News / Events

Upstate Diary highlights Singing in Unison – by Taliesin Thomas

With a shared focus on ‘framework’ as muse, artists Josephine Halvorson and Bing Wright bring our attention to doors and windows in an exquisite two-person exhibition at Leo Koenig in Andes, NY. Featuring recent paintings by Halvorson and new photography by Wright, Singing in Unison: Part 16, curated by Phong Bui and Cal McKeever, is a harmonious pairing that reveals their combined reverence for these unassuming objects of quotidian life.

On the first floor, Halvorson’s masterful realist style begins with a suite of richly hued paintings of doors that double as meditations on decay and uniformity. Seen from right to left on the same wall, Breaking Door (2014) features a fragmented entryway on the edge of collapse, and Halvorson’s careful observation captures the decline while simultaneously uplifting it. With Villa Medici Door (Outside) (2015), the painterly perfection of the keyhole is superb, while the third work, Porte bleue câble (2014), with its bucolic character and French title, invokes her one-year residency at the French Academy in Rome (from 2014 to 2015). With a lone olive-green window as the centerpiece of seven identical paintings beginning with Night Window February 13–14 (2015) and ending with Night Window August 7–8 (2015), Halvorson’s devotion to detail is superlative (and the only difference I observed between the first and the final work in this series was the appearance of a slight yellow stain at the bottom left of the windowsill).

Installation view of Singing in Unison: Part 16curated at Leo Koenig, showing artworks by Bing Wright. Photo Taliesin Thomas.

On the second floor, Wright’s explorations in photography and video complement the reflective atmosphere established by Halvorson, and the meditative mood continues with ethereal visions of nature as seen through windowpanes. These luminous scenes appear palpable in their physicality; however, upon closer inspection, the fantastical color combinations and wondrous compositions disclose their digitally rendered character. Several of these works feature a lifeless fly as a recurring memento mori motif, including Still Life II (1993) and Evening Window (2025–26). His exaltation of Mother Earth as seen through windows is a splendid combination of fantasy and realism, and Spring Window, Cherry (c. 2025–26) is among the most alluring, with its graceful promise of primavera. I did not watch the full 36 minutes of Wright’s 4 Season Video Installation (1988–2025), consisting of a looped video in a custom window frame embedded in the wall, but I did catch some of the hypnotizing footage of snow falling in a secluded forest. In the middle of the room, a slim vitrine is host to Wright’s Long White Ribbon (2026). This scroll-like print of a serpentine streamer appears to be three-dimensional as it writhes in its stationary position — a perfect epitome of this sublime show. –Taliesin Thomas

 

Leo Koenig Gallery Kicks off the Season with Paint Your Life! (Mountain Eagle May 25, 2026) – review by Patricia Wadsley

David Ebony Reviews PAINT YOUR LIFE!

PAINT YOUR LIFE! at Leo Koenig Inc., Andes, NY, through July 26, ’26.

Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Atlanta, 1988; photo courtesy Leo Koenig, Inc.

In this elegant group show of figurative works, mainly paintings, there is an undercurrent of understated provocation as to how identity manifests itself in an artist’s work, and how the work mirrors the artists themselves, and ultimately, the viewer. Organized by artist, art writer and curator Ryan Steadman, the exhibition features an unusual and affective integration of outsider and insider artists, established art stars and new talent. The first work encountered near the entrance is an iconic work on paper, Mother and Child (1939) by the late Bill Traylor, whose highly stylized renderings are seminal works of self-taught art as a genre. This work makes a jarring but unforgettable contrast with Wine and Cheese (2017), a large study of two, gender-ambiguous figures and a bunch of grapes, by the irrepressible explorer of female sexuality, Lisa Yuskavage, hanging just across the gallery. In conceptually provocative arrangements, Steadman shows small, gemlike double-sided drawings by the insular and physically challenged outsider James Castle beside Alexander Harrison’s explorations of Black identity and Lisa Sanditz’s high-toned and humorous look at male and female interactions, in fauvist and quasi-surrealist collisions such as Mudslide (2025) and a larger canvas, The Green Woman (2026).

Leonard Baby And the water Loved me Back, 2026. Photo courtesy Leo Koenig.

