10:00 AM Online | September Virtual Exhibition Artist Reception

Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden Virtual Exhibition and Artist Reception

ArtWomen@Work Museum Space at the Hammond Museum is delighted to present, for its first virtual exhibition, the work of two artists who are engaged with transforming nature into art. The virtual exhibition Landscape Deconstructed: Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman opens on September 11, 2021. The exhibition will be available to view on the Hammond Museum website (hammondmuseum.org/virtual-galleries) until June 2022. 

The virtual opening will include a tour of the exhibition and an interview with Linda Stillman and Mimi Graminski hosted by Jennifer McGregor, former Senior Director of Arts, Education and Programs at Wave Hill. The exhibition is curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. 

Hudson Valley artists Mimi Graminski and Linda Stillman met in 2011 through a program sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts and were immediately struck by the connections in their work. Each artist explores her relationship to the environment and uses non-traditional materials to record intimate observations of her surroundings. This is the first time the two artists’ work is presented in tandem. The virtual exhibition explores the differences and similarities in Graminski’s and Stillman’s work while highlighting their fresh approach to landscape art across a range of mediums, including collage, photography, video, sculpture, and painting. 

Landscape Deconstructed includes photographs from Stillman’s Daily Skies project, ongoing since 2005, for which she draws, paints, or photographs a small section of the sky each day. In Graminski’s Blue Shadow Series, the artist records observations of shadows caused by wind in the trees. Both artists use leaves and flowers as a material in their work, such as Graminski’s Sassafras Series and Petal and Leaf Series and Stillman’s leaf collages and flower stain drawings. In her Locust Leaf series and Petal series, Graminksi places leaves and flower petals on pins and creates videos and photographs with the resulting shadows. The exhibition also features Stillman’s photographs from her August Garden Project documenting a garden planted in the form of a calendar. The two artists deconstruct elements of their surroundings and reassemble them in ways that transform the natural materials. Through this process they preserve and remember fleeting moments of beauty in nature while documenting a particular time and place.

Mimi Czajka Graminski explores materials, light, and color through diverse disciplines. Currently she is showing in Voices; I Remember the inaugural exhibition of the ArtWomen@Work Museum Space at the Hammond Museum. Also in 2021 she is exhibiting at InView Project, Danbury, CT; and Smallbany Gallery, Albany, NY. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Ann Street Gallery, Window on Hudson, Lockwood Gallery, the Hyde Collection, Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Islip Museum, Katonah Museum of Art, and Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies, all in New York. In 2020, Vasari21 art blog featured Graminski’s work and Hammond Museum’s Frank Matheis showcased her work in the essay: “Delicate Boldness.” Her interview with Sarah LaDuke aired on WAMC Radio “Creativity During Covid 19” and she was interviewed for WGXC Radio 4Arte about her solo exhibition in Hudson, NY. Graminski’s recent sculpture is included in Surface Design Journal’s International Exhibition in Print. She was highlighted in The New York Times for work at The Hat Factory and at the Akin Museum. Her website is mimigraminski.com. 

Linda Stillman is a Hudson Valley artist who works in various media, investigating concepts of time, memory and nature. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VA & France), the New York Foundation for the Arts Mark program, the Wave Hill Winter Workspace and The Studios at Mass MoCA. Her work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums around the country including the Brooklyn Museum, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of art, Hunter College Art Galleries, the Arts Club of Chicago, and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Stillman’s work has been reviewed in numerous publications including The New York Times and Hyperallergic. Her work is included in private and public collections such as the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Stillman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the School of Visual Arts, and Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA). Her website is lindastillman.com. 

Jennifer McGregor is a curator and arts planner who develops strategies to engage non-traditional public spaces, diverse audiences, and innovative artists. She conceived place-based arts programming at Wave Hill, in the Bronx, from 1999 to 2020. At Wave Hill she activated connections to the environment by producing adventurous exhibitions, residencies, and performances exploring nature, culture, and site.

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The virtual Artist Reception will be live on Facebook.

Please join us live on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hammondmuseum/

Artist Reception is on Saturday, September 11th at 10:00 am New York Time streaming live on Facebook.

LIVE EVENT BROADCAST ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/hammondmuseum/

10:00 a.m. New York