Exhibit: Couples who make both love and art

NARROWSBURG, N.Y. — The art exhibit “Visual Duets, Partners in Life and Art” explores the lives of nine artist couples who have been together for decades weathering the gravitational pulls of love, ambition, jobs, money, and children.
The opening reception will be held 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, at the Delaware Arts Center’s Alliance Gallery, 37 Main St., Narrowsburg, N.Y., preceded by a panel discussion with the couple-artists from 2 to 3 p.m. The show will be on view through March 25.
“Visual Duets" was inspired by curator Nancy Lew Lee's friendship with Elizabeth Harms and Douglas Craft. Until Craft’s recent death at age 90, the couple had been married for more than 60 years, making art side by side all that time.
Lee at first imagined an exhibition that focused exclusively on Harms and Craft But as she talked to other artists in their homes and studios, she grew equally interested in their experiences living with a fellow artist.
“I think gallery viewers will share my interest in how artists who partner with another artist make choices to execute their creative visions and to lead their lives with purpose and integrity,” Lee said.
Lee asked the artists about spending their lives together, making art and love, and documented their written reflections. The exhibition program will include observations from each of the studio visits and artists’ remarks.
The artists will come together for a panel discussion on opening day.
For the exhibition, Lee chose two works by each of the 18 artists — one from their early years together, and one recent work — with consideration of how the pieces related to the partner’s works and to the show as a whole. The 36 works in the exhibition become a kind of a mini-retrospective for each artist.
About Nancy Lew LeeLee was born in a rural village in southern China. Along with her mother and two sisters, she fled communist China and made her way to Hong Kong.
After several years, they were able to join her father and brother and grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. The family owned and operated a Chinese restaurant, above which they lived. All five children worked in the restaurant, helping out and doing homework in between customers.
It is with this cultural background that Lee has tried to make a difference, whether it is as an artist, or as an art teacher and department chair at Fallsburg High School, or as an elected town councilman in the town of Callicoon, or as a curator with a specific point of interest. She has lived in western Sullivan County since 1977 where she shares the top of the mountain with her husband, artist Richard Kreznar, along with the deer and bear.
Alliance Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit delawarevalleyartsalliance.org or call 845-252-7576.