TALK SHOP 7.0
OPENING RECEPTION SUNDAY, MARCH 30TH 3-6PM
ON VIEW MARCH 1 - MAY 11
TALK SHOP 7.0 Curated By Vanessa Shafer & Cassandra Ruff Features New Work By:
SUE ALLBERT / VARIOUS MEDIUMS, KRISTIN GAUDIO ENDSLEY, ELLEN JOURET-EPSTEIN, TRISTAN FITCH, LILAH FRIEDLAND / INVISIBLEHAND PRESS, LOUISE KALIN, WEIZITONG KONG, FORREST LEWINGER / WORKADAY HANDMADE, DANA MCCLURE and SEVEN CEDARS NY
Be Well VERSED on our featured Artists
SUE ALLBERT /
Sue Allbert is the artist behind Various Mediums Inc. Born in the UK she earned a BA Hons from the University of Central England and an MA at the Royal College of Art in London. She has worked for fashion houses and home furnishing brands in the UK, Italy and the US. She now splits her time between Saugerties and Brooklyn, NY.
Her passion for fabrics is rooted in very early memories of learning to sew and mend with her beloved Grandmother.
Essentially painting with fabrics and thread, she mends and combines, dyes and manipulates, to create large scale wall hangings and studies.
She sees textiles not just as vessels of our bodies but as a means to express the progress of time, history, culture, identity, revolution and ancestors. She is a proud member of 1% for the Planet and uses vintage and found fabrics and remnants from the garment industry throughout her practice.
Instagram: variousmediumsinc
Photo Courtesy Felix Scaggiante
Raised near the rolling shores of Chesapeake Bay, Kristinβs perspective was strongly shaped by the visual clash of industry and nature in and around the bustling American port town of Baltimore. Descended from a long line of artists and craftsmen, Kristin has a family history in highly tactile expressions of creativity. Her grandfather was a furniture maker; her mother is a painter. Family influences in materials and craftsmanship helped fuel Kristinβs interest in textilesβboth natural and synthetic textures and patterns. As a result of this interest, in addition to her fine arts work, Kristin obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design and Illustration at Virginia Tech University. Kristin has traveled and studied extensively in Europe, Africa, and the United States where she honed her eye and trademark ability to create visual texture with a rich, adventurous color palette and expressive techniques.
Kristin currently lives and works in Hillsdale, New York and Brooklyn, New York .
Instagram: kristingaudioendsley
Ellen Jouret-Epstein is a self-taught artist who first exhibited weavings in museums and galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the nascent fiber arts movement. She is also a landscape architect, and her work often features a kind of landscape or topography.
Jouret-Epsteinβs work has been included in group exhibitions at The Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY; Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; LABspace, Hillsdale, NY; ASK/Art Society of Kingston, Kingston, NY; Athens Cultural Center, Athens, NY, Womenswork Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY; Joyce Goldstein Gallery, Chatham, NY; Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY; Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY; BAU Gallery, Beacon, NY; Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY; Columbia County Council on the Arts, Hudson, NY; The Trolley Barn Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY; Pinkwater Gallery, Kingston, NY; Blue Mountain Gallery, NY, NY; and LβARTeficIO, Torino Italy. In 2022 she was a featured artist at Window on Hudson, Hudson, NY, and her studio was selected to participate in Upstate Art Weekend in 2022. Jouret-Epsteinβs collage New Alphabet has been featured on the cover of the French literature journal lβesprit createur. She currently lives and works in New Yorkβs Hudson Valley.
Instagram: ejestudioart
Tristan Fitch is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist based in Catskill, NY. Working in ceramics, wood, and painting, his work explores architecture and nature with a focus on process, form, and surface texture. Tristan has exhibited at Wassaic Project, LABspace Art, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Kaatsbaan, Galapagos Art Space, Mayson Gallery and Christopher Henry Gallery in New York and the Miami Science Museum and Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, FL. Kristin currently lives and works in Hillsdale, New York and Brooklyn, New York .
Instagram: tristan_fitch
LILAH FRIEDLAND /
Lilah Friedland is an artist, mother, and musician. She makes work in whatever medium she wants to.
