About

The Davis Orton Gallery, established in August, 2009, is located on historic Warren Street in Hudson, NY – an architecturally rich street famous for its antique shops, galleries and restaurants.

The Davis Orton Gallery exhibits photography, mixed media and trade and artist-published photobooks. The goal of the gallery is to present a wide range of contemporary artists – from emerging to mid-career to established.

Gallery view - toward warren st

gallery view towards prison alley

Transplants from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Karen Davis and Mark Orton’s lives have revolved around photography and art for almost two decades.

Karen is a teacher, gallerist and photographer. For over 15 years she taught Photography Atelier, a portfolio development course in the Boston area at Radcliffe Institute, Lesley University and, most recently, at the Griffin Museum of Photography. She now teaches Portfolio Development and Marketing for Fine Art Photographers and The Self Published Photobook Workshop ONLINE for the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Karen is co-owner and curator of the Davis Orton Gallery. She has been an invited reviewer of portfolios at the New England Portfolio Reviews, Photolucida in Portland OR, FotoFest in Houston TX and Critical Mass (online/Photolucida) and Magenta Foundation’s Fence project.

Her photographs are in the collections of the CPW, Kingston NY, the Lishui Museum of Photography (China), and the Houghton Rare Books Library, Harvard University, and can be seen at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA).

Karen is a Critical Mass finalist and recipient of the CPW Artists Fellowship Award. Her word/image book, Still Stepping: A Family Portrait, was published in 2020. A second edition (2022) is available at The Spotty Dog Bookstore in Hudson, Inquiring Mind Bookstore in Saugerties NY, and the Davis Orton Gallery  website. Her photographs, photobooks and artist books have appeared in solo and featured exhibits throughout the country.

Mark, a business coach and consultant is co-owner and administrator of the gallery. He has developed multi-media presentations and websites for artists, helping to convert and expand their vision to an electronic platform.

Married for 46 years, Karen and Mark have collaborated on limited edition, self-referential photobooks including: “Pretension, All About Us,” which takes a satirical look at the contemporary art world.