"Ghost Town", curated by Ellen Hackl Fagan of ODETTA Gallery, is a meditation on abandoned, vacant, or deserted places and objects that often evoke profound feelings of desolation, melancholy, or nostalgia. Part homage to these overlooked remnants of the past and part cautionary tale about transience and neglect, the artworks in this exhibition invite viewers to reflect on familiar signs, storefronts, and locations that many of us encounter during our travels  and in everyday life. The messages conveyed through these pieces expand the endless scroll of possible narratives hidden within the seemingly mundane, transforming the ordinary into a rich tapestry of personal and collective memory.“The attraction I personally have to these works is about a deep wistfulness for the remnants of the ghosts of the past—captured in the cruddy, faded colors, peeling paint, and shattered glass. I have a long-standing fascination with the Moderne Design of the 1930s through the 1960s, evident in both the architecture and the bold lettering on these old storefronts and signs, which once signaled velocity, ambition, and effortless style.What’s left behind is both sad and undeniably beautiful. Jonathan Richman of The Modern Lover's song about  a cruddy little chewing gum wrapper perfectly sums it up for me:‘I love the faded colors like would end up at the dump,My heart goes bumpety, bumpety, bumpety bump.’There is a frailty implied in this type of work, often tinged with a dry, understated sense of humor.”—Ellen Hackl FaganTo enrich and deepen the thematic exploration of this open call, Fagan has thoughtfully invited two distinguished guest artists—Patrick Sansone and Richard Klein—whose works serve as poignant anchors for the exhibition. The emptiness and decay found in iconic roadside signs, forlorn window displays, and forgotten commercial facades are meticulously gathered and faithfully recorded in their photographs, drawn from extensive road trips and ongoing personal research. Sansone and Klein each approach these left-behind artifacts with a sensitive eye, transforming the poetics of abandonment into compelling visual narratives. Through the precision of photography and the tactile intimacy of assemblage, they navigate their own complex emotions surrounding loss, memory, and the passage of time—emotions that resonate with wistfulness, quiet reverence, and occasional wry amusement. Their contributions not only highlight the aesthetic beauty inherent in deterioration but also invite participating artists and viewers alike to consider the layered stories embedded in these spectral remnants of American vernacular culture. By featuring these invited artists prominently, the exhibition creates a dialogue between their established visions and the fresh interpretations submitted through the open call, fostering a more nuanced and expansive meditation on the theme of Ghost Town.About the curator:Ellen Hackl Fagan has been featured in over 30 solo, and numerous group, invitational, and juried exhibitions in the greater New York metropolitan area and Northeast. Fagan has works included in permanent public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe. Her work has recently been the full color feature in print in Post Road Vol. #37 Winter issue 2021. She has been the subject of multiple interviews both on the air and online including WBYX’s radio program out of Yale University, and the New York Public Library’s Artist Interview series. Known widely for her generosity in offering artists opportunities, Fagan is also a fluent and experienced curator; as creator and director of ODETTA, www.odettagallery.com, she has curated and produced over 100 exhibitions showcasing well over 250 artists. Fagan maintains her studio and curatorial practice in New York City, Connecticut, and Indianapolis, Indiana.About Richard Klein: 1999-2022Exhibitions Director, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT.In his capacity as a curator at The Aldrich Museum Klein organized over 90 exhibitions contemporary art, and has edited and/or contributed essays to over 15 major publications, including Mark Dion: Drawings, Journals, Photographs, Souvenirs, and Trophies 1990-2003 (Aldrich Museum, 2003), Fred Wilson; Black Like Me (Aldrich Museum, 2006), No Reservations: Native American Culture and History in Contemporary Art (Aldrich Museum, 2006), Gary Panter (Picturebox, 2008), Elizabeth Peyton: Photographs (Damiani, 2009), Type A (Indianapolis Museum of Art/Hatje Cantz, 2010), The Domestic Plane; New Perspectives on Tabletop Art Objects (Aldrich Museum/Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2018), Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey (Aldrich Museum and Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2021) and Hugo McCloud: from where I stand (Hatje Cantz/Sean Kelly Gallery, 2021). Significant exhibitions organized by Klein at The Aldrich include Jack Whitten: Evolver (2014), Michael Joo: Drift (2014), Nancy Shaver: Reconciliation (2015), Penelope Umbrico: Shallow Sun (2015), Steve DiBenedetto: Evidence of Everything (2016), Kay Rosen: H is for House (2017), Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley: Your Turn (2017), Weather Report (2019), Twenty Twenty (2020), Tim Prentice: After the Mobile (2021), Duane Slick: The Coyote Makes the Sunset Better (2021), and Prima Materia: The Periodic Table in Contemporary Art (2023)Statement: The subject matter of my work is psychological in nature and is based on the thoughts and emotions engendered by time and its passage, the relationship between light and matter, and the complexity and beauty of the material world. I am preoccupied with time–geological time, seasonal time, body time, and the simple awareness of one moment passing into another. Increasingly, I define my work not by style, but by sensibility. In working with found objects, materials, situations, and histories, I surrender and let them guide my process of art making. Surrendering is critical to true creativity and innovation, as it allows one to step out of the habitual and into the realm of the ineffable. Transparency, refraction, and reflection speak of the immaterial. Obsessive craftsmanship, repetition, and accumulation reinforce materiality. Analogous to the human condition, my work exists in the space between these two extremes.About Patrick Sansone: In his decade-spanning practice, Patrick Sansone creates striking Polaroid photographs that reference observations of stillness, lure, and intermission. Sansone’s quiet, dreamy works could double as an album of a road trip we might never have taken. Glass soda bottles, empty auditorium seats, abandoned industrial sites and roadside diners are all caught in the amber of Polaroid film, the artifacts of a near mythic America.Sansone captures these moments in glimpses divorced from context - the landscapes and locales are decidedly post-human, almost otherworldly.  Born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi the self-taught Sansone's photographs embody a Southern aesthetic, not unlike Eggleston and Christenberry. Signs of antiquity appear as recurring themes in his photographs as do moments of tranquility and grandeur. Sansone took the photographs while on tour with Wilco and The Autumn Defense, and the subjects reflect the restless curiosity of time spent between gigs. His lens wanders across building facades and towards the sky, then down again, rendering everything in the hazy light and muted color of instant nostalgia. Through his camera, Sansone offers us a record of a time and place that is thrillingly intimate but forever just out of reach. In 2010 Sansone published, 100 Polaroids, a limited edition book of Polaroid photography that was met with critical acclaim. Working from 100 Polaroids, Patrick has enlarged the Polaroids photographs into C-prints that have been on exhibition throughout the United States. To hear Patrick speak more about his work, listen to his featured episode on the Look Over Hear podcast.About LIC-A (Long Island City Artists) LIC Artists, is a non-profit arts advocacy organization founded by artists and incorporated in 1986 in Long Island City. LIC-A's Gallery space is generously donated by the Factory LIC. Its members are professional artists from Long Island City as well as elsewhere in Queens. LIC-A's programs are enabled largely through the volunteer work of member artists and supported by grants and donations. LIC-A is committed to broadening its community of artists, and expanding the audience for art produced in Queens through exhibitions, classes, and special projects and events.