“The only way to find what you are craving is to create it”

Edition 4: An interview with Laurie De Chiara, Founder and Director of ArtPort Kingston

One of my anxieties about moving out of the city last year was leaving behind the ability to hop into exhibitions by exciting new artists, any time of the day or night. Because, let’s face it, nowhere can match NYC for the density of artistic experiences, ancient and contemporary — from resting in the shade of a sculpture on the iconic steps of The Met, to discovering weird little galleries behind paint-scratched doors everywhere from LES to Bushwick.

However, it turns out that there are not only plenty of artists hidden away in the Catskill hills, but also an upstate art scene being cultivated in unexpected spaces. One such place, is ArtPort Kingston, that opened in 2019: a large, immersive art gallery housed in a disused warehouse — the historic Cornell Steamboat Building — on the banks of the Rondout Creek in Kingston, NY.

ArtPort Kingston was dreamed up and brought into being by a creative and enterprising couple: Laurie De Chiara, the gallery’s Director, and her husband Stefan Saffer, its Director of Interactions. Laurie has owned and run galleries in NYC and Berlin, and Stefan is also a practicing artist and art teacher at SVA. They moved to the Hudson Valley five years ago and haven’t looked back. “ArtPort is exactly what I dreamed of visiting”, says Laurie. 

I spoke to Laurie recently about her journey through the art world, how she originally started her upstate endeavors with a gallery in the picturesque Stone Ridge library before shifting sites to Kingston, her dedication to making art more accessible to more people, and her inclusive, anti-snobbery approach to curation: “I could care less who the artist is, I just care about the art”, Laurie told me. 

My family and I visited ArtPort Kingston recently, drinking in the riverside vibes and cultural stimulation (my kids particularly loved the ride-on unicorns installation, naturally), and I am thrilled to give you the chance to hear more about the gallery and the upstate art scene from Laurie herself.

Laurie De Chiara, Founder and Director of ArtPort Kingston

AJL: Laurie, thank you for creating such an inspiring space at ArtPort Kingston. How does it feel, after a weird and stressful year, to be welcoming the community back into the space?
LDC: It feels great to have so many people coming back in to visit ArtPort Kingston in full force and feeling comfortable to be inside the galleries again.  We only closed temporarily during Covid high times: we re-opened at the end of May 2020 because I figured the building is a huge and well ventilated old warehouse building, plus I had my office out on the deck so people felt free to roam around the space alone. I also took on the unpredictable nature of Covid life and created exhibitions with no specific beginning or ending date, and changed the works around during the show. I felt it was an opportunity to emphasize and be comfortable with not knowing what would be next. It worked especially well for visitors who came back every week, there was a new surprise on view in the exhibition.

I really loved the immersive knitted exhibit by Jeila Gueramian that creeps onto the walls. Tell me about some of the artists you are currently featuring, and why their work inspires you.
The current exhibition, Form or Function, is my take on having a dialogue with craft, design and fine art, and blurring the boundaries. The exhibition presents works that cross over media and discipline, exploring the relationship of objects. “Form” and “Function” are often clearly defined, but here is an attempt to explore notions and create dialogue. One basic principle of “good” design is “form follows function”, which states that the form art takes should be based upon its intent and purpose. What if form is the function? 

The debate between art and design is old and continues to grow. Looking at everyday images, objects, tools and things, we have very different emotional bonds with them. An artist creates a dialogue with their materials, providing intentions. Is it their function, or is it their form, their history, or the story we create that attracts us? For example, Jeila’s work for me creates a mood of coziness and familiar settings. The use of upcycled and expanded crochet afghan blanket creates a memory or dialogue for viewers, and then Jeila adds in her whimsical element to make an environment.

Installation by Jeila Gueramian at ArtPort Kingston

You bring both local artists and artists from the city to the gallery. How do you go about finding artists you want to feature at ArtPort Kingston?
I have an incredible archive of artists in my memory over the years of working with so many people in New York, around the US and Europe. Plus, I constantly research new artists for exhibitions with studio visits, art exhibitions, fairs and recommendations. Interestingly, Covid has forced me to work more locally since I am not shipping work internationally and artists are not traveling, so it is wonderful to work more regionally. I joke that at the moment I am only working with artists within a three-hour radius, but weirdly that seems to be the case. It feels really nice to support more local creative energy and it has allowed me to really get to know the community in the Hudson Valley and New York City again.

As you dig deeper into the upstate artist community, who are the local artists you wish everyone knew more about, and has anything surprised you?
Jeila Gueramian is local to Hudson Valley and Brooklyn and her work is just magical, with her sense of playfulness that can transform a space with her installations of textile works.  Beth Humphrey is an artist/art educator and local mover and shaker, who has lived in the Hudson Valley for the last 20 years, but grew up in NYC as the daughters of artists. Her paintings, mixed media collage and watercolor works are inspiring gems of color.  

