Political, social justice theme of Woodstock exhibition
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. » An exhibition titled “FOCUS: Art & Social Justice” opens Friday, Jan. 28, at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, 28 Tinker St.
The exhibition includes work by a selection of Hudson Valley artists who address themes of political or social justice. An opening reception is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m.
For this exhibition, juror Nina Stritzler Levine, a Bard Graduate Center professor of curatorial practice, selected 11 artists out of 54 entries. The artists cover a wide range of topics, including women’s rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, political freedom, immigration, and migrant farm work.
In making her selections, Stritzler Levine was particularly inspired by the work of Hannah Arendt, a major political thinker of the 20th century. Arendt is bestknown for her theory on the “banality of evil,” which questions the forces and motivations behind acts of atrocity and heinous crimes against humanity.
The presentation encompasses a range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture and photography, and unites in its aim to encourage dialogue, build community, and motivate individuals to promote social change. In a press release for the exhibition, the museum said the show also provides it with a welcome opportunity to examine its own role and responsibility within the socio-cultural landscape. By better understanding questions of equity and diversity that arise from calling for work of this kind, the museum gains further insight into its own efforts at outreach, community-building, and harnessing the power of art to do good, according to the release.
The exhibiting artists are Nic Abramson, Joan Barker, Samantha Brinkley, Dorothy Brodhead, Barbara Esmark, Dan Goldman, Diane King, Norm Magnusson, Barbara Masterson, Jason Mones and Suprina Troche.
Stritzler-Levine, along with her role at the Bard Graduate Center, is director of the Focus Project. She is the former director of Bard Graduate Center Gallery, where she also served as director of curatorial affairs and head of Gallery publications. She works in the fields of modern and contemporary architecture and design, and curatorial theory and practice, with a particular focus on alternative modernisms, gender, race, class and sexuality and the intersections of architecture and contemporary art. Many of her exhibitions and publications have received critical acclaim including “Eileen Gray,” “Artek and the Aaltos,” “Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor,” and “Josef Frank: An Alternative Vision of the Modern Home.”
The exhibition runs through Sunday, March 13. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.
Call (845) 679-2940 or visit woodstockart.org for more information.