(HUDSON, N.Y.) – “Harvest,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Patricia Larsen, as well as small works in clay and textiles, opens at the Hudson Opera House on Saturday, October 25, 2014, and will run through December 14, 2014. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, October 25, 2014, from 5 to 7pm.

A native of Vancouver, Larsen now resides at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula, where the light inspires her work. The exhibition features a major body of large, multi-layered, mixed media paintings from 2007. The noted art critic Jonathan Goodman writes, “…her forthright, evocative paintings are best seen as examples of the ongoing evolution of the New York School, or abstract expressionism…. Larsen’s muted earth tones, drips, and thick stripes can be connected to art’s historical origins, but she has rendered this speech colloquial, part of current culture.”

One of the strongest components of Larsen’s art is its consistency in creating meditative landscapes, which dwell on paint’s ability to transform a surface without suggesting a particular object. “Beauty is in the juxtaposition of things, its energies working together in harmony and disharmony,” says Larsen. “Sometimes beauty is in the resistance and the tension, and sometimes it’s in complete surrender.”
The Hudson Opera House offers a year-round schedule of arts and cultural programming in the former Hudson City Hall, which houses New York State’s oldest surviving theatre. Ongoing programs include concerts, readings, lectures, exhibitions, theatre and dance presentations, after-school programs, workshops, classes, and community arts events like the annual Winter Walk on Warren Street.