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An exhibition featuring the work of artist Joy Adams will open Oct. 19 in the �������� Art Gallery in Rockefeller Arts Center with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m.

“Mad Sally: Dancing with Shadows,” is series of Adams paintings featuring a “madcap woman with an audacious spirit.”

Adams, an emeritus professor of painting from Ithaca College, describes “Sally” as “a strong willed and visual affirmation of mature woman as Super Hero, a lone feminine ego who lives in a mythic world. Her scenarios oscillate between truth and fantasy and are set into fabricated landscapes where feeling takes precedence over actuality.”

Kristen R. Carbone, curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, said Adams “has a unique ability to use ‘Mad Sally’ as a vehicle to portray a certain feeling or emotion that accompanies experience. ‘Mad Sally’ is always the primary subject matter, but Joy has managed to avoid letting the paintings from becoming formulaic, each work remains.”

The series is described as steeped in tradition while being contemporary at the same time.

“Joy is having a great run with her Mad Sally series,” said Harry McCue, professor and chairman of the art department at Ithaca College. “These, by the way, are not small spontaneous studies, but very large (six to seven feet tall) complex multi-figure compositions; the toughest representational paintings do. Only the most technically competent, confident artist would attempt these paintings. Joy’s paintings not only hold together like ‘old ironsides’ but they are funny, tragic, mysterious and mischievous.”

Adams is also part of the Visiting Artist Program and will give a lecture at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 in McEwen Hall Room 209.

The hours for the Art Gallery are 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

“Mad Sally: Dancing with Shadows” will be on display through Nov. 13.

Photo cutline: The works of Joy Adams, including “Sally’s Folly,” will be on display at the Art Gallery from Oct. 19 through Nov. 13.