Portia Munson

HYGGE

November 11, 2017 by Jen Dragon

HYGGE: Small Art Holiday Show

HYGGE: Small Art Holiday Show Dec. 1-31, 2017

The word HYGGE is a Danish term that is not found in English. HYGGE (pron. HOO-geh) describes a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being. As an untranslatable word, HYGGE is demonstrated by over 100 drawings, sculpture and paintings by the 50+ artists who have exhibited or supported Cross Contemporary Art and is celebrated with the community during the Holiday Season. The opening reception is Sat. Dec 2, 5-8pm and the gallery will serve traditional Danish Glug (mulled wine) every Sat. and Sun. afternoon until the end of the show on Dec 31.

Participating artists include:

Gregory Amenoff, Jeffrey Bishop, Richard Bosman, Katherine Bowling, Colin Chase, Mike Cockrill, Gregory Crane, Ford Crull, Peggy Cyphers, Carol Diamond, Josh Dorman, Richard Edelman, Mary Anne Erickson, Stuart Farmery, Brian Fekete, Jeanette Fintz, Deborah Freedman, Ginnie Gardiner, Ashley Garrett, Barry Gerson, Kathy Goodell, Jacqueline Gourevitch, Brenda Goodman, William Greenwood, Anthony Haden-Guest, Jared Handelsman, Jan Harrison, Laura Hexner, Jennifer Hicks, Jim Holl, David Hornung, Roshan Houshmand, Catherine Howe, Heather Hutchison, Mark Thomas Kanter, Ellen Kozak, Alex Kveton, Matthew Langley, Ian Laughlin, Linda Levit, Lucinda Abra, Tom Luciano, Iain Machell, Dorothea Marcus, Susan Mastrangelo, Claudia McNulty, Portia Munson, Paul Mutimear, Garry Nichols, Tina Piccolo, Debra Priestly, Lily Prince, Ann Provan, David Provan, Suzanne Rees, Christy Rupp, Christopher Skura, Melinda Stickney-Gibson, Nadine Slowik, Lawre Stone, Jack Solomon, Shira Toren, Marianne Van Lent, Marie Vickerilla, Grace Wapner, Ruth Wetzel, Susan Wides, Brian Wood, Dion Yannatos and more!

HYGGE: Small Art Holiday Show Opening Reception: Dec 2, 5-8pm

SPECIAL EVENTS DURING HYGGE: Small Art Holiday Show

Sun. Dec 3, 4pm: Reading by Larry Littany Litt of his recent book Mad Monk: Modern Parables at Cross Contemporary Art

Sun. Dec 3,12-5pm Holiday in the Village sponsored by the Saugerties Chamber of Commerce featuring a toy raffle, horse and wagon rides and a petting zoo

Sat. Dec 9, Home for the Holidays 3pm-8pm The Village of Saugerties celebrates the holidays with events, gift basket raffle, caroling, contests and special refreshments!

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NIGHT FALLS with Katherine Bowling, Jared Handelsman, Portia Munson & Paul Mutimear

August 20, 2016 by Jen Dragon

NIGHT FALLS with Katherine Bowling, Jared Handelsman, Portia Munson & Paul Mutimear

Group Exhibition August 27th – Sept. 18, 2016
Artist Reception Sat, August 27th, 5-8pm
Cross Contemporary Art,
81 Partition St Saugerties, New York 12477

Night Falls is a group show featuring drawings and photographs inspired by the night and what can and cannot be seen. When the sun goes down, most of the world goes to sleep but even in the dark, life continues as plants breathe, nocturnal animals search for food and people dream. Jared HANDELSMAN and Paul MUTIMEAR use photographic processes to capture what is visible under sudden illumination. Moths, plants, the light of the moon and car headlights are often the only evidence of life in their otiose worlds. Drawing with vine charcoal, Katherine BOWLING tracks the dark shadows cast by unruly plants. By daylight, these plants take the pleasing form of flowers yet their negative forms cast a sinister opposite on paper. Portia MUNSON explores life’s dark side in her digital scans of deceased birds and flowers and in her sculptural assemblages of bones and cradles. Ms. Munson’s digital prints evoke the Victorian tradition of honoring the beauty of past life while her sculptural assemblage of bones in a baby carriage serves as an ironic “memento mori” of the close proximity of birth and death. Between the percussion of the photographic moment and the elongated study of drawing and arranging and scanning forms, “Night Falls” presents a range of materials and temporal studies of the unconscious life and of the life of the night.

