In the 18th and 19th-century Paris salons, hundreds of works were often hung floor-to-ceiling in a dense, informal style that democratized how art was viewed. In contrast to the focus on a single artist’s body of work that so often dominates today’s contemporary museum calendar, group shows offer a look at the multiplicity inherent in (and necessary to) meaningful cultural dialogue. With “DRAW: Heat,” the Hudson River Museum is helping to bring this tradition to the Hudson Valley, assembling fifty contemporary artists in a timely exhibition that encourages curiosity, exploration, and contemplation.
On view through January 11, 2026, “DRAW: Heat” explores the potent theme of heat, whose intensity vibrates strongly in the current global political environment. The exhibition’s works explore the rising temperatures of global warming and the inequities of who suffers most during heatwaves, as well as metaphorical forms of heat such as cultural trends, ideological clashes, creative passion, and the volatile spark of debate.
Organized as the latest chapter in artist, educator, and activist Tomas Vu’s DRAW Project, “DRAW: Heat” uses its informal, salon-style approach to deliberately decenter individual authorship. Rather than spotlighting a handful of marquee artists, the installation places emerging, mid‑career, and well‑established figures in direct conversation—including Shanequa Benitez, Sanford Biggers, Erika Harrsch, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Kiki Smith, Sarah Sze, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Kara Walker, and more.
This ethos is central to the “DRAW Project,” an artist-led collective founded and directed by Vu, which grew out of collaborative workshops and expanded into a series of international exhibitions. Each iteration forms a dialogue with the city where it is staged, with local curators and artists shaping its direction. For the exhibition at HRM, Vu worked with curators including Brian Novatny, Predrag Dimitrijevic, and the HRM’s Laura Vookles to incorporate regional voices from Westchester County and the Hudson Valley.
“The DRAW team and I are proud to be partnering with the Hudson River Museum on this exhibition,” Vu says. “The concept of ‘DRAW: Heat’ was born out of a conversation with the Museum where we began to imagine heat not only as a force of nature, but as a metaphor for our most pressing environmental and geopolitical tensions. In this exhibition, ‘heat’ is translated through the elastic language of drawing, where interruption and intervention ignite new forms of vision and resistance. From many voices come many interpretations, and a myriad of starting points for reflections and solutions surrounding this prescient topic.”
In addition to the exhibition itself, the Hudson River Museum will host a “Meet the Artists of DRAW: Heat” event on Sunday, December 14, from 12 to 4:30 pm, offering a rare opportunity for audiences to hear directly from many of the local artists featured in the show, including Shanequa Benitez, Thomas Lollar, Motohiro Takeda, and Thomas Ray Willis, about their work and creative process.
“DRAW: Heat” is on view through January 11, 2026, at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers. Museum hours are Wednesday–Friday, 12–5 pm, and Saturday–Sunday, 11 am–5 pm, with free admission on the first Friday of each month, 5–8 pm.
