The new year brings a fresh wave of creative energy to Upstate New York's vibrant art scene. This January, galleries and museums from Kingston to Cold Spring present an eclectic mix of exhibitions featuring both emerging talents and established masters. Visitors can explore everything from playful stick sculptures to politically charged installations and delicate glasswork. The region's cultural institutions continue their tradition of making contemporary art accessible to diverse audiences. These ten shows offer compelling reasons to brave the winter cold and immerse yourself in visual storytelling.
Several exhibitions close mid-month, making them immediate priorities for art lovers. At Utopia in Kingston, "A Gnawing Thought" showcases eighteen New York-based artists through January 17. Curator Mandolyn Wilson Rosen has assembled works that quietly demand attention, including Jenny Kemp's sumptuous acrylic wave "Festoon" and Padma Rajendran's surreal fabric piece "Lemon Life." In Poughkeepsie, Convey/Er/Or Gallery presents Loren Eiferman's "Gathering of Sticks" until January 19. Eiferman crafts futuristic compositions from found twigs and branches, with pieces like "Powerstick 1" reaching dramatically outward and "Albutilon" bursting forth like a flower-faced totem.
Kingston's Headstone Gallery offers Michael McGrath's "Under Panther Mountain" through January 25, featuring over twenty new works from 2025 that blend mythology and whimsy. His colored pencil drawings depict headless singers, ravens, and meteors in pastoral landscapes, creating what the artist calls a "medley of melodious fun." Meanwhile, Art Omi in Ghent invites visitors to experience Yatta's experimental installation "Iron Palm Wine" through February 1. The Sierra Leonean-American artist combines West African finger-picking guitar, looped vocals, and storytelling in an immersive environment featuring video, sound collage, and poetic wall text exploring "the black wanderer as a mode of being."
In Hudson, Time Space Limited features "Shebang!" by co-founder Linda Mussmann from January 3 through February 1. The exhibition presents recent political paintings, some on bedsheets, that embody the artist's passionate stance against passivity. Works like "Fire Five Alarm" feature urgent text asking "is anyone listening," while "Was it Was it" repeatedly questions whether everything is "ok." Through February 8, Maiden Lane Gallery in Kingston displays Karen Kimmel's "Basket as We, Basket as Me," featuring twenty-three hand-woven cord sculptures that blur the line between abstract art and fashion. Her pieces suspend pink cord creations and beret-like forms from wooden planks, redefining traditional basketry.
Several major exhibitions extend into spring, offering longer viewing opportunities. The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls presents Nina Katchadourian's "Fake Plants and Other Curiosities" through March 8. Born from pandemic-era tinkering, the show features photographs and sculptures crafted from upcycled materials like food packaging and medical waste. Her charmingly quirky "Fake Plant 43" resembles a paper sunflower, while "Fake Plant 53 (Joshua Tree)" mimics a cardboard cactus. At the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, "Joyce Kozloff: Contested Territories, 1983-2023" runs through April 5, highlighting the artist's feminist political practice. The centerpiece, "Targets" (2000), is a walk-in globe painted with aerial maps of locations bombed by the US military between 1945 and 2000.
Two major museum surveys round out the season. The Katonah Museum of Art collaborates with the Pocantico Center to present "Shen Wei: Still Moving" through April 19. The Chinese-American artist's first comprehensive retrospective includes paintings, choreography, and film from the past thirty years, with works like "Brush Movement and Music No. 4" exploding in colorful abstraction. Through May 4, Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring showcases "Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano," featuring over sixty candy-colored glass vessels created during the artist's forty-year career. Pieces like "Mille luci" glow as perfect translucent teardrops, demonstrating the magical potential of Murano glass. Together, these exhibitions demonstrate Upstate New York's commitment to diverse, thought-provoking contemporary art.
