About the Artists
Rooster (he/him)
Based in: Beacon, NY
Discipline: Video Portal
Local Artist Series Solo Show:
December 9-11
Friday: 4pm-8pm
Saturday:12pm-8pm*
Sunday: 12pm-6pm
*part of Beacon's "Second Saturdays"
Rooster is a multi-media artist based in Beacon, NY who repurposes scrap materials, found objects, and old tech. His work explores the relationship between humanity and machinery, offering a peek into the post-digital future.
For his Local Artist Series show at LotusWorks, Rooster will be presenting his piece titled "Video Portal."
"Video Portal opens the door to the video dimension, a simultaneous reality we inhabit yet is beyond our perception." - Rooster
Alex Marsh (he/they)
Based in: New Paltz, NY
Discipline: Painting & Digital Art
Local Artist Series Solo Show:
December 16-18
Friday: 4pm-8pm
Saturday: 2pm-8pm*
*Reception 6-8pm
Sunday: 2pm-5pm
Alex is Marsh is 23-year old artist living and working in New Paltz, New York. Alex classifies himself as a portrait/figurative artist who mainly focuses on his personal experiences of being disabled and transgender. He strives to convey the trials and tribulations that he's faced whilst navigating the world around him, to an audience who often can merely empathize with him. Alex mainly works with oil paint, but as of late, he also adds collage and unconventional elements to his work to boost compositional choices.
For his Local Artist Series solo show at LotusWorks, Alex will be showing work that looks at the intersection between the utility of assigned female at birth persons versus their autonomy. There will be no heads or visible faces in the painted torsos, or identifiable humanity in their bodies. All of that will have been stripped away in the artwork - much like society tends to do to assigned female at birth persons.
"Too often, especially within cisgender hetero-normative spaces, debate over this body type is shifted towards what it can produce, and "wasting" fertility for gender identity changes, or choices we make for our bodies. Uprooting the conversation away from traditionally male cisgender spaces would be the first step towards real change. I hope to break barriers and address the uncomfortable conversation surrounding gender identity and how it relates to fertility or lack thereof." - Alex Marsh
Gigi Grace (she/her)
Based in: Beacon, NY
Discipline: Painting & Digital Art
Local Artist Series Solo Show:
January 6-8
Friday: 4-10pm [Ambient Dance Party]
Saturday: 1-6pm [Art Market: Prints]
Sunday: 1-6pm
[Performance by Jules Olsen @ 4pm]
Tina Bernstein is a mixed media artist living in Beacon NY since the end of 2016. Tina has participated in numerous group art shows in Beacon, Poughkeepsie, and Rosendale since moving to the Hudson Valley. Prior to her move to the Hudson Valley, she lived and worked in the Boston Metro Area, Louisville, Kentucky, and Maplewood New Jersey. Tina attended The High School of Music and Art and later received a BFA with a concentration in sculpture from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts. While employed as an occupational therapist, Tina also earned a M.Ed. from the Creative Arts In Learning, Program at Lesley University.
"In my work, my hands become the tools of my imagination manipulating varied textures to weave together the threads of my relationship to the world around me. At times the task of pulling together these threads into some sort of cohesive expression seems overwhelming, but I have tried to capture the stirrings I have felt in response to my environment and my place in it. I am continually drawn to the natural environment and how the twists and turns of branches, changing patterns, textures and colors are representations of the complexities of life…it’s beauty and challenges. I continue to be drawn to mixed media as a way of expressing those responses. The continuous layering of photographic images, original prints, paint, and other textures through cutting, tearing, moving, and gluing allows me to navigate the essence of ambiguity and complexity that I witness in the world." - Tina Bernstein
Brooklyn based Photographer and Multidisciplinary Artist, Kimber DeVaney studied Black and White Photography at Pratt Institute and Arts and Cultural Management at Hunter College. Inspired by nature, science, time and memory; she is interested in the interaction of nature and urban environments and how that translates to our inner spaces. Some of her influences include the artwork of Francesca Woodman, Vivian Maier and Joseph Cornell, the music of Beach House, walking labyrinths and the 1930s.