Some of the works here are materially or tactilely seductive, such as Christoph Matthes’s large glittery composition Hit A Ceiling (2025), in which several luminous black-and-white striped fish swim in a shimmering pink sea. This work contrasts and complements the mud- and earthen-pigment compositions by the late Alabama self-taught maestro Jimmy Lee Sudduth, whose heavily encrusted cityscape Atlanta (1988) seems to have been built rather than painted, as if the artist were imagining himself as an architect in the image-making process. Richly textured domestic dramas painted by Natia Lemay are among the highlights of the exhibition in their combustible fusion of refined, decorative detail and gritty, raw emotion. The late Icelandic artist Louisa Matthíasdóttir is represented here by several lively, animal-populated landscapes that correspond directly to the surrounding, bucolic Catskills scenery visible just outside the gallery’s windows. Leonard Baby’s wonderful compositions focused on the male nude are dreamlike figure studies that are perhaps more focused on an exploration of sensuality rather than sexuality. Paint Your Life offers such a wide variety of observable (external) and cerebral (internal) forms of figurative expression that viewers are ultimately granted a contemplative and rewarding opportunity for self-reflection.  —David Ebony

Gloria Mclean: Two Evenings of New Work

Gloria McLean Presents CONVERGENCE: Two Evenings of Dance at Leo Koenig Inc.

Performances: Friday-Saturday, July 10–11, 2026, 7:30 PM
Location: Leo Koenig Inc., 11 Delaware Ave., 2nd fl., Andes, NY
Admission: Suggested Donation $20
To reserve your seat in advance, please send donation through PayPal to: mcleangloria7505@gmail.com

Choreographer Gloria McLean brings CONVERGENCE: Two Evenings of Dance to Leo Koenig Inc. on July 10 and 11 at 7:30 PM. McLean’s work is known for immediate, multidimensional performance that blends dance with live music, visual art, media, and text. She has been noted for her “intelligent, witty, and sensuous choreographic voice” (Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times). McLean adds, “The beauty of dance is it puts us in the present, into a fresh awareness of the body and our world.”McLean will be joined by special guest artist Bert Gstettner from Vienna, Austria, along with a multi-generational group of dancers that includes current and former professional colleagues, along with dancers and non-dancers gathered through her annual performance workshops at Squid Farm/LIFEDANCE Studio in Andes, NY.

Live music is provided by musicians Marshall Coid, Michael Suchorsky, and Takao Heisho. Visual elements include sculpture by Ken Hiratsuka, and video interactions by Alan Powell and Mace Fleeger. The varied program will feature Ms.McLean performing her solo I Am. It Dances with music of Somei Satoh. Guest artist Bert Gstettner from Vienna will present an excerpt from “end.less.bow”, a tribute to modern dance pioneer Erick Hawkins – their shared mentor –and sculptor/architect Frederick Kiesler which was supported by the Kiesler Foundation in 2025. DaVinci Redux is a group piece riffing on Leonardo da Vinci’s notes on the body, with musician/actor Marshall Coid as narrator. Skin, Flesh and Bone, Part 2 is a revival of an early solo of Ms. McLean originally performed in silence, here danced by Fina with musician Takao Heisho. The evening closes with Tree Dance, an ensemble work offered in recognition of America’s 250th year, invoking the Haudenosaunee image of the “Great Tree of Peace”, that it may inspire our confederation now as it did then “to exchange our weapons for rule by the great minds” to paraphrase Haudenoseanee Chief Oren Lyons.

About the Artists:
Gloria McLean is an internationally recognized Modern Dancer, leading soloist in the Erick Hawkins Dance Company (1982-1993), and artistic director of LIFEDANCE/Gloria McLean & Dancers. She has performed in festivals in the US, Japan, Korea, China, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria. She was Professor of Modern Dance at Keimyung University in South Korea and taught at UW/Madison and George Washington University. McLean is known to audiences in Andes and Delaware County through her work as a founding member of Andes Dancing in the Park (2014-2019), Delaware County Dance & Film Festivals (2022, 2023), Andes Dance Collective, and her studio LIFEDANCE at Squid Farm which she shares with sculptor and collaborator Ken Hiratsuka. McLean’s choreography has involved her in collaborations with composers and artists that include Ushio Torikai, Charlie Morrow, Rip Hayman, event maker Marilyn Wood, David First, Ben Neill, David Wojnorowicz, Lisa Karrer/David Simons, et al. Her video “Twice Marked” (2007) was shown at Brattleboro Museum and American Dance Festival. Her LifeDrawing: Embrace, Displace, Erase, Replace was created and exhibited in April 2025 in Paris Galerie Memoire de l’Avenir. www.gloriamcleandance.com “McLean has…an intelligent, witty and sensuous choreographic voice … One of the most satisfying concerts of the New York season.” (Jennifer Dunning, NY Times)

