BFA & MFA Thesis Fall 24

Curated by the Exhibiting Students

December 6 – 15
Chandler and North Galleries

In and Out of Lineage: Tracing Artistic Heritage Through SUNY New Paltz Faculty

Curated by Eva Zanardi

September 7 – December 8, 2024
Morgan Anderson and Howard Greenberg Family Galleries

In and Out of Lineage: Tracing Artistic Heritage Through SUNY New Paltz Faculty explores the dynamic interplay between teaching and creating. Featuring works by twenty SUNY New Paltz Art and Design faculty, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how traditions are preserved or evolved through pedagogy. By including reflections on artistic lineage from each of the exhibiting artists, the presentation illuminates the reciprocal relationship between teachers and students in the transfer of knowledge and inspiration. 

The exhibition features work by Thomas Albrecht, Robin Arnold, Michael Asbill, Lynn Batchelder, Chad Bridgewater, Bryan Czibesz, Andrea Frank, Matthew Friday, Kathy Goodell, Andrea Kantrowitz, Woojin Lee, Rena Leinberger, Kelly McGrath, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Emily Puthoff, Nadia Sablin, Aurora De Armendi Sobrino, Suzanne Stokes, Amelia Toelke, and Lilly Zuckerman

Mis/Communication: Language and Power in Contemporary Art

Curated by Amy Kahng

June 15 – November 3, 2024
Chandler and North Galleries

Featuring work by: Carmen Argote, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Jesse Chun, Jisoo Chung, Dahn Gim, Jennifer Chia-Ling Ho, dulce soledad ibarra, Jake Duczynski and Angelina Joshua, Gala Porras Kim, Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez, Kim Schoen, Clarissa Tossin, and Han Yohan.

Global Connections: Works by Miguel Covarrubias, Isami Doi, Aaron Douglas, and Winold Reiss

Curated by Tom Wolf

February 4 – July 21, 2024
Morgan Anderson and Howard Greenberg Family Galleries

By comparing the styles and biographies of four artists who crossed paths in New York during the 1920s, Global Connections traces the complicated channels of influence and inspiration within the often-overlooked multiculturalism of American art before the Second World War. 

BFA & MFA Thesis Spring 24

Curated by the Exhibiting Students

April 26 – May 21
Chandler and North Galleries

BFA I 
Hannah Apuzzo, Beanie Beanish, Matt Benson, Siton Chen, Hope Grunert, Greta Hahn, Jakob Ike Lobel, Alejandro Lopez-Reyes, Isabella Ligotino, LUCIFER!, Lydia McNally, Olivia Schmidt, Bridget Vasquez

BFA II 
Harrison Atwater, Patty Boltman, Julia Carmello, Mariah Day, Kelly Green, Ezra Heller, Reed Humphrey,   Althea Llewellyn, Harry Lubiner, Grace Morrow, Riley Osborne, Adriana Reyes, Isabella Rios, Olivia Rose

MFA I 
Gokul Bakshi, Paige Van Doren, Laura Dortmans, Emily Parker, Joe Pillari, Brianna McQuade, Nick Rosen, Xinhui Zhou 

MFA II 
Kevin Byrd, Marielena Ferrer, Cassie Jain, Maedah Ojaghloo, Alexandra Mancuso, Ankita Sikari Sunuwar, Massimo Tarridas

Hudson Valley Artists 2024: Bibliography

Curated by Sophie Landres

February 4 – April 7, 2024
Chandler and North Galleries

This iteration of The Dorsky’s annual exhibition of contemporary work by regional artists uses books to situate artworks within a broader body of knowledge and to provide entry points for thinking about their aesthetic, social, or political implications. 

Featuring work by Osi Audu, Alta Buden, Shari Diamond, Kerry Downey, Stevenson Estime, eteam (Franzisa Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger), Aki Goto, Adam Henry, Matthew Kirk, Niki Kriese, Melora Kuhn, Catherine Lord, Sean Sullivan, and Audra Wolowiec.

BFA & MFA Thesis Fall 23

Curated by the Exhibiting Students

December 1 - December 12, 2023
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees.
The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

Purple Haze: Art and Drugs Across the Americas

Curated by Estrellita B. Brodsky with Raúl Martínez

September 9 - December 10, 2023
Morgan Anderson Gallery

Purple Haze: Art and Drugs Across the Americas examines the Americas’ ambiguous relationship with drugs and their representation in the media and the public imagination. Conceived as a collaboration with the Dorsky Museum and building on the 2018-2019 exhibition, Comfortably Numb: A Critical Investigation into the Cultural Impact of Drugs and Narcotics presented at ANOTHER SPACE in Chelsea, Purple Haze will bring together works by multigenerational international artists in a broad range of media, including video, photography, and installation. The exhibition will survey the pervasive presence of drugs in Americans’ daily lives as well as their impact on social, political, and economic relations throughout the two continents, north and south. 

