
Brushstrokes and Backroads: INSIDE+OUT’s Guide to Upstate Art Weekend 2025
Every July, as wildflowers nod along sun-warmed roads and the Hudson ripples with summer light, Upstate Art Weekend unfurls its magic across the region. Part pilgrimage, part joyous creative spree, this five-day celebration transforms the Catskills and Hudson Valley into a living canvas—barns become galleries, fields host monumental installations, and studios throw open their doors in an embrace of possibility.
“Part pilgrimage, part joyous creative spree—Upstate Art Weekend transforms barns, fields, and studios into living works of art.”
Now in its sixth year, Upstate Art Weekend has grown from a gathering of 23 organizations to an electrifying constellation of over 155 participants. Expect an exhilarating mix of contemporary galleries, storied museums, off-the-map residencies, and pop-ups that vanish as quickly as they appear—each with its own vision of what art can be when rooted in place.
“From gravel mounds crowned in myth to flower farms blooming with queerness, Upstate Art Weekend is pure creative alchemy.”
Whether you’re a collector, a curious wanderer, or simply someone who loves discovering art where you least expect it, Upstate Art Weekend is your invitation to roam. With curated tours, itineraries, and events, the weekend promises both quiet contemplation and lively conversation. It is, in every sense, a celebration of the cultural brilliance that pulses through this region—an annual reminder that art, like nature, thrives best when it spills beyond the frame.
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND | July 17th – 21st, 2025
Click HERE for the Program | Click HERE for the MAP of all Exhibitions
All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise specified.
Read our exclusive interview with UPAW founder, Helen Toomer
Here are INSIDE+OUT’s top picks for what to see at UPAW 2025
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THE LOCKWOOD GALLERY | 747 Route 28, Kingston NY | @thelockwoodgallery1 + @ethanrymanstudio
- Ethan Ryman
- Ethan Ryman
Ethan Ryman’s layered photo-sculptural works evoke hidden urban geometries, merging sculptural models and photographic abstraction into meditations on form, space, and perception. Each piece invites us to see the built world anew with quiet wonder.
Exhibition: Ethan Ryman: Four Years Built
Opening Reception: July 13 | 4-7 PM
On View: July 13 – August 10, 2025
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BCMT GALLERY | 79 Hurley Avenue, Kingston NY | @bcmtco
- Peter Petrochko
- Nettie Sumner
Founders Joshua Vogel and Kelly Zaneto champion high craft and art’s relationship to nature. Featuring Ann Swingler’s botanical collages sealed in encaustic wax, Ellis Dulchin’s glass creations, and Vogel’s own sculptural works, BCMT is an invitation to experience texture, context, and beauty as they are meant to be seen—alive with intention.
Exhibition: Nature in Context
On View: July 17–21, 2025
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68 PRINCE ST. GALLERY | 68 Prince Street, Kingston NY | @68princegallery
- Jeanette Fintz
- Monika Zarzeczna
Step into a world where geometry softens into poetry. Jeanette Fintz’s paintings choreograph grids and gestures into luminous compositions—each canvas a meditation on memory, pattern, and place. Sharing the gallery is Monika Zarzeczna, whose abstract collages, sculptures, and installations explore the beauty of incompleteness, evoking dreamlike architectural remnants. Together, they create a dialogue between order and intuition—art that feels both grounded and transcendent.
Exhibition: Jeanette Fintz + Monika Zarzeczna
Opening Reception: July 19 | 5-8 PM
On View: July 17 – August 17, 2025
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HERO’S HILL | 206 Canal Street, Ellenville NY | @by_kate_browne

Kate Browne
Along a quiet Hudson Valley road, Kate Browne’s installation wraps myth and memory around a gravel mound crowned with gleaming aluminum letters reading, WE WANT THE NEXT HERO TO ARRIVE ON TIME. Press a button, and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever blares forth, only to slow and halt abruptly—leaving viewers in charged silence to consider who we choose to exalt and why.
Exhibition: We Want the Next Hero to Arrive on Time by Kate Browne
On View: July 17-21, 2025
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WEIRD SPECIALTY | 77 Broadway, Tivoli NY | @weirdspecialty
- Melissa Messer
- Amanda Russo Rubman
Weird Specialty brings together two distinctive artistic voices exploring the boundaries between human connection and the natural world. Together, these exhibitions invite visitors to pause and reconsider what it means to belong to each other and to a place.
Melissa Messer | Close Ties
Seattle-based artist Melissa Messer unveils Close Ties, a collection of color-forward figure paintings that delve into the complexities of intimacy. Messer describes her work as “if Rothko’s daughter were obsessed with form,” blending luminous color fields with figures that sometimes transform into landscapes—evoking both closeness and vast expansion.
Amanda Russo Rubman | Untitled Narrative of Nature
Local artist and Weird Specialty Salon Member Amanda Russo Rubman presents “Untitled: Narrative of Nature,” an immersive installation that weaves film, fashion, and sculpture into a living meditation on the Hudson Valley landscape. Inviting visitors to invoke imagination through light and texture, her work evolves throughout the weekend, shaped by each viewer’s presence and touch.
Exhibitions: Melissa Messer: Close Ties + Amanda Russo Rubman: Untitled Narrative of Nature
Opening Reception: July 18 | 5-8 PM
On View: July 17–20, 2025
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KUBE ART CENTER + ETHAN COHEN GALLERY | 211 Fishkill Ave, Beacon NY | @ethancohengallery