Instagram: invisible_hand
Louise Kalinβs reverence for nature and the environment is embedded in her images. She comes from a childhood in the Catskills, and on Cape Cod. Kalinβs perpetually abstracting and translating the landscape and the patterns of her surroundings: the patterns of plant life, water, above and beneath the surface, the woods, the trees, the mountains.
Kalin has honed her skill as a printmaker since the sixties. After RISD she printed at the DeCordova Museum School and a studio in Boston, until she could set up her first independent studio in the 70's. In the late eighties Kalin purchased her first large press for her NH studio, which has since moved three times. Her experimental plate-building and printing techniques developed in the 80's steered her toward layered and embossed prints with additions of drawing and collage. The boundaries of print and textile have become blurred.
The processes and materials keep leading Kalin forward.
Instagram: marylouisekalin
Photo Courtesy Marla Cohen, 1987WEIZITONG KONG /
kwzt studio is a Hudson Valley-based furniture and tableware studio founded by Weizitong Kong. Merging contemporary design with traditional craftsmanship, kwzt creates handcrafted pieces that highlight the beauty of natural materials, refined details, and signature designs. Born and raised in eastern China, Weizitong showed a natural talent and deep passion for painting and crafts from a young age. In 2014, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in fine arts, working as a visual artist before transitioning to craftsmanship. Now based in Hudson Valley, his work is deeply inspired by the surrounding landscapes, exploring the connection between people, nature, and everyday objects. Each piece is designed and made with careful attention to form, function, material, and joy.
Instagram: kwzt.co
FORREST LEWINGER /
Forrest Lewinger is an artist living and working in the Hudson Valley who primarily works in ceramics. He founded Workaday Handmade in 2012, as a means of exploring the design and manufacturing of functional ceramic objects. His approach to his ceramic work is guided by a playful interaction between technique, skill and material. The functionality of his pieces offer a conceptual framework into which the artist can bring his own aesthetic interests. Lewingerβs work is sold around the world through design retailers and galleries. He has participated in exhibitions at NADA and Scope, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Cooler Gallery in NY, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in NY, MOCA LA, and SFMOMA. Lewingerβs work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Sight Unseen, Modern Painters, and New York Magazine. He received his MFA from the California College of the Arts.
Instagram: workadayhandmade
Dana McClure is a multidisciplinary artist based in Upstate New York. Her work spans collage, printmaking, textile design, and the moving image, with a background in art direction for print, motion, and interactive media across commercial, non-profit, and cultural projects worldwide.
Danaβs five-year documentary film, Odd Ones Out, which she directed and co-produced, follows the journey of three transgender teens against all odds. The film received a Telly Award in 2008 and is distributed internationally. After a decade of teaching 2D Design and Time-Based Media at Parsons The New School for Design and New York University, she now devotes her studio practice to self-initiated mixed-media work.
Alongside her husband, chef Chris Lanier, Dana co-runs Ravenwood β a seasonal gathering space fueled by their flower and produce farm, which deeply informs her artistic practice. Her work explores floral abstraction, incorporating homegrown blooms into compositions through photography, painting, collage, and pressed botanicals. Many of these pieces are exhibited in Ravenwoodβs seasonal barn space, fostering a creative dialogue between farming, food, art, and design.
Instagram: danamcclure
The experience of seeing a fallen tree laying naturally in the forest on a walk, watching how the log aged, seeing its growth patterns over time... all of these things have inspired the evolution of Seven Cedars NY. The visceral feeling one gets from living in a βwild lumber yardβ after moving to the Hudson Valley was transformative for former city dweller, Will Larson. Rather than be subject to the precise dimensions of a commercial lumber mill, Will began processing the wood by hand in his upstate studio.
Having the space, freedom and time to let wood age naturally, as well as experimenting with injecting elements of decay into materials has opened doors to new objects and categories.