Notes for Tomorrow

Curated by Karlyn Benson

June 17 – November 12, 2023
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

Notes for Tomorrow is a traveling exhibition organized and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI) and initiated by Frances Wu Giarratano, Jordan Jones, Becky Nahom, Renaud Proch, and Monica Terrero. The exhibition was made possible with the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, VIA Art Fund, and ICI’s Board of Trustees and International Forum. 

Hudson Valley Artists 2023: Homespun

Curated by Karlyn Benson

February 4 – April 16, 2023
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

Homespun brings together nineteen artists in the Hudson Valley who work primarily with fabric and fiber. The exhibition features a wide variety of materials and techniques, including sewing, weaving, needlework, quilting, collaging, dyeing, and tufting. While each artist has a unique approach to their chosen medium, several distinct themes run through the exhibition, including the representation of women’s issues, the history of craft and fiber art, cultural heritage, and the environment. 

Be Who You Are: Portraits of Woodstock Artists by Harriet Tannin

Curated by Wayne Lempka

February 4 – July 23, 2023
Seminar Room Gallery

This selection of photographs from the 1980s series 100 Portraits of Woodstock Artists by Harriet Tannin (1929-2009) documents residents of the legendary artistic community of Woodstock, New York.

The Historic Woodstock Art Colony: The Arthur A. Anderson Collection

Curated by Karen Quinn

February 4 – July 23, 2023
Morgan Anderson Gallery, Greenberg Family Gallery and Sara Bedrick Gallery

Illuminating America’s first intentional art colony, this exhibition presents over 60 artists whose paintings, sculptures, and works on paper together form an artistic history of national and international significance. Organized by the New York State Museum, Albany, NY.

BFA & MFA Thesis Spring 23

Curated by the Department of Art and The Dorsky Museum

April 28 - May 21, 2023
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees.
The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

BFA I 
Opening Reception: Friday, April 28, 5 - 7 pm
Alemir Beltre, Bianca Cabrera, Cy Hinojosa, Parker Parenti, Joli Perfit, Nia Scott, Daryn Seiden, Brooke Vissichio, Conrad Wickham

BFA II 
Opening Reception: Friday, May 5, 5 - 7 pm
Sarah Boudinot, Kayla Boyle, Raegan Cole, Rachel Gee, Talula Evan Baer, Hunter Larson, Jeremy McEvoy, Natalie Thomas, Jacob Wilt

MFA
Opening Reception: Friday, May 12, 5 - 7 pm
Bear Cooper, Yuting Du, Michael Fortenberry, Max Hodson, Joseph Kattou, Ibrahim Khazzaka, Jennifer Levine, Sofia Rock, Viktorsha Uliyanova

Hudson Valley Artists 2022: The Material, The Thing

Curated by Nicole Hayes

June 22 – November 6, 2022
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

The Material, The Thing, the 15^th annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition, considers how artists understand and reimagine the material culture we live in. Every time we walk into a big box store we are inundated by meaningless disposable things. We have collectively lost an understanding of the materials that make the things we live with. Who even knows how plywood is made, or what microcrystalline cellulose is, but we all have it in our homes. In this cultural moment artists and artisans become an essential conduit of understanding the materials and the things in our society.

Participating artists:  Miguel Braceli | Louis Brawley | Royal Brown Jr. | Sydney Cash | Adam Chau | Monica Church | Melissa Dadourian | Shoshana Dentz | Dan Devine | Adriana Farmiga | Daniel Giordano | Romina Gonzales | Meg Hitchcock | Laetitia Hussain | Will Hutnick | Niki Lederer | Elisa Lendvay | Ashley Lyon | Patricia Miranda | Joel Olzak | Courtney Puckett | Jordan Rosenow | Julie Torres | Katharine Umsted | Melissa Weaver | Millicent Young

Benjamin Wigfall & Communications Village

Curated by Drew Thompson in consultation with Sarah Eckhardt of the VMFA

September 10 – December 11, 2022
Morgan Anderson Gallery, Howard Greenberg Family Gallery, and Sara Bedrick Gallery

This exhibition provides the first retrospective of Benjamin Wigfall’s art, from his early career in Virginia in the 1950s to his founding of Communications Village, a community art space in Kingston, New York, in the 1970s.

It will also feature works by important artists with whom Wigfall collaborated during his career, including Benny Andrews, Mavis Pusey, Betty Blayton, Charles Gaines, Joe Ramos, Ernie Frazier, Mel Edwards, Bob Blackburn, Romare Bearden, and Ernest Crichlow.

