Emergence: Gary Hudson in Black and White
On Sunday, October 26th, 2025, the community is invited to a free opening reception for Emergence: Gary Hudson in Black & White. This exhibit will feature never-before-seen artworks from the artist. The exhibit will be arranged studio-style in both Gallery 1 and 2 and will showcase Hudson’s iconic voice and style. Cathy Best, Visual Arts Committee Chair, describes this show as a total departure from past exhibits, both in content and style of presentation. Best said the Center was gratified to be given the opportunity to hold the exhibit. "I think it is remarkable what he accomplished," she said. "The works reflect a curious-minded man with inexhaustible talent. He lived quite a life." Christie Hudson, Hudson’s widow, has worked with the committee to compile a collection of Hudson’s charcoal works that encapsulate his periods of struggle to his time of critical and commercial success. This artwork has been lovingly curated by Christie Hudson and the Visual Arts Committee.
This exhibit is made possible through the generosity of the following sponsors:
Gary Hudson is best known as a "Lyrical Abstractionist". His work is on collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, The Georgia Museum, Athens, GA among many others. He exhibited in group exhibits along side artists such as Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Al Held... Gary Hudson was also a visiting artist and instructor at many respected school in the USA and abroad... from Yale, University of California, Pratt to Victoria and Albert College of Art in Melbourne Australia.
Gary Hudson in his own words: “It would be great if we could remove the cult of personality from all this business of painting. There really is so much of it and the varied dreadful philosophies of artists. I think that the individual manifestos of art are extremely dull in most casess. The ones that aren t so dull are the ones in the early part of the last century that were written by groups of artists. What I would hope to achieve with my paintings is a dialogue on the nature of painting. Abstract painting!! What a terrible designation. To my eye what non-objective painting (another dreary word) is is no different than painting has always been. Painting has always been annotation and I do not see what difference there is between the annotations of El Greco and the annotations of Bill Jensen or the Chinese scroll paintings. They are all leaps of imagination. I am not talking about the eyes of the unseasoned viewer here; they are left to their own devices when a non-objective painting is put to them. It does not seem to me that the person who prides himself on his love of painting should be able to make the transition from paintings of sunflowers to paintings that have no sunflowers. All of the same criteria apply.”
Source: http://garyhudsonartist.com/