Past Gallery Events

March 2, 2023 – April 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, March 10, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Logan Lesley is a visual artist who uses acrylic, oil and spray paint along with organic materials to create colorful and vivid abstract pieces of art that sometimes include portraits. “I started creating art that hopefully when others see it they see something they can connect with,” remarks Lesley. “In my art I want to captivate the onlookers attention by pulling them in with my vibrant use of colors that can evoke a sense of connection.”  Logan Lesley originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio and is currently based in NY.

March 2, 2023 – April 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, March 10, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Penny Dell is a printmaker who enjoys making woodcuts, etchings, and monotypes and many combinations using these modalities. “My decades of drawing, painting and printmaking are coming together these days in works that combine all three with other adventurous mediums,” she comments. “Presently, I use collage, encaustic, handmade paper and gilding to layer over a print—building pattern and color. Hexagons cut from the decorative interiors of envelopes have been a driving force. I layer tirelessly and final works with very different appearance and impact are the result.” Dell was born in Mexico and grew up in Mexico City and Acapulco, before coming to the US at age thirteen. The artist Francisco Dos Amantes and the zoomorphic figures of Aztec friezes influenced her early work. She studied English and French Literature at Simmons College and the Sorbonne, and painting at the Triveni Kala Sangam Akademi in New Delhi, India.  Dell’s work is regularly exhibited in the Hudson Valley and in NYC as well as regionally and can be found in many corporate and private collections including Cablevision, Rutgers University and the New York Public Library. From 2005-2007 she served as President for the National Association of Women Artists. Dell lives and works in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

March 2, 2023 – April 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, March 10, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Archil Pichkhadze received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC where he studied illustration and his MFA in Painting from Brooklyn College. While at Brooklyn College, Pichkhadze was profoundly influenced by his instructor, the esteemed realist painter, Lennart Anderson. “I am in love with the visual world,” he states. “For me, the most important part of making a painting is the act of looking. I want each painting to hold the viewers gaze, let him or her enter and wonder around a bit, making their own personal connections and discoveries along the way.” Pichkhadze’s painting presents him with the task of balancing its many elements and equates it like lines in a poem where the parts of the painting have to support and play off of each other in order for the whole to succeed. The implied narratives in his work over the last decade have floated much closer to the surface with these images attempting to balance the visual and emotional complexities found at the borders of observational realism, fading memories and lost dreams.  His exhibit at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center presents a selection of these paintings for viewers to experience a touch of wonder. Pichkhadze resides in Ulster County, NY.

January 2, 2023 – February 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Frank Rapant is a commercial-and-art photographer from Castleton-On-Hudson, New York who has been exhibiting photography and sculpture for 15 years.  His exhibit, Ode to Duane, in the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center’s Hancock Gallery at 12 Vassar Street marks the third time he has had a solo exhibition in Upstate New York and is an homage to artist Duane Michals.  “The images are existing photographs I made over the years for other purposes, mostly commercial, paired intentionally with my handwritten writings,” explains Mr. Rapant. “Most of the written work is fiction, but some is poetry, and some is autobiography.”  Frank Rapant is a first-place award recipient of the 38^th Annual Photography Regional, juried by Dan Burkholder, for selections from his body of work “After The Fire” and is the Photo Lab and Exhibitions Technician for the Union College Visual Art Department. His work has been on display regionally most notably at the Albany Center Gallery (Albany, NY), Fulton Street Gallery (Troy, NY), Burns Atrium Gallery (Schenectady, NY) and The Kirkland Art Center (Clinton, NY). Frank Rapant Photography

January 2, 2023 – February 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Renee Samuels’ exhibit, Yes, You, in the Victorian Gallery of Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center at 9 Vassar Street, comprises mixed-media diptych collages in which there is a photo on one side and on the other, an abstract work based on that photo. “You could say I’m an artist’s artist,” says Samuels, “but in this show, I’m aiming at an audience that doesn’t understand abstract art, trying to show that abstraction can be as simple as drawing a vertical line to represent a tree trunk. If you’ve come to understand that basic concept from these collages, you may see things in a new way.”  A native of the Boston area, Samuels has resided in Woodstock, NY, for 35 years. Her work has been shown recently at Athens Cultural Center (Athens, NY), Spencertown Arts Academy (Spencertown, NY), the Arts Society of Kingston (Kingston, NY), Andes Academy of Art (Andes, NY) and Pause Art Gallery (Troy, NY). This exhibition is in honor of the artist’s sister, Sharon. Renee Samuels Studio

