ARTISTS

LOKI ANTHONY

As of January 2023 Loki Anthony has assumed the position of Public Relations and Outreach Manager here at Lightforms Art Center. Loki has many years of experience in the arts as a Multi-media Artist, Curator, and exhibition designer, as well as over 20 years of working with local organizations throughout Columbia County and beyond. His focus at Lightforms is in developing healthy relationships with our arts community and bridging other art-based causes with our own mission of the free expression of art +spirit through use of our space.

Donna Barrett

Donna Barrett lives near Hudson, NY. Her artwork has been acquired by the Everhart Museum in Scranton, PA; the Absolut collection of the Spritmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden; the Art Students League of New York; and for corporate and private collections. Most recently her work was exhibited at CREATE Gallery in Catskill, NY, and in online auctions to benefit the Hudson Area Library in Hudson and CITYarts in NYC. She has exhibited locally in group shows for Columbia County of the Arts in Hudson, at Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, and at M Gallery and Brik Gallery in Catskill. She has also exhibited in group shows at the Children’s Museum in Troy; the University at Albany Art Museum in Albany; the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Conference Center for Medical Education in Wynnewood, PA; and the Art Students League and CITYarts events in NYC. Donna Barrett has an MA in Painting from the University at Albany, a Professional Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and a BFA in Art History and a BS in Nursing from the University of Texas, Austin. She studied visual art at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Beverly Hale, Rudolf Baranik, John Groth, and Hananiah Harari.

Jean Blackburn

A third generation Florida native, Jean grew up on Anna Maria Island. She holds an MFA from the University of Oregon, a BA from the University of Florida, an AS in Biological Parks Technology from State College of Florida, Gainesville. She held teaching positions at Ringling College of Art and Design, University of Oregon and State College of Florida, Manatee. Jean is a certified Master Gardener and Master Naturalist, has served on Sarasota County’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Oversight Council, governing boards of Sea to Shore Alliance and the Friends of Myakka River State Park. She sailed and painted throughout The Caribbean, Bahamas and Central America. With her husband, Steven Schaefer, part of each year is spent on a small farm in Old Myakka, a cottage in the Village of Longboat Key and with family on a ranch in Montana. A life altering month in Cuba was the apex of 2012.
**BIO CREDIT :**
*https://jeanblackburn.com/about/*
**PHOTO CREDIT :**
*Image Courtesy Of Jean Blackburn/*

Meredith Brick

When I was considering buying a house in 2006, I read that this little town in upstate New York, Hudson, had a local drag performer, Musty Chiffon. For me, that was a gay “green light”. When there’s a drag queen at the door, it tells people that it’s a queer-safe(r) space. In 2013, Girlgantua organized a “Drag Race” around 7th Street Park on Halloween. I think I was the emcee. There was a young college student, Dominick Multari, (now, Meredith Brick) dressed in Tim Curry-esque Rocky Horror fishnets and heels, who ran around 7th Street Park.
***PHOTO & BIO CREDIT:*** *https://www.trixieslist.com/2023/04/07/meredith-brick-the-next-generation-of-hudson-drag/*

David L. Bullis

David Bullis lived in North Benton, Ohio. From the beginning he was an outsider with a dark sense of humor, a curiosity that rural Ohio could not satisfy, and a need to create. When graduating high school he was told by his father that he could not be an artist. That, “Making art is not a job.” David’s response was to join the Navy and see the world. He became a fighter jet mechanic on an aircraft carrier and toured the Asian Seas. After the Navy he spent the late 60’s exploring the North and South Western United States, experimenting with painting, making sand candles, and racing cars. Eventually he returned to Ohio, got married and raised a family. He had a large workshop / studio where he spent the large majority of his free time creating and building things. Not satisfied with just fitting in the time to create art, he took early retirement and devoted the last 15 years of his life to doing what he wanted to do - paint, sculpt, carve, build, and write. He accepted death knowing that he had made the most out of life and that he had created as much as he was able to.

