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“The Allure of Nihonga: A Pigment Perspective”
Pigments Talk with Judith Kruger @judithkrugerstudio
July 18th, 12pm PDT introduction by Evie Hatch.
In this presentation, Judith Kruger explores the distinctive materials and techniques of Nihonga through the lens of Japanese pigments. Nihonga, (Nihon-Japan, ga-painting), emerged in the late 19th century during the Meiji period as a response to the growing influence of Western-style oil painting (yōga). Rooted in tradition yet shaped by modernization, Nihonga developed into a major movement within modern Japanese art.
Central to this tradition is its highly refined, extensive mineral pigment gradation system. Natural minerals are carefully ground, levigated and micronized into 15 different particle sizes, from coarse crystalline grains to fine powders. These grades determine luminosity, texture, and tonal subtlety, with coarser particles producing darker hues and finer particles yielding softer, lighter hues.
Rather than relying on color mixing, Nihonga artists build depth, hue and saturation through precise layering. Transparent animal-glue binders suspend pigments while preserving their natural clarity. More than any other historical pigment painting practice, natural pigments from shell, earth, mineral and plant pigments are selected and finessed for their unique individual and collective material qualities: ultimately contributing to the medium’s restrained beauty and visual complexity. Synthetic Japanese pigments are also available today, featuring colors and effects that are not necessarily found in nature.
To register for this free online event visit pigmentsrevealed.com ✨
An exhibition, with works in various media, from abstraction to abstracted, conceptual representation, that seeks to both conceptually and visually interpret and impress upon the viewer the universal importance and, subsequently, our utmost undeterred connection with the materiality and perceived sensation of the soil that covers our planet.
TERRA, earth, soil (Latin), brings into focus The Earth’s soil as a central component of human existence, as a habitat, and the terroir we live on.
The exhibition investigates the ground we stand on, grow on, and live from– and makes it the focal point and the central life ingredient for all above-water organisms.
The artists, with their distinct individual practices, look to conceptual and visual connections to ancient belief systems, mythology, religious practices, rituals, and psychological interpretations.
Furthermore, the exhibtion addresses humanity’s ongoing quest to both subjugate it and to be subjugated by the Earth’s forces– whether literally, psychologically, or spiritually.
EARTH IN THE BALANCE
Artist’s Voices for the Planet
The Interchurch Center is thrilled to present Earth in the Balance: Artists’ Voices for the Planet, curated by Fran Beallor. This group exhibition includes the work of forty-four artists who examine the climate crisis and our place in the balance of nature. These works help us see our role on the Earth and the profound shifts we are being called to make. Shifts that require a new way of seeing our relationship with our environment.
Join us in supporting the artists, celebrating nature, and enjoying art with Earth in the Balance, on view March 10 - April 14, Gallery open 9am - 5pm, M-F. Opening Reception March 18, 5:30-8:30pm.
a group exhibition from the Ely Center’s Curatorial and Programming Advisory Committee
Exhibition Dates: February 8 - April 12, 2026
Opening Reception: Sunday, February 8, 1-3pm
Intervals mark both pauses and beginnings. Presented by the volunteer artists and curators who make up Ely Center’s Curatorial and Program Advisory Committee, this group exhibition reflects on the spaces between places and moments of change. This invitational exhibition, where our incumbent committee invited artists to join them, responds to another interval, a temporary relocation of our gallery.
The title speaks to these in-between conditions—a break, a measure of time, or a structural division; something that separates while also connecting. Here, it gestures toward the shifting site of the gallery, the dual positions held by artist-curators, and the transition into the organization’s next decade. Intervals is a reflection on where we have been and an opening toward what is to come.
The works in Intervals respond to ideas of construction, duration, conversations, and connectedness. Together, the works support the idea of the Ely Center as a fixed container and a living framework shaped by collective effort. In this moment of temporary architecture and long-term vision, Intervals affirms the importance of art, volunteer labor, shared authorship, and the spaces we build together.
An Exhibition by the New York Artists Circle
Curated by Hayley Ferber • Assistant Curator Kristin Reed
February 6–22, 2026
Westbeth Gallery
155 Bank Street
(Enter through courtyard)
New York, NY 10014
Opening Reception • Friday, February 6, 5–8 PM
In a world that feels increasingly overstimulated and demanding, Breathe offers a space for serenity. Featuring work by members of the New York Artists Circle, the exhibition explores breath not only as a fundamental human necessity, but as an invitation to pause, recenter and find calm. The artists approach this theme from multiple perspectives. Some focus on the physical act of breathing—its rhythm, vulnerability, and sustaining force—while others employ breath as a metaphor for stillness, resilience, clarity, and the act of claiming space in an often overwhelming world. Together, these works invite viewers to step away from the noise, take a deep breath, and reconnect with a sense of peace, presence, and inner balance.
Breathe will be presented both in person at Westbeth Gallery and online on the New York Artists Circle website.
The in-person exhibition includes an opening reception and a public artist talk.