September welcomes the rituals of renewal — back to school! — and recognition, as the end of the year approaches. While the seasonal light and shadows cast dramatic beauty across the Hudson Valley, galleries and museums match the mood with robust exhibitions. This month, Shaker Outpost features graceful ceramics by Paula Greif, and September presents a survey of artworks by the self-taught Black Arts Movement artist Reginald Madison. Dynamic fabric pieces by Holly McCabe take over the tattoo studio and gallery space at Distortion Society, while the Hessel Museum at Bard College presents the work of legendary gallerist, poet, and artist Betty Parsons. The Kleinert/James Center for the Arts at Byrdcliffe features older works by four generations of Avery family artists, and Troutbeck presents bright and bold collages by Delano Dunn. The thriving art scene in the Hudson Valley welcomes all to experience the glory of Mother Nature at her finest, as summer moves into fall!
Paula Greif: Baskets & Buckets
Shaker Outpost, 4 Depot Square, Chatham, New York
Through Sep. 20
The Shaker Museum in Chatham’s new building is scheduled to open in 2028, but in the meantime, it is hosting a series of pop-up exhibitions at its Shaker Outpost location. Baskets and Buckets features new works by ceramicist Paula Greif, whose work is a joyous exploration of these functional items in clay. Aptly titled pieces such as “Black Circle Basket” (all works 2026) and “White Porcelain Stick Basket” highlight Greif’s alignment with the Shaker principles of simplicity and quiet beauty. “Ovals Bucket” is an exquisite white form with blue shapes on its indented sides, while “Tree of Life Basket” is a graceful stoneware rendering of this sacred motif. Greif collaborated with local artists Doug Newton to create the handles and Nadia Yaron to fashion the wood grips on select artworks. Amid an eclectic career in art direction, album cover design, and commercial television, Greif’s exquisite ceramics are a pleasure to behold.
Reginald Madison: New Slant Old Story
September, 4 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, New York
Through Sep. 27
The late Reginald Madison, a self-taught artist from the South Side of Chicago, was a pillar of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and ’70s. A youth spent surrounded by jazz musicians, and the discovery of a discarded box of paints, inspired his lifelong devotion to painting. September’s survey New Slant Old Story brings together some of Madison’s earliest works, many shown for the first time. Several portraits of nuns reflect the beginnings of his mature expressionistic style, including “Sister Veronica Marie” (1988) and “Choir Boys” (1992), featuring a nun between two exaggerated yellow figures that appear to be in the middle of belting out hymns. “Rude Nude Voodoo” (1979) is a curious scene with two demons engaging each other within hazy crimson environs, one with a pronounced erection. “The Dance Lesson” (1980), painted on salvaged panels, is a wild display that includes nuns cavorting with semi-nude figures with flames below, a devilish creature at the top, and angels flanking the spectacle on all sides.
Ellen K. Levy: Displaced Tears in the Fabric of the Universe
68 Prince Street Gallery, 68 Prince Street, Kingston, New York
Through Sep. 27
After receiving a NASA art commission in 1985, Ellen K. Levy remains fascinated by the space program, appropriating iconic images from the space age into swirling technological landscapes with a sci-fi edge. Displaced Tears in the Fabric of the Universe, curated by Alan Goolman at 68 Prince Street Gallery, presents a series of Levy’s works layering acrylic over digital collage on paper. “Transmission” (2019) includes a small floating astronaut at left, mathematically engineered structures in the middle, and detailed renderings of spacecraft toward the right. In “Space Nets” (2026), we hover above the Earth amid a jumble of satellites and other manmade structures in a heap of colliding space junk. Her sculptural installation “Astronaut Tears: In, On, and Through” (2026) offers a poetic vision of human tears, which, in zero gravity, act as miniature planets floating across the universe.
Elisa Pritzker, Echoes of the Ancestral
Arts Society of Kingston (ASK), 97 Broadway, Kingston, New York
Sep. 5–27
Elisa Pritzker honors her Argentine roots in a series of artworks at Arts Society of Kingston. Across recent 2D and 3D mixed media artworks, Pritzker explores legacy through her dynamic arrangements of fabric, ribbons, and other natural elements. “Ceremonial Stick” (2025) is a slender wood stick wrapped in patterned textiles and poised for ritual, while the chunky painted “Power Stone” (2026) rests atop a black wood base with crisscrossed fabric. Pritzker’s two tondos, “Geologic-era Fish” (2025) and “Ancient Ornament” (2025), contain sacred abstract and organic shapes that border on figurative, while her “Ancient Fishes” (2025) sculpture is a personal interpretation of this ancient image of two fish as symbols of fertility and abundance.
