10 Art Shows to See in Upstate New York This June

O splendid June, full of the cyclical celebration rituals of graduations, proms, weddings, and the anticipation of deep summer days to come! “Sweet oleander blowing perfume in the air everywhere/ Up jumps the moon to make it so much grander,” sings the lovely Nina Simone in her 1961 song “Memphis in June.” Swapping good old Tennessee for the sweeping vistas of Upstate New York, you can indeed smell the art in the air. At the School in Kinderhook, a full-scale look at the witty and impactful work of badass queer Black powerhouse Nina Chanel Abney. At the Green Lodge in Chatham, Pam Poquette’s flushed, organic compositions on fabric embody a feminine nostalgia. Changolife presents Franc Palaia’s beautifully crumbling works that capture the rawness of Havana’s street art culture. Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson brings together seven figurative painters to celebrate the glory of the human body, while six artist-practitioners explore their necromancy skills in a group show at Bill Arning Exhibitions in Kinderhook. Dear Nina, we sing along gleefully with your ditty in our shared love of June as a month of art so much grander!

All Figured Out

The human figure has been an indispensable subject from the beginning of the art historical timeline, yet distinct reconfigurations of its form still abound. All Figured Out at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson brings together the work of seven painters who are refiguring the body. Among the bright and hopeful works in this show are ransome’s acrylic and collage paintings on canvas and panel such as “Gee’s Bend Quilter Alice Jean” (2023), in which a graceful woman in a yellow dress is surrounded by colorful quilted fabrics in a shining vision of youth. Some of the figures seen in this show invite us into their world, such as the children on a porch in summertime in Caitlin Winner’s “Straw House” (2023), whereas other works, such as the lone, red-caped figure under a radiant moon in Carl Grauer’s “Nightmoon” (2024), invite curiosity. The show is rounded out by Robert Goldstrom’s paintings of muscular male bodies, including “Anatomy Lesson No. 76” (2024), and Lauren Hamilton’s portraits of couples in period costumes, such as “1720 (Matrimony Series)” (2023). 

Carrie Haddad Gallery (carriehaddadgallery.com)
622 Warren Street, Hudson, New York
Through June 16

Pam Poquette: Pink Sunrise

I was first introduced to Pam Poquette’s organic style when I was part of a jury for a call for artists, and I was immediately captured by her joyfully expressionistic cosmic realms. Curated by Owen Barensfeld, the self-styled caretaker of the Green Lodge in Chatham, this solo exhibition is a cheerful site-specific installation of Poquette’s latest fluorescent fiber work, including hanging sculpture and fabric pieces that cavort carefreely around the walls. The “whimsical picnic” of her visual style, as the press release puts it, evokes a female-coded nostalgia in their vibrant color. Paintings such as “pink sunrise” (2024) and “tender mask” (2024) flow in abstract, graphically gorgeous gestures. A series of small sculptures that recall stuffed pillows are a sweet and silly footnote to the exhibition: Technicolor embroidery works including “consolation” (2023) and “spark” (2024) are domestic and sensual at once, and a small sculpture made of acrylic and flashe on stuffed fabric titled “little comforts” (2023) all but begs to be cuddled. 

The Green Lodge (thegreenlodge.gallery)
80 Center Street, Chatham, New York
Through June 22

Werner Sun: Rose Window

In his first solo exhibition at Garrison Art Center, Werner Sun explores his passion for physics by meticulously transforming digital images into sculptural formations and patterns on canvas. Sun manipulates photographs via geometric mark-making and paper-engineering techniques such as folding and shaping paper, infusing his works with a sci-fi edge. In “Rose Window 20” (2022), for instance, a kaleidoscopic 3-D shape floats like a cosmic crystal amidst a bucolic field. “Rose Window 40” (2023) appears to be a close-up of that same 3-D shape, as if we have zoomed in for closer inspection. “Pieces of Sky 02” (2023), meanwhile, is a hanging mobile consisting of colorful folded archival inkjet prints and mixed media arranged on a steel wire armature, reminiscent of floating origami. It is a reminder that art can be a reflection of the intricacies of physics, and that both belong to the universe at large.

