Exhibition Review by Anna Shukeylo

Tradition Goes On: To The Studio at JJ Murphy Gallery 

To the Studio, a three-person exhibition at JJ Murphy Gallery in LES brings together paintings by Elisa Jensen, John Lees, and Liam Murphy-Torres, whose works collectively explore shared traditions of observation, light, and painterly practice. The title is inspired by a series of paintings by Frank Auerbach depicting a view of three artists’ studios, but also alludes to the New York Studio as an institution, tying them together. Both Jensen and Lees have been professors of Murphy-Torres at this historic institution.  

Suzanne Van Damme, Surrealist Composition
Exhibition Highlights by Jessica Aguilar

Art Seen Philadelphia: Winter 2026

HIGHLIGHTS

As the vague New Year comes barreling in, trailing behind is a hazy fog that distorts perceptions of time and space, folding into one another like delicate parchment paper. It reads as hopeful uncertainty, especially as artists create in response to their surroundings. It is in those folds that art and dreams converge to inspire fantastical work that propels us into a new reality.

John Avelluto
Exhibition Review by Nicola Lucchi

John Avelluto: AI, Synthetic Memory, and the Fabrication of Identity

For many years now, John Avelluto has used trompe-l’œil and sculptural hyperrealism to unsettle the stereotypical trappings of Italian American identity, particularly its relationship to food. As in many other migrant communities, food functions as a vessel of memory and belonging, often bearing a disproportionate symbolic charge. Avelluto’s lifelike slices of acrylic mortadella and mounds of rainbow cookies confront this issue directly: they turn the charged history of foodways and their role in shaping communal narratives into something at once seductive and ridiculous. Viewers are forced to contend with the absurdity of articulating an entire national identity through piles of candies, pastries, and cold cuts elevated to the status of icons.

Mia Westerlund Roosen: Then and Now
Exhibition Review by Xintian Tina Wang

Mia Westerlund Roosen: Then and Now

When I enter Nunu Fine Art in SoHo, New York, my body registers Mia Westerlund Roosen’s work before my mind does. Two tall forms, Heat (1981) and Conical (1981), lean into the room with a quiet insistence, their weight felt rather than announced. They rise from the floor with muscular arcs, tapering upward, commanding space without spectacle. I slow down instinctively, adjusting my path. These are not sculptures to be glanced at; they ask to be circled, negotiated, endured.

Natalie Moore, Spill, 2025,68”x 60” x 20”h, hand woven stainless steel wire, non-acrylic polymer, thread. Photo ©Martin Seck
In Dialogue by Etty Yaniv

Natalie Moore: Capturing Mirage

Natalie Moore grew up in San Diego, California, and spent many summers in Norway with her mother’s family. Although she has lived in New York for much longer, the dramatic Californian and Norwegian landscapes remain a lasting influence. Climate and ecology have also become more present in her work over the last decade, as the climate crisis worsens and governments and corporations continue to minimize the effects of carbon emissions, pollution, water use, and chemical waste.

Rachel MacFarlane
Exhibition Review by Taylor Bielecki

Rachel MacFarlane’s Mystical Spaces: Afterlight at Hollis Taggart Downtown

Stepping into Rachel MacFarlane’s exhibition, Afterlight, you enter an atmosphere of radiant, sweltering landscapes and venture towards an unknown future. The unpredictable future of a natural world that is vibrant, strong, and resilient, continuing to grow despite the climate changes and ecological effects that have threatened it. MacFarlane expertly situates the viewer amid a vibrantly colored atmosphere, positioning them as an active participant in the environments the paintings create. 

A Lure, A Lament at Gallery 456
Exhibition Review by Rui Jiang

A Lure, A Lament at Gallery 456

A clamor of murmurs without end. Several ghostly strands twisted strangely yet remained formless, wispy, and clinging, yet never settling into anything definite. Moving, then halting; halting, then moving again. Soft as if boneless, without body heat, yet inducing a tremor from within: a sudden burn, gooseflesh blooming in patches, sticky, viscous—caught and entangled by a reckless surge of ghostly energy. One slips from the ordinary into a hollow. A Lure, A Lament offers, at first encounter, precisely such a sensation. And yet its murmuring voice continues to drift, recounting wave after wave of fragrant air.

Tirtzah Bassel, I Put A Spell
Exhibition Review by Noa Charuvi

Tirtzah Bassel: I Put A Spell at A.I.R Gallery

In Tirtzah Bassel’s vibrant and challenging exhibition, I Put A Spell, the viewer is immediately confronted with the question: Can the power of witchcraft—rooted in both ancient wisdom and intuition—serve as a potent metaphor for reclaiming women’s agency in art and beyond?