Bert Gstettner (AT) is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Tanz*Hotel in Vienna. He studied dance and choreography in Vienna, Paris, and in New York directly with Erick Hawkins, where he stays connected to his artistic legacy. In 1992, Gstettner founded his company Tanz*Hotel. Since then, he has been constantly creating choreographic works, presenting productions at international festivals and collaborating with major theaters. Alongside his artistic practice, he is deeply engaged in teaching, mentoring and directing AAR-residency programs at Tanz*Hotel Studios. Mr. Gstettner will perform the full-length version of end.less.bow in New York City on July 16th at Ailey Studios, 405 W. 55th Street. More Information:http://www.tanzhotel.at/de/aktuell

Ken Hiratsuka is an internationally recognized stone sculptor known through his unique method of carving one continuous line in stone around the world. To date Ken has site works and commissions in 26 countries including recent work in PhuQuoc, Vietnam sponsored by Sun Group; Oaxaca, Mexico National Archives Building, sponsored by the Youth Library. From Large site boulders to gallery works to drawings and paintings, Ken’s signature “one-continuous-line” speaks to the universal language of art that breaks through barriers of language and culture. www.kenrock.comThe music for Convergence is provided by three musicians who have been working with Ms. McLean’s workshops and endeavors in Delaware County for the last several years.

Marshall Coid, Music Director for the show, has unique multi-discipline career as violinist, composer, vocalist, actor and director including onstage violinist for Chicago for 25 years.

Michael Suchorsky, well-known percussionist, has spent decades performing and recording around the world in a wide variety of musical genres from middle eastern jazz to microtonal music.

Takao Heisho, percussionist, works with Gloria McLean in NYC and with Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band.

Alan Powell, video projection artist and painter, has exhibited his work at the Kitchen, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of the Moving Image, Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris and The Long Beach Museum,

Mace Fleeger is a video artist, graphic designer and website designer, and videographer.

DANCERS:
Fina Herschberger originally from Germany, recent graduate of The Neighborhood
Playhouse, is a freelance dancer in New York City. She began studying with Gloria at the 92nd Street Y in 2022.
She performed in Gloria’s choreography Archaic Intrusion at Alvin Ailey Theater in 2024; One Line String Piece at Corner Gallery 2026; and in summer Squid Farm productions since 2022. She performs with Rachel Cohen/Racoco and other independent dance artists.

Joy McEwen trained and performed with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company from 1991-2005. She danced extensively with McLean’s company LIFEDANCE from 1994-2003 performing in Polyrhythmic Perversity, Ryoanji Dreaming Me, Her Father, Bridges and Windows, Soma, DaVinci Redux, and McLean’s solo The Dress. Joy formed Wellspring Ensemble touring group in 1998. She is now teaching Modern Dance at Purdue University.

Colleen Blacklock danced in the Erick Hawkins Dance Company along with Gloria McLeanFrom 1991-1994. She is now a resident of Oneonta where she has a practice in acupuncture
and teaches classes in Body Mind Dancing.

Pamela Graham has been dancing with Gloria McLean’s LIFEDANCE Workshops 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and studying with her in New York City. Pam danced with Gloria in Juicy Summer with Lisa Karrer/David Simons in 2023 at Squid Farm. She works full time as the Chief Librarian at Columbia University.

Megan Lighty began Gloria’s classes at the 92nd Street Y and Warshaw studio downtown; joined the upstate Dance & Film Festival 2021 and 2022. She performed Archaic Intrusion at Ailey in 2024; danced in Juicy Summer with Karrer/Simons and McLean in 2023. Megan enjoys art in many forms, and works full time for Bloomberg in NYC.

Jeana Mussachio works with Dances for a Variable Population, founded by Naomi Greenberg-Haas, expanding dance to movers of all ages and abilities. She danced with Anahid Sofian Dance Company, and teaches yoga and movement therapy. Jeana joined the Sculpting Movement Workshop in 2024 and 2025, and studies with Gloria in NYC.

Constance Clare-Newman is an Alexander Teacher and active Dancer/Choreographer from California and Provincetown, Cape Cod. She has become a regular participant in the summer workshops since 2021 performing at Open Eye, Roxbury Kirkside Park & Squid Farm.

Casey Christensen began dancing with Gloria through the 92Y; joined the Dance Film Workshops and LIFEDANCE performances in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. She was part of the earliest version of Archaic Intrusion in 2023 in NYC.