January 1, 2023 – February 28, 2023

Art Opening Reception: Friday, January 6, 2023 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Adrian Lee is a mixed media painter who will be presenting his exhibit, Biographical Mimesis, in the Reception Gallery at 12 Vassar Street. Originally from Seattle, Washington, he challenges the notion of what a “realistic” image truly is by utilizing convincing modes of representation and idiosyncratic motifs that portray the natural world based on his experiences within it. “My paintings act as memoirs and are imbued with urban undertones that originate from my background as a graffiti writer,” Mr. Lee points out. “Utilizing thousands of reference photos that I have compiled over the years, I map out compositions that are then broken down into sections of painting, drawing, and collage…I correlate my experiences and memories by transcribing them through mark-making to create a vulnerable sensation that the viewer can connect with.”  Adrian Lee received his Associate of the Arts degree from Seattle Central College in 2015, his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Central Washington University in 2018, and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University at Albany, SUNY in 2021. He is the recipient of the 2016 CWU Chair’s Choice Award and the 2018 Rachel Kirk Book award, and currently resides in Albany, NY. Adrian Lee Studio

November 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Marie DiPerri is a Mixed Media artist and will display her Psycle exhibit in the Reception Gallery. “Psycle explores the abstractness behind individualized evolution, an evolution that’s in constant flux because life is in constant flux,” explains Ms. DiPerri. “These mixed media paintings push boundaries into the sculptural world in order to reflect how one evolves and navigates their world through memories and experiences.” Ms. DiPerri is a New York artist based in the Hudson Valley whose focus is on creating mixed media works utilizing collage, painting, found objects, and objects from nature.  Receiving her BFA in painting from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University and her BS in Art Education from SUNY New Paltz, she has exhibited her work in Boston and throughout the Hudson Valley, most recently in the Po+P Up Kingston 2020 O+ Festival.  Ms. DiPerri has also served as a Teaching Artist for non-profit organizations such as The Art Effect (formerly Mill Street Loft), Arts Horizons, and The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies as well as co-owned and operated Gallery Fifty5 with her partner from 2018-2020.

November 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Kat Spontak is a self-taught, Hudson Valley-based self portrait photographer and mixed media artist. Ms. Spontak’s exhibit, The Dichotomy of Love, is an exploration of her experiences in love.  “It’s the most important thing in the world…what makes it go ‘round – getting to love and be loved in return, in all forms of the word,” she relays. “The feeling of peace on earth or the fall of Rome, everything and nothing, together, separate or not at all; yet forever, always.”

November 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, November 4, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Erin Ann Koch, whose artwork will be on display in the Hallway Art Gallery at 9 Vassar Street, is a painter and photographer residing in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Inspired by the trees, rivers, highlands and grasslands of the Hudson Valley as well as Buddhism, mythology, and collaboration with her community, Ms. Koch believes in the value of art to uplift our lives, bring beauty into our homes, and stimulate imagination.  “I attune to nature, the landscape, the weather, and the effects of light…my goal is to bring happiness to others through my art,” she comments.  Ms. Koch has taught art to children for the past 20 years and currently teaches Middle School students at the Oakwood Friends School in Spackenkill, NY.  She has also been a studio assistant for award winning artists Graham Nickson and Martin Puryear, and has worked for NY Studio School, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Studio in A School and Experience Arts Project (Seattle).  

September 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, September 9, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Kristen Lowe is a New York based artist and educator specializing in oil painting. Her work is inspired by deep connections to her environment and the many layers and stories each place holds, whether they be physical, historical or metaphorical. “I was fortunate enough to grow up in a region of New York with beautiful landscapes and rich history,” remarked Ms. Lowe. “My paintings reflect my interest in the natural world and appreciation for the scenery and life surrounding me.”  Holding a BFA and MS in Art and Design with a concentration in painting from Pratt Institute, her training encompassed traditional methods, such as using the grisaille technique, to paint the figure as the old masters did.  She incorporates this classic method with contemporary practices to blend the past and present in her paintings that represent the human interconnection to our world. Ms. Lowe has exhibited her work at the Limner Gallery, Bannerman Island Gallery, Arts Society of Kingston, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Olive Free Library, and Unframed Artists Gallery. She has taught art at a variety of institutions in New York City including the Guggenheim and is currently teaching at a public high school in the Hudson Valley.

