Mentor Valerie Hammond in Two Shows This Fall

Visual Arts Mentor Valerie Hammond is featured in two group shows this fall. The first was a celebration of the well-regarded Hudson, NY space Carrie Haddad Gallery. On view from August 4 to September 19, the show commemorated the 30th anniversary of this important institution. Entitled Then and Now, the exhibit “provide[d] a look back at the Hudson art scene of the early ’90s—one that Haddad helped shape.” In this show, each artist exhibited an older work alongside a more recent creation in order to foreground a sense of the past and its impact on the present. Other artists included were Cynthia Atwood, Jean Campbell, Howard Crouch, Ann Getsinger, David Halliday, Peter Hoffman, Phyllis Palmer, Joy Taylor, and Laura Von Rosk.

The second show takes place at the Lehman College Art Gallery and remains open until November 13, 2021. This group show, entitled The Eyes Have It, takes as its theme “the eye, sight, and the politics of observation.” Throughout the exhibition, which includes 48 artists working in all different mediums, “each work... explores the eye in a human, predatory, or technological context. Interlocking themes encompass ageless associations from classical mythology to today’s threat of cyber-surveillance.”

Hammond’s work in each show explores themes of what is seen and what is invisible, the balance between the conscious and the unconscious, and the permeable line between presence and absence. Her ethereal prints use color and composition to evoke an almost trancelike state in the viewer. 

Hammond’s work can be found in both private and public collections such as the Walker Art Center, the Library of Congress, The Fine Arts Museum Houston, The Progressive Art Collection, the Fidelity Collection, the New York Public Library’s print and drawing collection, The Chazen Museum, The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, The Grand Palais Museum, Paris and the Getty Museum.