❮ New York

Gallery

Sep 29 - Oct 24 2026

The Painting Center is pleased to present Meet at the Ferris Wheel, a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Kathleen Beausoleil in the Main Gallery. Centered on the American town fair, the exhibition of 20 oil paintings that explore how crowds form, how people connect through repeated encounters, and how shared rituals create a sense of belonging. The exhibition will run from September 29 through October 24, 2026, with an opening reception on Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 8 pm. Beausoleil’s interest in the fair is rooted in her own experience. Growing up in a small New Jersey town, she witnessed countless fairs each summer, where families and friends from neighboring small towns returned to the same places year after year. These gatherings became a ritual of togetherness. Through the simple act of showing up repeatedly, familiar faces reappeared, relationships deepened, and temporary fairgrounds became enduring sites of Community. Working primarily in oil on canvas and panel, Beausoleil paints the subtle choreography of the crowd: the spaces between figures, recurring gestures, patterns of movement, and invisible relationships that reveal how people organize themselves in public. The exhibition takes its title from the familiar invitation to meet at the Ferris wheel, which becomes a symbol of reunion, anticipation, and shared memory. Rather than documenting the spectacle of the fair, Meet at the Ferris Wheel considers the deeper meaning of gathering. The paintings suggest that belonging is created through repeated presence—by returning to the same places, recognizing one another, and participating in rituals that connect people across towns and generations. Kathleen Beausoleil lives and works in Fair Haven, New Jersey. Primarily working in oil paint, her work examines American rituals and the relationship between individual identity and collective experience. Beausoleil received a 2022 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and was a member of The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program. She has participated in artist residencies including ChaNorth, Cuttyhunk Island Artists’ Residency, ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station (UVA), and the Artist Forests Community Program sponsored by the Holter Museum of Art and Helena National Forest. Beausoleil has exhibited at the Monmouth Museum, Susquehanna Art Museum, Peto Museum, Noyes Arts Garage, and The Painting Center in New York. Her work is held in the permanent collections of Fidelity Investments, the Missoula Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Middlesex County, as well as numerous private collections. She received her BFA, cum laude, from Syracuse University. For more information on the artist, visit: www.kathleenbeausoleil.com and @kathleenbeausoleil.

Sep 29 - Oct 24 2026

The Painting Center is pleased to present Nesting Rituals, a solo exhibition of oil paintings by artist Ellen Starr Lyon in the Project Room. The exhibition will run from September 29 through October 24, 2026, with an opening reception on Thursday, October 8, from 5 to 8 pm. This exhibition continues Lyon’s exploration of life transitions with Nesting Rituals, as in previous coming-of-age portraits of her children. This body of work speaks to her current overlapping transitions of relocation to New York State from the Midwest and to what is known colloquially as an empty nester. What began as an obvious metaphor of nests and eggs became an investigation of more universal themes of vulnerability, fragility, and the inherent strength in embracing both. The eggs began to symbolize the ideas we hold onto—potential that may never come to fruition. Lyon explores what it means to identify as a mother and how to welcome new identities. What restrictive narratives about ourselves do we cling to? Are we stopping at these crossroads to question them? Lyon has long used self-portraiture to explore and portray her ever-changing roles of woman, wife, and mother; each a snapshot in time, a nod to ancient artistic practice, a path to acceptance. She continues her use of the self, creating visual journal entries of these emotional transitions. Included in Nesting Rituals are images of temporary spaces, portraits of her children, and select works from Lyon’s Altar series which speak to various aspects of nesting, of creating personal space, and collecting memories wherever one goes. Lyon lives and works in Upstate New York. She earned a BFA in Painting and BA in Art History from Indiana University. Lyon has participated in shows nationally and internationally including: Being Human at The Painting Center, NYC (NY); Reflections of Us at Warner’s Contemporary, Brooklyn (NY); various group shows at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati (OH); Converge at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia (PA); Pandemic at the Sol Art Gallery, Dublin (Ireland); FiKVA MiniARTures at WG Gallery, Dordrecht (The Netherlands); Delphian Gallery, London (UK), and CONTEXT Miami Art Fair at 33 Contemporary Gallery, Palm Beach (FL). She has been published in Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre, New Visionary magazine, and American Art magazine. Her paintings have been featured online on sites such as Hyperallergic, Bored Panda, and Buzzfeed. Lyon was invited to The Pouch Cove Artist Residency, Newfoundland, Canada, in 2024. She has work in the permanent collection of the Evansville Museum, University of California Irvine, Indiana University Bloomington, the Igleheart Foundation, and the Peregrine Collection of the Lunar Codex. For more information about the artist, visit: www.ellenstarrlyon.com and @ellenstarrlyon.