September 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, September 9, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Diane Christi is a mixed media abstract artist who uses pencil, pastel, ink and oil paint on paper to create contrasting textual designs. “As a former dancer, I attempt to capture the timeless energy of movement in my painting approaching each new piece as a new choreography,” she states. “Saturation of color amidst intricate lines and shapes is my medium of transmission whereby juncture and intersection of line frequently inform me alongside motion, division of space, and observation of light.” Ms. Christi is a graduate of Queens College, NY receiving a BA in Theater and Dance and studied at the Woodstock School of Art. Her works have been on display in numerous galleries throughout the Hudson Valley including ArtBar Gallery in Kingston, NY, Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY, and the Twilight Park Gallery in Haines Falls, NY where she was awarded Judges Choice in 2018 and 2019. https://www.dianechristi.com/new-works (Ms. Christi’s artwork will be on display in the Reception Gallery at 12 Vassar Street.)

Stacie Flint is an award-winning painter/portrait artist and illustrator of the children’s book Ten Pigs Fiddling by Ron Atlas (2005 Amberwood Press). Known for her colorful style and the use of imagery, Ms. Flint embraces Expressionism’s sense of freedom to paint vibrant and colorful portraits of people and pets as well as objects and landscape. “The color, energy, accessible imagery and good mood are consistent and distinctive to my work, which I call ‘Love Through Art’,” she explains. “My work has evolved from a graphic narrative to a painterly process.  I infuse my art with love of life, and hope it inspires others as it does me.”  Ms. Flint has exhibited extensively throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond. Her acrylic and oil paintings and portraits are owned nationally and internationally, and her art is in the permanent collection of Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY, and in Catskill Regional Medical Center, Harris, NY.  She also has a commissioned public art exhibit on permanent display at Ulster County Area Transit in Kingston.  Ms. Flint studied art at SUNY New Paltz and received a BPS degree from SUNY Empire State College. Her art has been featured on many magazine covers including Chronogram, The Valley Table, The Ulster County Community Guide, HITS Program Guide and The Van Wyck Gazette and has appeared in various issues of The New York Times, Spotlight International Contemporary Art Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, Poughkeepsie Journal, New Paltz Times and other publications. Her illustrations for music CD covers include Grenadilla, Betty and the Baby Boomers, and Ellie Wininger. Stacie Flint (Ms. Flint’s artwork will be on display in the Hancock Gallery at 12 Vassar Street.)

July 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, July 8, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Sharon Frey is a portraiture and still life artist who has been studying anatomical figurative art at the Art Student’s League of NY.  Working in realism traditions and contemporary abstraction her work reveals interest in both, overlapping forms and direction of light, as well as broader design elements of shape, line and color relationships.  In a series focusing only on the body, the absence of head and face alludes to what she, like many creatives describe as a “flow state.” “During the act of painting itself, I describe ‘flow’ as a way of surrendering to the moment…of being fully present to the act of creation while my thoughts are temporarily suspended,” comments Ms. Frey.  Influenced by Euan Uglow, Jenny Saville, Alyssa Monks, Marshall Jones, Steven Assael, Aleah Chapin and Maggie Rose, she is dedicated to painting flesh and skin in new and interesting ways and agrees with the assertion by Willem de Kooning that “flesh was the reason oil paint was invented.” A social worker for 20 years, Ms. Frey found herself returning to her passion for visual art during a raging pandemic. She has since been painting in her basement and presenting out of her garage.  Sharon Frey

July 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, July 8, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Ted Dixon is an acrylic and mixed media artist who uses a variety of applications on canvas, paper and board to create his compositions that are influenced by his efforts to capture moments in time, and a certain feeling and meaning.  He paints without a set road map but has a desired destination. “My goal is to create images that speak to a point in time that someone will enjoy, be moved by, and cannot live without,” he remarks. “My work reflects a ‘less is more’ attitude in times of visual and verbal overload…sending the viewer on a journey of clarity across the painting surface.”  Ted Dixon was born and raised in New York City and moved to the Hudson Valley in 1992.  He has exhibited his work at the Rosendale Café, Olive Free Library, Lace Mill Gallery, Artbar Gallery, Rhinebeck Arts, and Trans-N-Dance-N-Drum Gallery. Ted Dixon