Kimber’s most recent works are double exposures shot on 35mm film which layer light, texture and pattern to express emotive spaces. Her work aims to push the limits of visual communication by creating cinematographic portals that interplay with different realms of reality. By combining various elements into a single frame, the multi-compositions invite the viewer to decode hidden stories. Kimber believes that film photography is magic that captures the pure essence of things. She enjoys the playful element of surprise and spontaneity that is present in film. Working with double exposure gives her the freedom to shoot freely without overthinking shots, letting the overlapping of images merge organically creating their own unique pattern and structure.
Vernon Byron (he/him)
Based in: Newburgh, NY
Discipline: Digital Media
Local Artist Series Solo Show:
January 27-29
Friday: 5-7pm* Opening Reception
Saturday: 12-5pm
Sunday: 12-5pm
Vernon M. Byron is a conceptual artist based in Newburgh, NY. Vernon graduated Magna Cum Laude from SUNY New Paltz in 2011 earning his BFA in printmaking. Vernon’s practice investigates how socioeconomic structures inform our perception. He constructs objects and experiences that impart physical presence upon critical political, economic, and social issues that affect BIPOC communities and the working class. As a result, hidden aspects of American culture such as racism, prejudice, and housing insecurity are highlighted through the interactive nature of his work. By immersing the viewer in the experiences of oppressed people, they are presented with the opportunity to critically observe these systems, and begin to address their sources. In addition to exploring and magnifying the experiences of BIPOC communities, Vernon’s artistic practice has been dedicated to developing and establishing democratic frameworks to engage and empower BIPOC communities in the Hudson Valley region of NY.
Vernon was born In the Bronx, NY, at the age of four his family moved upstate to Spring Valley, NY. Some of his earliest and pervasive memories were of the drives from Spring Valley to his Grandmother’s apartment in the Bronx. Where he spent much of the trip observing the scenery, as the natural landscape of the Hudson Valley transformed into the abstract geometries of the urban landscape. After graduating High school in the Spring of 2006, Vernon relocated to the Hudson Valley to attend SUNY New Paltz. In 2009 Vernon was chosen to represent SUNY New Paltz in the statewide Best of SUNY exhibit where he won best in show, earning both a $1000 Scholarship and an opportunity to have his work shown at the Albany Airport Concourse A Gallery. In 2010 Vernon Exhibited his thesis work at the Samuel A. Dorsky museum and later graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2011 earning his BFA in printmaking. Following his graduation, Vernon would go on to show work throughout the region including The Concourse Gallery A at the Albany International Airport, The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, The Art Society of Kingston, Space Create, Grit Works, the Chris Davison Gallery, Holland Tunnel Newburgh, and the Ann Street Gallery. Vernon is currently an artist-in-residence at New Paltz, New York’s Unison Art Center, as well as Warwick, New York’s Wickham Works, where he is developing projects to highlight the narratives and experiences of BIPOC communities in New Paltz NY, and Warwick, NY respectively.
Javon Turner (he/him)
Based in: Poughkeepsie, NY
Discipline: Painting
Local Artist Series Solo Show:
February 3-5
Friday: 4-8pm*
*Open Reception 6-8pm
Saturday: 1-9pm
Sunday: 3-7pm
Javon Turner is an upcoming artist, emerging from Dutchess County. He was born and raised in rural Jamaica from 2000 until 2017. During his time in Jamaica, he worked on many projects such as Project 119 at the Olympia Art Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica. Individually, he also had worked in the Airport Authority of Jamaica Art Competition and had one of his paintings permanently mounted in the Norman Manley International Airport. Javon later migrated to South Florida, which he started his associates degree in Visual Arts at Broward College. Before he could complete his degree, he moved to Dutchess County, New York, where he will finish his degree at Dutchess Community College. Javon often uses acrylic paint on canvas. Overall, his works are geared towards abstract art with the human body dismantled and at times unrecognizable. Javon strives to be among the best in the art world.
"Without the ability to express myself on a canvas, I would not be here today. My work pushes the boundaries of realism and abstract art. I tend to skew the anatomy of the human body, making them at times unrecognizable by connecting the new existence of the human body to a specific lifestyle through color, patterns, and a bijou of literal presence. My works are marked with a trademarked cross-section which in itself, is my signature. I aim to boggle the mind of the observer as they try and connect the abstract cognitive to things of their life. I normally complete a body of work together, so that I can capture true likeness in each of the work. Moreover, I do this from the urge to let out my bottled feelings, hence, I almost never do an artwork if it feels forced." - Javon Turner