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Dear January — you again, with your wintery beauty and frosty days! Happy New Year and post-holiday hangover month for all. In tandem with the season of reflection and repose, the ever-inviting Goddess of Art beckons us to the creative hearth as diverse exhibitions crackle around Upstate New York. At Katonah Museum of Art, find Jonathan Becker’s glamorous photos of fabulous and famous humans living their outrageous lives. A site-specific installation by Anne Schaefer at Foreland in Catskill reconfigures her bold and bright graphic artworks as part of the Greater Valley Artists show. Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (the Loeb) at Vassar College considers complex issues surrounding reproductive wellness and personal agency. Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson hosts the group show Unexpected Light with artworks that extol luminosity. Winter Salon 2024 at Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack includes the work of 25 artists that call the area home, while the HOLIDAY group show at LABspace features smaller artworks by 375 artists from all over the map. Dearest January, we accept your nippy days and seek the warmth of art throughout this polar month!
Jonathan Becker: Lost Time
Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street, Katonah, New York
Through January 26
Jonathan Becker: Lost Time at Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah left me utterly breathless. With one sumptuous photo after the next, Becker takes us into private moments with renowned figures — one can only be starstruck by the glamour of his oeuvre. Curated by author and editor Mark Holborn, the exhibition is a celebration of Becker’s distinguished path as a photographer, from his youthful years in Paris to his golden era of working for Vanity Fair and Vogue during a stellar 50-year career. Lush and fashionable works such as “Diana Vreeland at home, 550 Park Avenue, New York” (1979) and “Andy Warhol and His Corsets at the Fourth Factory, New York” (1986) invite us to experience the unabashed joie de vivre (Vreeland) and anxiety (Warhol) of fame that Becker captures so gracefully. And the sultry “Ward Just’s Desk, Martha’s Vineyard” (1996) is a rich image with a still-life ambiance: We look down upon a weathered typewriter and an ashtray heavy with battered butts, a rarified peek into another’s personal life.
Unexpected Light
Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street, Hudson, New York
Through January 26
Art history displays an obsession with the dynamics of light. Featuring five artists, Unexpected Light at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson is a jubilee of light: Luminous, rich, shiny, glossy, glowing, and polished paintings reflect the beaming heart of this exhibition. The encaustic “Gray Clouds” (2024) by Leigh Palmer, a dreamy landscape that breathes with warm fresh air, appears to be in direct communication with the atmospheric ambiance of “6194 Salem” (2024), a richly hued oil-on-linen landscape by the seasoned plein-air painter Harry Orlyk. David Dew Bruner’s “Sheets II” (2024), a lush archival pigment print of white bed sheets in a Renaissance revival frame, captures the implied intimacy of an otherwise prosaic moment. “Moonrise in the Mountains” (2024) by Jane Bloodgood-Abrams follows in the tradition of the Hudson River School — it features a radiant full moon high above a landscape that bathes everything below in a warm transcendent light.
Ash Eliza Williams: History of Moonlight
Headstone Gallery, 28 Hurley Avenue, Kingston, New York
Through January 26
History of Moonlight at Headstone Gallery in Kingston presents Ash Eliza Williams’s latest works in a show set in a space-time beyond our wildest dreams. Works such as “At the Threshold of Sleep” (2021) make us question the appearance of things: A bison-like hair-cloud hovers ominously above a gorgeous, smoky river as it bends beyond the horizon. In “Night Bather” (2024), a half-anteater, half-polar bear beast lumbers through a blue-hued realm while the bottom half of the painting hosts a brilliant full moon above a sheath of ice with a perfect hole, allowing a peek into icy water below. The poetic “Trace Elements” (2016) depicts a somber gray sky with scattered water droplets, giving the impression of looking through a pane of glass onto a storm.
Small Works
Buster Levi Gallery, 121 Main Street, Cold Spring, New York
Through January 26
With its deceptively modest title, Small Works at Buster Levi Gallery in Cold Spring showcases the diverse work of 14 artists working in a range of media including sculpture, ceramics, drawing, painting, and photography. Ada Pilar Cruz’s “Three Figures for Saramego” (2024) includes a trio of glazed ceramic female figures drenched in rich tones seemingly blinded by swaths of color over their eyes, suggesting an ulterior meaning to this otherwise friendly scene. “Rock and Roll” (2024) by Jenne Currie is a mixed-media symphony of darker-hued organic shapes, while “Red Stones” by Gretchen Kane is a spree of pink and red color fields that overlap as they melt into each other. “Notes from Lou” (2022) by Martee Levi is reminiscent of 1950s Modernism, while “Sunday Morning” by Bill Kooistra is a grid-like post-modernist response. And the balance between 2D and 3D sensibilities is cleverly captured in “Discordant Trio II” (2016) by Grace Kennedy, featuring a music box with a classic farm scene superimposed, complete with a gang of docile cows, a red barn against a bucolic landscape, and a forceful rocket ship blasting off into the atmosphere.
Winter Salon 2024
Perry Lawson Fine Art, 20 North Broadway, Nyack, New York
Through January 26
Featuring the work of 25 artists that call the area home, Winter Salon 2024 at Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack reflects the diversity of art happening in the region by artists at all stages of their careers. Spencer Tunick’s “Dead Sea 11, 2011” (2012) is a powerful image of mud-covered bodies that face an arid mountain range in the distance. “Victory” (2024) by Eric David Laxman is a haunting plywood and steel sculpture of a figure atop a wheel, the body severed at the limbs yet passionately rushing forward in a windswept pose. Emmanuel Ofori’s “All Eyes on Me” (2023) features a stylish character crouched down in a reflective mood, encased in a wood frame. And “All Of Them” (2024) by Tracy Burtz is an Impressionist-inspired scene of a figure snuggling with a dog atop a floral couch while two white kitties peer directly at us, their focused gaze reminiscent of Manet’s black cat at the foot of Olympia’s bed.