July 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, July 8, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Ivone Milani, a Bronx, NY native, studied photography at Parson School of Design in Manhattan and specializes in photographing nature.  The Secret Garden exhibit at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center is Ms. Milani’s first solo show and encompasses images set in nature taken in the Hudson Valley, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and other surrounding areas.  “The idea is to capture hidden beauty that maybe found even in your own backyard,” she states. “To see a beautiful sunset, an Eagle with her young or a seal bathing in the sun…you see things differently and appreciate them.”  Ms. Milani has participated in group exhibitions at Bethany Arts Community, OAC and Beacon Arts with her most recent showing at Arthouse NYC in 2022.

Saturday, August 6, 2022 / 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm / Reception & Hancock Galleries

Ted Dixon and Sharon Frey, two of the artists who are part of the July/August 2022 CHAC Exhibit Series, will host a special “Meet & Greet” Artist Reception on Saturday, August 6, 2022 from 1pm to 4pm in the Reception and Hancock Art Galleries at 12 Vassar Street. Admission is free.  Ted Dixon  Sharon Frey

May 2, 2022 – June 30, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, May 6, 2022 / 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Carrie Decker was born in Poughkeepsie, NY and raised in the Hudson Valley region earning her BA in Art History from SUNY New Paltz.  She has been in several shows in New England as well as on the internet.  While living in the New England area she worked in technology but continued to volunteer in several museums. After relocating back to Dutchess County, she founded Crazy Over ART on Tour – a non-profit art mobile that brings art to communities with limited access in the creative field. “In my art, I capture genre in interesting objects and familiar places,” explains Ms. Decker. “Different mediums let me explore new chapters of creativity…I am creative first and artist second.” Crazy Over Art on Tour

Joanne Thorne Arnold is an oil painter from Binghamton, NY who specializes in color.  Her paintings are a direct response to the natural beauty of the outdoor world usually with a little added twist. “I capture and create the essence of atmosphere by layering colors with rhythmic lines and points,” she remarks. “The sky and the earth are fundamental to my approach…I am drawn to both the morning and evening light with an equal sense of awe and the sky from twilight to dusk always gives me reflection especially when the clouds put on a show.”  Ms. Arnold has exhibited her work throughout the United States and is currently represented by the Dryden Gallery in Providence, RI.  She has been awarded numerous painting residencies and her works can be found in many public and private collections. The Artwork of Joanne Thorne Arnold

Cheryl McBride is a Long Island art professor whose work is based on data driven responses of societal ills. Inspired by the W.E.B DuBois exhibition at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, her work is conceptual, thought provoking and invokes conversation. “I consider myself to be a graphic designer and an ‘artivist’, someone who combines art and activism,“ she comments. “It is my hope that I will increase many peoples’ awareness of social inequality as it exists today by offering my artwork as a way to connect to relevant data in a visually meaningful experience.“ Ms. McBride is a recipient of the Award of Excellence from the Art League of Long Island and has participated in many art exhibitions that include the Patchogue Arts Council/MOCA LI, the Cooperative Gallery 213 (Binghamton, NY),  and St. Joseph’s College Long Island’s Women of Color Exhibition (2020).   

May 2, 2022 – June 30, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, May 6, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Harriet Forman Barrett is a multi-disciplined artist whose works of art encompass oil paintings, jewelry design, and sculptures in bronze. Attending the High School of Music and Art in NYC and receiving a BFA in Painting and Sculpture from Pratt University, her life work of 52 years has always been about spirituality and the feminine as well as the metamorphosis of a person. “I’ve always worked to provoke conscious thought of our struggles and dualities we endure,” she states. “Each of the artworks, be it jewelry, sculpture, oil paintings, or oil pastels, represents all of the elements encompassing our life struggles and the power within.”  Ms. Barrett’s exhibit at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, SOULFUL Renditions (in turbulent times), includes poems about her paintings by Maura McMahon O’Meara. Harriet Forman Barrett