William Kentridge

William Kentridge was born in 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa where he currently lives and works. Often drawing from socio-political conditions in post-apartheid South Africa, William Kentridge’s work takes on a form that is expressionist in nature
For Kentridge, the process of recording history is constructed from reconfigured fragments to arrive at a provisional understanding of the past—this act of recording, dismembering and reordering crosses over into an essential activity of the studio.
His work spans a diverse range of artistic media such as drawing, performance, film, printmaking, sculpture and painting. Kentridge has also directed a number of acclaimed operas and theatrical productions.

Maximilian Cappelli-King

Shortly before graduating from college, Max was introduced to Jonah and invited to participate in the creation of AIRLOCKS, a work inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s Pelican (1963) and performed as part of Doug Aitken’s Station to Station in 2013. Max continued working with Jonah the following year on Fragments (2014) created for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City. After some time away from the stage, Max is happy to be making this return as part of JBC, and was recently promoted to Associate following his performances at FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall.

Carole Eisner

Carole Eisner has worked with scrap and recycled metal for 40 years creating elegant, abstract forms welded in steel. The artist's compositions reflect the surprising malleability she finds with metal. She works with “the debris of our civilization,” reclaiming and reassembling disregarded fragments of buildings and bridges into art. Eisner's longevity as an artist is a testament to the natural marriage between her monumental outdoor sculptures and the climate of public spaces. Eisner received a BFA from Syracuse University. A lifelong New Yorker, the artist splits her time between New York City and Weston, Connecticut.

https://susaneleyfineart.com/Detail/artists/Eisner/view/bio

Mimi Czajka Graminski

Mimi Czajka Graminski is a multi-disciplinary artist working in a variety of media - sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video. Her work is wide ranging, and is consistently based in the exploration of materials, light and color.
*https://www.mimigraminski.com/about*

Jon IsherwooD:
PUBLIC SCULPTURE
(2022, 2023: Seasonal)

Isherwood’s public artwork has been widely exhibited in public museums and private galleries in US, Canada, Europe and China. He is the recipient of a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New York at Plattsburgh. His sculpture has recently been exhibited at Villa Strozzi, Florence, Italy, The National Archaeological museum, Florence Italy, Ping Yao II, China; The DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Boston Mass and in Belgrave Square, London, UK. He has had over 25 solo exhibitions, including Reeves Contemporary in NYC, John Davis Gallery in NYC; The C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore; Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum in Hamilton, OH. He has been featured in many group exhibitions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy; The McNay Museum, San Antonio, TX; The Derby City Museum, Derby, UK; and Kunsthalle, Manheim, Germany. His work can be found in more than 25 public collections. Isherwood has completed over 30 commissions in the private and public sector including a recent commission for New Jersey Public art, Capital One investments, USA, the US State department Art in Embassies program for the new Embassy in Oslo Norway, The Peninsula hotel, Beijing China, Public Art San Antonio, Fidelity investment UK, BCA, St Paul MN and The Woodner Memorial sculpture at the Evening Star building Washington DC. Isherwood’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews, The Washington Post, The New York Sun, Sculpture Magazine, Partisan Reviews, The Philadelphia Enquirer, London Times and in The Guardian, UK. He has made personal appearances on shows featuring his work, including WAMC Public Radio and The Culture Show, BBC Television, UK. He has lectured at numerous colleges and universities in the U.S, Europe and China. He teaches at Bennington College VT and is the President of the Digital Stone Project.
***Photo Credit:*** ***jonisherwood.com***.

**Isaiah João**

Isaiah João is an expressionist dancer, b-boy (Bamboozle Crew of Louisville) and student of capoeira (Cordão de Ouro, baptized under CM Xangô). Firmly rooted in their heritage, Isaiah uses their body as a vessel to emote words of spirits, exploring shape/space in a way that gives narrative to lineage. He has been affiliated with JBC since 2019.

