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The Color of Growth, presented by the Millbrook Arts Project, opens January 9
The Color of Growth brings together four artists whose work reimagines nature and landscape as dynamic sites of transformation. Opening on Friday, January 9, and featuring the work of artists Irja Boden, JoAnne Lobotsky, Patrick Neal, and Colin O’Con, The Color of Growth invites viewers to look beyond seasonal dormancy and consider growth as an ongoing, layered process – “one that persists beneath the surface, even when unseen.”
“The artists in this exhibition approach plant life not as passive scenery but as an active carrier of meaning and experience,” shares curator Sharon Bates. “Color functions as both subject and strategy—expressive, intuitive, and often deliberately unnatural.”
“Together, the works in The Color of Growth challenge romantic notions of nature and renewal. They remind us that growth is rarely linear or benign—it is tangled, contested, and deeply colored by the conditions of the worlds we inhabit.”
The Color of Growth exhibit opens on Friday, January 9, and runs through Saturday, February 28. The opening reception will be held on Friday, January 9, from 6-8pm, and the artist talk with Irja Boden and JoAnne Lobotsky is scheduled for Saturday, February 21 at 2pm. All programs are located at the Millbrook Library, 3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook, NY.
The artists
Irja Boden presents sculptural work inspired by the hedgerow bordering her studio in the Hudson Valley. “These ceramic vessels draw from the tangled coexistence of old and new growth, focusing on invasive vines that can overwhelm surrounding vegetation. For Bodén, these forms become metaphors for the ongoing erosion of women’s rights. The open, bottomless blue interiors of her vessels evoke life, freedom, and resistance, underscoring growth as a contested and fragile condition,” the Millbrook Arts Project states.
JoAnne Lobotsky’s landscapes are driven by color and texture, as well as emotional force. “Working intuitively and without preplanning, Lobotsky embraces awkwardness and deliberate clumsiness as a rejection of polished contemporary aesthetics. Her frequently unnatural color palettes reflect environmental fragility and damage.”
Patrick Neal uses watercolor and oil to build landscape and still life scenes through a contemporary lens, with the scenes being informed by memory, observation, and drawing. “A recurring roving grid structure organizes and abstracts his imagery, emphasizing both cinematic shifts in perspective and the physical act of mark-making. Neal’s landscapes move fluidly between urban and rural environments—from public parks and construction sites to wooded regions of upstate New York.”
Colin O’Con’s paintings encompass both representation and abstraction, “drawing on the language of traditional landscape while pushing toward the subliminal and unknown. Influenced by photography, observation, and memory—but painted from neither—his work emerges through layered washes that gradually reveal imagined terrains.
Additional upcoming events at Millbrook Arts Project
Art Blast, presented by the Millbrook School District, Dutchess Day School, and Millbrook Early Childhood Education Center
Friday, March 6 – Saturday, March 28
Opening reception: Friday, March 6 from 4-6pm
Stitch in Time: Historic Needlework in Dutchess County, presented by the Millbrook Historical Society
Friday, April 3 – Saturday, May 2
Talk & opening reception: Thursday, April 9 at 6pm
UN-REAL, featuring the work of Fern Apfel, Monica Link, Kevin Mosca, Laura Von Rosk & Daniel Walworth
Friday, May 8 – Sunday, June 28
Opening reception: Friday, May 8 from 6-8pm
Upstate Arts Weekend reception: Saturday, June 27 from 5-7pm
PLACE | MEANT, featuring the work of Laura Cannamela, Monica Church, Elisa Lendvay, Susan Newmark & Barbara Todd
Monday, July 6 – Saturday, August 22
Opening reception: Friday, July 10 from 6-8pm
The State We’re In, featuring Brian Cirmo, June Glasson, Jeff Wigman & Yu Yan
Friday, August 28 – Saturday, October 17
Opening reception: Friday, August 28 from 6-8pm
The Pattern of Life, featuring Shari Diamond, Rich Garrison, Paul Lewandowski & Jim Morris
Friday, October 23 – Saturday, November 28
Opening reception: Friday, October 23 from 6-8pm
The Color of Growth exhibit opens on Friday, January 9, and runs through Saturday, February 28. The opening reception will be held on Friday, January 9, from 6-8pm, and the artist talk with Irja Boden and JoAnne Lobotsky is scheduled for Saturday, February 21 at 2pm. All programs are located at the Millbrook Library, 3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook, NY.