Garrison Art Center (garrisonartcenter.org)
23 Garrison’s Landing, Garrison, New York
Through June 23

Other Realities (Exploring Proximate Mysticisms)

In our ever-more-siloed society, a dose of enchantment from realms beyond our own is a welcome reminder that it’s not all here and now. Featuring mixed-media works by six artist-practitioners who bring their necromancy skills into the gallery space, Other Realities (Exploring Proximate Mysticisms) at Bill Arning Exhibitions in Kinderhook is an exploration of mystical themes through vibrant imaginings that stir the soul. Where Jesse Bransford’s watercolor works such as “Untitled Landscape 1” (2021) resonate with a lyrical Kandinsky-esque energy, Frederick Gladding Kahl’s ink-on-paper drawings such as “Plant Teachers 02.2” (2023) are a kaleidoscopic look at the miraculous architecture of vegetation. Elizabeth Insogna’s creature-like ceramic sculptures are delightfully otherworldly, and Lionel Cruet’s psychedelic photo series Sun Simulacrum (#1 – 4) (2023) induces an entranced state of bliss. 

Bill Arning Exhibitions (billarning.com)
17 Broad Street, Kinderhook, New York
Through June 23

GUZMAN: Family/Values

The photo-snapping, award-winning, husband-wife duo GUZMAN is best known for their famed 1992 photoshoot of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, which captured a devastatingly tender image of a couple that would endure the ultimate devastation: the death of Cobain at 27 in 1994. GUZMAN: Family/Values at LABspace in Hillsdale features some of these iconic works — available for purchase for the first time — and other moody photos that encapsulate ‘90s subcultures. Their approach is, as they put it in the press release, an examination of “the state of the world with a sideways glance.” This intimate show presents the original negatives and transparencies from the Cobain-Love shoot, plus additional photos that border on Surrealist performances. The black and white “Woodheads 7, Egremont MA” (2018) features a woman in a trench coat running on a winter day, her head covered entirely by a large round mask made of twigs. The color image “Woodheads 4, Hudson NY” (2018) is another stanza in the same story — this time, a male figure with the same head of twigs, set against a lonely trailer that feels like it is tucked into some unknown corner of our collective psyche. The show writ large is a reverent ode to Guzman’s 30-plus years of photographic collaboration within the commercial worlds of fashion, advertising, and celebrity portraits — as well as to their less-acknowledged role as conceptual documentarians who continue to define the cultural edge. 

LABspace (labspaceart.blogspot.com)
2642 NY-23, Hillsdale, New York
Through June 30

Annie Bielski: Raw Footage

Annie Bielski boasts a dynamic bio of artist, performer, poet, and writer. Her solo show Raw Footage, her second at SEPTEMBER in Kinderhook, demonstrates the wildness and lyrical flow of her painterly and creative gestures, where blankets of brassy colors embrace and wrestle with abandon. Bielski’s exuberant abstract style as seen in her sinuous mixed-media compositions, including her largest canvas to date, which measures 5 by 10 feet, is both flirtatious and exploratory. Works such as “Knockouts for Olive Oyl” (2023) and “Acequia” (2022) reflect her unique approach to drawing, staining, and layering colors on canvas to express an orchestra of vibrant energy. Select pieces such as “Moving Parts” (2024) and “Nightshade” (2024) appear to be in direct conversation with each other in their darker tonalities and muscular application of materials, while other works such as “Vamp” (2024) and “NM” (2022–24) are more sensual in their bright yellows and reds. Across all these works, Bielski’s washes of color express a melodic sensitivity with both grace and power. 

