Hugo Montoya, How ya like me now? (2019), via Art Observed
For the second installation of Upstate Art Weekend, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) presented a collaborative exhibition at Foreland, a new contemporary arts campus in the Hudson River Valley. Co-organized by curator Jesse Greenberg of JAG Projects, NADA x Foreland showcased works from over 100 artists presented by 81 galleries, nonprofits and artist-run spaces selected through an open call. While celebrating the rich cultural legacy of the Hudson River Valley, Upstate Art Weekend aimed to cultivate community and collaboration in the wake of lockdown, as the art world begins to reopen. While exhibitors ranged from Dubai to Guatemala City to Bucharest, NADA x Foreland focused on artists from New York State, with particular attention to the Upstate region. The works were not displayed in booths, but rather arranged together within the newly restored Civil-War-era spaces of the Foreland campus on the bank of Catskill Creek.
Aurora Király, 50s or Soft despair (2020-2021), via Art Observed
While the industrial riverside spaces were primarily filled with sculpture, the exhibition maintained breadth. On the third floor of the Water Street location, Anca Poterasu Gallery showcased Aurora Király’s layered figurative textile installation in a corner overlooking the river. In the same gallery, Dana Robinson’s The Unbelievable Wig (2021) from STONELEAF RETREAT hung in front of a window, the exterior Catskill vista visible beneath the sheer, colorful panel.
Dana Robinson, The Unbelievable Wig (2021), via Art Observed
Installations such as Rachel Mica Weiss’s Kneeler II (2020) engaged the industrial architecture of the rehabilitated historical mills. Presented by CARVALHO PARK, the gradated, opaque cast-resin chain links of the sculpture were suspended from a wooden beam, conjuring a rhetoric of relative freedom and restraint. With Dalisha (1989), John Ahearn set forth a lifecast plaster bust displayed against a white brick wall, a portrait that is honorific yet familiar, capturing a New Yorker donning a Batman t-shirt and yellow bow.
Rachel Mica Weiss, Kneeler II (2020), via Art Observed
John Ahearn, Dalisha (1989), via Art Observed
In addition to the weekend-long NADA exhibition, Rachel Uffner Gallery and Mrs. presented a group show at Foreland. Featuring artists from both New York-based galleries, the exhibition plays upon the architecture of the industrial site while bringing into conversation diverse works from the two programs. The presentation by Rachel Uffner Gallery and Mrs. will be on display through September 12, 2021.
Rachel Uffner and Mrs (Installation View), via Art Observed
— A. Chisholm
Read More:
NADA x Foreland [Exhibition Site]
Rachel Uffner and Mrs. [Exhibition Site]