Benjamin Wigfall & Communications Village is organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

For Context: Prints from the Dorsky Collection

Curated by SUNY New Paltz Students

September 10 – December 11, 2022
Seminar Room Gallery

This exhibition, guest curated by SUNY New Paltz graduate and undergraduate students from the Contemporary Ideas in Printmaking course with guidance from Professor Jill Parisi-Phillips, provides a broader context for understanding the techniques used by Benjamin Wigfall, his collaborators, and his students. The selected works demonstrate the power of printmaking from political and social statements to non-representational images that utilize linework and color as a means of expression.

BFA & MFA Thesis Exhibition

Curated by Curated by art faculty and students

December 2–11, 2022
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees.
The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

BFA
CERAMICS: Gabrielle Kaprelian / Kelsey Sperring PAINTING & DRAWING: Teresa Ricci PHOTOGRAPHY: Aja Brandt / Patrick D. Hopkins / Marisa Lucchese

MFA
PAINTING & DRAWING: Eileen Havant Townsend 
PHOTOGRAPHY & RELATED MEDIA: Will Vrachopoulos

Mary Frank: The Observing Heart

Curated by David Hornung

February 5 – July 17, 2022
Morgan Anderson Gallery and Howard Greenberg Family Gallery

As part of our Hudson Valley Masters series, this exhibition presents Mary Frank’s powerful artwork from over six decades, which has always centered on the twin themes of social justice and the preservation of the natural world. Acclaimed artist/activist Mary Frank has been making art in her Manhattan and Hudson Valley studios for over sixty years. She is an independent spirit who emerged during the years of rising feminism in the early 70’s and has always followed a personal vision distinct from prevailing art world fashion. Mary Frank: The Observing Heart is a gathering of sculpture, painting, drawings, prints, and photographs from throughout her illustrious career.

The Dorsky at 20: Reflections at a Milestone (Part II)

Curated by Wayne Lempka

February 5 – July 17, 2022
Sara Bedrick Gallery

Continuing to mark our 20^th anniversary, we share more recent and promised gifts to the Museum’s permanent collection. It not only reflects on our twenty years of being an important cultural force in the region, but honors and celebrates the important individuals who have so generously given exceptional art gifts in order to ensure The Dorsky Museum will continue to be an abundant resource not only for the SUNY New Paltz campus community but for visitors far and wide.

This exhibition will be the second rendition of a two-part series where we reflect on our history, plan for our future, and honor all those who have helped to shape The Dorsky Museum into what it is today.

Madonna and Child: A Journey from Conservation to Restoration

Curated by Abigail Mack

March 30 – July 17, 2022
Seminar Room Gallery

This exhibition explored, through photographic documentation, the steps taken by art conservator Abigail Mack as she approached the repair of the Dorsky’s Museum’s polychrome relief on wood of the Madonna and Child. The story of how the work evolved from a standard  art conservation treatment to a restoration project was highlighted. 

BFA & MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Curated by art faculty and students

April 29 – May 24, 2022
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

BFA
CERAMICS Victoria Bogdanski / Schuyler Forsythe / Chelsea Herzig / Cynthia Walker  METAL Foley / Yifei Kong / Kiley Murphy  PAINTING & DRAWING Bizzy  Acierno / Alyssa Dudinyak / Samantha Fried / Rosemary Howard / Carlin McPhee / Andy Valk  PHOTOGRAPHY Eric Afflerbach / Alex Bennett / Zoey Calison / Seth Jones / Mikayla Millard  PRINTMAKING Christopher D'Antonio / Destiny O'Neill  SCULPTURE Erin Dougherty / Marielena Ferrer

MFA
CERAMICS  Avery Wells  METAL $ulo Bee / Funlola / Dawoon Jeong  PAINTING & DRAWING Michael Bodnar /Heather Michaud / Gregg Rivas / Nicki Robibero / Amber Synnett / Xuewu Zheng  PHOTOGRAPHY & RELATED MEDIA Jackson Hardin / Koyoltzintli  PRINTMAKING Elizabeth Hunt  SCULPTURE Emilie Houssart / Lital Dotan

Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art

Curated by nico wheadon

February 5 – April 10, 2022
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art lauds the vital role of artists in dismantling broken systems, envisioning new shared realities, and building future alternatives. Drawing inspiration from Robin D.G. Kelley’s seminal book, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, the exhibition takes up his provocation that “without new visions we don't know what to build, only what to knock down.” From interactive, site-specific installations to meditative photographs, videos, and works on paper, the featured works pose a series of existential questions, including: What are we trying to change? What must be built and what must be knocked down to best advance our efforts? What wisdom can be borrowed from the past in charting new paths forward? And, How do we manifest bold futures envisioned by people of color amidst systemic imbalances in structural power?

