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

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Monica d. Church, Gold Swift Phymatopus Hecta, 2019, courtesy the artist

 

The Material, The Thing, the 15th annual Hudson Valley Artists exhibition, considers how artists understand and reimagine the material culture in which we live. Featuring twenty-six artists who live and work in the Hudson Valley, the exhibition includes work that investigates materials and their physical and cultural properties. Through a wide range of artistic practices, the artists consider the inherent beauty of physical materials and create work that questions or champions the things produced by our culture. 

 

 Black and white photo of white rope messily coiled
Ashley Lyon, Diviner, 2021, courtesy the artist

 

Curator Nicole Hayes writes: “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 marked by climate change, supply chain issues, and economic uncertainty, artists and artisans become essential conduits to understanding the materials and the things in our society. 

 


Adam Chau, Swipe, 2019, 
courtesy the artist


Meg Hitchcock, Countless Forms, 2022, courtesy the artist

 

The artists included in Hudson Valley Artists 2022: The Material, The Thing share an interest in experimentation and innovation. Their work is made from motorcycle parts, tennis balls, sail fabric, aluminum foil, bottle caps, building supplies, text cut from books, and numerous other found objects and household items as well as more traditional materials. The exhibition encourages viewers to look closely, to question what things are made of and how they were made, and to think about how the materials around us relate to contemporary culture.

 

Melissa Dadourian, Avalanche, 2021, courtesy the artist

 
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