SEPTEMBER (septembergallery.com)
4 Hudson Street 3rd floor, Kinderhook, New York
Through July 7

Peter Halley in collaboration with Steph Gonzalez-Turner: PAINTING / SCULPTURE

‘T’ Space in Rhinebeck aims to foster and amplify collaboration among artists via the interdisciplinary cross-pollination of art, architecture, music, poetry, and ecology. Curator Susan Wides does just that with PAINTING / SCULPTURE, which pairs paintings by seasoned artist Peter Halley and sculptural works by emerging artist Steph Gonzalez-Turner. During the 1980s, Halley became known for a bold, geometric abstraction that set the stage for a new take on minimalism. In recent years, his work has focused on multi-media, site-specific installations such as the works created for this presentation, including hazy wall paintings consisting of latex and fluorescent acrylic paint. Gonzalez-Turner’s crowd of skinny, sophisticated sculptures between around three and seven feet tall are both figurative and architectural, contrasting with the lush colors of Halley’s ethereal works. The energy between Halley’s paintings and Gonzalez-Turner’s sculptures celebrates both their collaboration and the unique mission of ‘T’ Space.

‘T’ Space (tspacerhinebeck.org)
125 1⁄2 Round Lake Road, Rhinebeck, New York
June 2–July 28

The Source of Everything

Among the hidden treasures in Upstate New York is Manitoga in Garrison, the former home and estate of the late American industrial designer Russel Wright, who died in 1976. Known as “Dragon Rock,” the estate is a National Historic Landmark and one of the few 20th-century Modernist homes in the United States open to the public. This month, The Source of Everything, a group show of multi-media works by seven artists who share a reverence for nature curated by Kate Orne, founder of Upstate Diary and former editor at Interview magazine, is installed on Manitoga’s walls. A series of luscious ceramic glazeware works by Jeremy Anderson includes the curiously rippling “Piccolo 147” (2024), while Sagarika Sundaram’s bright textile mural “Sight Unseen” (2024) enlivens the grayscale room where it hangs. Myra Mimlitsch-Gray’s calm, wave-like bronze sculpture “Hewn” (2019) and Lola Montes’s hand-carved and -painted ceramic piece “Artichoke Candleholder” (2023) in particular harmonize with the Modernist simplicity of Dragon Rock. 

Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center (visitmanitoga.org)
584 NY-9D, Garrison, NY
Through August 19

Franc Palaia: “Urban Cuba” “Cuba Urbano”

In 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat commissioned Franc Palaia to paint two small paintings, and later incorporated part of Palaia’s art into his own work. The rest is history, but Palaia, who ran with the downtown crowd in New York City in the ‘80s, is still as active as ever in the arts scene in Upstate New York and beyond. His solo exhibition at Changolife Arts Gallery at the Ethan Cohen KuBe Art Center in Beacon presents a selection of mixed media works that reflect the cultural vibrancy of his visits to Cuba, including layered photographic sculpture-paintings of walls, murals, and street art in Havana and surrounding areas. “Rusty Mural, Havana” (2024) is a terrific example of Palaia’s singular style of cutting, ripping, and sanding photographs and adhering them to angular pieces of sheetrock to create rugged and rebellious multi-media works. Other brightly painted works such as “Astec Mural” (2018) and “Old Woman, JR” (2018) showcase Palaia’s tinkering and layering of photography, paint, spray-paint, oil crayon, wood, and found objects to create dynamic embodiments of Cuba’s raw and sexy splendor. 

Changolife Arts at Ethan Cohen KuBe Art Center (changolifearts.com)
211 Fishkill Avenue, Room 308, Beacon, New York
June 8–August 31

Nina Chanel Abney: LIE DOGGO

As we honor Faith Ringgold and the pioneering contributions of her generation, a new cohort of powerhouse women artists is redefining Blackness and Black culture. Among this group is Nina Chanel Abney, a wise-cracking artist who tackles thorny issues surrounding race, homophobia, colonial attitudes, and systemic inequality through her bold, bright, multi-media artworks. Her blockbuster solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery’s the School in Kinderhook packs a punch with a dynamic series of Cubist-inspired collages, site-specific murals, digital art installations, NFTs, prints, and sculpture. Several of Abney’s paintings surface the race-related structures that underpin familiar situations, such as “Miss Opportunity” (2024), which features Black figures without true facial features at a beauty pageant below a banner that reads “VERY BLACK,” while white figures gawk at the spectacle. As a whole, she invites the audience to consider the racial injustices that mar this country and others. 

Jack Shainman Gallery: The School (jackshainman.com)
25 Broad Street, Kinderhook, New York
Through October 5