Type of action: Pop-up - One-afternoon 3 hours event with performance
Location: Bedford Playhouse - 633 Old Post Road, Bedford, NY, 10560
Dates & Time: Saturday April 11th from 3 to 6PM
Performance & Pop-up collective exhibition
April 11, 2026 / 3-6PM
Art Direction: Monique Allain
Artists: Anita Fina Kiewra, Anne Harmon, Bibiana Huang Matheis, Leslie Connito, Monique Allain, Paige De Leo, Penny Dell, Sally Frank, Tanya Kukucka and Vanessa Smith.
Photographer: Helen Houghton
Blitz comes from the German word for lightning, implying a swift and decisive action. The title combines the idea of engagement, rapid occupation and the concept of art. Art is a powerful tool for transformation. ART BLITZ is a form of “ARTIVISM”. Advocating and being engaged with what we believe is part of our responsibility as artists, although we should never lose the poetics in our voices.
ART BLITZ are a series of events offered by artists to institutional, private, and public spaces. The project consists of one-day pop-up actions or habitations for a longer period to be replicated, forming an artistic wave of interventions which support human rights and nature preservation. The artworks presented vary in each performance, making events new and fresh.
The precise and effective actions have unlimited potential for growth, happening within the same consistent pattern, thus constituting an identity.
Our première, a performance with a pop-up exhibition, took place on April 11 at Bedford Playhouse. ART BLITZ AT THE BARN is our second initiative! What is going to be the next…?
The project aims to insert art into daily life. It poetically advocates for collaboration. It also enables a direct connection to the public, giving voice to the artists.
A huge thank you to Bedford Playhouse for hosting and for enabling the creative and collaborative artistic exchange we had with the Art Blitz action.
Click here to know more about the project.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Photo by Jim Siano
Short Bio: Helen H. Houghton, photographer, grew up on Long Island’s North Shore, and has lived for extended periods in New York City, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and the Bay Area. In addition to being a photographer, she is a conservatory-trained pianist, a poetry editor and anthologist, and has served on multiple poetry boards, including the Hudson Review and three decades with the Academy of American Poets. She has a BA (English and French) University of Utah, and MA (Comparative Literature) U.C. Berkeley, and has done post-graduate work at Stanford, Oxford, and NYU. Helen currently lives in North Salem with her husband Frank. She photographs horses and wildlife, and author events and parties in Manhattan, and elsewhere.
Statement: One of the joys of being a photographer is following the light, a gift we receive each morning. At special moments that light shines within an object or living being giving it extra vibrancy and emotion, revealing something hidden right before our eyes. It is my goal to share the excitement of seeing with fresh eyes the visual poetry in this complex, unfathomable, and wonder-filled world we live in.
ARTISTS
Anita Fina Kiewra
“The Hudson River School” gets new meaning in Anita Fina Kiewra’s artwork – you are in the middle of the Hudson, and you are rowing.
Anita is a rower, and her printmaking practice includes intaglio, relief, and screen prints. She oversees the Community Printmaking Studio (PUF Studios) at the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory for Hudson River Housing, Inc., where she is a project manager in Community Development.
She has invited fellow printmakers from far and near to join her, including several of the printmakers from PUF Studios.
Short Bio: Anne Harmon Gale is a North Dakota native now based in New York. She moved to Europe for 10 years where she studied at L’Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. Her work has recently been exhibited in group shows at Time & Space Limited, Lagstein Gallery, Perry Lawson Gallery, LABspace and her first solo show at Bau Gallery in Beacon, NY.
Statement: I’ve begun making Leperellos made largely in oil and charcoal on paper as a way of exploring ideas for larger paintings. The images are connected only by proximity, like a to-do list of future paintings, and inspire spontaneity and a sense of delight shared by the commedia character these folded books are named after.
Bibiana Huang Matheis
Short Bio: Bibiana is an artist, fine arts photographer and curator who combines installation art, collage and photography. She has studied at the Maryland School of Art and Design and at the Corcoran School of Art. Bibiana has been involved in a variety of projects ranging from mixed media installations to performance art, with recent focus on environmental issues. Her work has appeared in major exhibits and publications in the US and Europe, in New York City, Chicago, and Berlin. Her photograph is on permanent display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture – Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. Bibiana is the founder, co-chair and curator for the Inspiration Art Group International, a not-for-profit organization in the State of New York.
Statement: My art promotes love for the planet and engages themes of ecology, sustainability, climate change, endangered species, clean water, deforestation, and humanity. A recurring heart symbolizes love for nature—what remains, what we have lost, and what is still worth protecting. You may sense a quiet plea: in my work, as in ecosystems worldwide, nature asks for care. I depict the world and confront threats such as plastic pollution.
