Collage & Assemblage; Painting and Sculpture

Travis Jeffrey is in the gallery's current exhibit, "Obsessions with Parts & Pieces", a dual solo exhibit with artist Polly M. Law, and his third major exhibition with the gallery, bookending a 28 year relationship with Albert Shahinian Fine Art. A former resident of the Hudson Valley, NY, Jeffrey now lives in Saranac Lake, NY. He has had an innate interest in assembling collage and art objects, and has been formally doing so for over 40 years. Studying the work of Max Ernst, Hannah Hoch, Kurt Schwitters, Robert Rauschenberg, among others, he found kindred spirits - especially in process and philosophy.

His collages initially focused on small-scale (actually, 5 x 7 inch post card sized) creations that were easy to transport and work on, given his, then, "real" work. That work included stints as Hudson River Sloop Clearwater on-board educator (where Albert Shahinian, as one of the crew, first met Jeffrey); Sloop Captain (complete with official Coast Guard license); and, as an integral part of the Sloop Singers. (Jeffrey is a protege of Pete Seeger, from whom Jeffrey honed his guitar, banjo, and singing skills.)

Off "the boat", Jeffrey expanded his art to include painting and sculpture, sometimes on a large scale and infused with whimsy and social commentary. The main source of material for Travis's delicate works on view are images and illustrations cut from old books dating from the 1880's to the 1960's. (Sourcing these becomes increasingly more difficult!) This requires a different process than printing out images (for assemblage), and the particular quality of paper used in old books is, in itself, an intrinsic part of his finished work.

Meticulously cut and combined, his assemblages most often present a theme of wondrous living things - fish, butterflies, eggs - alongside products and machinery of wondrous human cleverness: Begging the question, "What is all that cleverness leading to?" Many of the titles given his work imply his own personal view of possible subject matter. These titles may or may not be useful or intriguing to anyone else, as the collaborative interaction between viewer and work is unpredictable. While fixing up his home and working on other construction projects, he has come upon troves of found materials that have become additional components of his art.

(Artist narrative continues after images.)

Please click each image below to display a full version above. Larger images are available on request.

Artworks displayed below are sold.

All of Jeffrey's work is subsumed under a rather curious, playful - and sometimes comical - observation of humanity. "We make stuff, send it around the world near and far, and then throw it away." Discarded books and objects gathered from local dumps regularly add to the visual "vocabulary" of his work. Jeffrey says, "Using cast-off goods is a way of interrupting the cycle. This is not meant to be any kind of consequential statement, but perhaps a questioning." In any case, the practice provides a limitless supply of ingredients for his various artworks. (Jeffrey, as also a painter of mostly abstract works, uses the same philosophy of applying things thrown away or recycled - like many kinds of paint and other 'things' - that might be incorporated onto canvases, murals, or worked into sculpture.

Having never collaborated in making collages, two most recent works on view are a collaborative effort with Jenny Curtis, a fellow Saranac Lake artist and collagist. Travis, also, continues his - to date - 22-year ongoing series of over 2000 postcards sent to, and collected by, one individual. These also utilize "found" materials, collage, and painting.

His collages and larger paintings and sculpture have been included in gallery shows throughout the Northeast, including those in in Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York - as well as NYC itself. Albert Shahinian Fine Art includes a large selection of his assemblages in its holdings and is proud to represent this wonderful talent.