Michael Lavine

Michael Lavine is a portrait and entertainment photographer based in New York City. Renowned for his visually dynamic sensibility and keen attention to formal composition, Michael has been making iconic photographs of celebrities with his unique, dramatic style for 25 years. His photographs of luminaries such as Kurt Cobain, Jay-Z, Cher, Keith Richards, Tilda Swinton and Brian Cranston have graced magazine and album covers around the world. Michael works extensively in the Network Television industry, shooting advertising campaigns for shows such as Empire, The Following, 24, Fringe and The X-Files. As one of the leading photographers in the Hip Hop world, Michael has shot album covers for artists such as Notorious B.I.G, Puffy, Lil’ Kim, and The Wu Tang. In fine art, Lavine has had three shows at Team Gallery in Chelsea, exhibiting a series of artist portraits including Elizabeth Peyton, Karen Kilimnick and John Currin. In 1996 Simon & Schuster published “Noise from the Underground” a book of Michael’s photographs of indie rock bands; including Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Pavement, and Dinosaur Jr. In 2009, Abrams published “GRUNGE” a book of Michael’s photographs documenting the Seattle punk scene of the 80’s.
*https://www.michaellavine.com*
*PHOTO FROM IMDb*

Sondra Loring

Sondra Loring is an interdisciplinary queer witch, sharing somatic practices, yoga, meditation, science, poetry, farming and dance, with a strong sense of play, and a nurturing of community. She lives on Feathertail Farm, a small shared garden.

Matrix

Matrix also known as Code Ready is one of the most diverse hip hop artist mixing the 90's hip hop sound with a modern wordplay twist, rapping and 🎭 at various venues and platforms throughout New York and the greater Upstate Regions.for over 20 years has never let his passion for hip hop music fade by reaching thousands with his uplifting sound.

Jodi Melnick &
Maya Lee-Parritz
@ HUDSON HALL

A homage to Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s extraordinary feminist novel, choreographer and dancer Jodi Melnick and collaborator Maya Lee-Parritz’s duo Água Viva expands upon Lispector’s notions of virtuosity, sexuality, and the spectacular, probing the limits of spontaneity through intricate movement. Melnick is “one of the most beautiful dancers there ever was—full of delicacy, lucidity, sensuality, mystery, and ferocity, which gives her an indelible sense of drama” – Gia Kourlas, DANCE magazine “My vision is to use body language to demonstrate how dance can communicate, locate a nerve, and unhinge a narrative.” – Jodi Melnick

**Tom McGilL**

The first-born child of my parents, I continue to be the oldest of my siblings. Born in Jamaica, Queens, raised in NJ, I have been a college administrator, stay at home dad, bartender, waiter, teacher, carpenter, contractor, designer, artist. I like to take things apart and, to a lesser degree, put them back together. I have a favorite fork. Since early 2013, I have lived and worked in Hudson, New York. I am the artist-in-residence at 46 Green Street Studios, a creative center which has studio spaces for artists and the home of Circle 46 Gallery which I co-own and co-curate.

