“Hudson Valley Artists: New Folk” opens Sept. 12 at the Dorsky Museum

August 19, 2020 Andrew Bruso

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz announces its annual juried exhibition, “Hudson Valley Artists: New Folk,” featuring 29 local artists in a vibrant exploration of craft, cultural heritage, and the communities we create together.

Please note: In order to mitigate COVID-19 transmission, The Dorsky Museum is limiting the number of visitors in the galleries at any one time, and requiring visitors to wear face coverings and maintain social distance at all times. Visitors must follow all posted instructions while visiting the Museum. Hand sanitizer will be available upon entry to the Museum.

*Annie Raife, “Untitled,” 2019, wool yarn, monks cloth, wood, 48 x 60 in.*

About the exhibition
“New Folk,” curated by Dorsky Museum Curator & Exhibitions Manager Anna Conlan, showcases artwork that distinctively captures the spirit of contemporary folk practice in the Hudson Valley today. It offers a vision of what folk art can be— highly skilled, locally sourced, idiosyncratic and resourceful.

New Folk is also a catch-all for the long history of visitors and immigrants to the Hudson Valley, from early European colonizers, enslaved people and settlers, to agricultural migrants, Catskill tourists, city weekenders and many other kinds of “new folk” who have journeyed to this area, bringing with them creative and sometimes contentious shifts in our cultural landscape. Some of the artists in the exhibition invoke these regional histories, and others draw on the inherited traditions and memories from homelands that new folk carry with them.

Several use established folk mediums, such as weaving or quilt-making, but subvert the aesthetic to create a fresh take on traditional forms. Many of the artworks exhibited in “New Folk” challenge old-fashioned high/low hierarchies that posit fine art as superior to folkcraft. Here those terms are being broken apart and all their assumptions of privilege or primitivism are laid bare.

This exhibition offers a small and brilliant sampling of creativity from artists and makers in our region: Art that captures something special from expanding dialogues between old and new cultural identities. Collectively, these artworks allow a glimpse into the rich and diverse heritages that underpin the communities we are creating together.

*Elin Menzies, “Leap of Faith,” 2019, paper, watercolor paint, printers ink, metallic leaves, black velvet on board. Courtesy of the Artist.*

About “Hudson Valley Artists”
The Dorsky Museum’s annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition is open to all emerging and mid-career artists with an active art practice in Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties.

Exhibited works will be eligible for acquisition into the museum’s permanent collection, thanks to the Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award, which is supported by the Alice and Horace Chandler Art Acquisition Fund.

Artists whose work has been purchased in the past include Amy Talluto, Nestor Madalengoita, Richard Edelman, Deb Lucke, Holly Hughes, Stephen Niccolls, Patrick Kelley, Adie Russell, Libby Paloma, Elisa Pritzker, Charles Geiger, Curt Belshe, Lise Prown, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak and Mollie McKinley, among others.

About The Dorsky Museum
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art supports and enriches the academic programs at the College and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, The Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication in 2001, The Dorsky has presented more than 100 exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies of contemporary artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, Carolee Schneemann and Ushio Shinohara.