Crit Ecologies: Artists, Community, Criticality

Crit Ecologies: Artists, Community, Criticality
September 21, 2024 — December 7, 2025

Curated by Patricia Miranda, Founder of MAPSpace and The Crit Lab,
Artist, Educator, Curator & Livia Straus, President/Co-Founder Hudson Valley MOCA, Board Member ISC, Curator, Collector, Philanthropist.

Reception: Sept. 21, 3-5 PM

Artists for the exhibition Crit Ecologies have been participants in The Crit Lab, a graduate-level critique seminar program for working artists after and outside academia. The Lab is an alternate critical community for artists to come together in ongoing, sustained, contact, with empathetic listening, radical optimism and rigorous dialogue, in an act of hope over destruction. The structured pedagogy was developed by Miranda to focus and deepen discussion beyond common subjective reactions, and to support ethical structures in which artists’ practices can thrive. The Crit Lab structure was designed in response to the opinionated and personal nature of much critique, often clouded by the unremarked power dynamics of gender, class, race, etc.

Curated in a competitive juried process from Crit Lab participants from Fall 2023 – Spring  2024, selected artists have the benefit of exposure through an exhibition at Hudson Valley MOCA, an institution whose reputation is partially based on a successful record in identifying extraordinary talent early in an artist’s career.

Artists:

Christine Aaron, Idil Barkan, Carrie Belk, Allison Belolan, Carol Bouyoucos, Serena Buschi, Jennifer Cadoff, Leah Caroline, Tracy Casagrande Clancy, Martha Chason-Sokol, Jodi Colella, Merill           Comeau, Davida Cook, Elizabeth de Bethune, Laura Dolp, Deborah Freedman, Lisa Lee Freeman, Kathryn Geismar, Rima Grad, Sutton Hays, Aileen Hengeveld, Carol Herd-Rodriguez, Anne Johnstone, Fredricka Joyner, Shelley Kaplan, Natalya Khorover, Rita Klachkin, Wendy Kohli, Bonny Leibowitz, Michelle Lougee, Rita Maas, Cynthia MacCollum, Caroline MacMoran, Claudine Metrick, Elizabeth Mihaltse Lindy, Catherine Moylan, T-Bone Muniz, Lisie Orjuela, Deborah Peeples, Deborah Pressman, Laura Reeder, Michelle Robinson, Jonathan Rowe, Roohi Saleem, Sharon Schmiedel, Linda Smith, John Sproul, Priscilla Stadler, Rebecca Steiner, Kim Svoboda, Dayna Talbot, Sylvia Vander Sluis, Mitchell Visoky, Julie Weiman, Elizabeth Rose Wilson, Susan Wolf, Rita Klachkin

 Image: M Lougee, Dinoflagellate

Accompanying talks:

September 21: 1-3 PM:  Art educator panel: Three art educators address the benefits and the need for artists to create communities for ongoing critique and growth.

Speakers:

Jeanne Silverthorne: Jeanne has taught at SVA since 1993. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, among others.  Her art was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.  Solo exhibitions include the Phillips CollectionWhitney Museum of American ArtInstitute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (ICAP) and PS1.

Patricia Miranda: Patricia is an artist, curator, educator, and founder of The Crit Lab and MAPSpace. She founded the Lace Archive, historical community archive of thousands of donated lace works and family histories. She has received grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund (2024) among others and was part of an NEA grant working with homeless youth (2024-5). Residencies include Constance Saltonstall Foundation among others. Recent work has been featured in Art New England,Hudson Valley One, and Brooklyn Rail. Miranda currently leads the HV MOCA Artist Club with museum president Livia Straus.

Carla Rae Johnson: Carla Rae is a multimedia artist. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts 2005 Fellow in Sculpture and a 1990 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Ms. Johnson is an Associate Professor Emerita at Westchester Community College, SUNY.

Moderator: Livia Straus: Co-Founder, President HVMOCA.

December 7: Artists’ panel: Before and After: a slide presentation and discussion of how artists measure the benefits of participation in post grad critiques and artist residencies, presented by participants of the Artist Crit exhibition and moderated by Patricia Miranda, artist, curator, educator, and founder of the Crit Lab, offering a series of graduate level seminars for working artists.

Museum hours: Thursdays and Saturdays, 11-5.

About Hudson Valley MOCA

Hudson Valley MOCA, located in Peekskill, NY, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and education organization founded by the Marc and Livia Straus family. HVMOCA is dedicated to the development and presentation of exhibitions and interdisciplinary programs that enrich our understanding of contemporary art, its contexts, and its relationship to social issues. HVMOCA is also committed to the enrichment of Peekskill, a unique community that has become a major arts destination. Hours Thurs & Sat 11am-5pm; for special lectures and programming hours, please visit our website. Summer Hours closed Thurdays June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27 and August 3.