Art Spiel – Contemporary Art and Culture

September 30, 2025September 30, 2025

Sue and Al Ravitz of 57W57ARTS
by John Mendelsohn

IN CONVERSATION

Sue and Al Ravitz with paintings by Chris Martin and Robert Swain. Photo by Bill Gentle

Sue and Al Ravitz have run the project space 57W57ARTS over past eleven years, with a focus on reductive and conceptual art. Located in Al’s psychiatric offices in Midtown Manhattan, they see their gallery as a way to show the art they like, and to create a community. 57W57ARTS has presented the work of close to 200 artists, mounting approximately eight shows per year, each consisting of several one-person exhibitions. This September, a new series began with five one-person shows.

September 29, 2025September 20, 2025

Jeffrey Morabito: The Caged Bird Sings
by Art Spiel

In Dialogue

Lan Shi, Curator, photo courtesy of Helen Chen

In 2019, an art acquisition trip brought curator Lan Shi from Beijing to New York. When the pandemic extended her stay, she shifted her focus and began working as a full-time freelance curator and art agent. Since then, she has organized more than a dozen exhibitions of varying scale, including her current project with artist Jeffrey Morabito.

September 28, 2025September 28, 2025

Extreme Whether Show at Icebox4
by Etty Yaniv

Featured Exhibition

With only a few days left before it closes on October 4, Extreme Whether Show at Icebox4 offers a gathering of 21 artists responding to the turbulence of the present. Curated by Tom Fitzgibbon, the exhibition unfolds less as a single argument than as a shifting field of voices, unsettled, layered, and in dialogue.

September 23, 2025September 22, 2025

Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in September 2025
by Claire Haik

Highlights

Maren Less, The Black Goat, Acrylic On Linen, image courtesy of Gross McCleaf Gallery

This autumn in the Philadelphia area, we are spotlighting three painting exhibitions which explore intricate connections between people, places, memories, and dreams. In Passing Through. at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Maren Less creates vibrant paintings that blend human and animal forms into unexpected, symbolic narratives. At Arcadia University, Hiro Sakaguchi’s Landscapes of a Restless Mind is a collection of muted neon paintings with intricate line work in which daydreams and global issues swirl together. Finally, in Los De Aqui, Henry Morales’ solo show at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, offers a tender look at everyday life, using unified colors, collected soil, and newspaper clippings to emphasize the deep bond between people and their places. Check out these lively shows exploring empathy and the human experience through three distinctive styles and voices.

September 22, 2025September 20, 2025

Caroline Burton: The Back of the Moon
by Etty Yaniv

In Conversation

*The Back of the Moon*, Caroline Burton, view 2, on view at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in the Christine DeVitt Exhibition Hall in Lubbock, TX, photo courtesy of Taylor Ernst

What does it take to move an exhibition from one institution to another, and how does it change along the way? Caroline Burton’s The Back of the Moon began at The Clara M. Eagle Gallery at Murray State University, where curator T. Michael Martin first organized the presentation. Recognizing both the impact of Burton’s large-scale works and the practicality of transporting them rolled in tubes, Martin developed opportunities for the exhibition to travel. This led to a partnership with the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) in Lubbock, Texas, where curator Taylor Ernst re-envisioned the show for the Christine DeVitt Exhibition Hall. With each venue offering its own curatorial approach and installation design, The Back of the Moon continues to evolve as it moves between sites. In the following conversation, curators T. Michael Martin and Taylor Ernst discuss the process of shaping this traveling exhibition.

September 18, 2025September 14, 2025

Maya Perry with introspections within The Moon Takes Shape of an Outsider’s Light
by Taylor Bielecki

Maya Perry, *The moon takes shape of an outsiders light*, 2025, Water-Soluble Graphite and Watercolor on canvas, 58 x 62 in., photo courtesy of Taylor Bielecki

Maya Perry’s solo exhibition at RAINRAIN gallery is both tender and powerful, full of tranquility and wonder. It is a conversation on humanness and existence. With the drawings, we see snapshots of thoughts, memories, feelings, and with the paintings we see narratives and longer moments of growing, returning, and becoming. This exhibition navigates the spaces where memory fractures and re-forms, dealing with the complications of the past.

September 17, 2025September 16, 2025

Magnum O-Pspsps at Cornell
by Etty Yaniv

In Dialogue

Curator Michael Morgan with George Boorujy’s *Dredger* (2017) in the Foundry, home to Cornell’s MFA studios. Photo courtesy of Michael Morgan

Curating an exhibition at Cornell doesn’t require waiting until after graduation or climbing a long academic ladder. The Art Department makes the process unusually accessible—for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty alike. Within the department, there are two dedicated galleries, and under the larger umbrella of the AAP College, a third gallery also accepts exhibition proposals. Each semester, a committee comes together to review applications for the following term. It was within this framework that two graduate students took on the challenge of organizing a large group exhibition. Michael Morgan, who co-curated the exhibition with Elina Ansary, tells us about the process behind the show.

September 16, 2025September 14, 2025

Painters to Watch: The Armory Show 2025 Recap
by Anna Shukeylo

Installation View, Doron Lanberg at Victoria Miro, courtesy of the writer

With the excitement of the art fairs behind us it’s time to take one look back at The Armory Show and note a couple artists to watch this year who clearly stood out in the whirlwind of that weekend.

September 15, 2025September 14, 2025

Continental Presence: Europe’s Defining Voice at The Armory Show 2025
by Eva Zanardi

The Armory Show 2025 – Daniel Zeller “**Inference**,” 2015, Mixed media, Approx. 95 x. , Pierogi Gallery. Photo by Eva Zanardi

September in New York is a sensory crescendo—fashion, tennis, and art converge in a city that thrives on spectacle. At the center of it all, The Armory Show 2025 returned to the Javits Center from September 4–7, hosting over 230 exhibitors from 35 countries and drawing more than 50,000 visitors. This year’s edition, the second since its acquisition by Frieze, was slightly smaller than last year’s—but no less ambitious. Dealers reported strong momentum from VIP day onward, especially for works at lower price points, while higher-priced pieces moved at a measured pace. Many noted a noticeably younger crowd—engaged, curious, and eager to discover.

September 8, 2025September 7, 2025

Backscatter: Light Studies and Everyday Alchemy at OVERLAP
by Persephone Allen

Sparkling surfaces abound in Backscatter, OVERLAP’s quietly radiant summer show of works by Funlola Coker, Katherine Mitchell DiRico, Jesse Kaminsky, Joetta Maue, Leah Piepgras, and Esther Solondz, curated by Alicia Renadette. On a clear summer midmorning, sunshine falls across shimmering layers of glass, crystal, gold leaf, copper, bronze, salt, acrylic, and clear liquid. Materials catch and refract light. The overall effect is of a hushed brilliance that draws you in, inviting a closer look.