Among the July art fairs and festivals you should check out is one that invites culture lovers to head north for a blend of nature and art. We’re talking, of course, about Upstate Art Weekend, which returns this year on July 18 with an extensive schedule of exhibitions and events spanning eleven counties across the Catskills Mountains and Hudson Valley. Yes, it’s a lot, but there’s no reason to drive yourself crazy trying to see everything as fast as possible. Upstate Art Weekend founder Helen Toomer told Observer that the “number one thing to note is that it is impossible to do everything, and I encourage people not to rush. There’s much to see, but it’s also about the journey between participants and the experience of basking in the natural beauty of the area.”
The key is to do a little research before you go and customize your own itinerary. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best art spaces and program highlights to help you navigate the rich scene just a few hours’ drive from New York City. And of course, as Toomer reminded us, most of the weekend’s venues are accessible year-round. “If you miss something, we encourage you to return!”
1142 Co Rte 22
The Macedonia Institute is a family-run residency started by Aidan Thomas and Devora Kaye seven years ago. Since then, the pair has hosted more than 120 artists (particularly painters) in their home in Chatham, NY, while they work in the adjacent barn and print studio. For the first time, The Macedonia Institute is partnering with a local family-run regenerative farm and cafe called Ten Barn Farm to host a group show for Upstate Art Weekend in two of their ten barns. On show in “Arcadian Revival” will be displays of contemporary art (including work by twenty-seven former artists in residence) in a bucolic environment that’s also home to chickens, goats and a burbling stream. For the exhibition, artists were invited to explore what a modern return to nature might look like. During Upstate Art Weekend, “Arcadian Revival” will be open Friday, July 19, from 12-4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Over the weekend, the institute will host a farm-fresh brunch at the cafe at 1142 County Rte 22.
111 Water St.
Foreland was born from an enlightened real estate initiative that aimed to create an art hub in the Catskills, gathering artists, artisans and commercial tenants together under one roof. With a premier riverside position, the historic structures of the campus are run by a dedicated group of creative thinkers and contractors. Last year, Upstate Art Weekend brought us NADA Foreland. This year, Foreland is hosting an all-day fundraising event on July 20, “Serious Play: A Youth Arts Fundraiser,” conceived as a multidisciplinary journey into the creativity of its tenants. Art Weekend visitors can sunbathe on Foreland’s riverfront, visit their multi-discipline exhibition and experience the interactive conceptual sound installation Open Play in the Tower Stair on the Foreland’s Tower Stair, a six-story, wraparound staircase. Foreland will also host a ceramics exhibition by youth students from Cone Zero and a work by the Columbia Collective, both of which will be presented in Foreland’s Waterfront to democratize the process of making and consuming art. Food will be provided by Seafood Steamery, refreshments will be provided by Frankie’s and a dozen art and cultural partners will have items up for bid in the fundraising auction. RSVP on the website.
48 Main St.
There’s also a primary art center in the Catskills, the Catskill Art Space (CAS), which presents contemporary art practices of emerging and established artists, fostering creativity within the local community. With very diverse, dynamic programming and high-level presentations, the center has extensive exhibition spaces spanning two floors and four galleries. CAS’s exhibition model is pretty interesting, as it brings together long-term loans from museums of work by internationally renowned artists with a mix of invitational and juried shows, with a particular focus on regional talent.
One must-see at CAS is their multi-year presentation of James Turrell’s Avaar from 1982, an essential example of the artist’s early, wall-based “aperture” works installed on the second floor through 2027. The work comes from the collection of the Seattle Art Museum, which has granted CAS a special long-term loan. Catskill Art Space is also presenting an exhibition of video art and photography by pioneering artist Mary Lucier. On Saturday, July 20, CAS will host a “Weekend Chamber Music” (8:15-9 p.m.) dedicated to Water, Land and Life.
