Hudson Valley Artists 2021

Curated by Helen Toomer

July 7 – November 14, 2021
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

.


 See a curator-led tour of the exhibition here
 


Hand-sewn banner hung from stick with icons of home

Natalie Baxter & Julia Norton, Days of Our Lives, 2021, courtesy the artist

 

For the 14th annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition, curated by Helen Toomer, we 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 fifty 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. This exhibition reflects a fractured year and the toll that both the minutiae and the monumental has had on us all.

 

Stop sign with hand-written 'caring' under the word stop.Randy Calderone, Stop Caring, 2020, courtesy the artist 


This has been a challenging time. 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.

 

 

Jen Dwyer, Deborah's Living Room, 2021, courtesy the artist


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.

  

Gee's Bend quilter Minnie in front of floral pattern quilt painting

Ransome, Gee's Bend Quilter Minnie, 2021, courtesy the artist

 

This exhibition is 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?’

 

ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION:

Sharon Bates

Natalie Baxter & Julia Norton

Sean Bayliss

Natalie Beall

Vernon Byron III

Randy Calderone

Maureen Drennan

Jen Dwyer

Echo Goff

Carl Grauer

Norman Magnusson

Katrina Majkut

Christopher Manning

Maeve McCool

Patrick Meagher

Paul Miyamoto

Ocean Morisset

Liz Nielsen

Richard Pantell

Gina Randazzo

Ransome

Macon Reed

Marcy Rosewater

Kristen Schiele

Renee Stanko

Amelia Toelke & Andrea Miller

Karen Whitman

 

Click below to take a virtual tour of the exhibition