Leslie Connito
Short Bio: Connito works in various media, investigating concepts of time, memory, disintegration, folklore, permanence, and impermanence. Her oil paintings reflect everyday life and often include snippets of culture, politics, history, music, art history, painted in layers. Symbols are everywhere in her artwork, used to narrate a concept. There are elements of surrealism, expressionism, and conceptualism throughout her paintings and photography. She has an online gallery a accessible through her resume and is a member of the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan and has received many artistic awards from the club.
Statement: “We Are All Artist’s” is a game created for individual players to conceive a series of artworks for an art show. The artist that uses the most inspiration and materials which pertain to the Concept of the Show, wins. Players move around the board to collect and use cards from each of the four NSEW quadrants, for their series of pictures, gathering materials, and inspirations from places, adventures, and live situations.
Monique Allain
Short Bio: I am a multidisciplinary and multimedia ART(IV)IST with a bachelor’s degree in biology and visual arts, and a master’s degree in visual arts. Born and raised in São Paulo to French/Mexican parents (1958), I moved to US (2018) and settled in North Salem, NY (2020). From 2013 to 2018, I founded and coordinated the "Núcleo de Arte” of ABER, the Brazilian Association of Bookbinding and Restoration, developing study programs and producing artist's books. In 2023, Estela Vilela, Chica Boyriven, Liliana Pardini and I conceived the M.A.L.A project, an artist book residency, where I am now one of the advisors.
Statement: Through multidisciplinary and multimedia practices, I investigate the processes of identity construction. In doing so, I explore the relationship between these processes and space, time, and alterity. My practice is guided by a commitment to life, peace, and sustainability. Through video, photo, print, mixed media and painting, I produce actions, installations and interventions in which immersive experiences, meeting situations, and connections with the environment can be experienced. My practice is guided by a commitment to life, peace, and environmental sustainability.
Paige De Leo
Short Bio: She studied communication design and illustration at Syracuse University and painting at NYU. She has worked for major companies, including AOL/Time Warner and McGraw Hill, as a graphic designer and art director frequently incorporating her own illustrations.
Statement: Paige De Leo current paintings focus on animals, mainly chickens, as she is drawn to their rich textures and sculptural presence. Treating them as portrait subjects, she shifts their context, giving them personality and presence, and prompting viewers to see something ordinary in a new and more personal way.
Sally Frank
Short Bio: Sally Frank has been making original etchings, lithographs, woodcuts and monotypes for more 50 years ago. She earned a master’s degree in printmaking from C.W. Post College. Her work has been selected for exhibition by a variety of museum jurors, including David Kiehl, Whitney Museum curator of prints, David Max Horowitz, assistant curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jennifer Farrell, associate curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other jurors for gallery exhibitions in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico. Frank’s studio is in Waccabuc, NY. She also makes her prints at Zea Mays Printmaking in Northampton, MA and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT. She is a member of The Boston Printmakers and the Monotype Guild of New England.
Statement: My work reflects my ongoing search for a deeper connection with nature. I strive to capture the essence of nature’s energy that flows through the natural landscape. My imagery emerges through the layering of environmental patterns. I’m inspired by the structured chaos of leaves, branches and roots. Spontaneity and intention converge—branches intertwine and unexpected connections emerge. Each layer reveals new depth, echoing the organic beauty and mystery of the natural world.
Tanya Kukucka
Short Bio: Tanya Kukucka has been creating art her entire life. She predominantly works in Mixed Media Sculpture, Painting, Ceramics and Printmaking. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with printmaking as her major, studying under the renowned woodcut artist Antonio Frasconi. She currently enjoys working with other artists for a living, helping them create their artwork. Her work has been shown in many venues, including the Hammond Museum, Katonah Museum of Art, Windows on Hudson and she recently attended a residency in Puerto Rico. Tanya lives in the Hudson Valley.
Statement: Tanya Kukucka draws on deep worlds of the unconscious and the fantastic. She dwells within a place of fears and dreams, nightmares and touches of reality. Her work reflects upon Death and Rebirth as she incorporates both feelings of sadness and grace. Her work is cathartic and personal, as she believes that she is purging her soul as she creates, which becomes a cleansing and healing process.
RECORDS FROM THE EVENT
Photos by Helen Hougton
Performance
Artists & Public
Photos by Helen Houghton
BEDFORD PLAYHOUSE INSTAGRAM: Click here!
