NEW PALTZ – The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (Dorsky Museum) announces the purchase of the following artworks from its Dear Mother Nature: Hudson Valley Artists 2012 exhibition for its permanent collection:
“Homo Naturalis,” photocollage on paper, 44” x 22”, 2012, by Barbara Leon.
“Zipped Trunk 3 (open),” natural trunk, zipper, fake fur, 11” x 14”, 2012, by Elisa
Pritzker.
These purchases are made possible through the museum’s Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award program supported by funding from the Alice and Horace Chandler Art Acquisition Fund. Artists whose work has been purchased through this program in past years include Charles Geiger, Gilbert Plantinga, Thomas Sarrantonio, Francois Deschamps and the artist team Curt Belshe and Lise Prown.
The Dorsky Museum’s annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition is open to all emerging and mid-career artists living in Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties who have not yet had a major one-person museum exhibition, and who do not have an exclusive contract with a commercial gallery. Students are not eligible, and there is no application fee. This year’s Hudson Valley Artists exhibition, Dear Mother Nature, was curated by Linda Weintraub. Ms. Weintraub is the author of “To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet,” published in 2012 by the University of California Press.
Next year’s Hudson Valley Artists Call for Artists will be available on the museum’s website in late January or early February 2013. Artists who wish to receive notification of the artists’ call are encouraged to visit the museum’s home page at www.newpaltz.edu/museum to add their e-mail addresses to the museum’s e-mail list.
Dear Mother Nature is on display at The Dorsky Museum through Sunday, Nov. 4.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Barbara Leon is a podiatrist, photographer, and visual artist who has lived in the Hudson Valley for the past 25 years. Says the artist of her work: “My photography tends to be up-close and personal. I seek the essence of what I photograph. This goes deeper than seeking a beautiful image. It is a desire to revel in the hidden grace of a place, an object, or some perceived energy field beyond my grasp. Collaging my photographs tears open the boundaries of the image. Familiar and strange, it unveils an intimacy of shared viewing.”
An American born in Argentina, Elisa Pritzker has made the Hudson Valley her home for over 20 years, and has helped to shape the evolution of the regional arts scene in that time, first with the Highland Cultural Center (HCC-Arts), a multidisciplinary arts organization, then through the Pritzker Studio & Gallery at Casa del Arte, and through her own work. Pritzker has received, among several distinctions, two US Congressional Awards from Rep. Maurice Hinchey in recognition of her contribution to the cultural community. An artist at home in a variety of media, Pritzker has exhibited and her art collected across the US and the globe.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, located at SUNY New Paltz, is fast gaining wide recognition as the premier public showplace for exhibition, education, and cultural scholarship about the Hudson Valley region’s art and artists from yesterday and today. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, the Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums within the SUNY system. Funding for Dorsky Museum exhibitions and programs is provided by the Friends of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the State University of New York at New Paltz.
For more information about the museum and its programs, call 845-257-3844 or visit the museum’s website at www.newpaltz.edu/museum.
