SPOTLIGHT
Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Owner at OSMOS, and Christian Rattemeyer, Director at Arts&Rec (#19 on UAW Map)
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do? And how long you’ve been in your current position. Cay Sophie: I am a writer, editor, publisher, and gallerist (by default), but mostly, I see myself as a translator and conduit to connect different audiences through art. I have been working in the art world for over twenty-five years (Editor of Parkett and Director of Art Basel et. al.) and have operated OSMOS since 2012. We have a gallery in the East Village, a project space in Stamford, NY, that we share with the not-for-profit Arts&Rec, and we publish books and a magazine.
Christian: I am a curator, writer, and director and have worked in the art world for thirty years. After working for three documentas in my hometown of Kassel, Germany, and studying in Berlin where I started my career as an independent curator and critic, and where I met Cay-Sophie, I moved to New York, where I worked as a curator at Artists Space and the Museum of Modern Art, and as director of SculptureCenter. Since moving upstate full-time in 2020, I have been working independently as well as the director of Arts&Rec.
Use three words to describe yourself:
Cay Sophie: Scrappy, Generous, and Directed
Christian: Resourceful, Open-minded, Diplomatic
What brought you to the Hudson Valley/Catskill Mountains? We bought our house in Bovina in 2012 on a whim while helping friends trying to find a place. We didn’t have any familiarity with the area and got lost trying to find the house after closing. In 2017, we bought an old garage in Stamford as storage for an artist’s estate we represented and eventually began offering the space to artists to use as a studio for projects. During Covid, we began offering free art workshops for local kids, and in 2022, we turned that ad hoc self-funded venture into the non-profit Arts&Rec to better accommodate our mission of bringing creative practitioners to Delaware County and offering workshops to foster creativity and recreation.
What do you love about your job? Every day brings new challenges.
What exciting things do you have planned for UAW? For Upstate Art Weekend 2025, ARTS&REC at OSMOS Station is pleased to present two exhibitions: one by current artist-in-residence, Wei Leng Tay, entitled Image / Time, and Catherine DeLattre’s photographic series, entitled, Interiors, Monongahela, Pennsylvania, 1977-78. On Saturday July 19, at 6:30 pm, we invite everyone to a conversation with the artists in the exhibition.
Best place near you to get:
Breakfast? Stamford Coffee
Lunch? TP’s
Dinner? Hollow
What’s your favorite local store? Catskills Outpost
What’s your favorite art/creative space to visit? Empire State Plaza in Albany with a public collection of modern painting and sculpture amassed by Nelson Rockefeller from 1966 to 1978, which includes works by Al Loving, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, Grace Hartigan, and Robert Goodnough, among others!
What is one tip for people experiencing UAW for the first time? Think Guggenheim: start at the top and work your way down.
What is a fun fact about you that might surprise people? Cay Sophie is a ski instructor at Plattekill and Christian owns the design/build firm Thiemann Construction.
Now for the speed round! Pick one or the other:
Valley or mountains? Mountains
Car or train? Car
Walk or hike? Walk
Sun or snow? Sun
Indoors or outdoors? Outdoors
Diner or restaurant? Diner
Market or shop? Market
Clear or clouds? Clear
Sunglasses or hat? Hat
Abstract or realist? Abstract
Contemporary or modern? Both
Sculpture or painting? Sculpture
IRL or digital? IRL
Look or listen? Look
See or feel? See