Exhibition and Performace
July 18 – October 10, 2025
July 20, 2025 (Performance)
Al Held Foundation
Boiceville, NY
UPSTATE ART WEEKEND:
Mikayla Patton
Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Reiner
Left: Mikayla Patton, Enduring, 2022 (detail). Handmade paper, porcupine quills, and leather. Dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist; Right: Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Horizon Event No. 4, 2016. Commissioned by Beach Sessions Dance Series, Rockaway Beach, Queens. Photo: Alex John Beck.
CLICK HERE to schedule your visit.
CLICK HERE to schedule your visit for the performance.
River Valley Arts Collective is delighted to announce two upcoming projects opening during UPSTATE ART WEEKEND. The first New York solo exhibition by Oglala Lakota artist Mikayla Patton will feature sculptural objects and installations made with handmade paper, porcupine quills, glass beads, and plant life. For the third staging of performances in Al Held’s studio, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener will premiere a new site-responsive dance work. Also on view, On the Grounds 2025 outdoor commissions by Lauren Anderson, Linnéa Gad and Rachel Mica Weiss.
The Al Held Foundation is not open to the public, however you may sign up to attend the performance and tour the exhibitions using Calendly. Space is limited and registration is essential.
Over the past five years, River Valley Arts Collective has partnered with the Al Held Foundation to present exhibitions in Held’s former drawing studio, outdoor installations on the foundation's grounds and, more recently, performances in Held’s painting studio.
Mikayla Patton (Oglala Lakota) is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose creative work intimately engages materials such as recycled handmade paper, porcupine quills, glass beads, and natural elements to create sculptural objects and installations. Through her studio practice, Patton employs Lakota methodologies and adornment practices to explore themes of healing, growth, and renewal. Patton holds a BFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is based in Pennsylvania. She has exhibited her work nationally at venues including Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, Landmark Arts in Lubbock, All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis, and the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. In 2025, her work will be featured at the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and the Al Held Foundation in Boiceville. Patton’s work is included in public collections such as the Denver Art Museum, the Tia Collection, the Atka Lakota Museum, the North Dakota Museum of Art, and The Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a 2024 Forge Project Fellow and a 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow. Her studio practice has also been supported by the Ucross Foundation, the Native Arts and Culture Foundation, First Peoples Fund, the Harpo Foundation, the Indian Arts Research Center, the RAiR Foundation, and her community. Patton is currently based in Pennsylvania.
Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener are New York-based dance artists. Their work involves the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction. They met as dancers in the Merce Cunningham Dance company and since 2010 they have created over 25 multidisciplinary dance works including site-responsive installations, concert dances, gallery performances and dances for film in venues such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barbican Centre, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, and MoMA/PS1. Throughout they have maintained a commitment to queer culture and aesthetics. Their partnership intentionally blurs authorship and maintains a deep commitment to collaboration with a diverse community of dancers, performers, artists and cultural institutions.
Projects featured during Upstate Art Weekend are organized by Olga Dekalo in collaboration with the Al Held Foundation.