From May 14 to June 29, Albany Center Gallery presents its latest exhibition, “The Study,” featuring the work of local artists MammalSoap, Emily Dorr, Neener, and Patrick Picou Harrington.

“The Study” as a whole engages the mind to explore the natural world from the comfort of the home environment. Each artist participating in “The Study” has scoured for materials from books to the Earth itself for the inspiration and creation of their pieces which beg the viewer to examine the intricacy and meaning behind each individual creation. In their own exploration of their media, each artist breathes life into materials and images that have lost their own through age, oppression, frailty, and the unknown.

Through natural materials, MammalSoap reflects on the unavoidable influence of nature and the constant attempts by humanity to impose its own ethics and values upon it, without ever fully understanding as a whole. Though as self described as having unknown personal origins, MammalSoap work the materials of the pieces from the Adirondacks to Asia, and are all “karma-free” on his end.

Emily Dorr reinterprets the printed image, constructing a new form that evolves from her intellectual data collection. Her need to know dictates the books lining of her personal shelves, the links that she types, and the notice she takes of her surroundings. Based on the theories of deconstruction, Emily’s installations pay homage to fertility, folklore, disrupted childhood, and to the subtle and outright violence that exists in all aspects of life.

Neener with pen and ink creates bold images that demonstrate the Aristocracy and animal fashion in society. She elegantly captures her serious subject matter though images of women adorned with their own fresh kills. Escalating pressures to be one of the fashion elite have turned normally polite women in society savage.

Patrick Picou Harrington re-purposes through a process called “pulping” photographs to represent nature in a new but familiar world. With a warm color palette, his dime store materials are a preservation of an old world nostalgia as our society moves into a more electronic era. However, his pieces are not merely nostalgic, they are a demonstration of how the past can be reshaped and relearned into something new thought provoking.