August’s exhibition calendar stretches from U-Haul trucks on Cannon Street to galleries at Vassar College, the Lace Mill, and the Fenimore Art Museum. Among the month’s offerings are Atelier 17 prints responding to fascism and the Atomic Age; rarely exhibited sculptures from Augusta Savage’s Saugerties years; Julianne Swartz’s resonant clay vessels; and Allyson Strafella’s typewriter-made drawings. Dakota Lane revisits a turbulent Woodstock childhood, Jackie Skrzynski paints native and invasive plants, and Bridget Snow studies fruit and flowers in stages of ripening and decay. Also on view: folk art, recycled landscapes, ceramic installations, and works inspired by water and Seminole heritage.
“Atelier 17: Myths in Motion” at Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie
Through August 30
Atelier 17 was one of the 20th century’s most influential printmaking workshops, a collaborative incubator founded in Paris in 1927 before relocating to New York during World War II. “Atelier 17: Myths in Motion” at the Lehman Loeb Art Center, drawn from the collection of art historian Arthur Jones, traces how artists fused surrealism, abstraction, and technical innovation with urgent political commentary, drawing on Greco-Roman mythology, biblical imagery, and psychoanalysis to confront fascism, war, and the Atomic Age.
“Carolynne Whitefeather: Edges” at Opus 40, Saugerties
August 9-September 13
Drawing on the artist’s Seminole heritage and lifelong engagement with the natural world, Carolynne Whitefeather’s latest work at Opus 40 explores the shifting boundaries between water, memory, and landscape. Blending printmaking, painting, photography, and glass, the exhibition pairs handcraft with innovative, non-toxic printmaking techniques pioneered by the artist over a decades-long career.
“Boundless Spirit: American Folk Art at the Fenimore Art Museum” at the Fenimore art Museum in Cooperstown
Through December 31.
This exhibition at the Fenimore Art Museum showcases American folk art’s bold colors, direct storytelling, and inventive craftsmanship. Portraits, landscapes, and decorative works reveal how self-taught artists captured everyday life while reflecting the country’s evolving identity. The pieces note the enduring expressive power of folk traditions.
“Cantilevers” at Roundabouts Now in Kingston
Through August 23
Two longtime friends and RISD printmaking alumni bring distinct sculptural practices into dialogue in this two-person exhibition at Roundabouts Now. Marie Lorenz transforms debris gathered from New York Harbor into kinetic sculptures, while Katy Fischer presents looping ceramic installations and mosaics inspired by ancient techniques. Together, their work explores movement, memory, and material discovery.
Poughkeepsie Art Mile, Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie
August 9, 2-6pm
If galleries make you uneasy, Poughkeepsie Art Mile brings the gallery to you. On August 9, four 15-foot U-Haul trucks parked along downtown Cannon Street will become temporary pop-up exhibition spaces filled with installations, paintings, sculpture, and immersive art. Organized by Gallery 40 founder Paola Bari, the free event aims to make contemporary art approachable while challenging artists to respond to the trucks’ narrow interiors. Participants include Carl Grauer, Samantha Palmieri, Pope Phoenix, and curator Jaime Ransome. The inaugural Art Mile runs from 2 to 6pm during Summer Sunday, with a larger edition planned for Poughkeepsie Open Studios in September.
“Allyson Strafella: the place of a place” at The Drawing Show” at Philip Douglas Fine Art in Hudson
Through August 30
Artist Allyson Strafella turns the typewriter into a drawing tool in “the place of a place,” on view at Philip Douglas Fine Art in Hudson. Strafella feeds pigment-infused transfer paper into prepared typewriters, building grid-based forms one keystroke at a time. The resulting works on paper—small, saturated, tactile, and sometimes assembled from fragile shards—hover between drawing and painting. Mounted directly to the gallery walls without frames, they find an apt setting in Philip Douglas’s textured, idiosyncratic space. Strafella’s work evokes beadwork, cross-stitch, and sand painting while remaining deeply rooted in material, patient repetition, physical presence, and place.
“Augusta Savage: A Monumental Influence” at the Lamb Center in Saugerties
August 1-30
Opening reception August 1, 4-7pm.
