Sophie Infarinato converses with Tom Monton during Saturday’s opening reception for the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts.
By Dave Warner
The Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts (MVCA) held an opening reception on Saturday for Yulia Levkovich, Tom Montan, and Sophie Infarinato in Canal Place that will run through July 29, 2023.
Sophie said, “My work is a culmination of work from over the course of several years. Some are from 2020, and some I just got off the easel. They’re probably still wet. It’s just a collection of work that sort of how small moments can speak largely about our daily lives, who we are, and what we’re looking for. When something visually stops us in our tracks, and we don’t really know why? I always take a picture with my cellphone so that I can revisit it later. All my works are from photography, but I put things in from that moment. I try to communicate that through my paintings.”
Yulia remarked, “I”m just digging in my brain. It can be dreams, or I’m processing whatever happened in a conversation that day, and I focus on something that comes up or attracts me. It can be wires or a telephone pole, and I start painting it and realize what it’s about after that. It’s like a process.”
“I went from painting big to going a bit smaller and more intimate. They’re kind of a private moment, and I changed my medium from oil paint to mixed media and gouache, and charcoal. I’m very pleased to be in the show with Tom. I adore him and his work and love the way they set up the show color-wise,” she stated.
Tom said, “What I try to do is capture human heroism and their emotions. I try to capture their faces. That’s my goal as I try to capture that.”
“Yulia is an amazing artist, and Sophie, I don’t know her work that well, but I’m happy to see her work as well,” he said.
Doug Whitfield, President of the MVCA board, stated, “Tom never really went to school for art and even teaches art. Yulia says ‘my things are so personal that I sometimes hesitate to explain them to the public unless somebody insists on the story.”
“Tom is helping us with our strategic planning, and he does a great job of running Sculpture Space,” Whitfield stated.