Follies and Picturesque Tourism

Curated by Kerry Dean Carso

February 5 – March 11, 2022
Seminar Room Gallery

In the nineteenth century, middle-class Americans engaged in “picturesque tourism” by travelling to sites of natural beauty as an escape from rapid industrialization and urbanization.  Buildings such as temples, summerhouses, prospect towers, and ruins—known as “follies”—ornamented and framed the landscape for the viewers.  This exhibition examines follies and picturesque tourism in New York State through prints, paintings, postcards, photographs, book publications, and ephemera, to understand the tourist experience of the time.

Life After the Revolution: Kate Millett’s Art Colony for Women

Curated by Anna Conlan

September 11 – December 12, 2021
Morgan Anderson Gallery and Howard Greenberg Family Gallery

In the early 1970s, with the advance from her recently published book, Sexual Politics, writer and visual artist Kate Millett (1934–2017) bought an old farmhouse on a parcel of land just outside of Poughkeepsie. By the late 1970s, plans for a women’s art colony were underway. Women came to the Farm to help renovate the buildings and make living quarters, a dark room, a sculpture studio, and screen-printing facilities. Millett described this colony of artists working together as “life after the revolution,” where women could experience communal living and freedoms that weren’t yet possible elsewhere. This exhibition will share Millett’s vision for the Farm, featuring her artwork, and that of the artists who visited. A catalog accompanies the exhibition.

The Dorsky at 20: Reflections at a Milestone

Curated by Amy Fredrickson and Wayne Lempka

September 11 – December 12, 2021
Sara Bedrick Gallery

To mark our 20^th anniversary, we share an exhibition of recent and promised gifts to the Museum’s permanent collection. It not only reflects on our twenty years of being an important cultural force in the region, but honors and celebrates the important individuals who have so generously given exceptional art gifts in order to ensure The Dorsky Museum will continue to be an abundant resource not only for the SUNY New Paltz campus community but for visitors far and wide.

This exhibition is the first rendition of a two-part series where we reflect on our history, plan for our future, and honor all those who have helped to shape The Dorsky Museum into what it is today.

BFA & MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Curated by art faculty and students

December 3–12, 2021
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

BFA: Madison Consolato, Amanda Ellinger, Caroline Guzewicz, Chelsea Kain, Hailey Pierce, Renee Ricci, Katie Tiley, Hannah Ziegler

MFA: Hee Joo Yang

Hudson Valley Artists 2021: Who Really Cares?

Curated by Helen Toomer

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

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.”

The exhibition will feature a diverse group of twenty-eight local artists, chosen from over 380 applications:
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 Akira Miyamoto | Ocean Morisset | Liz Nielsen | Richard Pantell | Gina Randazzo | Ransome | Macon Reed | Marcy Rosewater | Kristen Schiele | Renee Stanko | Amelia Toelke | Karen Whitman

Kathy Goodell: Infra-Loop, Selections 1994—2020

Curated by Andrew Woolbright

February 6 – July 11, 2021
Morgan Anderson Gallery and Howard Greenberg Family Gallery

Infra-Loop explores the artistic practice of Kathy Goodell, whose work remains a mysterious synthesis. Associated with many movements and contemporaries, Goodell’s career charts a path and fills in the gaps of what we think about art in the ‘90s, ‘00s, and the present. Her practice has determined itself through a kind of non-specificity, one that resists easy classification and interpretation. The meaning of her work, and context through which we are to understand it, is simultaneous and withheld—west coast spiritualism meets east coast abstraction; procedural non-objectivity blends with painterly biomorphism; protean theosophy informs post-modernist contemporary. This survey of work explores the through-lines in Goodell's practice as a moving target, examining an artist that is constantly challenging and reinventing her practice.

Support for this exhibition was provided by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

Lewis Hine, Child Labor Investigator

Curated by Anna Conlan and Amy Fredrickson

February 6 – July 11, 2021
Sara Bedrick Gallery

Using photography as a tool for social change, Lewis Hine’s (1874-1940) powerful photographs for the National Child Labor Commission proved the exploitation of young children working in unsafe conditions and ultimately led to American child labor law reform.

DIRT: Inside Landscapes

Curated by Emilie Houssart

February 6 – July 11, 2021
Seminar Room Gallery

As part of the Dorsky Artist in Residence program, DIRT: Inside Landscapes will be the base for artist Emilie Houssart's explorations into how we relate to surrounding ecologies.

