Hudson, New York Exhibitions and Such

I’ve been on the road quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. At the end of March I was in Washington, DC on business, and this past weekend I was in Hudson, New York to see the Peaceable Kingdom exhibition at the BCB Art Gallery on Warren Street.

The exhibition was lovely, with a very eclectic mix of art and photography relating to animals and nature. There were works from about 14 different artists. It included everything from black & white sketches of animals by Patti Smith, to silk-printed photographs by Susan Fowler-Gallagher, to the whimsical/folky art of Rodney Alan Greenblat. I was really struck by the artwork of Eric Rhein, who uses various materials to create images that look like sketches. There were also works by John Foxx at this exhibition, which was my main reason for attending; it’s one thing to look at digital artwork on the Internet, it’s quite another thing to view it “live”. While I enjoy looking at the photos of John’s work on the Quiet Man blog and posted to MySpace, seeing it up close was an eye-opening experience. You get the full effect of the prints without having to scroll or deal with computer resolution issues.

I chatted briefly with Bruce Bergmann, the owner of BCB Art, who had an exhibition of Foxx’s Cathedral Oceans back in 2004. Foxx is an occasional contributor there, and a future exhibition is a possibility. The opening was very successful—by the time I left the place was packed almost wall to wall. If you are in the Hudson area and want to check out the exhibition, it is running until April 17.

While in Hudson, I stayed at the Inn at the Hudson, owned by Dini Lamot and Windel Davis. I learned that Dini and Windel were in a band at the end of the Seventies/early Eighties called Human Sexual Response. (Coincidentally, they happened to open for Ultravox when they toured the U.S., in Boston). They’re both amazingly interesting guys, the Inn is just magnificent, and Dini is a fabulous cook, so I recommend the place highly.

Dini has had a rather interesting and varied career, and recently had an exhibition of his own digital artwork at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, also on Warren Street in Hudson. He gave me a quick slideshow of his works, under the title “Photoshop 101,” and it is an altered view of some of Hollywood’s female icons. You can take a look at the photos from that exhibit here—they were described as “extremely ironic and weirdly sincere”, and I can’t improve on that description.