“Augusta Savage: A Monumental Influence” restores a neglected chapter in the Harlem Renaissance sculptor’s life: the 15 years she spent in Saugerties making art, teaching, and nurturing her local community. The exhibition pairs rarely seen Savage works—including busts of neighboring children and a small ceramic horse—with contemporary artists influenced by her legacy. Featured artists include Carol Griffin, Monique Luchetti, JoAnne McFarland, Debra Priestly, and Peter Bradley. The show opens August 1 at the Lamb Center following a screening of the PBS documentary Searching for Augusta Savage at 1pm at the Orpheum Theater and a program featuring readings, conversation, and recently recovered short stories.
“The Naturlist” at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, Connecticut
August 1-September 13
Opening reception August 1, 4-6pm.
“The Naturalist” at Kenise Barnes Fine Art brings together five artists who approach the natural world as observers, interpreters, and makers. Featuring Richard Klein, KK Kozik, Sally Maca, Rick Shaefer, and Tricia Wright, the group exhibition spans drawing, painting, sculpture, and mixed media. Each artist examines nature’s forms, systems, histories, and enduring mysteries through close observation and a sensitivity to materials. Collectively, the works explore how artists translate the complexity of living systems into visual form, finding fresh meaning in familiar landscapes and organic structures.
“Julianne Swartz: Attunements” at Al Held Foundation in Boiceville
Through August 15
In “Attunements,” Hudson Valley artist Julianne Swartz gives voice to objects. Her copper-patina clay “intervessels” are paired as resonant chambers: Swartz records the vibrations inside each form, then plays those sounds back through the vessels, producing hums and interlocking waves visitors can feel in their bodies. Delicate woven works and an oxidized copper bell expand the exhibition’s exploration of sound, space, material, and perception. Organized by River Valley Arts Collective and curated by Liz Munsell, the show asks viewers to slow down and notice the subtle and invisible.
“Dakota Lane: Candyland” at the Lace Mill Gallery in Kingston
August 1-29
Opening reception August 1, 5-9pm.
In “Candyland,” Dakota Lane transforms a childhood into a communal exploration of trauma, memory, and healing. The 40-plus-piece visual and literary memoir revisits Lane’s childhood in a goat shed, her stepfather’s murder, an internship with Bill Graham, an encounter with Jerry Garcia, and connections to the school from which Jim Jones recruited dozens of students. Two collaborative spaces broaden the story: a Resiliency Forest filled with paper leaves from the Hudson Valley and a Youth Resiliency Gallery featuring flags by teens in transitional housing.
“Jackie Skrzynski: Move Into Darkness” at the Hudson Beach Glass in Beacon
August 8-September 7
At Hudson Beach Glass, Skrzynski turns a close eye toward the Hudson Valley’s native, invasive, and cultivated plants. Her detailed paintings find sensuality and drama in backyard growth and trailside vegetation, judging each subject by its visual force instead of whether it is considered beneficial or harmful. The exhibition also includes landscapes capturing the sensation of dissolving into the woods at dawn or dusk. Skrzynski’s “Recycled Landscapes” are painted with leftover oils on salvaged plastic, metal, and cardboard from jars, boxes, and scraps. Some depict locations; others evoke a romantic ideal of the region through repurposed materials and fading light.
“Bridget Snow: Ripened Curiosity” at Galerie Zoe in Hudson
August 15-September 18
Opening reception Saturday, August 15 at 1pm.
In “Ripened Curiosity” at Galerie Zoe, painter Bridget Snow looks closely at fruits and flowers as they ripen, age, and decay. Her compositions move between observation and playful abstraction, transforming familiar subjects into fields of swelling shapes, vivid colors, and rhythms. Snow’s attention to transitional states complicates conventional ideas of beauty: Bruises, wrinkles, fading petals, and softening flesh become sources of sensuality and surprise. Yet the paintings never feel like clinical studies or solemn meditations on mortality. Their exuberant forms lead the eye around the canvas in a joyful dance, finding vitality in every stage of the life cycle.