25 Broad St.
Jack Shainman Gallery transformed this former school in upstate New York into a contemporary art space in 2013. Located in Kinderhook, NY, it boasts 30,000 square feet of exhibition space, permitting ambitious projects and temporary shows that rotate regularly over the year, shedding new light on artists working within and outside the Jack Shainman ecosystem. The School’s inaugural presentation was a solo show of Nick Cave, featuring fifty new and recent works, including several of his acclaimed Soundsuits. Part of the show was also the 160-foot-long wall piece Truth To Be Told, which covered the facade of the building to address the killing of George Floyd, which at the time sparked public debate after local authorities argued that the text was technically a sign, making it a violation of local code. The community defended the text piece, which was eventually acknowledged as an artwork and so protected under the First Amendment. Following that significant solo presentation, the space hosted a solo show by artist El Anatsui and, most recently, an exhibition focused on Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.
Upstate Art Weekend visitors will encounter the summer exhibition “LIE DOGGO,” a monumental solo presentation of work by Nina Chanel Abney featuring a wide range of media she has engaged with in translating her unique visual language from paintings with collages, site-specific murals, an immersive digital art installation and the debut of a new body of large scale sculpture. Chanel’s work has been profoundly influenced by Matisse’s color theories, the legacy of Cubists as Picasso in the simplification and synthesis of forms and Léger for his formal rhythm while connecting with the synesthetic and collage-like sensibilities of Harlem Renaissance artists like Jacob Lawrence. To celebrate the Upstate Art Weekend, The School will host a special cocktail party on Friday, July 19, from 6-9 p.m.
341 NY-217
A group of New York Galleries including Bortolami, James Cohan, kaufmann repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps and kurimanzutto have joined forces for this ambitious collaborative project, The Campus, which took over another abandoned former school in Claverack, NY. Vacant since the ‘90s, the 78,000-square-foot Ockawamick School, built in 1951, offers colorfully-painted classrooms, mid-century architectural details and generous natural lighting. The inaugural exhibition opened on June 29 and will run through October 27, connecting new, historical and site-specific works by over eighty artists from all the galleries involved. Curator Timo Kappeller has established a thoughtful conversation between a series of primarily site-specific works and installations, the school’s mid-century architecture and the beauty of the surrounding twenty-two acres. Extending the collaboration, The Campus is also partnering with Titus Kaphar’s NXTHVN project, presenting the work of its Studio Fellows Adrian Armstrong, Alexandria Couch, Eric Hart Jr., Fidelis, Joseph, Jamaal Peterman, Eugene Mackie and Alex Puz in an exhibition organized by Curatorial Fellows Marquita Flowers and Clare Patrick. The Campus will be open Saturday and Sunday, 12-5 p.m.
1405 County Route 22
Art Omi is an extensive sculpture park with works set on 120 acres in New York’s Hudson Valley, including pieces by major prominent names like Alicja Kwade or Robert Grosvenor, often conceived of specifically for the park. There is also an indoor exhibition space, the Newmark Gallery, which is currently presenting a solo exhibition of Nathan Young (Delaware/Kiowa/Pawnee), “Tune It Or Die!,” featuring a new body of works that include scores and a set of reimagined flags, inspired by the iconography of the Native American Church and the symbolism of peyote, a medicine and sacrament in the church. In June, Art Omi also added two new pieces to the Sculptural park, including a newly commissioned work by Jimenez Lai, Outcasts from the Underground, featuring a series of prefabricated concrete items designed to be buried, such as septic tanks, catchment basins and basement staircases: things that deal with waste, seepage and other matters below ground are stocked by the artist top of one another, creating a towering assemblage or Surrealist corpse resembling an alien creature or a prophetic omen of burials from the past coming back to our conscience. The other new addition to the park is an installation by Riley Hooker titled SIT(UATION) made of interconnected inflatable structures for sitting.
1 Museum Road
Probably the best-known sculpture park in New York State and its surroundings, Storm King Art Center is an extensive 500-acre outdoor museum located in Hudson Valley. Here, you can see large-scale sculptures and site-specific commissions by some of the top names of the contemporary art scene, with nature and an open sky as the only background. Founded and opened to the public in 1960 thanks to the efforts of the late Ralph E. Ogden and H. Peter Stern, co-owners of the Star Expansion Company, based in Mountainville, New York, the site was initially conceived as a museum devoted to the Hudson River School of painting. By 1961, its founders had become committed to modern sculpture and turned it into an impressive sculpture park.