BFA & MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Curated by art faculty and students

April 24 – June 13, 2021
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

Collective Consciousness: New Work by SUNY New Paltz Art Faculty

Curated by Karlyn Benson

February 6 – April 11, 2021
Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries

Collective Consciousness, an exhibition of work by SUNY New Paltz Art Department faculty, reveals the sense of community at the university and the faculty’s ability to come together for each other and their students during this difficult time. The exhibition includes metalwork, ceramics, photography, printmaking, fiber art, film, painting, drawing, and several sculptural installations by twenty-one artists: Robin Arnold | Michael Asbill | Lynn Batchelder | Bryan Czibesz | Aurora De Armendi | James Fossett | Andrea Frank | Matthew Friday | Anne Galperin | Kathy Goodell | Andrea Kantrowitz | Rena Leinberger | Myra Mimlitsch-Gray | Aaron Nelson | Itty S. Neuhaus | Jill Parisi-Phillips | Emily Puthoff | Nadia Sablin | Anat Shiftan | Suzanne Stokes | Cheri Wheat

We Wear the Mask: Race and Representation in the Dorsky Museum Permanent Collection

Curated by Jean-Marc Superville Sovak

September 12 – November 22, 2020
Seminar Room Gallery

Taking its cue from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1895 poem, We Wear the Mask pairs artwork from the Museum’s collection in a series of trans-historical, multi-cultural dialogues, using “remixing” as a strategy to unmask the ways racialized identities are presented and perceived.

We Wear the Mask stages the contradictions inherent in representations of race and in American culture as a whole—as exemplified by the Dorsky Museum Collection. Featuring a range of artwork and artifacts that span almost three-thousand years—from ancient Egyptian funerary figures to polaroid photographs by Andy Warhol, — eighteen works selected from the over six-thousand objects in the Dorsky Museum collection are paired into distinct juxtapositions. A trans-historical, multi-cultural “remixing,” this exhibition seeks a third space of meaning to better represent and understand racial diversity in this moment of cultural and political reckoning.

Dos Mundos: (Re)Constructing Narratives

Curated by Juanita Lanzo and Stephanie A. Lindquist

September 12 – November 22, 2020
Sara Bedrick Gallery

Dos Mundos: (Re)Constructing Narratives is a curated exhibition, organized to present the photographs of 12 artists of color who are recipients of En Foco's Photography Fellowships. The current Dos Mundos theme is inspired by the 1973 Dos Mundos exhibition, and hopes to not only capture the contemporary duality of traditions and cultures in immigrant and ethnic communities, but to also revisit and demonstrate the challenges of systemic exclusion from the mainstream as described by the 1973 exhibition.

Featuring: Damarys Alvarez | Laylah Amatullah Barrayn | Tau Battice | Yu-Chen Chiu | Anthony Hamboussi | Daesha Harris | Erika Morillo | Danny Ramon Peralta | Antonio Pulgarin | Roger Richardson | Cinthia Santos-Briones | Aaron Turner 

Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place)

Curated by Hanna Maria Sawka and Dr. Frank Boyer

February 8 – November 22, 2020
Morgan Anderson Gallery & Howard Greenberg Family Gallery

Jan Sawka (1946–2012) was a noted contemporary artist of Polish origin and global reach. His work is in the collections of over 60 museums worldwide. Sawka lived and worked in the mid-Hudson Valley from 1985 until his death, conceiving of and producing many of his most notable works in his High Falls, NY, studio.

This exhibition is made up of works that illuminate two aspects of his practice, his fascination with human consciousness, in this case, with memory, and his interest in place, and the places through which a human life passes. Sawka’s working method and artworks are truly visionary, in the sense that he always worked from mental images. Every work he did is open to his thoughts, his emotions, his mental associations, and, above all to memory.

Breaking Through: MFA Thesis exhibition

Curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch

November 7–15, 2020
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

Breaking Through features the thesis work of fourteen SUNY New Paltz Masters of Fine Art students who graduated in 2020. These artists consider various perspectives in the world, calling attention to the disparities that exist yet exploring what could be through dystopian and utopian lenses.

Artists in the exhibition: Jung Yun Choi | Min Jae Eom | Stefan Gougherty | Karen Jaimes | Maxine Leu | Li Lin-Liang | Rosa Loveszy | Sariah Park |  Nick Rouke | Jamie M. Scherzer | Bruce Robert Wahl | Kehan Wan | Corina Willette | Xuewu Zheng

Hudson Valley Artists 2020: New Folk

Curated by Anna Conlan

September 12 – October 25, 2020
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

This year’s annual Hudson Valley Artists juried show features twenty-nine local artists in a vibrant exploration of craft, cultural heritage, and the communities we create together. New Folk showcases artwork that distinctively captures the spirit of contemporary folk practice in the Hudson Valley today. It offers a vision of what folk art can be—highly skilled, locally-sourced, idiosyncratic, and resourceful. New Folk is also a catch-all for the long history of visitors and immigrants in our region, and the exhibition explores the inherited cultural traditions that “new folk” bring with them.

