The Hudson Art Gallery hosts its grand opening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 23, at its storefront inside 516 2nd St. (Suite 102), just a few blocks away from the Phipps, an arts center that opened in 1983 that the new gallery will support through its smaller, artist-centered space.
Hudson Art Gallery General Manager Brianna Seipel and gallery owner Tom Adamson volunteer at the Phipps through its Visual Arts Council. With the new gallery, Seipel hopes to replicate the Phipps in terms of layout, but the approach is meant to emphasize the overall themes of the work as well as the marketing approach to finding buyers.
Seipel, an artist herself, mentioned another way the gallery will differ from a conventional one at the Phipps: sit-down events with the artists before their shows, where attendees can ask questions about the creative process.
“In doing so, we’re hoping that this kind of informal interview process helps artists to think about their work a little bit differently, and the ways in which they present themselves,” she said.
Hudson Art Gallery, located on 2nd St. downtown. Photo: Jack White/Star-Observer.
The opening event may be too crowded to host a Q&A this time, according to Adamson, but the artists of the opening exhibit, Ingrid Restemayer and Dean Trisko, will still be in attendance. Restemayer combines images of animals with embroidery on handmade papers, giving a layered appearance to collages and hand stitching works. Trisko’s art is more abstract, and aims to act as a manifestation — a re-ordering — of nature’s elements.
The joint exhibit, titled “Seeking Order,” references both seeking order through the creative process and the new meaning or sense of order a work assumes when it journeys from artist to buyer.
“As an artist, one of the goals that we’re always trying to seek is developing your technical mastery,” Seipel said. “But also there’s this goal of never losing your like child-like sense of curiosity and play. And that’s something I think is really strong in this show.”
Due to the gallery being a smaller space, it will focus on showcasing two to three artists at a time during an eight-week period. And while the Hudson Art Gallery is a separate entity from the Phipps, it doesn’t mean to act as competition, according to Seipel and Adamson.
“We want to support the entire Hudson restaurant, retail community as well from a chamber perspective, and definitely with the other galleries,” Adamson said. “We’ll be sending people to SEASONS; we’ll be sending people to Cream of the Crop or any other retailers in town, suggesting that if they want to see other art — additional art — then that’s where they go.”
Hudson Art Gallery’s website is found here.