Featuring around one hundred large-scale sculptures, Storm King continues to grow and welcome new commissions, loans and temporary exhibitions; most recently, a dome-like brick structure sculpture by Martin Puryear, Lookout, created in collaboration with MIT by drawing on ancient Nubian masonry techniques. There are also some significant long-term loans like Tony Smith’s Source (1967), Louise Nevelson’s Royal Tide 1 (1960) and Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1967). Storm King is currently hosting an extensive presentation of Arlene Shechet’s sculptural practice, including the artist’s recent work in wood, steel, ceramics, paper and bronze and six new monumental sculptures created for the show. Arlene Shechet’s “Girl Group” runs through November 10.
Basilica Hudson, 110 Front Street
Time & Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street
Hessel Museum of Art, 33 Garden Rd.
During Upstate Art weekend, you can visit the Bard MFA Thesis Exhibition, “Off-Site: the Class of 2025.” The show combines the culminating work of third-year MFA candidates in moving images, music and sound, painting, photography, sculpture and writing in two galleries in Hudson: Basilica Hudson and Time & Space Limited (TSL). There’s also the Bard Collection housed in the Hessel Museum of Art, which boasts more than 3,000 works by over 570 of the most prominent artists of the late 20th and 21st Centuries, including Paul Chan, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Robert Kushner, Robert Mapplethorpe, Gabriel Orozco, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson and Rosemarie Trockel.
The current show, “Start Making Sense,” brings together highlights from the collection, drawing conversations and connections between the artwork itself and a series of ephemerals and documents that witness the framework where they are presented (exhibitions, institutions, galleries, events, etc.) that will eventually allow them to “make sense.” Also worth checking out are the other summer exhibitions currently on view at the museum, which include the first in-depth examination in the U.S. of Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen and “Time & the Tiger,” which brings together highlights from the collections in five immersive exhibitions that will take you through a cross-historical journey that blends decades of art history, historical events, documentary footage, music videos and mythological narratives. There’s also a fascinating survey of Carrie Mae Weems’s career, “Remember to Dream,” showing the breath of the evolution of her pioneering, politically engaged practice, from the large-scale installations to her bodies of photography.
3 Beekman Street
Dia Beacon is arguably one of the most popular and visited art institutions upstate. Housed in a former Nabisco box printing factory, Dia Beacon offers a unique industrial setting with large, open spaces ideal for displaying large-scale installations and artworks that celebrate the minimalist and conceptual aesthetic, with some big other names of the period, such as the stunning room containing the entire series of Shadows paintings by Andy Warhol. The Dia Foundation celebrates its 50th anniversary this year: it was founded in 1974 by art dealer Heiner Friedrich, his wife Philippa de Menil and Helen Winkler with the mission to support visionary and often large-scale projects by contemporary artists that were difficult to realize through conventional means or within the commercial settings. Today, the Dia Foundation has multiple locations around the United States, including four in Manhattan (Dia Chelsea, as well as a series of permanent installations such as The Earth Room by Walter de Maria in 141 Wooster Street, The Broken Kilometer by De Maria in 393 West Broadway and Joseph Heinrich Beuys’ 7,000 Oaks in Chelsea). Additional sites include Dia Bridgehampton, designed by Dan Flavin to permanently house an installation of his work alongside a program of temporary exhibitions (it currently hosts a must-see show of Liliana Porter); the memorable Lightening Field by Walter De Maria in New Mexico; The Vertical Earth Kilometer also by De Maria, in Kassel, Germany; Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels in Utah; Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty also in Utah and finally Cameron Rowland, Depreciation in Edisto Island, South Carolina.