Collecting Local: Twelve Years of the Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award

Curated by Anna Conlan

February 8 – July 12, 2020
Sara Bedrick Gallery

Every year The Dorsky invites local artists to share their work through our juried Hudson Valley Artists exhibition. From hundreds of submissions, curators select artwork that resonates with a chosen theme. The aim is to gather exciting new work in a cohesive exhibition, whilst demonstrating the strength and diversity of contemporary art across the eleven counties. Each year artwork from the Hudson Valley Artists exhibition is chosen for the Purchase Award and becomes part of our permanent collection. Collecting Local allows the public to see these outstanding artworks displayed together for the first time.

Artists in the Exhibition: Curt Belshe and Lise Prown | Laura Cannamela | Sharon Core | François Deschamps | Richard Edelman | Charles Geiger | Holly Hughes | Patrick Kelley | Barbara Leon | Deborah Lucke | Nestor Madalengoitia | Mollie McKinley | Stephen Niccolls | Libby Paloma | Gilbert Plantinga | Elisa Pritzker | Adie Russell | Thomas Sarrantonio | Jean-Marc Superville Sovak | Amy Talluto

Stay Home, Make Art: Hudson Valley, NY, Edition

Curated by Anna Conlan

April – July 2020
online

At the beginning of April 2020, The Dorsky Museum asked Hudson Valley artists, how are you being creative during social distancing? We were humbled by the remarkable response we received. Over 250 Hudson Valley artists have shared what they have been making and we are exhibiting their art on the Museum social media channels. Stay Home, Make Art is a virtual exhibition that addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted creative practice, keeps local artwork visible, and promotes safe social distancing. 

To view Stay Home, Make Art: Hudson Valley, NY, Edition visit us on Instagram or Facebook at @dorskymusem

War!

Curated by Wayne Lempka

February 8 – Juy 12, 2020
Seminar Room

As our world becomes increasingly chaotic, the threat of war occurring on our home soil appears more likely to be a reality rather than a possibility. Since the beginning of time, both major and minor conflicts between individual ethnic groups and nations has had a significant impact on the course of history and on the power to shape and change our world.

Was there ever a time in history when there was not some warring faction facing off against another group of people?  One would be hard pressed to find a time period when the world was completely free of conflicts. Beginning with primitive man in the bronze age, to the earliest battles in ancient Mesopotamia, to medieval Europe, to today’s wars in the Middle East and beyond, armed conflict has been a primary preoccupation throughout history and its use has become deeply rooted in our culture.

Totally Dedicated: Leonard Contino 1940–2016

Curated by Anna Conlan

January 22 – April 5, 2020
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

Leonard Contino was a Brooklyn-born, self-taught abstract artist whose tenacious exploration of pictorial space spanned a fifty-year career. In 1959 at the age of 19, Contino was severely injured in a diving accident. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, he retained some mobility in his arms and hands, and needed to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. While in rehabilitation at the Rusk Institute in New York City, Contino met a fellow patient, the sculptor Mark di Suvero, who would become a lifelong close friend. Di Suvero challenged him to start making art. Until this point, Contino’s creativity had been mostly directed to “pinstriping” decorative lines onto hot rod cars in his Brooklyn neighborhood. With di Suvero’s encouragement and the help of a metal brace to support his wrist, he began to draw and then to paint. Contino went on to create extraordinary art for the next five decades. He became devoted to his daily practice of painting from morning to evening, and often then making collages late into the night. Contino later observed that being an artist was like a religious calling, you had to be “totally dedicated.” Featuring over eighty artworks, Totally Dedicated is the largest exhibition of Contino’s work to date and encompasses large hard-edge geometric paintings, playful collages, delicate reliefs and sculptures from the 1960s through the 2000’s. It also includes two painted steel sculptures that di Suvero and Contino made together.

