The Dorsky Museum announces Audrey Francis as 2025 Hudson Valley Artists Purchase Award winner
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz is pleased to announce that Rhinebeck-based artist Audrey Francis ’06g (Painting & Drawing) is the recipient of the 2025 Hudson Valley Artists Purchase Award.
The Dorsky will acquire Francis’s oil painting on canvas, “Witnesses (Leda)” (2021), which was exhibited in the recent Hudson Valley Artists 2025: Movement exhibition.
“’Witnesses (Leda)’ is an excellent example of movement on a two-dimensional surface,” says guest curator ransome. “I am thrilled that Audrey Francis is the recipient of the Purchase Award. She is an amazing painter, and it is great to see her honored in this way, especially by her community.”
Francis is one of 38 artists featured in Movement, this year’s installment in the annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition of new work from regional artists.
Movement was the first in a new artist-curated model of this series: Past Hudson Valley Artist exhibitor and Purchase Award winner ransome considered the theme of movement through lenses including migration, immigration, place, political displacement, social change, isolation and physical motion.
About Audrey Francis and “Witnesses (Leda)”
Audrey Francis earned her MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2006 and remains an active member of the Hudson Valley arts community. Her work has appeared in more than 50 exhibitions across the United States and is held in private and public collections, including the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York. Francis has received numerous accolades, including a Joan Mitchell Award nomination, the Barrett Art Center Award, and SUNY’s Research and Creative Projects Award.
“Witnesses (Leda)” depicts a tumbling, interconnected whirlwind of an almost porcelain figure entwined with a swan, surrounded by blackbirds in flight. The narrative of Leda and the Swan emerges as a central theme, revealing the Greek myth’s underlying violence that is often softened or romanticized in traditional art historical portrayals.
“I wanted to re-present a depiction of the mythology that rang true,” says Francis.
About the Hudson Valley Artists Purchase Award
The acquisition of “Witnesses (Leda)” was made possible through The Dorsky’s Hudson Valley Artists annual Purchase Award program, which facilitates the acquisition of exceptional works by Hudson Valley artists, enhancing the museum’s contemporary art holdings from the region each year. Generously supported by the Alice and Horace Chandler Art Acquisition Fund, this program is instrumental in nurturing local artistic talent.
Previous Hudson Valley Artist Purchase Award winners include Aki Goto, Richard Edelman, Deb Lucke, Nestor Madalengoitia, Holly Hughes, Samantha Bittman, Stephen Niccolls, Patrick Kelley, Adie Russell, Gilbert Plantinga, Thomas Sarrantonio, François Deschamps, Curt Belshe and Lise Prown, Charles Geiger, Barbara Leon, Elisa Pritzker, Norm Magnussun, Amelia Toelke, ransome, Adam Chau, Amy Talluto, and Mollie McKinley.
The Dorsky’s next call for submissions is anticipated in late September 2025, continuing the new model of inviting artists to guest curate the Hudson Valley Artists series. Artists who wish to receive notification of the artist’s call can subscribe to the Museum’s email list.
About the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art
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 and its programs, visit www.newpaltz.edu/museum or call (845) 257-3844.