Cooperstown NY—In honor of Ichiro Suzuki, the Art Garage, one mile from town, offers the exciting exhibition, Samurai Baseball: a fine-arts-look-at-baseball, through September 13. The show presents a rich array of highly original works by 15 artists: sculpture, paintings, pastels, photography, elegant baseball-stamped silk scarves and works on paper. The exhibition is on view Saturday Sept 6 and 13, the Last Chance Last Glance Day. The gallery will open every day with a text/call to 315-941-9607 or email leartgarage@gmail.com The exhibition features a stunning ‘quilt’ of 14 limited edition art posters, complete with on-message Japanese lettering, by Robert Seward, who lived in Japan for many years. There he taught at Meiji Gakuin University and championed the work of an American authority on Japanese baseball – Robert Whiting, author of The Samurai Way of Baseball, whom he frequently invited to lecture at the university. Other works in the show: Marcie Schwartzman, a bead-embellished textile banner with a stitched image of Suzuki and his signature upheld bat, hidden in plain sight; David Wilson, a baseball impaled on a samurai sword (katana); and a repurposed samurai action figure atop a found baseball/monument embossed with key samurai tenets; Ada Yonenaka (Chelsea/Bowerstown), works on paper with highly original and lively configurations of delightful imagery repeated in extraordinary patterns; Steph Marcus, 14 one-of-a-kind baseball cards made with sculpted modeling clay on board, featuring hall of famers…as cats!; Charlie Bremer (Otego NY), mesmerizing photorealist paintings where impossibly-luminous vintage bottles unexpectedly reveal startling baseball imagery; Cooperstown’s Ashley Norwood Cooper, a wild and enigmatic painting that will wow her many admirers; Carey Clark (NYC), a dreamy painting from her renown 1980s NYC subway series; the legendary farmer artist Lavern Kelley (Oneonta NY, d. 1998), several carved, hapless ‘Tinkerville Tomcat’ players; James Herman (Hartwick NY), two powerful paintings that comment on homeplate; Chuck Matteson (Cherry Valley NY) , a six-foot bat obelisk, a smaller curved bat for curve balls and an ‘American icons’ bronze of a cowboy and baseball ; Marilynn Gelfman Karp (NYC /Charlotteville), ‘ornithology’ and ‘archeology’ assemblages, such as a delicate nest reinforced with bird-retrieved baseball memorabilia; Mary Padgett (New Woodstock, NY), colorful pastel paintings of textiles that seamlessly and gloriously sport baseballs; and Jim Sullivan of NYC and Jefferson NY, a muted painting of a soulful dog and a baseball, called Woof. In the photography department, Katharine Kreisher, with her winning Playing on the Girls Team, a charming partially-hand-colored photograph of a gal in long dress batting a hydrangea out of the field, and Dennis Stahl, whose inscrutable black and white image of a bearded man holding out a baseball both generate more questions than answers. Wilson’ s video clips of astounding sword-brandishing “samurai baseball” action further enliven the visit, in the pop-up baseball art shop in the ‘MG Bay.’ In the pop-up shop and the Windowsill Gallery at the rear of the main gallery, enjoy a grab-and -go section:: Ada Yonenaka’s fabulous one-of-a-kind stamped baseball notecards, a limited number of out-of-print collectibles: Diamonds are Forever: Artists and Writers on Baseball and a rare Ichiro Suzuki biography. Free public programs culminate on Sept 3 with Playing Hard Ball, Wed., 5PM, moderated by Gary Bower, Charlotteville, NY. For Images and info see FB/Instagram @ArtGarageCooperstown, email leartgarage@gmail.com , text/call 315-941-9607, or call 607-547-5327 during gallery hours (Saturdays 11-3) ###