Catskill Art Space in Livingston Manor celebrated a new installation by three artists from the Hudson Valley area on Saturday, November 1. Mia Brownell, painter from New Rochelle, Kat Chamberlin, sculptor and filmmaker from Hudson, and Lexa Walsh, ceramic and mixed media artist from Kingston were presented as a panel for an intimate artist talk facilitated by Sally Wright, director of CAS to a small but attentive audience. 

First, Mia Brownell spoke of her still life paintings of food that reference Dutch realism and gesture towards the intersection of visible form with invisible microscopics such as genetic structure, physiology, and the biochemistry of food. At a moment when food insecurity in the US is increasing (seen in alarming cuts to Federal programs such as SNAP), her work touches a nerve and, as she put it, “formulates the questions as they appear” in her painting process. A daughter of an artist mother and a scientist father, the particular intersectionalities in her work make sense.

Second up was Kat Chamberlin, who spoke of her installation that features circular hanging glass and metal sculptures, highlighted by a bright yellow carpet along with directions to visitors to remove your shoes before you enter. This seemingly innocent request harkens both to the domestic context of her exploration and also gestures to her childhood in the Middle East, where the sole of the foot is considered offensive. With this symbolism Kat’s installation brings a suggestion that the viewer is entering both an intimate and a sacred space: indeed, her artworks are a deep dive into the relational dynamics between herself and her daughter, and issues related to authority, fragility, and envy in her own maternal zeitgeist.

Finally, Lexa Walsh’s exhibit entitled “Breathe with Me Grieve with Me Heave with Me”, was born out of her experience of the juxtaposition of media feeds during the summer of 2024 when media screens displayed footage from the Olympic Games alongside troubling news reports and images from the war in Gaza. The physicality of her pieces, ceramic forms of various textures and tones sometimes integrating other materials such as glass and crystal, is a curious and sometimes playful exploration of the contrasting feelings and experiences of modern times.

The exhibit can be visited at 48 Main Street in Livingston Manor on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through December 28. There is no entry fee.