During Upstate Art Weekend, Good Naked Gallery x The Clearing invite you to THE PROTAGONIST, an immersive group exhibition that winds through the woods of Cragsmoor, NY.
Opening Preview: Saturday, June 13th from 2-6PM
Open by appointment: June 13th-26th
Upstate Art Weekend:
Saturday and Sunday, June 27th & 28th / 12 - 7 pm
& by appointment /info@goodnakedgallery.com
308 Cragsmoor Road / Pine Bush NY 12566
>> Performances Saturday @ 4, 6 & 7 pm / Sunday @ 2 & 3 pm >
Artworks with central-figure energy move through the woods, each carrying an implied narrative and a sense of possible response to a world in chaos. This exhibition centers on the moment of beginning — the day you come to light and decide to act. It holds the energy of the new moon: a threshold, a reset, a quiet but decisive turn away from old patterns.
These works propose doing over apathy. They lean into bravery without certainty, acknowledging the real possibility of failure while insisting on forward motion. They return to the origin point—the feeling of starting, of not knowing, of choosing anyway — and ask what it means to begin again with that same urgency.
In the woods, each figure stands as a proxy for independent thought: resisting the pull of collective stagnation, refusing the gravity of group malaise. The works suggest a dispersed field of individuals, each moving from the heart, each navigating their own path while aware of larger forces moving around them.
THE PROTAGONIST is not a singular hero but a condition — an invitation to step into agency, to act with intention, and to re-enter the world with clarity, even when the outcome is unknown.
Sculptures by:
Corinne Beardsley, Claudia Bitrán, Angela Conant, Sam Harmon, Sophie Kahn,Zebadiah Keneally, Trevor King, Claire Lachow, Gracelee Lawrence, Jason Mones, Lara Saget,Louise Sheldon, David B. Smith, and R. Blair Sullivan
Videos by:
Glen Baldridgeand Kodomo, Claudia Bitrán, Blake Marques Carrington, Grayson Cox and Bradford Devins, David Kennedy Cutler,Gary Cullen and David Pierce, Asa Gauen, Trevor King, MOKO Fukuyama, Nazanin Noroozi, and Hollis Witherspoon
Performances by:
Matthew Freeman, Zebadiah Keneally, Lo Smith and Hollis Witherspoon
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND (UAW) is a connective annual event celebrating the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York. The seventh edition of UAW will take place Saturday, July 27 through Sunday, July 28, 2026 with festivities spread throughout the Catskills Mountains and Hudson Valley.