Night Falls with Katherine BOWLING, Jared HANDELSMAN, Portia MUNSON and Paul MUTINEER opens Sat. August 27th and is on view through Sept. 18th

About The ARTISTS:
Katherine BOWLING: Since her emergence in 1980s, Katherine Bowling has been well respected as an American painter and printmaker. Ms. Bowling has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Fellowship. Her work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum and the Fisher Landau Center in New York City, as well as many institutions and museums throughout the United States.
Jared HANDELSMAN: In Night Falls, Jared Handelsman will be showing his large scale landscape photograms. Handelsman has had solo exhibitions at Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY, The Center for Photography, Woodstock NY, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA., and Rockland County Museum, Nyack, NY., Handelsman has received fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, The Fine Arts Center in Provincetown and Vassar College.
Portia MUNSON: Portia Munson works in photography, painting, sculpture & installation, a concern for the environment is an overarching theme in her work. She has shown her work in major public and private exhibition spaces since the early 1990s. Munson is represented by PPOW gallery, NYC. Recent public installations include light-boxs at the Bryant Park subway station for the MTA(New York), a permanent MTA installation at Fort Hamilton Parkway station in Brooklyn (“D” line). And a large piece at the Albany International Airport (Albany, N.Y.). Munson has taught at New York University, Yale School of Art, Vassar College and SUNY Purchase.
Paul MUTIMEAR: Paul Mutimear is a multi-dimensional artist who uses many tools to investigate the world. Starting out as a musician (performing as Paul Brittan), Mutimear has been drawn to photography as a means of capturing the sudden and unrehearsed moments as he walks through life. He has worked with Oehme Graphics to produce an edition of photo-etchings on paper as well as digitally printing his own photographs on archival paper.

[Show slideshow]

Portia Munson Solo Show

May 7, 2015 by Jen Dragon

Portia Munson “Little Suns, Hollow Bones”

Portia Munson‘s solo show, “Little Suns, Hollow Bones”, transforms Cross Contemporary Art into a world of flowers, plants, bones and creatures. From brilliant dandelion wallpaper on the walls to magical mandala prints of blossoms and small animal corpses, this exhibition addresses the artist’s interest in environmental issues while infusing the gallery with the spirit of spring.

Although a conceptual extension of her 2013 “Reflecting Pool” exhibit at PPOW Gallery in New York City, Portia Munson’s upcoming “Little Suns, Hollow Bones” presents some new imagery derived from the flora and fauna of the Catskills and Hudson Valley region. Munson’s digital scanning of her subjects is a meditative exercise in organizing the chaos of nature as its elements are caught at a moment in time. Choosing flowers that bloom that day in her garden, Munson creates intricate patterns of color and form that, according to Claire Lambe in Roll magazine, “although preserved through the magic of digital technology, are as ephemeral as sand paintings,” and as a reviewer for The New Yorker stated,“(have) a seductive luminosity; each floral element appears to emit light.”

More information about Portia Munson can be found:

Artist’s website: http://portiamunson.com

New York Times Article about Portia Munson: http://bit.ly/pmccanyt

Portia Munson’s recent Public Arts Project for MTA Arts and Design: http://bit.ly/pmcca01

Portia Munson Review in Roll Online: http://bit.ly/pmcca02

About Portia Munson: Portia Munson is a visual artist who works in a variety of media including installation, painting, photography & sculpture. Solo shows include exhibitions at PPOW Gallery, Yoshii Gallery and White Columns in NYC, among others. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US, Canada & Europe in such venues as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland; the Kunstahallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark; and in NYC at the New Museum, Ace Gallery, Exit Art, DC Moore Gallery and Affirmation Arts. Ms. Munson has taught at NYU, Yale School of Art, Vassar Collage and SUNY Purchase. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union and a MFA from Rutgers. Portia Munson has received fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, Skowhegan, Fine Arts Work Center Provincetown, Art Omi, and others. Her work has been reviewed and written about in many publications including The New York Times, Art in America, Newsweek, Harper’s, USA Today, The New Yorker, Flash Art and Artforum.

Portia Munson “Little Suns, Hollow Bones” Solo Exhibition

May 9-31, 2015

Artist Reception Saturday, May 9, 6-8pm

at Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, NY