Amy Krzanik reports from Hudson and Catskill. The weather gave its vote of support to the marriage of contemporary art and historic properties on Saturday, May 2 as Frederic Church’s Olana and Thomas Cole’s Cedar Grove opened their River Crossings exhibit at a special preview party for members of the two sites. The 28 artists featured in the exhibition, including Romare Bearden, Chuck Close, Gregory Crewdson, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and others, run the gamut from painters and sculptors to photographers and multimedia installation artists. A short trip across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge from each other, these two homes of famous Hudson River School painters each have inspiring views, but are crowned by very different styles of home. Cole’s house, a Federal-style built in 1815, features warm, mostly pale yellow rooms that are the perfect foil to the exuberant art currently hung there. Church’s home mixes Victorian architecture and Middle-Eastern accents to create a dramatic backdrop for its art pieces. The show, River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home is up until November 1. Above, Olana board chair David Redden and exhibition co-curators Jason Rosenfeld and Stephen Hannock pose in front of Maya Lin's work.
Jonathan Lerner, Peter Frank, NY State Assemblymember Didi Barrett and David Barrett; David Voorhees, director of the Jacob Leisler Papers Project and Timothy O'Connor, director of the Ashbery Resource Center at Bard College.
Kianga and Peter Daverington; Sculptor Don Gummer, who has work in the show, with Olana curators Evelyn Trebilcock and Mark Prezorski, and Donna Hassler.
Hudson enjoyed bright sunshine and blue skies on opening day.
Daniel Rothbart, Francine Hunter McGivern, artist Parker Shipp and John Rosenthal; Olana tour guide Chris Dillon with Ed Sanderson.
Serena Rattazzi with Clermont board member Patricia Falk; Gary Delemeester, Donna Hassler and Jeff Daly.
Olana board chair emeritus Rick Sharp with current board members Rick McCarthy and David DeWeese; Guests are welcomed into the main house at Olana.
Olana's breathtaking view.
Artist Kara Hamilton, whose work is featured in the exhibit, with her dog, Hope, alongside Lindsey Taylor and her dog, Lucy; Michele Phillips, a paper conservator with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and Laura Ten Eyck, an antiquarian map dealer, pose in front of work by Jerry Gretzinger.
Thomas Cole board chair Lisa Fox Martin and Betsy Jacks, the site's executive director; Olana board member Stuart Breslow and Thomas Cole board member Anne Miller in front of a sculpture by Don Gummer.
Joseph Matta and Danny Schieffler; Visitors view Angie Keefer'sArea Variance, a photograph taken on Columbia Street in Hudson.
Spring has recently arrived at the Thomas Cole site, as the lawn's trees begin to show delicate green leaves.
Written by
Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
