January 19, 2026
“On the Edge,” an exhibit on display at the Edgewood Gallery, showcases work by two artists
with diverse creative interests. The show presents 27 mixed-media collages by Michael Sickler;
he’s also a poet. And the exhibition encompasses Carmel Nicoletti’s art glass as well as her
sculptural metal jewelry. In addition to visual arts, she’s a dancer.
First, the presentation of a large number of Sickler’s collages documents the range of his work.
He integrates various elements into his pieces: leaves, plastic, paper, dark rectangles and
orange forms, lattice-style fencing, scrawled drawings, even a small letter P.
These aren’t neatly structured artworks. Sickler improvises as he explores color, texture and
spatial relationships. It’s best not to search for overriding themes in the collages but to view
them with a flexible perspective.
The show displays “Forever,” with its inclusion of glitter and a checkerboard pattern; “Ronan’s
Flower” which features four small squares and an orange background; “Inside the Sun” with
tangled patterns and a leaf; “Gator,” just one of the collages in which the artist plays with layers
of different material.
Other interesting works include “Cauldron” and “Under the Volcano.” They, and the other
pieces in the exhibit, are all small-scale collages created by Sicker in recent years. He used to
make large collages but hasn’t done that in some time.
While the exhibition doesn’t present any of Sickler’s poems, it’s worth noting that he has a
strong poetic resume. His poems have appeared in a variety of publications—“The Comstock
Review,” “Defined Providence,” “The Red Brick Review,” and “The Salt Hill Journal,” among
others. He also contributed three poems to the Syracuse Poster Project. Their posters combine
visual imagery and verse.
Nicoletti, meanwhile, has a number of glass works on display at Edgewood. Over 20 “squares,”
small pieces, appear in the show.
They are accompanied by larger works emphasizing and celebrating lustrous colors. For
example, “The Edge of Midnight,” a shallow bowl, has pools of color that easily attract a
viewer’s attention.
Other pieces also accentuate color. Look for “Blackberry Path” with a section drenched in red
color; “Last Round” in which green plays a leading role; “Between the Waves” which features
swaths of three different colors. And there’s a contrast between bright color and darker sectors
in “The Mist in Time.”
And Nicoletti has other creations on display. Two of her small stained-glass windows are
positioned in the very front of the gallery, behind the front window.
Beyond that, she has a selection of jewelry on view including rings, earrings and necklaces. She
often utilizes copper in her jewelry.
Nicoletti has taken part in exhibits at local venues such as Edgewood, the Ann Felton
Multicultural Center at Onondaga Community College, and the Dowling Art Center, a
memorable but short-lived gallery.
“On the Edge” is on display through February 27, 2026 at Edgewood, 216 Tecumseh Rd. The
gallery is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on Saturdays from
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more other information, call 315-445-8111 or
access edgewoodartandframe.com.
Carl Mellor covered visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2019. He
continues to write about exhibitions and artists in the Syracuse area.
Photos by Sam Gruber