This year’s Upstate Art Weekend (July 21-24) is a full-to-bursting art suitcase with over 130 participants, from galleries and museums (Catskill Art Space, David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, Olana) to lesser-known art destinations (White Feather Farm, the Starlite Motel), and artists’ open studios (like Kathy Ruttenberg, see below). With so much to choose from, it’s hard to know where to point the arrow of one’s attention. Here are some suggestions on what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s not to be missed.
Kathy Ruttenberg Pop-Up Installation
Ruttenberg’s ceramic sculptures explore the human-animal boundary, possessing the stately elegance of Proust, as well as the winsome immediacy of an indie-pop song—simultaneously solid and slight, rooted down and taking flight. Near her studio and home outside Woodstock Ruttenberg is showcasing her work in a pop-up installation inside a former church at 810 Wittenberg Road. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with Ruttenberg’s exhibition “Twilight in the Garden of Hope” at Lyles and King in Manhattan.
NADA x Foreland
The second edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance takeover features over 40 participating galleries in a collaborative exhibition in Foreland’s 85,000-square-foot arts complex in Catskill. Expect a robust series of live music, discussions, guided tours, and performance throughout the weekend.
On Saturday, July 22 at Inness resort in Accord, experiential Kerhonkson-based artist Breuning will stage one of his smoke bomb performances. For these interventions, Breuning builds a grid of fireworks and lights them to create a rainbow-hued smoke screen. Rain date: Sunday, July 23.
Abortion Access Fund Benefit Concert
NOISE FOR NOW and Seeding Sovereignty present a benefit concert for abortion access in Woodstock on Sunday evening July 23rd at Colony Woodstock. Musicians include Amanda Palmer, Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear), Holly Miranda, Shana Falana, Sandy Bell and more to be announced.
UAP Workshop Tour
In 2020, UAP acquired Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry in Rock Tavern, extending UAP’s worldwide artmaking operations to the Hudson Valley. UAP’s clients of the past two decades are contemporary art superstars: Louise Bourgeois, Ai Weiwei, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Frank Stella, and Kiki Smith, among others. On Friday, July 21, from 1-5pm, UAP Hudson Valley hosts tours.
Strange Untried Project Space
In “Appearances,” six Hudson Valley artists explore how artworks converse with each other in works that skirt the boundary of recognition at Strange Untried Project Space in Lomontville. Natalie Beall and Amy Talluto create nonfunctional domestic objects that seem to no longer remember their use; Adie Russell creates charcoal drawings that explore erasure, loss, and digital manipulation of historical photography; Judy Glantzman and Mandolyn Wilson Rosen create representations of un-nameable faces in sculpture and assemblage; Jesse Bransford creates color drawings of intangible phenomena inspired by his study of folk magic.
Beacon Open Studios
Long before Dia moved to town, Beacon was a haven for artists fleeing the high rents of New York City. Even though the city’s real estate is as expensive as Manhattan’s in certain instances, many artists still live here. This self-guided tour is a perfect way for art lovers, collectors, and curators to discover new talent and purchase artwork directly from a diverse group of 80 artists. The Yard (4 Hanna Lane) is this year’s studio tour hub and will host film screenings, an immersive group art exhibition indoors and a ticketed concert outside.
Wolfhouse
Set atop a hillside just north of Newburgh with panoramic views of the Hudson River, Wolfhouse is a classic Mid-Century Modern home built by Philip Johnson in 1949. Meticulously restored to its original condition in 2020, Wolfhouse has now been reimagined as a cultural space, which launches during Upstate Art Weekend. Reservations required for house tour.
“High Entropy Breakfast”
Since 2007, Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe have been collaborating on a series of large-scale, labyrinthine installations. At Osmos Station in Stamford, Freeman and Lowe borrow from Robert Smithson’s model for “Site/Non-Site” with an installation of objects, ceramics, and paintings extracted from the larger universe of their practice—from ongoing projects where the real and imagined are no longer clearly defined.
Ellsworth Kelly Studio Tour
The painter, photographer, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker would have turned 100 this year. The longtime Columbia County resident is considered one of the most significant artists of the late 20th century. In his honor, museums across the globe, are hosting exhibitions of his work. Closer to home, Ellsworth Kelly Studio and the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College invite the public in for a rare tour of the studio and a dialogue with artists in response to the collage work of Ellsworth Kelly on July 22 at 1pm. Due to space limitations, this is a ticketed event, not an open house. Preregistration is required.
