WEST KILL — The Spruceton Inn at 2080 Spruceton Road in West Kill a charming "bed & bar" nestled in the Catskill Mountains—is pleased to present Invasive Species 2, a group exhibition in the Barn, the Inn's onsite event space. Bringing together artists working across painting, sculpture, installation, and fiber art, the exhibition explores imagined ecologies shaped by mutation, adaptation, and transformation. The exhibition will be open weekends on Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 and celebrated its opening reception last Friday.
The exhibition features work by Elodie Blanchard, Christine Domanic, Jessica Dalrymple, Kathie Halfin, Kate Kosek, Kristin Middleton, and David Nakabayashi, all based in the Hudson Valley and New York City. Curated by Jill Benson, Invasive Species 2 marks Benson's fifth exhibition season in Upstate New York, continuing her exploration of contemporary practices presented within site-specific and community-oriented spaces.
The exhibition opens on Friday, July 31, from 5–8 p.m. Guests are invited to enjoy refreshments from the Spruceton Inn bar before strolling across the meadow to the Barn for the exhibition and an opportunity to meet the artists. The exhibition will remain on view weekends—Saturdays and Sundays from 12–4 p.m.—through August 16, 2026.
We invite you to join us for the opening and make a weekend of it. Explore nearby hiking trails, enjoy a craft beer at Westkill Brewery just up the road, and unwind in the beauty of the Catskills. Together, the exhibition and its surroundings invite visitors to experience art as both reflection and celebration—deeply rooted in place while reaching toward speculative futures.
Exhibition Statement
Invasive Species is rooted in the natural world, yet transformed through imagination into something fantastical, surreal, and quietly magical. Through installation, sculpture, and painting, the artists borrow the visual language of plants, ecosystems, and organic growth, only to reinvent it: mutations bloom, hybrid forms emerge, and landscapes behave in ways that feel unfamiliar yet strangely possible. Nature here is not observed as it is, but reimagined as it might become.
Climate change lingers as an undercurrent throughout the exhibition. These works speculate on futures shaped by adaptation, resilience, and transformation, asking what evolves when environments are pushed beyond their limits—and what forms of beauty emerge when survival itself demands creativity. Within this imagined ecology, “invasive” no longer implies destruction alone, but persistence: life finding unexpected ways to take root.
Despite their dystopian undertones, the works remain grounded in optimism. They offer visions of coexistence, regeneration, and wonder, suggesting that even in altered worlds, growth continues. Invasive Species invites viewers into a speculative future where nature does not simply disappear or collapse, but changes—becoming stranger, more luminous, and full of possibility.
