About us | Artists | Upcoming | Works by Christina Varga |VARGA's Myspace| Call for Artists | Contact | Home
VARGA ART GALLERY WOODSTOCK NEW YORK
People Have Virtually Visited VARGA since yesterday!

RUBY C. WILLIAMS

This Memorial Weekend VARGA Gallery celebrates its 8th anniversary with a Solo Exhibition of works by renowned outsider artist Ruby C. Williams known for her farm stand sign paintings. The exhibition opens Saturday, May 28, 2011 at 6pm.   Ruby was born in 1928 in Bealsville, Florida, a small farming community founded in the 1860’s by five freed slaves including Mary Reddick, Williams’ great-grandmother. She has a strong identity as an African-American, Southerner, and tenant of land worked by an unbroken link of relatives.  Her works are in private collections all over the world and can be seen at the VARGA Gallery through June 19, 2011.

Ruby supports her family with the money brought in from her farm and produce stand where she makes painted signs on canvas board and of scraps wood depicting the fruits and vegetables she sells such as black-eyed peas, strawberries, watermelons, and colared greens.  She began painting signs when she figured colorful and interesting signs would sell produce better than the drab ones her family had been putting up for years.  Her art career began when collectors driving down the highway took notice of Ruby’s brightly painted signs. Rodney Hardee was one of the first to give her encouragement and provide art supplies. Ruby added a small tin roofed gallery to the produce stand and has since been called a Visionary Art Minster and compared to outsider artist Howard Finster.   

Ruby believes she was put on this earth to heal and minister through her produce, her artwork and her community space and shares her messages through her paintings "Since I was a kid I do everything from the bottom of my heart, whether shelling a bucket of beans or making a painting." She makes two or three paintings a day, though she doesn't keep track and a principal motivation of hers is to raise money to help children. "I had to hire help to work at the stand, which I would rather be there than doing the painting," she says. "That's just my way. I get excited about fresh vegetables and keep growing them healthy and getting them ready to go for the next person."

Ruby Williams was honored with a Florida Folk Heritage Award by Governor Jeb Bush and her work was included in "On Their Own - Selected Self-taught Artists" at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C. alongside renowned outsider artists Mr. Imagination, Mary Proctor and Sam McMillan. Her work has led her into classrooms, galleries and museums in Florida and nationally and her art has been featured in numerous publications including the Journal of the Folk Art Society of America "Folk Art Messenger", the "Washington Post" and many Florida newspapers and magazines.  She has illustrated a children's book titled "I Am Ruby" and collectors include Bud Lee, co-founder of the new American Museum of Serious, Naive and Children's Art in Florida.  

VARGA Gallery was founded in Woodstock eight years ago in June 2003 in by self-taught artist Christina Varga. The gallery features an evolving stable of self-taught, outsider, emerging and visionary artists from the Hudson Valley and beyond. Founder and self-taught artist Christina Varga's exhibition history includes the Kunsttiendaagse 10 Days of Art Festival in Bergen, North Holland; the 13th Mega Exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore; the 2005/2006 Winter Exhibition at Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City; the Resurgence Conference on Earth & Religion at Bard College. For more information visit VARGA Gallery online at http://www.VARGAgallery.com/.

The VARGA Gallery represents self-taught, outsider and visionary artists in Woodstock, New York.
The gallery is located on the outskirts of Woodstock next to the Tinker Street Cinema at 130 Tinker Street.
Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday 12 - 5 or by appointment.
Studio hours are frequent and drop-ins encouraged.
To schedule an appointment call 845.679.4005 or email gallery@vargagallery.com.

FRANCO VOGT 60/60 Project

Her Collective Dreams: The Passion of Christina Varga
by DB Leonard for Times Heral Record ONLINE

Woodstock Times -  Smart Art 11/12/2009 Varga girls by Paul Smart

Exhibitors on exhibit
Artworks by 9 regional gallery-owners go on view this Saturday
at Highland's Casa del Arte by Paul Smart

Showing in a sister city by Paul Smart

PICTURES from the KUNSTTIENDAAGSE in Bergen, North Holland

CHRISTINA MEETS THE CLINTONS!!! Welcome to WOODSTOCK!

