Nature’s Persistence: Recent Work by Shelley Haven

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale is pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition, Nature’s Persistence: Recent Work by Shelley Haven. A reception and artist’s talk will be held on Sunday, May 4, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. R.S.V.P. for the May 4 reception at 718.581.1596 or art@riverspring.org. Photo I.D. required for admission.

Nature’s Persistence: Recent Work by Shelley Haven features twenty-three paintings, pastels, and drawings that map the geologic history of rocks, cliffs, canyons, and ravines with layers of line, form, color, and tone. Haven, who lives in the Bronx and works on location and in her studio in Yonkers, finds the complexity of rock formations a compelling inspiration that expresses nature’s resilient response to the challenges of time. As she states: “I am drawn to places that speak to me of creative transformation and survival; and I am fascinated by the fragile beauty and awesome power of nature.”

Nature’s places of creative transformation and survival have been the focus of Haven’s studio practice for thirty years. She inspires others to be present and engaged in nature, to be healed and strengthened, and to advocate for its preservation. This exhibition presents works from several series focusing on sites from the New Jersey Palisades to New England. Spanning the years 2016 to 2024, they show the evolution of her compositions, beginning with a panorama of the Palisades’ “majestic wall” and culminating in later works where the artist maps the eroded volcanic rocks’ largest forms and intricate facets that are at once intimate and perilous.

Other series are titled after Umpachene Falls Park in New Marlborough, Massachusetts; Bash Bish Falls in Mount Washington, Massachusetts; Larchmont Manor Park on Long Island Sound in Westchester; Untermyer Gardens on the Hudson in Yonkers, and East Poultney, Vermont. Each composition explores the crags and fractures of the rocks, sometimes with cascading waters, rendered in brilliant color combinations and contrasts, with rich hues and tones, strikingly lit and deeply shadowed.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an online catalogue that includes an interview with the artist.