In her poem “September,” published posthumously in 1892, the gifted and prolific Helen Hunt Jackson — friend and classmate of Emily Dickinson — writes that this month comes “With summer’s best of weather,/ And autumn’s best of cheer.” Jackson’s comment suits the current mood, as we welcome the annual end-of-summer/back-to-school transition. With a hint of crispy coolness in the air, the art world reignites with excited energy and a round of exhibitions to get us into the autumnal groove. A show of six women artists at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson is a ballad to soothe the soul during this period of transition, while a show of three women artists at Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack explores layering — fitting for the season. Hans Frank: Cosmic Art at Hudson Hall in Hudson offers a rare posthumous encounter with 100 works by this reclusive refugee of World War II, and Sydney Cash reinvigorates Flutex, a commercial pattern glass from the 1930s to ‘40s, at Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. Takuji Hamanaka celebrates the 19th-century Japanese woodblock printing technique known as Bokashi, while Frances Segismundo presents works on paper that draw inspiration from Zen methodologies at Distortion Society in Beacon. As the landscape of Upstate New York begins to morph into the fiery shades of autumnal glory, the elevated energies of these diverse art exhibitions match the brilliance and cheer of the impending season!
PULSE: Dan Devine and Susan Jennings
Tanja Grunert Gallery, Princess Beatrix House, 21 Prospect Avenue, Hudson, New York
Through September 21
Pairing sculptures with a performative installation, PULSE: Dan Devine and Susan Jennings at Tanja Grunert Gallery in Hudson explores the potential of material spaces to transcend our lived realities. Devine’s “Nimbus” (all works 2024), made of molded leather and raw lamb’s wool, appears to twist into itself, while the smooth ceramic “Stride” stands stoic and upright in its raw red power. Jennings’s work is a ritualistic orchestration of materials that embodies her experiences with death, as witnessed during her years as a professional nurse. Employing diverse materials including bells, thread, wire, chimes, stones, porcelain, and a mattress, and activated by Faye Ross’s live performance, Jennings’s “Out of Body” feels like a sacred space to contemplate our inevitable transformation from this material plane to the next unknown.
Hans Frank: Cosmic Art
Hudson Hall, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, New York
Through September 22
The late Johannes (Hans) Frank was a refugee of World War II, a recluse, and an unsung hero of his generation. On view at Hudson Hall in the historic Opera House in Hudson, Hans Frank: Cosmic Art includes some 100 paintings and works on paper that haven’t been shown to the public in more than half a century. Inspired by the evening sky as observed through a telescope in his studio as well as scientific theories about the cosmos, Frank’s swirling, kaleidoscopic compositions reflect the radiant vibrations of the universe. In the work “Out of the Blue” (c. 1986), his explosive explorations in oil paint appear almost like graffiti. Other works, such as “Still Life with Stars” (1967), suggest a modernist influence, while “Wondrous Planet” (c. 1987) is an eccentric homage to our shared blue ball, floating amid chaos. For many years, this voluminous body of work was lovingly preserved by Frank’s devoted sister, Renata — this exhibition validates that act of care, offering a rare posthumous encounter with the artist at his finest.
Sydney Cash: Being Seeing
Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, 28 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York
Through September 22
Using a commercial pattern glass from the 1930s and ‘40s known as Flutex, Sydney Cash creates vibrant contemporary wall sculptures that seem to dance. At the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, she repositions this funky and fun glass product, once used in offices and showers to provide privacy, into nifty works simultaneously retro and contemporary. “Triumph” (1989–2024) is a three-part panel composed of Flutex glass, computer-generated drawing, lighting, a mirror, and fabric; a wavy strip above the assemblage makes it look like it’s grooving to its own structure. Other works such as “Rubic” (1983–2024) and “Slow Boat to China” (1982–2023) vibrate with harmonious, flowing forms, transforming these artworks into vehicles for meditative visual experiences.
A solo presentation of works by Takuji Hamanaka
Geary Contemporary, 34 Main Street, Millerton, New York
Through September 29
Featuring a series of vivid collaged woodblock prints, this show at Geary Contemporary in Millerton celebrates Takuji Hamanaka’s engagement with Bokashi, a 19th-century Japanese woodblock printing technique. Using the grid as a creative baseline, Hamanaka explores the endless possibilities of geometric gradients and abstract patterns to create colorful works that undulate with a sense of playful purpose and rhythmic intention. Works such as “Mountain Stream” (2022) and “Downpour” (2022) pulse with the natural flow of their chosen titles. Two similar works with the same title — “Tower” (2023) — feel like they embody the heart of a rainbow with a rippling energy that glows and flutters. Having previously worked as a restorer of stained glass, Hamanaka’s masterful sensitivity to light and the arrangement of colors in a controlled space shines forth in these works.
Layers in Motion: Alyce Gottesman, Lotte Petricone, Mary Ann Strandell
Perry Lawson Fine Art, 90 North Broadway, Nyack, New York
Through September 29
Three women artists explore the compelling effects of layering in this visually affecting show. Alyce Gottesman draws inspiration from her rural upbringing on the East Coast and her exposure to the dramatics of light during her years living in California. Music, too, is essential to her work, as seen in improvisational works such as “Jazzy Splash” (2022) and “As The Spirit Moves You” (2021). Using print images as the basis for her paintings, Lotte Petricone experiments with the interplay between color and texture in a series of works that explore space, movement, and layering. “Swimming Through Skies” (2021) is a potent example: In it, a flummoxed man leans out his door to encounter a lady sailing gracefully above in a classic swimmer’s pose. And Mary Ann Strandell blends aesthetic tendencies from various historic periods in art, including Baroque, Modernism, and Post-Modernism.“Floating Worlds/Birds 1” (2019–20) is a delightful vision of sprightly winged creatures floating in a lush, lenticular landscape.
