Cena Pohl
ROXBURY — This past weekend, just a few steps up Vega Mountain Road from Route 30, the Roxbury Arts Center attracted a buzzing crowd of attendees for the launch of its current exhibition, “Things I Never Said.” Curated by Ursula Ilona Hudak, this group show features the work of 24 local and regional artists who, befitting the show’s tantalizing title, reveal secret histories—real and imagined— familial divisions, and stories of unsung heroism. Rather than being strictly somber, many pieces are also enticingly clever and whimsical, with stories told through a range of mediums.
Alan Powell’s video wall projection, “Love Letter in a Flood” reveals the private thoughts of a woman trapped in her home in Prattsville during the flood of 2011. Powell and his assistant Katarina Pate imagined, then wrote a love letter that the 20-year old could have written to her lover while trapped in those terrifying hours.
On the gallery wall, Powell's constantly moving video projection shows the letter’s pages and its handwriting being swept away by flood waters, and Powell constructed an audio track of the woman’s voice reading the letter—a voice as ephemeral as the lost letters.
Cena Pohl’s moody blue semi-abstract oil on canvas “Fellas” depicts three almost faceless men in close physical contact . The composition is powerful, the men’s relationships are unknown and certainly open to interpretation, and the image resides just at the edge of danger and menace.
Hudak was attracted to the way “Fellas” fits into the theme. “One is able to understand the personality of the people even while the visual information is kept to a minimum,” says Hudak. .
Wendy Brackman and Luciano Capello constructed a vertical diorama, using materials such as wood, cord, fabric and paper to show the interior of a Brooklyn brownstone, on the ground floor, the one with the lowest ceiling and no light, a woman made of wood is squeezed into the room and lying down, large and disproportionate to the size of the basement. The woman, Brackman’s sister, is imprisoned in the basement—as it turns out by choice. The ground level of the home is secured by multiple locks, secured doors and windows that lock out the world and also lock her in, “excluding even family members,” says the artist.
Brackman sees this as a reflection of her sister’s state of mind, “an interpretation of the confines of a mental box.”
One of the most powerful photographs on display was taken by Robert Brune, a contributor to the Mountain Eagle. Centered in the photo is a man named Melvin, fist raised in the air, attended by a Baltimore policeman. Before moving to the Catskills, Brune was a photojournalist covering the Baltimore riots after Freddie Gray died in police custody, a death ruled a homicide. Melvin’s call to arms after Gray’s death launched the BLM movement. The show’s curator, Hudak was struck by this moment of breaking through. Brune used only his subject’s first name for fear of reprisal.
There’s a striking and highly personal and poignant watercolor portrait by Laura Sue King. An artist best known for abstraction, this figurative drawing shows King herself finding comfort by nestling her chin on the head of her dog. King’s portrait was made years ago and dismissed by a professor. King put it away but never forgot it. The image, decentered and disorienting was a product of King’s deepest feelings after an incident of sexual abuse—trauma clearly resonates in the image.
Hudak started the preparations for the show last December. She put out an open call, asking for works from artists who use a broad range of mediums, and culling the works by choosing those which spoke to her and to the theme.
“I’d decided on the theme during the long winter.,” says Hudak. In the cold weather, people are shut off and internal,” she says. “This was the opportunity to bring out the internal, through a personal show. I wanted works that expressed things that are never said aloud, missed opportunities, and secrets. Therefore the name, “Things I Never Said.”
Hudak herself grew up in Bloomville, and started out as a gallery assistant at the Roxbury Arts Center.. With a background in art history, she quickly worked her way up to curator as well as managing the Roxbury Arts Group grant program, (The Delaware County Arts Grant). and the CROP program which—with partner institutions- provides after-school activities for 14 schools in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie and Otsego County. Curation, and the grant and CROP programs are close to her heart.
To learn more about the exhibitions, grant program and workshops offered by the Roxbury Arts Group and the Roxbury Arts Center, go to roxburyartsgroup.org
“Things I Never Said” is up until May 23, 2026 The Roxbury Arts Center is located at 5025 Vega Mountain Road. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10-3.
Rob Brune
Wendy Brackman