That said, one can never leave the city fully, so Will continues to take his influences from brutalist manhattan visages, and let the natural world collide with more modern materials like cement and concrete. With recipes that have taken years to hone in order to find a balance between delicate and strong, the concrete objects are both brutal and ornate. The beauty of the countryside has infiltrated Will's urban sensibilities, creating exquisite objects that can live comfortably in people's homes no matter the geography. His work has been mentioned in Forbes, Vogue , and the concrete infinity bowl was one of Harpers Bazaar top 100 things of 2022.
Instagram: sevencedarsny
Ongoing Works By
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Eric Conroe / Finding Form Design
Inspired by a deep range of historical forms, Finding Form is about designing and making furniture and goods that have durability, function - and the inherent beauty found therein.
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Elisa Finoli / Aglaia Jewelry
Hudson Valley jewelry designer dedicated to ethical, contemporary jewelry. Aglaia jewels are wearable reminders of the power of beauty. The secret is in their highly crafted sculptural simplicity.
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Ken Landauer / FN Furniture
Zero-Waste, body-fit, durable furniture designed and made in the Hudson Valley.
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New York Heartwoods
New York Heartwoods (NYH) is a woman-owned and operated fabricator of fine solid wood furniture, using sustainable wood milled from fallen and urban Hudson Valley trees. Founded in 2011 out of their love of forests and desire to create both beautiful timeless designs and environmental and economic solutions for their community, they impeccably craft unique heirloom-quality furniture.
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Swish & Hammer
Traci Pinczes, a Hudson Valley Native, is dedicated to creating highly crafted art, jewelry and decor integrating up-cycled materials and masterfully tedious technique. VERSE showcases a robust line of her beaded jewelry and hand-dyed silk tapestries.
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Emi Winter
A multi-disciplinary artist versed in printmaking, drawing, painting, and textiles had a desire to translate her exploration of color and texture from custom woodblock prints into wool. This exploration led Winter back to her hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico where she began working with local weavers. The experiment resulted with a series of rugs that are open editions, intended to be functional objects in peopleβs homes.
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Withers Studio
Withers Studio (formerly Withers & Grain) is a bespoke design and build studio based in Red Hook, NY with a Williamsburg retail storefront. They produce exquisitely crafted furniture for residential and commercial clients.
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Brad Lail / Lail Studio
Lail Design was founded in 2016 by Master Thrower Brad Lail. Rooted in traditional craftsmanship with a modern design approach, Lail Design makes high quality ceramics with a minimal aesthetic. Durable, versatile, and timeless, they are designed to outlive trends and last a lifetime. LAIL pottery is hand thrown, trimmed, glazed and fired from Brad's home studio in Catskill, NY.
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Saboon Maazeh
Traditional soaps and medicinal salves made with essential oils and natural colorants and herbs #fromsoiltosoap - join the soap CSA at saboonmaazeh.org
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Caitlin Lightfoot / Lightfoot Woods
Contemplative Jewelry, worn to remember the wonder of our animism in this universe, to reroot the earth within us. Made by stones foraged by Caitlin and recycled materials.
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Care Quarterly
A variety of seasonal, limited-edition subscription care package goods inspired by our future in now utopian playground. These products are made in collaboration with CareQuarterly & Invisible_Hand
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& TREAD WELL
Women owned simple & transparent self-care products that are dermatologist recommended. Small batch Hudson Valley Makers.
VERSE is committed to artful, lived design in the Hudson Valley.
We believe in the integrity of materials / the synergy of light + space / the depth of time + place / & the potency of celebration.
Talk Shop is the recurring series of exhibitions featuring regional artists and makers showcased at VERSE Work/Shop. Intermediary programming, solo exhibits of select artist or theme, are integrated in our yearly calendar. Follow us on Instagram as we share about current and upcoming programs.
Be Well VERSED
Follow us on Instagram @verse_work_shop
Sisters, Vanessa Shafer and Cassandra Ruff, co-founded and operate VERSE Work/Shop. Our location is also home to Shaferβs residential design studio VERSE WORKS Design Studio.
We believe good design is well VERSED.
Visit us Thursday-Saturday 12-5PM, Sunday 12-4PM & by appointment, always.
Email info@verseworkshop.com