Art Spiel in Dialogue with Larry Greenberg and Kate Teale
Kate Teale and Larry Greenberg have been exchanging art ideas for many years. Recently, their conversations have transformed into a fascinating collaboration, resulting in a two person painting show at Studio 10 in Bushwick. Larry Greenberg, the founder of Studio 10, and Kate Teale, a painter who has showed her work there regularly, share with Art Spiel how ‘Openings’ came about.
AS: Tell me a bit about your background and the genesis of Studio 10.
LG: I studied at The New York Studio School from 1969 to 1971. I started Studio10 in 2011 with the idea of a free form exhibition venue which crossed many practices. My only criterion was that the work would engage me.
AS: Larry, “Openings” includes Kate Teale’s work as well as your own. What is the idea behind what you describe as this “brief impromptu show”?
LG: A neighbor gallery, Stephanie Theodore, suggested the show. I have been using the gallery as a studio since April so she had seen my paintings and felt Kate’s work and mine would work well together. Kate decided to do a graphite wall mural and to have several window paintings in the show. As Kate’s mural progressed, I painted in response two murals. None of this was planned and the show developed as we were working in the space, like making music together.
AS: Kate, what is your take on it?
KT: As Larry mentioned, this show came up spontaneously and at short notice. It’s always a good idea to hang out at Studio10 – ideas happen. I suggested a wall drawing that I had pretty much worked out, and Larry went for it. When I came in to start work on it, I found he’d done a gorgeous little wall painting in a corner I’d once done a drawing – also playing with perspective and optical interaction. It delighted me. My wall drawing was done in conversation with a painting of Larry’s (“Openings”), but when done, we both felt it didn’t look right.
Overnight he moved the painting (a diptych) and did another much larger wall painting, that also plays with the picture plane. When I came in next day to work on the wall drawing, I was totally amazed and also not sure if it was a finished piece, so I cheekily hung one of my paintings on top of it. I wasn’t sure if he’d be offended, but he got a kick out of it. We evolved from there to thinking one of his paintings on top of his wall work would look better, and after some playing about, found the perfect one.
This show was great fun for me because I tend to plan things out more in advance, and this just rolled along like a tennis match – and because I also realized that over the years of showing at Studio 10, we’d been in conversation and influencing each other. I’m also showing 3 small night window paintings – they had been part of a larger work, and I’d wanted to show them individually. My and Larry’s way of painting is different, but we’re both looking at door and window shapes, and optical spaces.
AS: Larry, what would you like to share about your own paintings?
LG: My paintings are about color and how color can communicate emotion in a way that transcends description. I think of the group of paintings I’ve been doing since April as a suite that through the relationships of color create a vibration that pulls on the eyes and the heart.
All photo courtesy Studio 10
‘Openings ‘ – paintings by Larry Greenberg and Kate Teale
Dec 14, 15 / Dec 20, 21, 22, and holiday party Friday 20, 7pm
STUDIO10 /56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, 11206
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