Seth David Rubin is a photographer who studied at Bard College and then Yale. He creates photographs that transform one’s understanding of photography: he photographs with glass and lens to distort the subject to create painterly, subtle abstraction images that obscure our perspective. Lilah Friedland also attended Bard College and, after many years in NYC, settled back in the Hudson Valley to set up her truly independent press — Invisible Hand Press — in Tivoli. Her works are text-based letter press editions but she also is a performance artist, connector and creative engine who crosses over many creative media.  

And, I cannot forget to mention Stefan Saffer who also happens to be my husband. He also has a range of art practices, from formal color field abstraction and text based delicate paper cut-outs to large scale interactive installations to public art in urban settling. His mobile of painted drum panels that you can throw ping pong balls at to make sound is on view at ArtPort Kingston currently.

My kids enjoying a ride on the unicorn installation at ArtPort Kingston

You spent thirteen years in Berlin, often working with museums on large, interactive installations. How important to the mission of ArtPort Kingston is the ability for people to be able to touch and play with the art?
I wear a few different hats in the art world, curating, art dealing and education, so I naturally float from one to the other and realize it is easier to combine them all — so that is what I am trying to do with ArtPort Kingston. Originally my gallery in NYC, De Chiara|Stewart, was a straight forward Chelsea commercial gallery, but I often exhibited artist’s installations alongside more sellable artworks. And in Berlin, at my gallery müllerdechiara, I became even more adventurous with installations and video projections. 

Finally when I left the gallery, I re-evaluated what was important to me, and I wanted to create art experiences that were accessible to a wide audience, so I co-founded ArtPod Berlin, a non profit that creates exhibitions often with an interactive, hands-on emphasis. I was invited to curate shows with ArtPod and I realized how much people loved to engage with art.  I now combine the more “traditional” hands off experience with “engaged” art, just to have a balance. 

ArtPort Kingston also recently launched ArtStream: art that people can see as they walk along the Rondout Creek Walkway. Why is public art part of your approach to curation?
It is extremely important to me that everyone gets to experience art, and if people are not comfortable coming into the gallery, or just don't want to, then I love to share with them in a more public manner. So, we started ArtStream with site-specific art installations along the walkway.  This space is open to everyone, people walking their dogs, bikers, strollers, families, elderly — it is art for everyone and it is on view 24/7.  Some of the works are temporary and others have been up for more than a year.  I also like the idea of animating the landscape and having a nice colorful surprise that pops out the trees or woven into the chain link fence or hanging from a tree.  

Art Stream installation in 2020: ‘Nonument’ by Ben Quesnel (photograph by Veronica Fassbender)

The Hudson Valley offers natural wonders and man-made experiences, including beautiful sculpture parks like Opus 40. To what and where do you turn to for a dose of culture outside your own projects? 
To be honest, I don’t get so much time off since we are open on the weekends but, when I do, I am a big fan of Art OMI, The Fields Sculpture Park and The Wassiac Project.

You described the feeling of moving the Hudson Valley as “my shoulders went down.” How has moving to the area impacted you personally and professionally?
I always joke that I will be five minutes longer now that I live up here in the “country”.  I grew up in NYC and I have always felt like I have an internal fast speed engine inside me (I guess it is from years of running in the subway as a kid), but I now feel like time slowed down and I value my time in a different way, I love it.  My husband Stefan grew up on a farm in Germany and he always said I would hate living here after three days, but I am the one who could never imagine living in the city again.  My overall pace is different now, I have time to take walks with my dog on the rail train everyday, I can have friends over for dinner and while away the hours or read a book. 

It’s interesting, during the last year with so many people moving to the Hudson Valley, and people coming into ArtPort, they always asked me, “How do you like living here?”, “Is there enough to do?”, “How is the social scene?” I always respond and say how much I love living here. When I arrived five years ago, I was also looking for a community, a place where people gather, a place to check out inspiring art and culture. And then I realized, the only way you can find what you are craving is to create it, so ArtPort Kingston was a dream and I made it happen.  

Artwork by Sophi Kravitz at ArtPort Kingston (photograph from ArtPort Kingston)

With ArtPort Kingston, you have put a cultural stake in the ground for the art scene in Kingston. What’s your vision for the future of art and artists upstate? 
I think things can only get better with more artists moving to the area and art spaces and creative projects happening in the area. I remember when I first moved to Chelsea in the late 90s and there were a handful of galleries on 26th street, but every time a new space opened it created more exchange and a feeling of camaraderie, creating a synergy that feeds each other. The same thing happened in Berlin, so many creative folks all wanting to figure out how to exist. The only thing is, I don't want it to become too overwhelming because here in the Hudson Valley, and Kingston in particular, it is so rural all around and not a huge metropolis, and that’s what makes it special. 

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Thank you, Laurie, for the inspiration. I encourage you to all pop into ArtPort to experience it for yourselves. The Form or Function exhibition continues through this weekend — go jump on those unicorns!

Stay tuned for the next edition, where we will dive into the world where sports meets punk rock in the Hudson Valley…