Best in Show | The Artist Favorite
Gallery40, 40 Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie, New York
Through January 26
Curated by Christine Irvin Ranhosky and featuring artworks by 32 artists, Best in Show | The Artist Favorite at Gallery40 in Poughkeepsie is a merry and motley. The show takes us on an atypical journey from traditional landscape painting to documentation to abstraction, starting with the moody vibe of “Evening” (2024) by Ellen Metzger O’Shea and moving to Maureen Gates’s sultry photographic print “Moonlight” (2023) and the gestural energy of Kathleen Suess’s “Don’t Think Twice” (2024). Other works capture moments of raw power and beauty, including Janis Borgueta’s “Early Morning in the Camargue” (2023), a photo of two stoic white horses at the edge of water, and Johanna Foster’s “Portrait of an Italian Woman” (2024), featuring a lovely lady at a table peering off into the distance. My favorite is “All These Miles 240824” (2024) by Lee Willett, a photographic print on canvas that appears to be a map, with coordinates over a ghostly leaf to the left and a turtle shell with graphic blue markings to the right with a baby cactus popping out of the center, a curious and compelling image.
Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (the Loeb) at Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York
Through February 2
The Loeb at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie consistently presents excellent exhibitions for audiences of all ages, and Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency is among the strongest shows in the region this season. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) at Columbia College, Chicago, the show considers critical issues surrounding reproductive justice. The diverse artworks express the lived experiences of the artists and their intense physical and psychological realities. Among the most impactful is “Betsey’s Flag” (2019) by KING COBRA, a hanging quilt-like flag made of brown body parts with unsettling, flesh-like silicone on one side and a sludgy red mess of organic goo on the other, invoking blood, meat, and murder. Jess T. Dugan’s “Self-portrait with Vanessa and Elinor (2 days old)” (2018) is a poignant, tattoo-covered look at contemporary partnership and motherhood. Joanne Leonard’s collage work “Pear/NoPair/Oh Père, October 9, 1973” from Journal of a Miscarriage (1973) is a simple image of yellowish pear shape with two legs akimbo with the word “pregnant: at the bottom of the fruit. And Carmen Winant’s “A History of My Pleasure” (2019–20) features a collection of historical and private images stretching across three 6 x 5-foot panels, including photos of human intimacy and scenes from nature.
Anne Schaefer
Foreland, 111 Water Street, Catskill, New York
Through February 16
The current Greater Valley Artists show, a regular showcase of artists working in Greene and Columbia County at Foreland in Catskill, features the robust color combinations of Valatie-based artist and educator Anne Schaefer. Featuring four artworks on a white brick wall as a site-specific installation in the lobby area of the iconic Foreland building, Schaefer’s graphically charged artworks spark love at first sight. “trifurcated” (2023) is a bright abstract square shape with a bold turquoise area at the top that gives way to warm swaths of yellow and fluorescent orange while four relentless lines of red cut through the middle. Her multi-panel composition “twenty-four hour palette (dawning, everlasting, present)” (2018–24) is a wild yet precisely organized vision of pale block colors that pattern at random, cross over each other, combine and intersect at different intervals. Made by “sourcing, remixing and riffing” from her archive, as the artist put it in her statement, these works sweep us into layered spaces simultaneously composed and liberated.
HOLIDAY
LABspace, 2642 Route 23, Hillsdale, New York
Through February 23
The annual HOLIDAY group exhibition at LABspace in Hillsdale is a seasonal felicity, and the seventh incarnation of the show is as gleeful as ever. The opening last month was a chance to see colleagues and friends in a joyful setting that momentarily dispelled the woes of this world. And the packed exhibition is a cheerful blow-out of everything from drawing to photography by 375 artists, all of whom submitted a tiny work to accommodate this robust and expertly installed show. Among the highlights include Zohar Lazar’s “RRRUNCH!” (2024), featuring a cartoon creature feasting on a slime-green sandwich, and Philip J. Palmieri’s “Adam’s First Kiss” (2024), an intimate caress between two male faces. “Sure-Footed” (2024), a silly sculpture of two little chicken feet by Hanna Washburn, solicits an instant smile, as does the loveable polka-dotted hotdog-style dog in “Superior Breed” (2024) by Philip Knoll. “Empathetic Roots” (2023) by Julie Evans is a lush floral medley made of ceramic, while Susan Meyer’s delightful “Pretzel” (2024) is colored with a candy cane swirl design, a lovely holiday twinkle in this terrific HOLIDAY show.
A Space Between Worlds
Wassaic Project, 37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic, New York
Through March 15
Installed throughout the seven floors of the Maxon Mills building, AKA Wassaic Project in Wassaic, nine artists build their own worlds. Curated by Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Will Hutnick, the various installations of mixed media artworks reveal a range of creative focus and fantastical thinking. Paolo Arao’s sewn cotton “In Verse” (2024) and “Intervals (Prisms)” (2024) are strikingly geometric, while Amira Pualwan’s handwoven cotton “Flame v Flood” (2023) appears to vibrate with a graphic pulse. “Kitchen Window” (2024) by Mary Tooley Parker is an impressive work of hooked tapestry that details a common kitchen scene with such sensitivity that I found myself moved to tears, and“Honey” (2024) by Dana Robinson is a lovely Dada-inspired collage of random objects that float along in a timeless realm. “You are now Egungun: (2017) by Jamal Ademola is the futuristic representative from A Space Between World — it depicts a figure that looks as if it stepped right out of a Nick Cave work, cloaked in an outrageous glittery ensemble.
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