DINA BURSZTYN is a writer and visual artist whose work encompasses a wide variety of media: ceramic sculpture, mixed media, public art, works on paper, artist’s and children’s books. She writes: “I conceive most of my pieces as contemporary artifacts for a democratic mythology. I am interested in breaking categories and linear hierarchical systems, in marrying cultures, times and ways of thinking.”

Originally from Argentina, where she graduated with a B.A in Literature, Dina is a long time resident of NYC and the Hudson Valley. Her  work has been shown extensively in the US as well as abroad and she has been awarded several public art commissions, among others, by NYC MTA’s Arts & Design, NYC Percent for the Arts and the Public Art Fund, in addition to numerous grants and residencies. Her work is included in public and private collections, has been featured in The New York Times, on National Public Radio and in numerous books, journals and catalogues.

She co-owns, with her wife Julie Chase, the Open Studio, a storefront gallery in Catskill, NY. For more info please visit www.dinabursztyn.com

TOM MCGILL: My work finds influence in disparate places (nature, politics, human designed objects, religion, relationships, history, etc.) each of which have driven my creative exploration in different measure during my evolution as a largely self trained artist. My practice is also informed by the tension between “public” and “private” art, accessibility, value, and values. In painting I use color and form to communicate mood, to convey emotion, and to express feeling. Often, I render the subjects of my figurative work disentangled from their usual environments. This isolation highlights their intrinsic human made or natural beauty. Iconic cultural, social, and religious images, outside of their expected surroundings, are freed to be reconsidered and reinterpreted. I hope to engage the emotional experience each viewer brings to my work with unusual or unexpected compositions. Rooted in the human experience, my work is sometimes political, religious, and/or spiritual. Compositions are rarely neutral; some create discomfort and others delight. My pieces are usually open ended; each completed in dialog with the viewer, whose experience is an essential component of the work. I am keen to explore connection with others through my work.

The first born child of my parents, I continue to be the oldest of my siblings. Born in Jamaica, Queens, raised in NJ, I have been a college administrator, stay at home dad, bartender/waiter, teacher, carpenter/contractor/designer, artist. I like to take things apart and, to a lesser degree, put them back together. I have a favorite fork. One of my favorite sense progressions is: smell of coffee beans roasting, smell (and sound) of coffee being ground, smell of coffee brewing, taste and warm steam feel of the first sip of coffee. Since early 2013, I have lived and worked in Hudson, New York. I am the building manager and artist-in-residence at 46 Green Street Studios, a creative center which has studio spaces for artists and the home of Circle 46 Gallery which I co-own and co-curate.

SAM MEYERSON’S artistic endeavors began with painting graffiti primarily in New Haven and Philadelphia, where he was raised. The hand-painted signs, community murals and mysterious unsanctioned art he saw, have always informed the direction of his work. His work on canvas convey the intersection of human interaction and the built and natural environment. Drawing from experiential awareness, the colors and humorous spirit of Sam’s work translate the eccentricities of the environments in which we live. After completing college at SUNY Purchase with a B.A in Media/Society/and the Arts, he worked as a muralist, art instructor, and sign painter. He currently lives in Hudson NY with his wife and daughter and continues his studio practice.

DANIELLE NORRIS: My work’s starting point is within the conventions of conceptual photo realism. To apprehend “experiences endless belatedness” as described by art theorist Gregg Horowitz. I explore the relationship of the photographic reference with the painting as object and it’s cultural and historical context. These are threaded together via motifs such as the “sublime flash” of the camera, the absurd assemblage of figures in space, and the use of surface gloss. My subjects vary in any given direction be it autobiographical, portraiture, or popular culture. By ironically subverting the original contexts of images—personal and collective—I wish to create parables that facilitate the exploration of what is shared and what is singular, what is real and what is dreamt.

I believe in the ability of painting to address the critical moments of experience and emotion. Like light coming to a stop in the retina, the suspension and representation of life is always a kind of mistake, or an act of resistance against the movement of time. To apprehend this “mistake” is to work demonstrably and almost subtractively so as to re-open a path to this movement once again. Perhaps this inviting path is located somewhere in the allure of conventionally realist painting and the humorous subtraction from conventional expectations of “mastery”.

Born in 1991, Danielle Norris is from the North Georgia area of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2014. In 2013 she attended the Yale Norfolk painting residency in Norfolk, CT. She has shown in galleries including Cleo Gallery in GA, Athens Cultural Center in NY, and Outpost 186 in Massachusetts. She currently resides in Chatham NY.

Exhibit: Works by Earl Swanigan

On continual display, works for sale by Hudson-based outsider artist Earl Swanigan (1964–2019), featured in our September 2020 retrospective, “The Earl Show.”

View catalogue and supplementary materials here.