Closing Sunday, February 4: Last chance for Frank Webster | Emarkbreen Glaciers 

Frank Webster, an artist known for large-scale acrylic landscape paintings that explore ideas of time, distance, and the fragility of the world we inhabit, was awarded an Arctic Circle Residency in 2022. This program brings together international artists of all disciplines, scientists, architects, and educators who collectively explore the high-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and Arctic Ocean aboard a specially outfitted expedition vessel. Through fieldwork, research, and interdisciplinary collaborations, artists are supported in their search for creating boundary-pushing new work that deals with some of the most significant issues of our time. Above: Esmarkbreen Glacier (2023), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 120 inches; below: Blomstrandbreen, (2023) watercolor on handmade paper, 11 x 30 inches 

For Webster, the residency gave him the opportunity to work en plein air, making watercolor studies of glaciers up close, perched in a small Zodiac, then finishing them up on board the ship when wind and tides ruled against being at large on the sea.

The Arctic Circle Residency has led to a continuing series of paintings, from panoramic 30-inch-wide watercolors to mural-size works in acrylic on canvas, several of which are currently on view. To read more about Webster’s Arctic experience, and see photos from the exhibition, please go here. For info about the show, please go to @frankwebsterstudio

Isabel Sullivan Gallery, 39 Lispenard Street, New York, NY Info

Friday February 2, 6-8pm: Jeanne Verdoux | Female Vassaille

The title of these new works by New York Artist Jeanne Verdoux make a play on words: The French word vaisselle sounds like the English word “vessel” and means “tableware,” as well as washing the dishes, a domestic task traditionally given to women. Through ceramics, drawings, monoprints, and video, Verdoux stretches and pushes the idea of a “vessel,” exploring the full range of its meanings as not just a container but an object that receives, while conveying the plasticity, flexibility, and variability of what it means to be a woman. The results are whimsical as well as freakish, contorted forms that meld perceptions of beauty, utility, and fantasy.

The feminine body as a vessel started emerging in Verdoux’s drawings (top right) and prints in 2015, and she began experimenting with clay a few years later, in order to create actual vessels—the female figure as a symbolic container with human attributes. These humanized vessels explore the feminine body as a storage for interior life experiences. Fertility and motherhood, balance and gravity, humor and absurdity are some of the themes @jeanneverdoux explored in Female Vaisselle. 

Sculpture Space NYC, 47-21 35th Street, Long Island City NY  Info

Friday, February 2, 6-8pm: Rivers Flow | Artists Connect

In Rivers Flow / Artists Connect, American artists from the 1820s to the present day explore and illuminate our profound, symbiotic relationship with significant rivers across the globe, from the Hudson and the Susquehanna to the Indus and the Seine.

The Hudson River Museum’s new West Wing galleries, basking in a dramatic view of the Hudson River and the Palisades, are an opportune setting for this exhibition. It features works by more than forty artists, whose paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and video demonstrate their role in recalling and reinforcing our instinctive connection with rivers.  Just as rivers shape the land and surmount obstacles on their inexorable journey to the sea, artists also boldly confront barriers and challenges, from land access to environmental change. Their creative expressions help us see rivers with new eyes, and perhaps even a renewed sense of wonder, connection, and purpose, as we consider our own community’s rivers and our own responsibility for stewardship. The exhibition, co-curated by Laura Vookles and Jennifer McGregor, includes work by long-time DART subscriber Susan Wides.

Hudson River Museum, 511 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, NY Info

Saturday, February 3, 3-6 pm: Studio 41 | Back Wall Gallery

Studio 41, a new art collective in Long Island City, was founded to exhibit the work of local artists in the working studio of printmaker Dianne Martin. Here artists work in a diverse range of mediums and might be working in the studio space during gallery hours, at the etching press, or conducting a workshop on their particular technique.  Paintings, prints, photography, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry and other handmade artisanal items on view are affordably priced, appealing to new collectors. As a young and growing organization Studio 41 offers many ways to engage, educate and delight visitors. Their slogan is “What’s On Your Walls?” Above: Works in clay and collage by Amy Geller

Studio 41 also offers a varied schedule of workshops and events each month. Drawing and printmaking, holiday ornament making, pop-up events, all with the goal of bringing art making and viewing art together in this intimate space.

Studio 41, 27-15 41st Avenue, Long Island City, NY Info 

Saturday-Sunday, February 3-4, 11am-6pm: 2024 Jersey Art Book Fair

Presented by Dense Magazine and DesignShed, this second edition of the Jersey Art Book Fair will feature over 100 exhibitors, including publishing houses, artists and curatorial collectives. In addition to perusing and purchasing books, zines, posters and other print ephemera, there will be a packed schedule of demos, workshops, festivities and performances on both days.

Attendees will also enjoy book readings and signings in the Listening Room, and the Reading Room with its views along the Hudson, coffee by local roasters Modcup, and a bounty of food trucks throughout the day.

After hours, join fellow print lovers, art book collectors and zinesters. The vibe of the night is curated by DARK.LOUD, Jersey City's own mood makers. You know it'll be a great time! Must be 21 or older to attend the party. Timed tickets for Saturday are available for $5. Sunday timed tickets are available for free (advanced registration required on the website).

Jersey Art Book Fair, CRNNJ Liberty State Park, 1 Audrey Zapp Drive, Jersey City NJ Info Tickets

Looking ahead: February: IFPDA Print Fair at The Armory 

Celebrating 550+ years of prints and printmaking, the IFPDA takes over the Park Avenue Armory for the 31st edition of this hotly anticipated event. Just in from Hyperallergic: The 2024 fair will see the premiere of an editioned blanket by Jeffrey Gibson (above), created to benefit the United States Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale in partnership with commissioners the Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe, Sotheby’s, and Sharon Coplan Hurowitz. Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and is of Cherokee descent. For more bout the show, please go here

Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue at 67^th Street, New York, NY Tickets