September arrives with its familiar mix of renewal and recognition — back-to-school energy, and the slow approach of year’s end. In the Hudson Valley, the changing light and deepening shadows only heighten the season’s drama, and galleries and museums are responding with ambitious exhibitions. This month’s highlights include Paula Greif’s elegant ceramics at Shaker Outpost, a survey of work by self-taught Black Arts Movement artist Reginald Madison at September, and bold fabric-based pieces by Holly McCabe at Distortion Society.
Also on view are the Hessel Museum at Bard College’s presentation of work by legendary gallerist, poet, and artist Betty Parsons, older works by four generations of Avery family artists at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts at Byrdcliffe, and bright collages by Delano Dunn at Troutbeck. The Hudson Valley’s art scene continues to thrive, offering a chance to take in Mother Nature at her most radiant as summer gives way to fall.
Paula Greif: Baskets & Buckets
Shaker Outpost, 4 Depot Square, Chatham, New York
Through Sep. 20
The Shaker Museum’s new building in Chatham is slated to open in 2028, but until then, it is mounting a series of pop-up exhibitions at its Shaker Outpost site. Baskets and Buckets presents new ceramic works by Paula Greif, whose practice is a spirited meditation on these functional forms in clay. Works with titles such as “Black Circle Basket” and “White Porcelain Stick Basket” (all works 2026) reflect Greif’s affinity with Shaker ideals of simplicity and restrained beauty. “Ovals Bucket” is a striking white form with blue shapes on its indented sides, while “Tree of Life Basket” offers an elegant stoneware version of the sacred motif.
Greif worked with local artists Doug Newton on the handles and Nadia Yaron on the wood grips for select pieces. Known for an eclectic career spanning art direction, album cover design, and commercial television, Greif has turned to ceramics with remarkable grace, and the results are a pleasure to behold.
Reginald Madison: New Slant Old Story
September, 4 Hudson Street, Kinderhook, New York
Through Sep. 27
The late Reginald Madison, a self-taught artist from Chicago’s South Side, was an important figure in the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and ’70s. Raised amid jazz musicians and later inspired by a found box of paints, he devoted his life to painting. New Slant Old Story, on view at September, brings together some of Madison’s earliest works, many of them shown publicly for the first time.
Several portraits of nuns reveal the beginnings of his mature expressionistic style, including “Sister Veronica Marie” (1988) and “Choir Boys” (1992), which shows a nun between two exaggerated yellow figures appearing to sing hymns. “Rude Nude Voodoo” (1979) presents two demons in a hazy crimson setting, one with a conspicuous erection. “The Dance Lesson” (1980), made on salvaged panels, is a frenetic composition featuring nuns, semi-nude figures, flames below, a devilish creature above, and angels surrounding the scene.
Ellen K. Levy: Displaced Tears in the Fabric of the Universe
68 Prince Street Gallery, 68 Prince Street, Kingston, New York
Through Sep. 27
Since receiving a NASA art commission in 1985, Ellen K. Levy has remained captivated by the space program, weaving iconic imagery from the space age into swirling technological landscapes with a sci-fi sensibility. Curated by Alan Goolman at 68 Prince Street Gallery, Displaced Tears in the Fabric of the Universe features a group of Levy works that layer acrylic over digital collage on paper. “Transmission” (2019) includes a small floating astronaut at left, mathematically engineered structures in the center, and finely detailed spacecraft at right.
In “Space Nets” (2026), viewers hover above Earth amid satellites and other manmade forms caught in a mass of colliding space debris. Her sculptural installation “Astronaut Tears: In, On, and Through” (2026) offers a poetic image of human tears as tiny planets, floating through zero gravity across the universe.
Elisa Pritzker, Echoes of the Ancestral
Arts Society of Kingston (ASK), 97 Broadway, Kingston, New York
Sep. 5–27
At Arts Society of Kingston, Elisa Pritzker presents a body of work that honors her Argentine roots. Across recent 2D and 3D mixed media pieces, she explores legacy through vivid arrangements of fabric, ribbons, and other natural materials. “Ceremonial Stick” (2025) is a slim wooden staff wrapped in patterned textiles and seemingly prepared for ritual use, while the chunky painted “Power Stone” (2026) sits on a black wood base crossed with fabric.
Pritzker’s two tondos, “Geologic-era Fish” (2025) and “Ancient Ornament” (2025), feature sacred abstract and organic forms that hover near figuration. Her sculpture “Ancient Fishes” (2025) offers a personal reading of the ancient image of two fish as emblems of fertility and abundance.
