Former Phoenicia gallery owner Tim Slowinski now runs the Limner Gallery in Hudson. Woodland Valley resident Tom Luciano makes the cross-river commute to his art/antique store Historical Materialism. Andrea Cabane has shown artists she's discovered in Hudson at her gallery in Phoenicia.
Posie Strenz of Mt. Tremper opened the Posie Kviat Gallery with a partner, Cynthia Fetty, on Hudson's Warren Street in May 2009, and it's still going strong, stocked partially by artists she's met at The Arts Upstairs in Phoenicia and other places on this side of the river.
Strenz is the manager of a Hudson building that lost a gallery last year, and she had the idea to put her friends' paintings in the window while trying to find a new tenant. It got her thinking. She was contacted by Fetty, a Saugerties resident who wanted to start a gallery in Hudson but was hesitant to run it by herself. "We gelled," Strenz recalls. "We had a couple of long talks. It's not often that someone you feel a good connection with comes along, and you feel like you can trust them and work with them."
Despite the recession, she made a decision to go in with Fetty. "It's better to try something than not do it and regret you didn't when you had the chance," she muses. "We went into it knowing we could stop if we needed to, since we both have families and need to contribute to paying the bills. But it's gratifying, going to visit artists' studios, learning about their histories, seeing their bodies of work and being able to share that with other people. Of course, in the long run, you have to make sure you don't lose your shirt."
Work has been selling, and slowly but surely, the gallery's reputation is growing. Strenz partly attributes its success to the complementary nature of her partnership with Fetty. "We have different kinds of tastes, but that works well," she says. "Cynthia has more of a modern art school kind of eye. She likes new and unusual media and has contacts from pretty far afield. My eye is geared more toward sharing the wonderful artists we have in this area. People come in excited to see new media, and there are people who are thrilled to become acquainted with artists from the area they wouldn't necessarily see-and they can find a great piece of art to take home."
She described how the gallery came to share her first name: "Cynthia was going to be the main director. I didn't want my name on it. Her husband's name is Kwiatkowski, which means 'flower' in Polish. Cynthia suggested the name because it has two flowers. According to a Polish artist, Olek, who showed with us, Posie Kwiat means 'planting flowers'. Cynthia changed the 'w' to a 'v' for graphic reasons. And I love gardening, too. Maybe we're planting flowers, and a lot of the enjoyment is in the process. It would be nice if we get to the point of culling flowers from the garden, but if not, that's okay too."
Locals who have shown at Posie Kviat include painters Ric Dragon of Chichester, Anique Taylor of Phoenicia, Dave Channon of Shandaken, Robert Selkowitz of Ashokan, Lora Shelley and Mary Ann Erickson of Saugerties. The gallery's craft show included Mt. Tremper potter Sally Rothschild and ceramacist Astrid Nordness. Pat Horner of Willow is featured in the current show, which opened on February 20.
Strenz brought in an artist friend from Brooklyn who doesn't get much attention in New York City but is more successful in California. "A New York City buyer walked in and bought a couple of his paintings," says Strenz. "The city is so packed and intense, people's work can be overlooked. But when you bring them to Warren Street, and city people are up for the weekend, they're more relaxed-it's a different kind of exposure."
The gallery made a big splash with a three-part event in October, when Strenz's husband, music writer Tony Fletcher, had just published his book, All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from Streets of New York, 1927-1977. Fletcher read from the book at The Spotty Dog Books and Ale, while the gallery held an opening for "Redux", with all the artists they'd shown in their first six months. Then Fletcher deejayed music from the era of his book at Jason's Upstairs Bar.
For the long haul, Posie Kviat does need more buyers, but so far, says Strenz, "We've had a lot of positive feedback, even from people who've been in Hudson a long time. We've brought a different vision and new blood. It's been a nice welcome."
Posie Kviat Gallery is located at 437 Warren Street in Hudson and can be contacted at (518) 653-5407. Also see their website, http://posiekviat.com.