ... intended to suggest rather than illustrate a scenario, to stimulate participation and involvement on many levels, a kind of ‘listening with your eyes.’”

About the Citizens Foundation

For nearly 50 years, the Citizens Foundation is a membership-based, non-governmental organization that improves quality of life for residents through public policy and advocacy in land use and transportation planning, downtown revitalization through placemaking, water conservation, waste management, cultural affairs, education, agriculture, recreation and health care.

The Citizens Foundation is housed on 50 acres of bucolic farmland, formerly the home of Surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann.

On these Sugar Loaf grounds, known as the Seligmann Center at the Citizens Foundation, the organization brings together community, business and political members to share ideas and create new quality-of-life initiatives for our region.

Public programming includes arts and culture exhibits and performances at the Seligmann Center, political debates and forums, and thought provoking workshops.

For more information, visit occitizensfoundation.org, or contact Christa Orsino at 845 469-9459 orcorsino@occitizensfoundation.org.