Press Release Draft — “Meet Me in the Trees”
Presented by Good Naked at The Clearing, Cragsmoor, NY | Upstate Art Weekend 2025
This summer, Good Naked Gallery at The Clearing invites you to Meet Me in the Trees, an immersive group exhibition that winds through the woods of Cragsmoor, NY, where sculpture dangles from branches, hovers in clearings, or rests—like bodies—on the forest floor.
The forest becomes a new kind of exhibition space, one that feels increasingly appropriate in this American moment. As institutions crack and grid systems fray, the white cube feels less neutral than ever. In contrast, the woods offer no false purity—they demand awareness, humility, and time. You have to walk to find the work. You sweat to see it.
This year’s show presents more than 20 artists whose practices range from intimate gestures to monumental interventions. A common thread has emerged: many sculptures lie prone, in contact with the ground, echoing vulnerability, protest, collapse. Others float above us, tethered to the branches—offerings, ghosts, or surveillance. The juxtaposition of gravity and suspension, ground and canopy, reveals the tension of living in a moment when bodies are at risk, systems are unstable, and visibility is both weapon and balm.
Sculpture has always been an unruly art form. It is heavy, expensive to make, impossible to store, and rarely sells. In this way, sculpture resists commodification. It operates more like poetry—an act of devotion, of witness, of stubborn generosity. The labor behind each piece, the difficulty of moving and staging it in a remote forest, becomes part of the offering. These are not transactional objects. They are gifts, placed into the landscape for those who will come find them.
Participating artists include Christine Stiver, Dominic Terlizzi, Zebadiah Keneally, J McDonald, Stephen Shaheen, Grayson Cox, Sophie Kahn, Ingrid Rose, Gracelee Lawrence, Sasha Fishman, Ellie Krakow, Antonia Perez, Trevor King, John Kesler, Christopher Lin, Hollis Witherspoon, Matthew Rosenquist, Asif Mian, Angela Conant, Courtney Dudley, Lara Saget, and more.
The Painting Cabin will host a companion small works exhibition featuring Alex Russi, Sasha Fishman, Ryan Blair Sullivan, Michael Berryhill, Emma Schwartz, Noah Breuer, Lauren Pakradooni, Mark Rice, and others.
Join us under the trees.
Dates: Upstate Art Weekend, July 19–20, 2025
Location: The Clearing, Cragsmoor, NY
Website: www.theclearingcragsmoor.org