Longyear Gallery Upcoming News and Events

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER  11^th – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11^th, 2026

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OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12^th from 3-5 p.m.
CLOSING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10^th from 3-5 p.m.

Longyear Gallery of Margaretville is pleased to announce the opening of three new concurrent exhibitions, Frank Manzo Memorial Exhibition, honoring late Longyear Gallery member Frank Manzo; Cena Pohl Crane New Member Introductory Exhibition; and a Longyear Members’ Group Show. Opening on Friday, September 11^th, these exhibitions will run through Sunday, October 11^th with the Opening Reception on Saturday, September 12^th from 3-5 p.m., hosted by Cena Paul Crane, and a Closing Reception hosted by former Longyear Member Helene Manzo, wife of Frank Manzo, on October 10^th from 3-5 p.m.

Longyear Gallery founding member Frank Manzo passed away at age 85 on March 31, 2026. He and his wife, Helene Manzo, were instrumental in establishing Longyear Gallery in the fall of 2007 after purchasing the Commons Building. A resident of Brooklyn and Roxbury, NY, Manzo was an active participant in the gallery for many years. This memorial exhibition presents a selection of photographs from his archive spanning more than six decades. From his early work at Pratt Institute to photographs made throughout New York City, upstate New York, and his travels, the exhibition reflects a lifelong practice of careful observation and a deep appreciation for light, architecture, and everyday life. 

New Longyear Gallery member Cena Pohl Crane is a figurative painter whose work moves beyond the constraints of realism by utilizing a palette of deeply saturated color combined with energetic brushwork that allows her “to prioritize emotional resonance over representational likeness.” As Crane states, “I prefer to work with oil on canvas for its luminous properties, its ability to capture reflective light, and the capacity to contrast thin, layered washes with loose areas of opacity. My process is one of discovery rather than documentation; I do not work from life or photography.” Instead, she begins by making spontaneous marks on the canvas then responding, she explains, “by interpreting this chaos, pulling figures out or pushing landscapes back, responding to the feeling that the emerging shapes elicit, allowing me to give form to recognized and unspoken feelings. In a painting’s early stages, I have no preconception of what it should communicate. Instead, the image discloses subconscious meaning through the act of creation, often revealing themes of melancholy, anxiety, or the uneasy comfort found between figures.” For this artist, “painting is a way of making sense of a fractured world—a process of healing—in the hope that a viewer will pause, look, and find comfort in a shared emotional experience.”

Cena Pohl Crane is an oil painter based in Margaretville, New York. After a thirty-year career in digital design, she relocated from Brooklyn to the Catskills to rededicate herself to a full-time studio practice. She received her BFA in painting at Washington University in St. Louis, which included a semester studying art history and painting in Florence Italy, cementing her love of figurative art. She is typically found in her studio upstairs from the Longyear Gallery in the historic Commons Building, where visitors are welcome to view her latest work. Her paintings have been exhibited regionally and in Brooklyn.

Future fall 2026 Longyear Gallery exhibits include two solo exhibitions by members Temma Bell and Shiela McManus, running from Friday, October 16^th-Sunday, November 15^th with the opening reception on Saturday, October 17^th from 3-5 p.m., followed by Longyear’s Holiday Invitational Exhibition: Artists Choose Artists, running from Friday, November 20^th through Sunday, January 3^rd, 2027.  All solo exhibitions are accompanied by a Longyear Gallery Members’ Group Show.

Longyear Gallery is located Downstairs in The Commons, 785 Main Street, Margaretville. The gallery will be open from 12 a.m. – 5 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. For information, please see Longyear Gallery’s website, www.longyeargallery.org, email the gallery at info@longyeargallery.org, or call 845.586.3270 during gallery hours.