Lin Tianmiao
Featuring eleven groundbreaking Chinese women artists—including Lin Tianmiao, Cai Jin, and Shen Ling—this powerful show celebrates voices too long overlooked. From Lin Tianmiao’s bicycle wrapped in white string to Cai Jin’s painted bicycle seats and Shen Ling’s vivid portraits, Half the Sky is a testament to progress, presence, and creative reclamation.
Exhibition: Half the Sky
On View: May 24 – August 30, 2025
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CHARLOTTE WOOLF AT FOXTROT FARM & FLOWERS | 6854 NY-82, Stanfordville NY | @foxtrotfarmflowers
- Catie Dillon
- Jacq Groves
Curated by Charlotte Woolf, Queer Bestiary explores queer ecologies and the abounding queerness of nature through painting, photography, sculpture, and textiles—all set on a working flower farm that feels like a secret world of its own. Special UPAW events include tattoo pop-ups, author readings, and a beehive tour.
Exhibition: Queer Bestiary
On View: July 17–20, 2025
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PINKWATER GALLERY AT KINGSTON SOCIAL | 237 Fair Street, Kingston NY | @pinkwatergallery + @brandonthomasbrown
- Brandon Thomas Brown
- Brandon Thomas Brown
In Ancestry, photographer Brandon Thomas Brown weaves imagery, collage, and symbolism into a meditation on lineage and identity. Inspired by his grandfather’s Vietnam War photographs, these emotionally rich portraits honor memory, spirit, and the guiding force of mothers.
Exhibition: Ancestry by Brandon Thomas Brown
Artist Talk: July 19 | 5-6 PM
Opening Reception: July 19 | 6-8 PM
On View: July 17 – September 2, 2025
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THE GALLERY AT YELLOW STUDIO | 792 NY-35, Cross River NY | @yellowstudionygallery + @annepollardjames

Anne Pollard James
Twenty-one Signature Member Artists of the National Association of Women Artists @nawa_usa reimagine the concept of “surface” across mediums, from textured and painted to built and broken-through works. Founded in 1889, NAWA continues to champion women’s voices in art with fearless innovation and layered beauty.
Exhibition: Surface by NAWA
Opening Reception: July 19 | 4-6 PM
On View: July 17–21, 2025
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WOODSTOCK SCHOOL OF ART | 2470 NY-212, Woodstock NY | @_woodstockschoolofart
Celebrate the region’s creativity with work from over 40 professional teaching artists alongside an art fair featuring prints, drawings, paintings, and sculptures. It’s a gathering of art, education, and community set within the storied grounds of this beloved institution.
Event: WSA Instructor Exhibition + Art Fair
On View: July 19–21, 2025
Saturday: 11 AM – 6 PM | Sunday: 10 AM – 3 PM | Monday: 9 AM – 3 PM (Exhibition only)
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EDWARD HOPPER HOUSE MUSEUM & STUDY CENTER | 82 N. Broadway, Nyack, NY | @edwardhopperhouse

Tomokazu Matsuyama
For the first time, Japanese-American artist Tomokazu Matsuyama engages with Edward Hopper’s vision in Morning Sun Dance (2025), a lush reimagining of Hopper’s iconic Morning Sun (1952). Where Hopper’s figure sits in sparse solitude, Matsuyama’s subject is surrounded by layered symbols of modern life—William Morris textiles, Japanese patterns, Muhammad Ali posters, and attentive dogs that underscore, rather than ease, her aloneness.
Morning Sun is a poetic dialogue across time, exploring how isolation shifts meaning in our layered, globalized world.
Exhibition: Tomokazu Matsuyama: Morning Sun
On View: June 20 – October 5, 2025
Admission: Museum ($8-$10) | Jazz Concert ($15-20) | Family Day (free)
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RAVENWOOD | 10 Old Farm Road, Kerhonkson, NY | @ravenwoodny
- Kieran Kinsella
- Dana McClure
- Doris Josovitz
- Sarah Boyts Yoder
At Ravenwood, Cross Section slices through complexity to reveal hidden layers and unexpected connections. Curated by Dana McClure, this exhibition brings together works in printmaking, painting, collage, fiber art, ceramics, and wood sculpture—each piece a meditation on material, process, and abstraction as a shared visual language.
From gestural to geometric, intuitive to methodical, Cross Section invites visitors to witness the quiet moments where intention meets spontaneity, where marks accumulate meaning, and where mediums speak to one another in conversation.
Exhibition: Cross Section: Abstraction Across Media & Process
Special Event: Friday, July 18 | 6-8 PM
Toast & Tour: An Upstate Art Weekend Walk-Through with Artists.
Enjoy complimentary wine or bubbly as you explore the space and engage directly with the nine featured artists during this intimate evening gathering.
On View: Through July 19, 2025
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Top Featured Photo: Kat Howard at BCMT Gallery
The Art of Getting There: Your Guide to Upstate Art Weekend
Ready to plan your art-filled adventure?
Use the thoughtfully designed Program to explore every participating art partner and begin mapping out your journey through these luminous landscapes of creativity. From intimate galleries tucked down winding roads to open-air installations blooming in wildflower fields, discover what makes 2025 a year of unmissable art.
And when it’s time to set out, let the digital map guide your way with ease. Spend less time navigating—and more time experiencing art that stirs your senses and roots you deeper into this extraordinary place.
“Upstate Art Weekend unfurls like a road trip for the soul—each stop a chance to see beauty anew.”
Here’s to a weekend of wonder, wandering, and seeing the world anew. Enjoy!
Read our exclusive interview with UPAW founder, Helen Toomer
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EXPLORE THE DIRECTORY for anything you’re looking for during Upstate Art Weekend: Hotels, Restaurants, Bars, Coffee Shops and more!
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