Art lovers should check out the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art whose collection is impressive, especially given its small-town location. Add it to an unofficial art tour of contemporary art in the Hudson Valley contemporary art, along with nearby Storm King Art Center & Dia: Beacon.

Experience works by several notables in Contemporary art during this forward-thinking exhibition at Peekskill’s Hudson Valley MOCA. With sculpture and video amassed from the collection of Marc and Livia Straus, How We Live investigates the concept of human production, both artistic and economic, through works by acclaimed artists like Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, and Yu Honglei.

The premise of this exhibition is that artists are at the nexus of change, assimilating the status quo and transforming it through their practices, thereby helping to produce the new reality ad infinitum.

Together, it might trigger a remembrance of “A Serious Art Discussion,” Obrant says in reference to her two-year installation at Hudson Valley MOCA in Peekskill in which mannequins wearing Obrant’s crochet designs studied her paintings on the wall.

An artist whose highly stylized faces and flowing hair are signatures of her work guided students at Peekskill High School in creating a massive mural along the building’s exterior 77-foot wall. The wall served as the canvas where students spray painted and painted images of ‘their’ Peekskill. About 100 students in art classes were asked “What do you want to be represented?” They came up with sketches under the tutelage of Alice Mizrachi who is associated with the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art on Main Street. Mizrachi has created murals throughout the United States.

Rattan sticks painted black and woven together with thread arc between the “heads” of two weavings like a sci-fi brain-swap tube, facilitating a transfer of knowledge between mother and daughter. The effigies hang next to each other on the gallery wall. Rake and broom heads, trowel arms, kitchen funnel breasts and fruit bowl wombs peek out behind strands woven from store-bought yarn, shower curtain rings, metal washers, and toy soldiers. This mother-daughter pair, Family Lineage 1 (2019) welcomes the viewer into Anne Samat’s first solo show in the US, Greatest Love.

Until last year, Peekskill's Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art (or Hudson Valley MoCA) was known as the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. But while the name may have changed, the mission—to bring world-class art and ideas to the region—has not.

The environment in which an artist creates can often set the tone for their work. Anne Samat, a rising star in contemporary woven art, recently traveled from her native city of Kuala Lumpur to work and live in the city of Peekskill. Samat’s exhibition Greatest Love opened last Thursday at Hudson Valley MOCA and marked her first solo show in the United States.

HVMOCA, Peekskill's own contemporary art museum, will be offering free admission for the entire weekend and will host an opening reception and artist gathering on Saturday night open to all visitors.

The environment in which an artist creates can often set the tone for their work. Anne Samat, a rising star in contemporary woven art, recently traveled from her native city of Kuala Lumpur to work and live in the city of Peekskill. Samat’s exhibition Greatest Love opened last Thursday at Hudson Valley MOCA and marked her first solo show in the United States.

Coming off his Oscar nomination as director of “First Reformed,” veteran filmmaker Paul Schrader will discuss his celebrated career April 13 at the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art (Hudson Valley MOCA) in Peekskill.

At the time, she was busy packing up for her three-month residency at the Hudson Valley MOCA, formerly known as Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, in New York. (She left for the United States in mid February.)

While most of society turns its back on mortality, artists have long grappled with questions about life, death, and what lies beyond. Alluding to "Hamlet," Maya Angelou once said, "the only true escape is death, but even that is that undiscovered country from whose bourn, you know, no traveler returns.”

The former Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art has been a huge driving force behind the artistic renaissance over the past 15 years in Peekskill. Exhibiting over 5,000 artists in those years, the MOCA is the brainchild of former Fordham professor Dr. Livia Straus. Straus and her husband, Marc, opened an arts and education center in an abandoned store in 2003 and have grown it into a massive local center for artistic endeavors, showcasing artists from around the world.

In an atmosphere with daily headlines tracking potential climate catastrophe, political division and inequality, a new exhibit from Peekskill’s Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art places a spotlight on dystopian contemporary paintings.

If you’re tired of looking at the same old stuff you studied every year in school, visit the Hudson Valley MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) for some of the most current works being created by artists around the world. Boasting both a permanent collection and works on loan in a 12,000-sq-ft exhibition space, the HVMOCA champions Peekskill as a major arts destination. The museum offers an Artist-in-Residence program that gives artists the opportunity to create long-term installations as well as many educational programs, like lectures and varying special events. 

The culturally inclined can attend student- and community-run events at the high school’s 575-seat performing arts center and assorted activities held by the Tompkins Corners Cultural Center at the historic Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church. Hudson Valley MOCA, a contemporary art museum in Peekskill, is a few miles away.