2024 VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITION

This year marks the Fourth Annual Visual Arts Exhibition at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.  Inspired by the magical and expansive landscape of our 153-acre property on the banks of the Hudson River, we have continued to focus on contemporary artists living and working in the Hudson Valley.

We look for artists whose works’ visual integrity stands up without explanation—artists who have found their voice, honed their craft, and are in the process of creating works uniquely their own, resulting in an alchemy of structure, form, individual beauty, and soul.  

We exhibit a wide variety of styles and vernaculars that share a relentless pursuit of artistic excellence. Each work of art is installed to harmonize with the beautiful Kaatsbaan space and maximize each artist’s visual message.

It is thrilling to discover how many hard working and immensely talented artists call the Hudson Valley home. We consider it a privilege to provide an aesthetically compelling natural landscape to exhibit their work.

 —Hilary Greene, Curator

Emil Alzamora

Iron Boy, 2023, Cast iron, 38” x 11” x 8” (pathway to Mountain Stage)
Polaris 2023, Cast graphite cement, graphite wax, 18”x 65”x 20” (entrance to Mountain Stage)

Emil Alzamora, a British Citizen, was born in Lima, Peru in 1975 and grew up in Boca Grande, Florida and Majorca, Spain. He attended Florida State University, graduating Magna cum Laude with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts. He began his sculpting career in the Hudson Valley at Polich Tallix in 1998 and has since produced work full-time and shown regularly throughout the world. Recently, Alzamor’s work has oscillated between painting and sculpting, incorporating various unorthodox approaches and techniques to explore the human form physically and psychologically. Subjects are distorted, elongated, encased, or deconstructed to reveal an emotional or physical situation or narrative. Materials create a dialogue with his actions, resisting and complying, and the ritual of process reveals and informs aesthetics and concepts.

SEQUoYAH AONO

Self Head 2, 2023, wood, 65” x 52” x 70” (pathway to Mountain Stage)

Sequoyah Aono is an American-Japanese sculptor. Born in Italy, raised in Japan, he is currently based in New York City. In 2007, he graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Recipient of numerous awards, including: Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation for ISE NY Exhibition (Japan); 3rd Prize, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC); National Endowment for the Arts Grant (USA); 1st Prize at the 2nd International Sculptors Symposium in Ahrntal Valley (Italy), among others. Scholarships include Ruth Katzman Scholarship for The League Residency (2015), Nessa Cohen Grant (2012), Model to Monument Project (2011), Edward G. McDowell Travel Grant (2010).

Arthur gibbons

Kaatsbaalloon #1, #2, #3, #4, Weather Balloons (Studio Complex Building various trees)

Arthur Gibbons is a sculptor whose works consist mostly of flat, raw, jagged pieces of metal; the neutral tones give his work an organic, natural feel. He has been a professor of sculpture at Bard College since 1988 and director of Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. He received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and a BFA and MFA from University of Pennsylvania. His solo exhibitions include Robert Freidus Gallery and Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York; group shows include Storm King Art Center, Mountainville; Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase. His works are in the permanent collections of Storm King Art Center, Albright-Knox Gallery (Buffalo), Denver Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Case Western Reserve University, among others. Awards include Reynolds Metals Company Commission and Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellowship.

Ken Hiratsuka

Sunrock, 2016, basalt, 5’ x 5’ (next to Meadow Stage)
Stormy Rock, 2018, black granite totem mounted on corten steel base, 7.5’ x 20” x 20” (at The Dancer’s Inn)

Kenichi (Ken) Hiratsuka is a Japanese-born, New York-based stone sculptor whose remarkable maze-like visual work has consistently fascinated viewers. Since his arrival in New York in 1982 as a student at the Art Students League, his immediate entrance into the Street Art Movement, and his 4-decade legacy of public and private works, Hiratsuka has redefined stone sculpture. Carving on granite and slate city sidewalks to make art accessible to everyone, he restored the original meaning of graffiti. With sculptures in 25 countries to date, Hiratsuka’s “one continuous line in stone around the world” leads the viewer to reflect on the complex relationships between art and life, language and culture through the action of a single individual.