“Hudson Valley Artists: Who Really Cares?” opens July 7 at the Dorsky Museum
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz’s annual juried exhibition, “Hudson Valley Artists: Who Really Cares?” will open on July 7, 2021, and will remain on view through Nov. 14.
The 14th annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition, curated by Helen Toomer, will feature a diverse group of more than 25 local artists, chosen from over 380 applications.
Exhibiting artists: Sharon Bates | Natalie Baxter & Julia Norton | Sean Bayliss | Natalie Beall | Vernon M. Byron III | Randy Calderone | Maureen Drennan | Jen Dwyer | Echo Goff | Carl Grauer | Norman Magnusson | Katrina Majkut | Christopher E. Manning | Maeve McCool | Patrick Meagher | Paul Akira Miyamoto | Ocean Morisset | Liz Nielsen | Richard Pantell | Gina Randazzo | Ransome | Macon Reed | Marcy Rosewater | Kristen Schiele | Renee Stanko | Amelia Toelke and Andrea Miller | Karen Whitman
About the Exhibition
Curator Helen Toomer offers the following description:
“‘Hudson Valley Artists: Who Really Cares?’ reflects a fractured year and the toll that both the minutiae and the monumental have had on us all. I invited artists to submit artwork that deals with the challenges of the past year and the re-imaginings of years to come, responding to the question ‘Who really cares?’, asked by Marvin Gaye 50 years ago on the monumental album, ‘What’s Going On?’
It has been a year of reckoning, of questioning, of emotional and physical turmoil. We have been separated from, and confined with, our loved ones.
For many of us, an overwhelming amount of painful news was consumed and experienced from within our own homes, where the daily battle between being thankful for our health and angry at social injustices and isolation from loved ones, has challenged our mental health.
The pandemic, the fight for racial justice, the trappings of domesticity, the wonder of escapism, expressions of queerness and otherness, and gratitude for art are all present here. The artwork is almost all representational; you see figures, houses, people, places, things, animals and objects, striving to be present, seen, felt, and heard.
In these artworks, we see a snapshot of this time, intended to spark conversations, connect people, and provide moments of reflection and hope. So we ask you to stand still and listen to Marvin Gaye’s beautiful voice, his words, and ask yourself ‘Who Really Cares?’”
About the Annual Hudson Valley Artists Exhibition
Hudson Valley Artists 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 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 Curator
Helen Toomer is co-founder of Stoneleaf Retreat, an artists’ residency and connective space in the Catskill Mountains, which is focused on supporting women and families. She is also the founder of Upstate Art Weekend and the co-founder of Art Mamas Alliance.
Formerly, Toomer was executive director of Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) and director of the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair, Collective Design Fair, and PULSE Contemporary Art Fairs. She also co-founded and managed a contemporary art gallery, toomer labzda, in New York.
Toomer lectures on art fairs and professional development at universities and arts organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom, and was an adjunct professor at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She serves on the Board of AIRIE and Advisory Committees for ProjectArt, Foundwork, and the Baxter St Camera Club of New York. She graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the Arts Institute of Bournemouth, England, and serves on the Board of AIRIE and Advisory Committees for ProjectArt, Foundwork and the Baxter St Camera Club of New York.
About The Dorsky Museum
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz supports and enriches the academic programs at the College, presents a broad range of world art for study and enjoyment and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. The Museum is widely recognized 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 in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication on Oct. 20, 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.
Museum Hours:
Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Closed Mondays, Tuesdays, Holidays, and Intersessions.
For more information about The Dorsky Museum and its programs, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum, or call (845) 257-3844.