POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam is hosting an exhibit by artists who use lights and snow as their paint and canvas.

"E-Fraction" features both outdoor and indoor displays by SUNY Canton Assistant Professor Matthew J. Burnett, and Scott Fuller, an advisory board member for the program and associate professor at St. Joseph's College of Maine.

Their paintings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media installations are also on view in Gibson Gallery.

They were to begin molding sculptural forms in snow on Monday in the SUNY Potsdam Academic Quad, between Brainerd and Dunn halls. An artists' reception will take place 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, at Gibson Gallery.

The outdoor work will be illuminated nightly, through Feb. 7. Both displays are free and open to the public.

Last year, Burnett and Fuller used large snow sculptures as a canvas for moving projected images of their work at a large-scale St. Lawrence University installation in Canton. Their efforts were highlighted in the March 13, 2011 Boston Globe article, "Rethinking Snow."

The pair first collaborated in 2006 to create a kinetic sculpture exhibition in Mt. Desert Island, Maine, and then again in 2008 at Saranac Lake's Winter Carnival to create a large-scale interactive illuminated spiral ice structure.

In addition to their St. Lawrence University exhibition, they presented their light and snow creations last year in Long Lake, using old black-and-white photographs projected on their snow creations. Both artists have shown their work regionally and internationally.

Fuller said the exhibitions take a massive amount of coordination, cooperation and direction from both artists. He and Burnett will be relying on students and faculty members from SUNY Canton and SUNY Potsdam to help create the massive outdoor snow sculptures.

"Although we've worked collaboratively on large environmental exhibitions, we've only had one traditional indoor show together," said Fuller. "We have lots of drawings, paintings and photographs that have been developed around these installations. Our gallery exhibition showcases over five years of working together."

The Art Museum at SUNY Potsdam serves as the center for visual arts at the College, and encompasses all of the collections found throughout campus, including in the Gibson Gallery. The Museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation of quality works of art, and its collection includes significant artworks from the 20th and 21st centuries as well as earlier pieces.

The mission of The Art Museum at The State University of New York at Potsdam is to make direct experience of the visual arts accessible to students, faculty, staff and alumni of the College, as well as to residents of Northern New York.

Admission to the Gibson Gallery, located at Brainerd Hall, is free, and the exhibition space is handicapped-accessible. The Art Museum is open to the public from noon until 5 p.m. on Monday and Friday, from noon until 7 p.m. from Tuesday through Thursday, and from noon until 4 p.m. on Saturdays.