2700 Route 9
Established by Giorgio Spanu and his wife Nancy Olnick in 2007, Magazzino Italian Art has presented the best of Arte Povera and contemporary Italian art and creative culture, becoming an essential platform of promotion and education and encouraging a more widespread public appreciation of it in the U.S. The permanent collection on view features some rare masterpieces by leading names of the movement like Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Gilberto Zorio, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alighiero Boetti, among others. The building, a repurposed warehouse redesigned by Miguel Quismondo, just went through an extension, with the new Robert Olnick Pavilion, designed by architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo, opening last year to host more temporary exhibitions. This summer, in addition to the art of the collection, you can visit a presentation of the sublime poetic and ethereal abstractions of Ettore Spalletti, a presentation of beautiful Venetian blow glass pieces designed by Carlo Scarpa and an insightful survey of the restlessly inventive artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician Mario Schifano showcasing series of his germinal works from 1960 to 1970, a time of great social, economic, political and artistic turmoil in Italy that the artist perfectly captured. The new pavilion also houses a lovely cafè, Caffè Silvia, which offers traditional Italian food from different regions, a good glass of wine and an authentic Italian espresso. Surrounding the buildings is a perfectly curated park in which lucky visitors meet the resident family of Sardinian Donkeys.
397 Broadway
Bosco Sodi with Lucia Corredor in Monticello, NY.">
Established in 2022 by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi and his wife Lucia Corredor, this nonprofit art space is housed in a former Buick dealership that was restored by Mexican architect Alberto Kalach. Now on view are three exhibitions, with two different sets of conversations with the inventive sculptural forms of American artist Alma Allen: in one gallery, they confront the rigorous minimalist abstractions of Italian artist Davide Balliano, while in the other, they resonate with the geometric rhythms of Johnny Abrams’s paintings. In front of the building stands a Bernar Venet, while in the main gallery, there’s a selection of works by Sodi.
148 Canal St.
During Upstate Art Weekend, artist Jeffrey Gibson will unveil a series of tile paintings at the India-inspired Alpana Bawa shop in Ellenville, New York. Jeffrey Gibson is the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale, with a psychedelic and extremely colorful immersive pavilion show, “The Space in Which to Place Me.” These tile paintings are his first foray into ceramics, and they consist of a series of intimate painted tiles that reflect the geometry that the artist uses throughout his work. The shop will host a special event on Thursday, July 18, from 5-7 p.m., during which they will have available for purchase Gibson’s book “An Indigenous Present,” which visitors can peruse in between sips of Aaron Burr Cider.
82 North Broadway
There’s just something so special about visiting artists’ homes. Located in the house Hopper’s maternal grandfather built in 1858, where the artist lived until 1910, the Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center‘s mission is to celebrate and advance Hopper’s legacy through artifacts, programs and exhibitions inspired by the iconic painter. During Upstate Art Weekend, the center has two exhibitions on view honoring Edward Hopper’s legacy, including a restaging of Edward Hopper’s bedroom showing how influential this was for his paintings, as well as the show “Matinee” with paintings by Dike Blair, who shares Hopper’s passion for cinema, drawing inspiration for his painting from his frequent trips to the movie theater.
162 Main Street
This year, the annual Beacon Open Studios event returns with a map of thirty-five artist studios, and it’s the perfect way to discover artists of all kinds and other creatives from the local scene at your own pace. On Friday, July 19, there will be an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. followed by a performance. On Saturday, July 20, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the organizing group will host a series of performances by Ghost Funk Orchestra, Joe Fiedler Quartet and Dani Murcia. An afterparty will follow, from 10:15 to 11:30 p.m. with music by local DJ Causelost.
37 Furnace Bank Rd.
The Wassaic Project is a nonprofit organization that has gathered a creative community in the Hamlet of Wassaic and its surrounding region in a joint effort to develop innovative, experimental and accessible programs across the economic spectrum. Currently, the Wassaic Project has a summer show titled “Tall Shadows in Short Order,” which features the work of thirty artists displayed across the seven floors of Maxon Mills, with a special focus on large, site-specific installations. The show includes some very intriguing works, like Daniel Shieh’s thirty-language broadcast of the U.S. national anthem and Luciana Abait’s mountain range made from maps of the U.S. and Argentina. During Upstate Art Weekend, the nonprofit has organized a series of events, including the opening of Dana Robinson’s “The Urgency of Leisure at Troutbeck” at 515 Leedsville Road in Amenia. On Saturday, they are mounting a full day of events that will close with a party, “Viva Democracia!,” from 7 p.m. to 12 p.m.
