Current


 
 
 
 
 

Address: Earth@HVMOCA, 2023

Curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis, founder of Inspiration Art Group International. This is Bibiana's second HVMOCA curated exhibition of artists addressing ecological issues, sustainability, climate change, endangered species, clean water, deforestation and   more. Through an open call, artists are drawn from the international as well as the local community. 

Opening reception: Saturday, October 14, 2023, 1-4 PM

 

Enlighten Peekskill: The Five Elements Arches

The Five Elements Arches is a project of Peekskill based artists Christine Knowlton and Candace Winter. Installed on the five arches underlying the Rt 9 overpass at South and Requa Streets, the collage-designed landscapes represent five elements of nature: Earth, Water, Fire, Metal and Wood.

These five elements, among others, are the basis of the world we live in. Balance is achieved through the interaction and support of these universal elements. As in nature, so cooperation and interaction between diverse communities leads to harmony and communal well-being.

In alignment with this philosophy, The Five Elements Arches art installation involved hundreds of youth and adults in Peekskill’s many faceted community, sharing ideas and taking part in a hands-on creative process.

Five Elements Papermaking and Collage Art Workshops were held at Oakside Elementary and Peekskill Middle Schools as well as at the waterfront, during Farmer Market days and in drop in workshops at HVMOCA.

Participants created textured and painted papers to be used for the final collaged art panels. Each collaged panel representing an element of nature was then scanned, up scaled and digitally printed on large vinyl banners, then installed on the Rt. 9 overpass arches.

‘The Five Elements Arches’ is a long term installation, funded as part of the NYS DRI (Downtown Revitalization Initiative) and NYSCA.

 
 
 
 
 

How We Live Part II

In How We Live, Part II we have retained most of the original sculptures from “How We Live” since, due to the pandemic, the works had very short physical access. To these works we have added paintings, tapestry and other two dimension constructs, to expand on the discourse. “How We Live: Part II” offers, for this moment in history, on-line access to an expanded “How We Live” exhibition, taking stock of how the narratives incorporated into artists’ works bespeak universal fears, concerns, and celebrations of who we are as human beings, as Americans, as part of a global community.

The year 2020-2021 has been a trying one. The COVID19 pandemic has, of this moment, caused the death of over 2.5 million people and climbing, including over half a million Americans. In the midst of this disaster the US has faced election dissention, turmoil and violence that reached to the very core of our republic, to the Congress of the United States, and it is not over. So, in expanding the exhibition ‘How We Live: Part II’ to include two-dimensional works, we looked to responses from the global art community. What in our archives has had lasting meaning; what still addresses the reality, the paranoia and the fears of today?

 
 
 

How We Live Part I

How does production, from household items to artistic creation, become a product itself of the lived experience? Moving past depictions of the human form, How We Live uses sculpture and video to explore the creativity and production of humanity across a multitude of geographies, cultures, and times.

Thirty-seven artists representing twenty-one countries showcase the unique heritage and cultures of our planet by focusing on the minutiae, the personal, and profound, exchanging a non-hierarchical fluidity with their surroundings that resembles the age-old chicken and egg debate. This exhibition explores the ways in which artists simultaneously bring the world around them into their practice, while in turn influencing the world and environment with their work.

Each work can be read as an exploration of an artist’s life through the lens of their own culture, a testament to the ways in which culture manifests in creation, both consciously and subconsciously. Continuing the conversation begun through Death is Irrelevant, How We Live examines the immortalization of cultural traits, values, and habits rendered not through the depiction of the human form or body, but through the habits of said body as it enacts the processes of living.

 

UPCOMING


 
 
 
 

Third Annual Juried Exhibition: 'WAR'

Open Call Live on Cafe

Application Deadline Nov 13

Exhibition opening Jan. 27, 2024

The 'Just War', the 'Holy War', the 'War on Terror', 'Going on a Warpath', 'Internal Struggle', 'War against Cancer', 'Sparring Partners', 'Trading Barbs'...War can be external and/or internal, but always with an element of tension, of conflict.  In past and current exhibitions at HVMOCA, and as an ongoing installation of Thomas Hirschhorn's 'Laundrette', we have looked at how artists take in and then portray the tensions of war.  We have exhibited works by vets returning from Afghanistan, survivors of Communist dictatorships and its excesses, tribal wars in Africa and Holocaust memories.  Many of the works express conflicts between humans, their environment and their cultures.  As artists, how can you address this overarching topic, bring attention to the varied innuendos, personal, political, real and imagined?  It can be through painting, installation, photography and video, whatever your choice of platform.  WAR artwork will also be the inspiration for 2024 Writing the Walls performances, the program now in its 18th iteration, in the Studio Theatre in Exile Black Box at HVMOCA.