5th Annual Juried Exhibition: 'So you think you’re too old to...'
‘SO YOU THINK YoU’RE TOO OLD TO…’: A LOOK AT HOW OLDER ARTISTS EXCEL AS THE YEARS PROGRESS.
February 1–May 3, 2025
Opening Reception: February 1, 2025, 3pm - 5pm
There is a story, not sufficiently touted, of artists finding their best creative energy as they enter their senior years. Arguably, Louise Bourgeois created her best works, her spiders and cells, well into her 80’s, after leaving behind the totemic works that so mimicked her male counterparts. Is it the freedom offered by a lifetime of observation and integration of the interior psyche with outer data? Is it the freedom that age offers to be introspective, to not bow to external critique and judgement.
HVMOCA is an institution first to show over a hundred artists who then came to renown., mostly younger artists. But it has also taken great pride in championing the work of artists who came to the fore much later such as Phyllida Barlow, hitting her stride in her late 60’s.
Now, for its 5th Annual Juried Exhibition, HVMOCA features works by 68 artists, ages 62-94, culled from an open RFP on CAFE, and placed within the context of art history. We are especially interested in the works by artists who reached their prime in their more advanced years.
Consider Georgia O’Keefe, dubbed the ‘Mother of American Modernism’, looked to the beauty of a blossom, to a desert for inspiration, Joan Jonas, still going strong at 88 with her pioneering performance and video works, Roz Schneider who at 91 gave her last lecture and presentation here at Hudson Valley MOCA, speaking to her nature based films and paintings.
I recall one event where Stanley Kunitz, Age 97, read a poem of a slap from his father, felt 60 years later, and Aaron Birnbaum, tailor turned artist, age 102, at his first museum exhibition at the Aldridge Museum. Age can be a state of mind, wrinkles can be lines of wisdom, imagination linked to reality unchained, unbound.
68 artists selected from over 200 applicants, 62 thru 94 years of age:
Karen Allen, Sara Allen, Peter Anderson, Inez Andrucyk, Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong, Steffani Bailey, Susan Barrett, Robert Barthelmes, Ernesto Beckford, Ilene Bellovin, Tony Buczko, Carol Bouyoucos, Kit Boyce, Camille Ann Brewer, Mary Bridgman, Sydney Cash, Sharon Cavagnolo, Vivien Collens, Larry D’Amico, Maxine Davidowitz, Al Desetta, Ellen Elchlepp, Ryoko Endo, Donna Faranda, Jean Feinberg, John Fitzsimmons, Dan Florin, Luis Fonseca, Jeffrey Friedkin, Joseph Fucigna, Ruth Geneslaw, Caroline Hardy, Lannie Hart, Jeffrey Hartman, Ruth Ellen Hoag, Judith Eloise Hooper, Deborah Kittay-Heffler, Carole P. Kunstadt, Larry Leibowitz, Harry Leigh, Linda Lindroth, Alise Loebelson, D. Dominick Lombardi, Timothy Lutz, Patricia Malarcher, Jean-Marie Martin, Barry Mason, Marilyn Mitchell, Alexandra Negoita, Adam Niklewicz, Daniel Oppenheim, Franc Palaia, Paul Plumadore, Chris Randolph, Margaret Roleke, Warren Rosenberg, Joan Ryan, Vicente Saavedra, Linn Saffer, Jeffrey Schrier, Michael Seri, Carolyn Sirois,Hui Tian, Peter Tilgner, Suprina Troche, Lydia Viscardi, Lee Willett, Thomas Zaccheo
Critical Dates:
Notifications go out to artist applicants: January 6, 2025
Art work delivery: January 16-20, 2025
February 1, 2025 1PM-3PM Saturday Artist Talk: ‘Dedicated to artists who enter the art world late in life or as a second career, to others who hit their stride later in life: Shared challenges, successes, frustrations and benefits to being older in this highly competitive world- OR DOES ONE EVEN CARE!’ Lecture fee: $10.00; Museum admission free to members
Saturday, February 1, 2025 3PM-5PM: Exhibition opens
Saturday, March 8, 2025 10AM-5PM: Portfolio Review ($150; Must be a Hudson Valley MOCA Artist member)
Upcoming Events
Portfolio Review
Saturday, March 8, 2025
10:00AM - 5:00PM
$150.00 (Must be a Hudson Valley MOCA Artist member)