Arts Society of Kingston Announces May Exhibitions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact:
Amy Poux, Executive Director
Arts Society of Kingston
97 Broadway
Kingston, NY 12401
(845) 389-5889
amy@askforarts.org
www.askforarts.org
Press private viewing: Saturday May 2, 2 PM or by appointment.
Arts Society of Kingston Announces April Exhibitions
Exhibition Dates: May 2 – May 31, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2 at 3:00 PM
Location: Arts Society of Kingston, 97 Broadway, Kingston, NY
The Arts Society of Kingston (ASK) is pleased to present three new exhibitions opening
May 2 and on view through May 31. The exhibitions feature Hazmat, a solo presentation
by artist, Stephen Olivier, alongside the Retrospective exhibition by artist Fran
Sutherland, and the members exhibition Petals & Pollinators: Illustrating between the
bees.

Spotlight Gallery
HAZMAT by Stephen Olivier
Olivier’s current body of work includes paintings and sculptural work, that emerge from
the collision of biography and belief – a reckoning with the self, built from Catholic guilt,
queer identity, and a lifelong quest to resolve the unfinished career of his father.

About the artist
Stephen Olivier is an award winning artist whose work has been exhibited widely in
galleries, museums, and artist-run spaces across the United States and
internationally. Olivier was awarded a 2025 residency at NES in Skagaströnd,
Iceland. His work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions, including Let the Fur
and Feathers Fly at Epperson Gallery in California, the Texas National Competition at
the Cole Art Center in Texas, Big Bold Pride at the Art Society of Kingston, and Truth
Unveiled at Art League Rhode Island. Additional exhibitions include the Woodstock

Artists Association & Museum, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, KIPNZ in Walton, NY, and
venues throughout New York, Atlanta, Miami, and Berlin. Olivier’s solo exhibitions
include Over the Garden Wall at Subdivision Art in Long Island City, and Beforemath at
the Octopus Building in Miami.
Olivier’s sculptural work has also appeared in film, including creating thirty resin
sculptures for Shelton Walsmith’s short film The Importance of Being Amber. Earlier in
his career, he served as Chief Preparator at White Box and The Annex in New York,
where he installed exhibitions for artists including Carolee Schneemann, Brian Maguire,
Javier Téllez, Marianne Vitale, Joel Sternfeld, William Anastasi, Conrad Atkinson, and
Jeff Chiplis.
Front Gallery
TWO SEASONS
FRAN SUTHERLAND
From the oil paintings created in 1958 at SUNY New Paltz until the mixed media art
works of 2025, this retrospective features the landscape and bridges of the Hudson
Valley inspired by abstract representations of native American (Lenape) sacred stories.
Fran Sutherland, a native New Yorker, is a painter, teacher and restorer of historic
homes. Strongly influenced by Eastern aesthetics, Fran’s creative paintings synthesize
both Eastern and Western formats in multi-media works. The chosen media and
techniques express personal ideas, which is especially evident in her textural
compositions emphasizing oil and acrylic resist techniques.

Members Gallery
PETALS & POLLINATORS: ILLUSTRATING BETWEEN THE BEES
This exhibition features work that examines the beauty, fragility, and interdependence of
ecological systems from the intimate exchange of pollen to the broader environmental
narratives of climate change, habitat loss, and biodiversity. Through all visual mediums,
artists are interpret “between the bees” expansively: as a literal space of ecological
exchange, a metaphor for collaboration and community, or a meditation on the delicate
balance that sustains life.
Featured member artists: Larry Arvidson, Bob Barnes, Lawrence Bush, Michael
DiPleco, Stacie Flint, Melissa Forbes, Terry Haas, Tom Hackett, Emeline Hastings,
Laura Helfant, Kim Henry, Barbara Holt, David Holt, Carrie Hotz-Barth, Locke Johnston,
David Joseph, TomLooney, Joel Mandelbaum, Debbie Martin, James McCann, Carol
McCarthy, Julie Michels-Ruiz.