BFA/MFA Thesis Exhibition Spring 2020

Curated by art faculty and students

April 24 – May 19, 2020
Alice & Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

Under normal circumstances, BFA and MFA students have worked with one another, faculty advisors, and the Museum team to plan this exhibition, each student designing and installing their own work. We will showcase the talent of these emerging artists at the end of the 2020 Fall semester. You can see the work of the Spring 2020 MFAs at this web site:  https://hawksites.newpaltz.edu/fridaym/

BFA: Elizabeth Berger | Amanda L. Bogatka | Emily W. Cavanaugh | Miranda J. Crifo | Robert D.Cusack | Mary K. Flana | Taylor C. Gephard | Amanda Greenfield | Alexa M. Guevara | Shabiha Jafri | Kejiayun Ke | Samantha A. Leiching | Huaqi Liu | Naira N. Luke-Aleman | Sam E. Mazzara | Ella E. Nares | Joel Olzak | Paige E. O’Toole | Megan E. Reilly | Claudia Rosti | Jiabin Zhao |
MFA: Min Jae Eom | Stefan Gougherty | Karen Jaimes | Jung Yun Choi | Kehan Wan (Yoky) | Maxine Leu | Li Lin-Liang | Rosa Loveszy | Jessica McDonnell | Sariah Park | Nicholas Rouke | Jamie M. Scherzer | Bruce Wahl | Corina Willette | Xuewu Zheng |

BFA/MFA Thesis Exhibition Fall 2019

Curated by art faculty and students

December 6–15, 2019
Alice & Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

At the end of each semester, the Dorsky Museum is proud to exhibit new artwork by students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. The thesis exhibitions are the culmination of the students' fine art studies, akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

BFA and MFA students have worked with one another, faculty advisors, and the Museum team to plan this exhibition, each student designing and installing their own work. It is our honor to showcase the talent of these emerging artists.

Jenna Annunziato | Victoria Carrature | Abbey Fisher | Echo S. Goff | Zhané Lambert | Brendan Mark | Heather Michaud | Jay Natkin | Sophie Potter | Victoria Robustello | Chelsea Vierstra | Gabrielle Witkowski | Ryan Young

Tonalism: Pathway from the Hudson River School to Modern Art

Curated by Karen Quinn

August 28 – December 8, 2019
Morgan Anderson and Howard Greenberg Family Galleries

Tonalism has long been considered a conservative late 19^th-century approach to painting, often discussed as the antithesis to Impressionism.  Recent publications have begun to reconsider Tonalism as innovative in its approach to representation both conceptually and as realized, an approach that helped to lay the groundwork for modernism and contemporary art. This exhibition repositions Tonalism in this new context.

Many of the works included in this exhibition will be loaned by private collectors, thereby offering viewers the chance to see works that are not in the public domain.

Organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the New York State Museum.

Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis

Curated by Francesco Guzzetti

August 28 – December 8, 2019
Sara Bedrick Gallery

On loan from Magazzino Italian Art, this exhibition will bring together the work of three artist who are part of the Olnick Spanu Collection: Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994), Pier-Paolo Calzolari (b.1943) and Jannis Kounellis (1936–2017) and will feature mixed media works on paper.

Magazzino Italian Art is a museum located in Cold Spring, New York, devoted to Postwar and Contemporary Italian art. Magazzino, meaning "warehouse" in Italian, was co-founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu.

Organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and Magazzino Italian Art Foundation.

The Ukiyo-e Movement: Gems from the Dorsky Museum Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints

Curated by Elizabeth Brotherton, Associate Professor, Art History, SUNY New Paltz

August 28 – December 8, 2019
Seminar Room Gallery

Ukiyo-e, translated as "pictures of the floating world," while not strictly a movement in the sense of being the product of closely aligned artists setting out to make an artistic statement, do comprise a constantly evolving body of works that could only have been produced in the unique context of Edo Japan (1600–1868) and its mingling of newly confident artisans, leisured samurai, and a growing urban audience.  

This exhibition, drawn from the Dorsky Museum collection and held in conjunction with the 2019 meeting of the New York Conference on Asian Studies, includes a range of ukiyo-e woodblock prints that were mostly produced during the later stages of this movement, when the shifting function of the prints, combined with greater censorial control of their content by the government, brought about an increasing variety in type and subject matter. Between roughly 1750 and 1850, ukiyo-e prints moved well beyond the representation of their core subject matter of courtesans and actors (through which they helped create a celebrity culture with similarities to our own), and broadened out to include such themes as literary illustration and commentary, traditional folk tales that often had political subtexts, landscapes, and eccentric self-expression.

Madness in Vegetables: Hudson Valley Artists 2019

Curated by Alyson Baker and Candice Madey

June 15 – November 10, 2019
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

The 2019 edition of the Hudson Valley Artists series is titled Madness in Vegetables: Hudson Valley Artists 2019. It calls for works that address the political and civic implications of choosing a rural life; the enticing beauty and repellant brutality of nature; our ever-changing climate; the wild character of plants, gardens, forests, and fauna; the relevance, power and forms of anthropomorphic mythmaking; and poetic and fantastical interpretations of the woodlands.