**Rune Olsen**

Rune Olsen is a sculptor and makes drawings. His figurative and representational artworks incorporate a wide variety of easily found and domestic materials such as industrial copper pipe sourced at the hardware store, Q-tips, cheeseballs, a bathtub, a sink, and a shower curtain, among many other kinds of materials and objects. The resulting sculptures and drawings reflect the everyday struggle to enact humanity in a traumatized and anxiety ridden world. He often references his own childhood and background as the subject of his work, having grown up being a bullied queer kid on a small religious island in the fjords of Norway during the height of the AIDS crisis. His artworks have also addressed eating disorders and resulting body dysmorphia, as well as his own experience with neurodivergence. The sculptures and drawings elicit the complex and contrasting emotions that many of us experience while navigating contemporary life, recognizing that exhilaration and disgust, self-hate and fulfillment can exist simultaneously. By continuing to confront his own history, observe normative narratives, analyze human behavior in viral memes, and use domestic ready-mades to sculpt these vulnerable states, Rune Olsen’s work reflects the everyday challenge to be human. Since his first solo show of assisted readymades in 1997 at UKS in Norway he has exhibited widely throughout USA and Europe. His sculptures relating to the body and human condition have been exhibited at The Bronx Museum in New York, the Drawing Biennial at Kunstnernes Hus in Norway, LaMama Galleria, Islip Art Museum, Jones Center for Contemporary Art, Montgomery Art Museum, Smack Mellon and Exit Art. His work has been reviewed in Art Forum, Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, and has been the focus of several magazine features and interviews. Rune Olsen has won multiple awards from The Norwegian Government, including a distinguished three-year work grant for young emerging artists. He has been awarded a studio residency with Artist Alliance in New York, a place at Art Omi International Artists Residency, and a residency with The Headlands Center for the Arts. He is a 2009 Fellow in Sculpture from the New York Foundation for the Arts. From 2011 - 2012 he held a yearlong residency at Citè Internationale des arts in Paris. Rune Olsen has taught at numerous institutions including the Outreach program at Cooper Union, the undergraduate program at John Jay College, and most recently he was an Assistant Professor in Visual Arts in both the undergraduate and graduate programs at Boston University. Rune Olsen currently lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.

ALESSANDRO PESSOLI

Alessandro Pessoli was born in 1963 in Cervia, Italy. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. His practice is typically multimedia in nature, focusing on drawing, painting and sculpture, while also favoring ceramic.
Often underscored by themes spanning politics, religion, history, culture, and identity, his research recalls the theme of the sacred and the religious, emerging both from the resumption of historical figures, classical art-historical iconography, and everyday images which intermingle in a reconstruction of reality that is dreamlike, painful, and sometimes grotesque, but never lacking instinctive emotion.

Raymond Pinto

Raymond is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and writer. Their practice focuses on improvisation and visualization through embodied techniques. They're a graduate of the Juilliard School and NYU. Since reconnecting with Jonah Boaker, their collaboration converges on aspects related to one's purpose and discovery of the ways in which dancing presents possibilities of liberation. Where form frees from being bound to meridians flowing through poles; banking between dynamic states of being.

Michael Larry Simpson

Lifelong painter and designer. Formal training at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and the School of Visual Arts and Art Student's League in New York City. Always working in multiple styles and series with primary interest in abstraction, minimalism, concept, color, line, design, construction, oil, latex, stain and wood. Very process-oriented with interest in designing, decorating and constructing art works.
*https://www.michaellarrysimpson.com/*
*PHOTO :* *https://www.saatchiart.com/michaellarrysimpson*

Andy Šlemenda

Andy Šlemenda (they/them) is a queer, transgender artist from rural Appalachia. They roleplay with concepts of transformation and transcendence embedded in corporeality and spirituality. Their artworks challenge perceptions that the unknown or unusual, historically deemed the queer, is evil. Šlemenda rehabilitates these queer-coded representations through site-specific events and sculptures. Šlemenda draws from their origins in Northwestern Pennsylvania, a region known for its agriculutural workingclass, paranormal sightings, and the Amish and Quaker communities. Coming out there and expressing themselves as trans was a difficult but powerful experience. This process of self-actualization grew into a passion for occult practices. Šlemenda found that the esoteric encapsulated a transcendent approach to selfhood encoded in a complex, abstract visual language. Their creative works often emerge from these otherworldly systems as a means of channeling the deepest apparitions of the self. Šlemenda’s artworks have been exhibited throughout the United States, France, Germany, Turkey and Canada. They received their MFA from New York University Steinhardt and were a Sorbonne-Panthéon Université 1 postgraduate fellow. They have instructed courses at Carnegie Mellon University and NYU. Their work has been included in Viola Kolarov’s On Reading Walter Benjamin as Pure Medium, in conversation with Katherine Sperber in Strange Fire Collective and with Nüans Nüans for Revolver Publishing.

BIO CREDIT : https://www.andyslemenda.com/info

PHOTO CREDIT : https://www.turley.gallery/the-garden