Winging it
Show of Laura Levine's bird paintings opens this Saturday at Varga Gallery in Woodstock
by Paul Smart 5/22/2008

Poughkeepsie Journal - Editor Barbara Gallo Farrell
Slideshow of Muddy Cup Studio's Opening
for "18 SOLOS" curated by Christina VargaMay 2008

Times Herald Record Online
What Light Does when Nobody's Looking
By Germain Lussier Times Herald-Record May 08, 2008

RAW VISION MAGAZINE
Spring 2008 62 issue
RAW REVIEWS: All Faiths Beautiful page 65
"Christina Varga's triptych depicting Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed
combines stylised church iconography with humble materials
to create sombre figures that plead for multi-theist reconciliation."
Jack Livingston, RAW Vision Magazine

Arts Highlights: 'Science Fiction Visions'
Solo Exhibit by Ryan Cormier
"Science Fiction Visions of the Past, Present & Future"
by Germain Lussier - Times Herald Record
March 14, 2008

Her Circle E Zine
Fifth Annual Women's Show at VARGA
Sunday, March 9, 2008

Times Herald Record ONLINE
February 8, 2008
Arts Highlights: VARGA 'Women's Show"...

'Women's Show' opens Saturday in Woodstock
VARGA Gallery event attracts many artists
By Gabrielle Grilli
For the Poughkeepsie Journal - Friday, February 8, 2008
Event listing

EMERSON: Q&A with Laura Levine

EXPERT VILLAGE SERIES by CHRISTINA VARGA

Phil Donahue holding Buddy, the VARGA Gallery Mascot, and Christina Varga at VARGA Gallery
THANKS FOR INDULGING US, PHIL!

Speaking of Faith Blog - "Religion and Art"
January 23rd, 2008 entry by producer Colleen Scheck

"Varga fills the void"
Woodstock Times Article - Smart Art - by Paul Smart
1/10/08

Johns Hopkins University
Unique AVAM exhibit displays predictable message
By Patrick Kennedy

Expert Village
How to Start and Run an Art Gallery

IONARTS.blogspot.com
Keeping the Faith @ AVAM by Mark Barry

Baltimore Sun article " 'Outsider' exhibit focuses on faith"
By Glenn McNatt | Sun Art Critic

Tony Fletcher's iJamming!
"Woodstock Gets Bombed"

	RAW VISION Magazine The World's Leading Journal of Outsider Art, Art Brut & Contemporary Folk Art RAW NEWS: American Visionary Art Museum "All Faiths Beautiful" Exhibit Featured work with image published: Triptych of Buddha, Jesus & Mohammed by Christina Varga

Confessions of a One Time Graffiti Artist
Reality Sandwich - August 16, 2007

Graff Connoiseurs
Woodstock Times - August, 9, 2007

The Writing on the Wall
Chronogram Magazine - Sparrow - August 2, 2007

Woodstock Goes Hip-Hop
By Tony ... 17 years in New York City is getting used to the total lack of hip-hop culture.
That absence will be partly remedied this weekend with the opening of a New York City Graffiti Art Show
at the VARGA Gallery on Tinker Street...

Highlights in the Arts - June & July @ VARGA Gallery
Times Herald Record - Dan Shaken - June 29, 2007

Talk About Culture...
Woodstock Times - Paul Smart - June 28, 2007

"Immigrant teens invited to use creativity for show"
Poughkeepsie Journal By Kathleen Murray Friday, February 2, 2007



The Grand Re-opening of the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum
during Woodstock's Second Saturday cultural events February 10, 2007

"Golden Mosaic Buddha"
Chronogram Magazine cover for December 2006

With a very groovy commentary by Rebecca Wild Nelson here...

PRESS:
Hudson River Museum & Gallery Guide
"Art & About" by Peter Occhiogrosso Summer 2006
"Be sure to stop at VARGA Gallery & Studio, a small but intriguing venue with a political bent."

Ulster County Press
Arts & Living - July 19, 2006
"Hits is a Hit"

Activist Resource
May 21, 2006

Woodstock Times- Featured Arts - 5/4/2006
Pushing buttons
Anti-war performance piece provokes strong reactions in Woodstock
by Violet Snow

Woodstock Times - Editorial 5/4/2006
A way of being present
by Brian Hollander

Phoenicia Times
Protesting, Eeo-Style
Stubblefield's a True Original
by Violet Snow

Woodstock Times - April 27, 2006
"To Open Our Eyes"
Eeo Stubblefield's New Piece Part of VARGA Exhibition on Political Themes
by Violet Snow

Kingston Daily Freeman - February 13, 2006
"Another Side of Woodstock" featuring Christina Varga
by Kathryn Gill

"From The Artists Studio"
... A Neo-Byzantine Triptych"
The Wave - Rockaway, NY February 10, 2006
by Susan Hartenstein

"From The Artists Studio
... An Intriguing Women's Show"
The Wave - Rockaway, NY February 3, 2006
by Susan Hartenstein

"Women's Chorus - Varga Gallery February Events celebrate the Feminine"
Woodstock Times, February 2, 2006
by Paul Smart

"The Campus" Forbidden Iconography: Varga On Her Art
CUNY Campus Article
November 25, 2005 City College of NY
by Kenya Mitchell