April in the Hudson Valley, and the art gods are feeling generous. This month brings a dazzling spectrum of exhibitions—spiritual reckonings in ink, baroque still lifes of office ennui, black-and-white meditations on mountain solitude, and more than one surrealist detour into the mind’s murkier corners.

The region’s galleries are buzzing with the work of artists who don’t just document the world—they dig into it, turn it inside out, and hang it on the wall for us to puzzle over.

Whether it’s Phoebe Rotter’s mythic self-interrogations, Amy Hill’s time-traveling tableaux, or Dan Goldman’s paper-shielded portraits of the unseen and unwelcome, these shows crack open our collective psyche and let in some light—or at least some much-needed weirdness. So consider this your seasonal art prescription: 10 doses of the familiar made unfamiliar, the beautiful made strange, and the ordinary made electric. Just what the doctor ordered.

“Closer Than They Appear” at Woodstock Artists Association and Museum

Through May 4

In “Closer Than They Appear,” Phoebe Rotter fills WAAM’s Founder’s Gallery with towering black ink drawings that rage, grieve, and bare themselves across the walls. These aren’t polite portraits—they’re visceral meditations on bodily change, monstrousness, beauty, and the slippage between. Rotter turns her own form into a site of inquiry and resistance, challenging the ways bodies are shaped by culture, gender, and sorrow. The result is both intimate and mythic—a spiritual reckoning in ink. From mural work to collaborating with Bread & Puppet Theater, Rotter’s world is loud, raw, and unmistakably her own. Through May 4. WAAM, Woodstock.

“On the Road to Cragsmoor with Charles Courtney Curran” at Albany Institute of History & Art

Through October 13

“On the Road to Cragsmoor with Charles Courtney Curran” at the Albany Institute of History & Art charts the sun-dappled journey of one of American Impressionism’s gentler giants. From the salons of Paris to the Shawangunk peaks, Curran painted women in white linen and children at play with an eye for light, leisure, and lyrical calm. This retrospective showcases everything from his Symbolist experiments to his breezy Cragsmoor idylls—plus a side of period fashion for good measure. Art meets history in the Hudson Valley, and the road to Cragsmoor never looked lovelier. Through October 13. Albany Institute of History & Art.

“Funny Feeling” at Hawk + Hive

Through May 11

Brian Cirmo’s “Funny Feeling” at Hawk + Hive is exactly that—a cartoonish wink that turns into a gut check. In over two dozen oil paintings, Cirmo’s big-eyed, bent-limbed figures shuffle through scenes of domestic dread and surreal calm, somewhere between a New Yorker cartoon and a Bergman dream sequence. A disembodied head cozies up to a daisy; a woman floats beside a chihuahua in open water. There’s comedy here, sure, but also something tender, disquieting, and weirdly familiar. These are visual short stories of psychic sprawl—equal parts pathos and punchline. Through May 11. Hawk + Hive, Andes.

“Light, Shade, and Product Placement” at Front Room Gallery

Through April 19

In “Light, Shade, and Product Placement” at the Front Room Gallery, Amy Hill paints 21st-century life through a baroque lens—corporate coffee cups and smartphones rendered with the luminosity of Vermeer and the compositional poise of de Hooch. Her eerie, hyper-still scenes conjure domestic drama with a wink and a whisper: a birthday party gone uncanny, an office tableau brimming with symbolic unease. Hill’s Woman with Earbuds, a modern take on Piero della Francesca’s Renaissance portrait of the Duchess of Urbino, appeared on the cover of Chronogram in January 2023, and for good reason—her work makes the everyday strange, and the strange feel eternal. Through April 19. The Front Room Gallery, Hudson.

