Skidmore College alum and Tang museum curator Ayelen Pagnanelli, left, and Argentinian artist Cecilia Biagini at the museum on the Skidmore College campus on May 31 in Saratoga Springs. Biagini’s work is featured alongside abstract artist Yente in the exhibit. Jim Franco/Times Union
Argentinian abstract artist Yente was never afraid to show her hand, said Ayelen Pagnanelli, art historian and Skidmore College alumna. Grooves in celotex, a fiberboard made from sugar cane, and the Incan-inspired sculpture “Object” show the irregularities of hand-carving and accidental drops of glue were left to form small stains on the collaged pages of her book “Vorágine.” But much of the art made by Yente, now recognized to be a pioneer of abstraction, went largely unnoticed during the artist’s life. Now Pagnanelli, a decade after graduating from Skidmore, has returned to the Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery to curate the largest exhibition of Yente’s art ever shown in North America: “Vorágine: Yente and Cecilia Biagini,” which pairs Yente’s work with contemporary Argentinian artist Cecilia Biagini. The show runs through Sept. 22.