Joelle Penso, a life-long resident of Paris, is a professional Psychotherapist and an amateur singer. A long time friend, she joined Gloria’s workshop in 2025 and is enjoying expanding her practice into movement.

Jackie Wilson is a resident of Andes and NYC and member of the Lifedance Summer Workshops since 2023.

Dacia Lange, from Oneonta, a student of Colleen Blacklock, joins with Lifedance for the Tree Dance.

*Please note that seating is limited and we recommend reserving in advance.

GLORIA MCLEAN July 10 & 11, 7:30 pm Two Evenings of New Work at Leo Koenig Inc, 11 Delaware Ave, Andes, NY 1373 : email the gallery for more information at andes@leokoenig.com

The Findery

Leo Koenig

11 Delaware Avenue, Andes

@leokoeniginc

Since opening his first gallery in 1999 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at the age of 21, Leo Koenig has continuously owned galleries in various locations in NYC. In 2024, he purchased the striking 1874 Greek Revival building on the corner of Route 28 and Main Street in Andes. Inspired by the architecture, history, and beauty of the area, Leo spent a year painstakingly renovating the building, careful to keep its original charm and historic detail.

Seen here are works by Pauline Shaw, Anke Weier, and Allan McCollum, from the exhibition Colorland. We’re excited for the fall exhibition, Pizzicato.

Photo: Christian Anwander @anwander

David Ebony Reviews “Altered States” for Upstate DIary

 

https://www.upstatediary.com/art-picks/2025/07

Visitors to the Catskills this summer can be rewarded with a visit to Leo Koenig’s newly opened venue in Andes, N.Y., a meticulously renovated former 19th-century butter factory turned into an elegant contemporary art space The gallery hosts an inaugural exhibition that explores altered states of consciousness. Inspired by the 1980 Ken Russell film, Altered States, the exhibition features top-notch works by Adam McEwen, Lorenzo Amos, Sherrie Levine, Sere Serpas, Tony Matelli, Thomas Schütte, and On Kawara. Central to the show’s theme, the concept of time is well represented by the rigorously diaristic date paintings by the late On Kawara

The film’s more hallucinatory aspects are reflected in the eerie, solid graphite sculptural works by McEwen. His ominous Rolldown Gate (2012), for instance, secures a space that will never be seen, and the uncanny Payphone (2018), is a rendering of an obsolete telecommunications device that must be explained to younger viewers. Matelli nearly steals the show with his incongruously comic imagery and technical prowess. His life-size, upside-down flower pots are arresting and as is Yesterday (2014), which appears to be a fragile house of cards towering some eight feet high. Made of painted bronze, steel and painted fiberglass, however, the sculpture assumes an unexpected feeling of permanence and monumentality. Matelli’s fiberglass and concrete Lion (Pizza), 2019, looks like a battered antique statue of a lion like the famous Venetian one. Covered with pizza slices and hotdogs, however, this work clearly presents an acerbic critique of monumentality and all of its socio-political ramifications.  —David Ebony

 

 

 

Blake Gopnik | NY Times Review of The History Of Hand Knitting

Link: NY Times, What to See

So much of our suffering is caused by male aggression. (How many victims of war have been killed by women?) but for all the horror of that violence, there’s often something oafish about it, if only because of the boundless stupidity it represents

This two-woman show captures some of masculinity’s toxic idiocy.

An untitled installation by Nicole Eisenan presents 20 “Clubs” leaning against the wall. Each is just a length of scrap wood with a dumb blob of plaster at its top, as though its maker was either too lazy or too dimwitted to perfect his weapons beyond the minimum needed to bash a head. Nearby, also in plaster, a three fingered blob of a hand sits on the floor, ready to grab at its clubs at the sightest provocation I”You callin’ME a blob of a hand?!)

A blob of a head, about three feet tall and painted blue, looks on dimly from a pedestal, as though helpless to govern its own hand.

Rosemarie trockel contributes quite different pieces to the show, but they nit similar notes. Back in 1984, she began to order up machine-knit balaclavas, like a terrorist or a paramilitary fighter might wear. But instead of being bad-guy black, they had “girlish”patterns knit into them. My favorite covers its wearer’s face in plus and minus signs, like the love charms worn by Frenchwomen that stand for “more than yesterday, less than tomorrow.” It’s not clear if Trockel’s pattern counters the balaclava’s associations with masculine threat, or if instead of pointing to a love that’s bound to increase, it lets its wearer proclaim a hatred that’s always on the rise. – BLAKE GOPNIK