2024 Visual Arts Exhibition
Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, 120 Broadway, Tivoli, New York
Through September 30
The Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli provides an inspiring natural environment for its robust arts program, which includes artist residencies, educational programs, seasonal events, and annual outdoor festivals, spanning disciplines as diverse as dance, theater, music, film, poetry, and culinary and visual arts. This year’s iteration of their annual visual arts exhibition, curated by Hilary Greene, presents the work of eight Hudson Valley artists installed around the Kaatsbaan’s pastoral property along the Hudson River. Visitors wandering the sprawling grounds will encounter diverse pieces nestled into the landscape, such as Emil Alzamora’s “Polaris” (2023), a cement sculpture of a figure in a sacred yogic pose honoring the earth, and Sequoyah Aono’s stoic wood sculpture “Self Head 2” (2023), which appears to be deep in thought, on the brink of opening its eyes to speak with us. Ashley Lyon’s “Meteor” (2020) is a large white stoneware foot severed from its body yet inching forward, while Arthur Gibbons’s “Kaatsbaalloon #1” (2024), a large yellow weather balloon tucked in between a set of vertical wood beams, solicits glee.
Frances Segismundo: Memor
Distortion Society, 155 Main Street, Beacon, NY
Through October 5
Frances Segismundo is inspired by aerial landscape photographs to explore more complex realms of physical and psychological states in her painting practice. Memor at Distortion Society in Beacon presents a series of multi-layered works on paper that combine acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencil, and pen to create whimsical environments that recall classical Chinese paintings and mid-century modern aesthetics alike. In works such as “Undergrowth” (all works 2024) and “Beneath the Surface,” Segismundo orchestrates a cacophony of flowing organic shapes and loose floral designs, a solid-colored disk that anchors the otherwise floating-world ambiance of these cosmic compositions. Segismundo’s exploration of the “Zen methodology of balance, concentration, and movement,” as the press release puts it, culminates in “Qualia,” where the ochre sun in the middle of the piece nurtures the fanciful shapes that dance and burst all around it.
Understories
Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street, Hudson, New York
Through October 6
As summer fades into fall, the tail end of the season pulls on our collective heartstrings — oh, how we’ll miss summer! Featuring mixed media works by six women artists, Understories at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson is a ballad to soothe the soul during this annual period of seasonal transition. Eileen Murphy’s oil painting “The Trees Lean in Like Conspirators” (2024) glows with autumnal hues and glistening golden energy, while Rinal Parikh’s black and white mixed-media work on canvas “April Showers” (2021) holds the promise of pleasures yet to come. “Biomorphic Flourishes” (2023) by Allyson Levy is a lively free-floating green scene created with encaustic, poppyseed heads, dill seeds, and leaves that hum with vigor. Abstract expressionist works including Ragellah Rourke’s “Night Swim” (2024) and the colorful compositional chaos of Anne Francey’s “Joyful Pain” (2023) will charm the heart. Among the more curious works in this show is Annika Tucksmith’s “The Turkey in the Late-Afternoon” (2024). Featuring a lone bird beside a river, warming its rump by a blazing fire with an open cooler nearby, it induces a strangely wonderful end-of-summer feeling that whispers of the fall harvest on the horizon.
Michelle Segre: Der Wolley Eulb 07
River Valley Arts Collective, Al Held Foundation, 26 Beechford Drive, Boiceville, NY
Through October 13
At the American Abstract expressionist painter Al Held’s former drawing studio, Michelle Segre’s solo exhibition, organized by River Valley Arts Collective for the Al Held Foundation in Boiceville, is electrifying in its disorderly beauty. Featuring seven new entirely site-specific works, all made in-situ earlier this summer, and composed of mixed media including steel, yarn, felted wool, glazed ceramic, aluminum, acrylic polymer, and textiles, Segre’s installation is both a feat of creative engineering and an innovative embodiment of quasi-scientific structures. “Sigmudrite II” recalls an amiable spiderweb with roaming planets caught in its orbit, while “Voidsoprtion 003” is a large round circle whose black hole at center seems to pull us in, as a dangling red “Lavamajore” sunburst floats nearby. The installation carefully orchestrates a balance between our super-sensible world and the unseen supernatural forces that govern the universe.
Assembly 3
Assembly, 397 Broadway, Monticello, New York
Through November 30
In collaboration with Jack Hanley Gallery, Kasmin Gallery, and Tina Kim Gallery, curator Dakin Hart and founder Bosco Sodi present a bold selection of painting and sculpture for this group exhibition at the 25,000-square-foot Assembly in Monticello. The space follows a seasonal model (i.e., it’s closed during the winter); this show therefore marks Assemby’s third presentation at this warehouse-sized, industrial location. A series of austere paintings by Johnny Abrahams including “Untitled” (2024) reflect the enduring power of Minimalism as theoretical-cum-spiritual conduit for the sublime, and Alma Allen furthers that sense with “Not Yet Titled” (2021), a mangled vision of beauty made of Persian travertine marble. Davide Balliano’s “Untitled_0291” (2024) is a vision of retro-abstract geometric patterning, reflecting his ongoing explorations of existential themes through austere paintings that resist perfection. Installed throughout the space, various clay sculptures from Bosco Sodi’s Untitled (2017–20) series complement the intensity of this powerhouse show.