“Cathy Wysocki: It has always been the mind” at LABspace

Through April 27

In “Cathy Wysocki: It has always been the mind” at LABspace, chaos gets the glitter treatment. Wysocki’s mixed media paintings—drawn from her series “Means Appropriate to a Small Mouse”—channel the emotional tiger maul of modern life with high-voltage color, texture, and a surreal cast of characters. Sand, string, beads, and collage coalesce into charged tableaus where intuition meets conviction. These are psychic portraits of a world off its axis, rendered with an urgency that’s both personal and cosmic. Forty years into her practice, Wysocki is still finding new ways to make the mind visible. Through April 27. LABspace, Hillsdale.

“Wolfgang Tillmans” at Hudson Hall

Through May 18

In “Wolfgang Tillmans,” the photographer’s solo show at Hudson Hall, the walls hum with the restless energy of an artist who’s spent four decades expanding what the medium can do—and what it can mean. From still lifes and club scenes to social movements and interstellar gazes, Tillmans’s eye roves, documents, reinvents. His democratic installation style—prints taped, clipped, unframed, unfiltered—feels less like a gallery and more like stepping into the consciousness of someone deeply attuned to the world’s beauty and volatility. This is photography as lived experience. Through May 18. Hudson Hall, Hudson.

“Block Universe” at Turley Gallery

Through May 18

​Turley Gallery in Hudson is currently hosting “Block Universe,” an intergenerational group exhibition curated by Peter Kelly, on view through May 11. The show features artists operating from an omnitemporal perspective, including Vanessa Gully-Santiago, Pap Souleye Fall, Owen Geary, Timothy Hull, Steve Keister, Emily Miller, Viraj Mithani, Nereida Patricia, Ernesto Renda, and faith****.​ The exhibit explores the philosophical concept that past, present, and future exist simultaneously, envisioning the universe as a four-dimensional block where time is akin to space. Of particular note are Gully-Santiago’s paintings, which delve into themes of vulnerability and power dynamics, particularly in contemporary settings. Her paintings often depict figures in dark atmospheres, caught in unspoken gestures that explore the complexities of human interaction and societal structures. Her work critically alludes to entrenched masculine archetypes, highlighting the persistent inequalities women face. This thematic exploration aligns seamlessly with the exhibition’s contemplation of time and existence.​

“Overlook Mountain” at the James Cox Gallery

Through May 2

In “Overlook Mountain” at the James Cox Gallery, Kelly Sinclair translates a decade of dawn hikes into 20 black-and-white photographs that hum with solitude, gratitude, and granite resolve. Her lens captures the Catskills in all their moods—mist rising over switchbacks, sun flaring through the crumbling bones of the Overlook Mountain House. A Woodstock local, Sinclair has climbed the mountain weekly since the pandemic, finding in its switchbacks not just scenery but ritual. Her images, moody and reverent, are part nature study, part quiet homage. Through May 2. The James Cox Gallery, Woodstock.

“This Land Ain’t Your Land” at Convey/er/or Gallery

Through June 1

In “This Land Ain’t Your Land” at Convey/er/or Gallery, Dan Goldman delivers a stark rebuke to the myth of American inclusivity. His photographs—largely portraits of anonymous subjects shielding their faces with slips of paper—speak volumes about erasure, fear, and survival in a country that routinely forgets its immigrants and First Nation peoples. Goldman rewrites Woody Guthrie’s folk anthem as protest hymn, one paper, one person at a time. The result is both intimate and indicting, a quiet confrontation with the stories America refuses to see. Through June 1. Convey/er/or Gallery, Poughkeepsie.

“Bruce Cahn: Works on Paper and Sculpture” at Opus 40

Through June 1

In “Bruce Cahn: Works on Paper and Sculpture” at Opus 40, the late Woodstock artist finally takes a bow in the town he quietly called home. A student of Opus 40 creator Harvey Fite, Cahn carved his own mystical path—literally—through figurative sculpture and mandala-like works on paper that pulse with spiritual urgency. Until recently, Cahn kept his obsessive, visionary practice private, eschewing shows in favor of uninterrupted creation. This posthumous hometown debut brings his symbolic, shape-shifting inner world into the open air. Through May 12. Opus 40, Saugerties.