Exhibiting artists:

BFA/MFA Thesis Exhibition Spring 2019

Curated by art faculty and students

April 26 — May 21, 2019
Alice & Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

At the end of each semester, students earning Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts degrees exhibit art work in the Museum. The thesis exhibition is akin to the final exam, research project, or dissertation required of students earning liberal arts or science degrees.

The BFA and MFA students have worked with one another and with faculty advisors and museum staff to plan these exhibitions; each student has completed the design and installation of their own work.

BFA: Kaitlyn Antoniadis | Amanda Aponte | Julia Betts | Kaitlyn Burch | Jack Burnham | Marissa Contelmo | Julianne Farella | Brandon Fiege | Sari Friedman | Shale |Zhike Gan | Isa Karis | Joseph Kattou | Liz Leupold | Brendan Komarek | Jingdi Ma | John William Murphy | Arielle Ponder | Irene Raptopoulos | Jonathan Renino | Alejandra Salinas | Marco Venegas

MFA : Sylvie Lissa Alusitz | Julia Arvay | Emily Brownawell | Xiao Chen | B Jensen Hale | Tamar Hedges | Amanda Heidel | Lynn Herring | Bora Kim | Geuryung Lee | Betsy Lewis | Ruizhi Li | Rosa Loveszy | David Munford | Megumi Naganoma | Heather Rosenbach | Jolynn Santiago |Andrew Sartorious | Sharon Strauss

Just My Type: Angela Dufresne

Curated by Melissa Ragona and Anastasia James

February 9 – July 14, 2019
Morgan Anderson Gallery and Howard Greenberg Family Gallery

What’s in a face? In Angela Dufresne’s hands, a face is sometimes stretched to its absolute limits, becoming landscape, becoming monstrous, becoming pure color. Just My Type is a study in the topology of the face, as it transforms and morphs, never standing still long enough to zero in on a fixed “type.” The typologies in her paintings are hybrid machines; they threaten “categories” that identify us by normative names or force us into vulnerable positions. Dufresne wields heterotopic narratives that are non-hierarchical and perverse and poignantly articulate, porous ways of being in a world fraught by fear, power, and possession. Known for her impressive tableaux vivants that are both grandiose and humble, Just My Type: Angela Dufresne will feature intimate and rarely exhibited portraits of the artist’s friends, family, and community, as well as phantasmagoric beings that challenge our understanding of what makes a type.

In Celebration: A Recent Gift from the Photography Collection of Marcuse Pfeifer

Curated by Wayne Lempka

February 9 – July 14, 2019
Sara Bedrick Gallery

Through the generosity of former New York City gallery dealer Marcuse Pfeifer, The Dorsky Museum is the recipient of a major gift of 19^th and 20^thcentury photographs representing some of the leading artists in the history of the medium.  This exhibition will showcase over fifty photographs from the Pfeifer gift while tracing both the evolution of the medium and celebrating the generosity of the donor. 

Beginning in the late 1970s, Marcuse Pfeifer was one of the first gallery dealers in New York City to exclusively show photographs. Her gallery gained the reputation as being one of the very few spaces where one could not only view but purchase images from both well-known and up-and-coming artists.  Through Pfeifer’s efforts she was instrumental in helping to promote the medium of photography as an art form. 

Mohonk Mountain House at 150

Curated by Kerry Dean Carso

February 9 – July 14, 2019
Seminar Room

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Mohonk Mountain House, this small exhibition features art, photographs, postcards, and ephemera related to Mohonk and the Shawangunks, with contributions from students in Professor Kerry Dean Carso's fall 2018 art history course, "Art of the Hudson Valley."

In 1869, Alfred Smiley made his first visit to Lake Mohonk and convinced his twin brother Albert to purchase Stokes Tavern, an inn on the lake.  Under the Smiley family’s management, the tavern evolved into Mohonk Mountain House, an eclectic architectural assemblage of towers, balconies, and porches.  A wonderland of picturesque carriage trails dotted with rustic summerhouses allowed guests to explore the mountain and lake scenery.  Today Mohonk Mountain House transports guests to the heyday of the mountain house era, while also providing modern amenities.

Students have researched and written about images from the early days of Mohonk to the recent past, exploring themes such as art and architecture, landscape design, and recreational activities. 

Linda Mary Montano: The Art/Life Hospital

Curated by Anastasia James

January 23 – April 14, 2019
Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery

Linda Mary Montano (b. 1942, Saugerties, NY) is a pioneer in contemporary performance art and her work since the mid 1960s has been critical in the development of video and performance by, for, and about women. Attempting to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, Montano’s work explores her own art/life through shared experience, role adoption, and intricate life altering ceremonies, some of which last for many years. This exhibition highlights Montano’s rarely screened video work, alongside new commissions and a performance that address acts of healing and issues surrounding death.