May 2, 2022 – June 30, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, May 6, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Helena Palazzi is a photographer and mixed media artist who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, Umbria. Born in Sweden, she relocated to NYC in 1998 and pursued a career in commercial and fashion photography working with some of the world’s most renowned clients and creatives. Now residing in the Hudson Valley, she owns two studios, Yellow House Production and Art by Helena Palazzi, and regularly participates in several group shows and exhibitions in the area. Ms. Palazzi’s current exhibit at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center entitled The Whisperer of Secrets encompasses encaustic photography – an ancient painting technique used by the Greeks in the first through third centuries A.D. “I weave layers of images together with encaustic medium, cold wax, paint and pigments and thus explore the ‘divine feminine’ through my study of runes, Norse art, folklore tales and myths,” she explains. “My artistic journey is somewhere at the confluence of the peeling and adding layers and the seconds ticking away and ties in with my fascination with time, how it is measured and defined and inadvertently leaves an imprint.” art by helena palazzi

March 1, 2022 – April 29, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, March 11, 2022 / 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm @ 9 Vassar Street

Rachel Arielle Kleinman is a local artist in the Hudson Valley whose work has been featured in the Queen City 15 Gallery, Catskill Art Society, and Delaware Valley Arts Alliance as well as the Inside Small Virtual Exhibits, Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, and the J. Mane Virtual Gallery.  Inspired by the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley region, Ms. Kleinman’s Color Your World exhibit at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center is an invitation to experience a series of miniature collections of acrylics and watercolors that range from bright, vibrant hues to monochromatic tones. “I have an affinity for landscape and watercolors, but recently been inspired to challenge myself with diverse subject matter and mediums to become a more versatile artist” she remarks.

In addition to painting, Ms. Kleinman is a talented writer, poet and musician with her piece, Hushed, selected for the 2021 Arts Mid Hudson Poets Respond To Art Show and Senescence Of A Star published in the 2021 edition of the Direct Art Magazine.  She also authored and illustrated Tesla The Sheltie, a Children’s Book Series based on her dog, Tesla, and has been teaching music for thirteen years in Sullivan County.  

March 1, 2022 – April 29, 2022

Art Opening Reception: Friday, March 4, 2022 / 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm @ 12 Vassar Street

Barbara Masterson has been painting her entire life and is steadfast in her belief that “Art is like a serum, transforming its audience for good or ill.” Graduating with an AAS degree in Fine Art from Elizabeth Seton College she continued her education receiving a B.A. degree in Art Education in 1988 and an M.A. degree in painting in 1990 from SUNY New Paltz.  In late May of 2015, while painting en plein air on a local farm, Ms. Masterson began incorporating images of the migrant workers in her pieces who, she comments, “often remain unseen and unknown despite their presence in our Valley for many months each year.”  Getting to know and then paint them has transformed Ms. Masterson and her artwork. Her large-scale drawings and paintings have transitioned to portraits of these men and women. “If only by their images in my paintings the viewer will come to see these persons for the vital role they have in our lives. As I paint, the play of light has taken my breath away. Migrant workers came into view…they have transformed my vision,” she states.

Ms. Masterson is a member of Arts Mid-Hudson, Barrett House Galleries, Woodstock Art Association, Katonah Museum of Art, and Garrison Art Center. She was one of the founding members and past president of The Real Gallery, an artist cooperative in Cornwall, NY that existed for 20 years, and taught art in the Newburgh district teaching the advanced painting classes, the AP art classes at Newburgh Free Academy until her retirement in 2014. Ms. Masterson has participated in juried, solo, and group shows throughout the United States with many of her pieces in private collections in the United States, Italy, Germany, and Guam.

Barbara Masterson Artist Statement: Art is like a serum, transforming its audience for good or ill. As I paint, the play of light has taken my breath away. Migrant workers came into view. They have transformed my vision. Familiar shapes in fields and orchards, migrant workers toil in the Hudson Valley doing jobs most Americans won’t, earning modest wages, sometimes risking deportation. Hard at work, they summon our attention and invite us to come closer, to see their labor and their humanity. Who are they? Can you see them? It’s possible for society to confer invisibility on a group. It’s convenient; if the group is invisible, we relieve ourselves of concern about health care, working conditions, pesticides, housing, lack of ability to get their own food. What is life is like for them? What role do we play in keeping them unseen? My work can expand our perceptions of these workers.   If only by their images in my paintings, the viewer will come to see these persons for the vital role they have in our lives. Barbara Masterson | Hudson Valley Artist