On a quieter, more innovative level, T Space outside of Rhinebeck – a private invitation-only gallery on the property of noted architect Stephen Holl – had an amazing year showing Polly Apfelbaum, Jim Holl, Martin Puryear and Richard Artschwager, currently exhibiting with a splash at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (where Puryear was the big hit a few years back).
Biggest of the lot, and most effective, were a trio of exhibitions taking place in and around the Greene County Council of the Arts’ (GCCA) Catskill Gallery this summer, SUNY-New Paltz’s Dorsky Museum and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Kleinert/James Arts Center (which turned out to be the region’s best space for consistently engaging and challenging exhibitions this year), all grouped around the varying ideas of nature that consume so many artmakers in our midst. At GCCA, the focus of “From Whale Oil to Wal-Mart,” curated by Christie Rupp and Potash, was man’s imprint on nature, including a great nature walk punctuated by artworks. At the Dorsky, the emphasis of “Dear Mother Nature,” curated by Linda Weintraub, was a sense of dialogue and exploration prompted by nature – and guilt. Finally, “Beautiful Garbage,” curated by Munson at the Kleinert, was as eclectic and transformational as its title implies.
As for individual artists, we were saddened by the passing of Jan Sawka and Bob Angeloch, yet enthused and surprised by the glory of long-deserved exhibitions for each artist, the former at Bard College and Mohonk Arts and the latter at the Woodstock School of Art that he helped found.
Last winter, the Hudson-based artist Laetitia Hussain created a glorious installation at Basilica Hudson, a great new space for performances, art fairs and events in the Hudson Valley, by filling the place with a massive number of plaster objects, all the same, and composing a soundtrack to view it by in the chill of February: stunning stuff, followed by a great solo show at John Davis.
Hongnian Zhang of Woodstock completed a massive commissioned historical painting about the First Thanksgiving, for a private collector’s dining room in Los Angeles, that is a masterpiece – and graced the Woodstock Times for the holiday itself this year.
Photographer Richard Edelman joined together with Ward Fleming, inventor of the pin screen, and Lucille Abra, a modern movement artist, for a fabulous event of pin-screen dances, live shot by Edelman in Fleming’s mountainside yurts.
Maximilian Goldfarb and Matt Bua, of Hudson and Catskill, finally put out their long-awaited book (based on an ever-growing website archive), Architectural Inventions: Visionary Drawings, which may be the most inspiring thing that we’ve seen in years.
Karen Davis, a longstanding Hudson gallery presence, showed her haunting McCann Family photos, a collection of portraits of a set of dolls with which she and her now-gone sister played as girls, at Cabane Gallery & Studio in Phoenicia.
Then there’s Will Lytle, who hit the scene a year ago in Woodstock, creating mini-books of drawings and personal narrative that he hid around his hometown. Lytle traveled cross-country and then created new books and collectible artworks about Riding the Behemoth. He also hosted an evening in which he created $1 portraits of anyone who asked for one.
As previously mentioned, Charles Lindsay – the official photographer for those who believe in intelligent life out there – put together an amazing immersive installation of sounds, music, images and mood at the Center for Photography in Woodstock last winter.
Also in Woodstock, Hatti Iles – a self-taught painter who creates her own fairytale worlds – finally pulled her large, more complex pieces out of her home for a first-ever solo show at the Woodstock Artists’ Association and Museum that bowled everyone over with the complete originality of her vision and ability with paint and canvas.
Poet Sam Truitt, previously known for his inventiveness with words and reordering of our records of the thought process, is releasing a “novel” on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube: 451 words a day (half of them in Morse Code) that make this category because they’re animated with a scroll of half-viewed images and word fragments that’s truly visionary.
Finally, with a look ahead, we were bowled over by the doctored photos and ingenious video pieces by Lomontville-based Adie Russell, who showed at Roos this year. Coming this winter at CPW in Woodstock: I Am (Richard Nixon), a site-specific video installation in which Russell inhabits iconic male figures including Richard Alpert, Ingmar Bergman, Jack Kerouac, Richard Nixon and Marlon Brando via lip-synching and the use of light.
We’re inching into very new areas here in the Hudson Valley, while maintaining the traditions that we’ve long held valuable. Long live the new kings and queens!
