HIGHLIGHTS

Alternative worlds abound, collide, and gravitate in a transfixing lineup that is circumspect of the new year and ruminations of what lies ahead. Unique in presentation, yet united in exploring the vulnerabilities of coexistence amidst a delicate balance, their clandestine orbits intersect and align around the precarity of humanity. Shape-shifting, portals, relics, and worlds collide and mystify in alchemical formulations. As our planet spins on an axis beyond human capacity, one can find solace and pleasure in the mystery and adventure that awaits through these masterful and delightful odysseys of discovery. Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget create pathways of knowledge through otherworldly means. David Dixon melds stories seamlessly that serve as portals into realms that might exist in such a world.
Subscribe to the Art Spiel Weekly Newsletter. It Matters to us!
SUBSCRIBE HERE
Portal 5 @portal5info @minusspace @hopfroggowanus @chezdeleget
On view through: February 11, 2025
Curated by: Bill Sullivan @billsullivanny
Featuring: Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget

In a fascinating and engaging presentation, Michael Brennan, Matthew Deleget and Bill Sullivan draw us into a portal that entrances, illuminates and enriches the mind, body, and soul. Through a shared love and interest in astronomy, this conversation between the artists bore fruit to an insightful and introspective experience that expands beyond the traditional exhibition into a place filled with research texts, ephemera, and notes that display the shared care and wonderment for astronomy. Guests are welcome to peruse and connect with all that exists within the space. Truly dynamic works are accompanied by exciting interactive texts, photographs and a beautiful old globe. The hypnotic blue paintings by Brennan are deeply moving, mirroring nature in a multitude of forms. During my visit, I was drawn to the hypnotic hold that Brennan’s works possess. This experience of freely exploring the undulating strokes of paint awakens a sensation akin to floating in outer space, and also the ocean, weightless and untethered, swept up like a great wave carrying me to the depths of the ocean floor, or perhaps another world entirely.
In a similar incantation, Deleget’s compositions of gouache and graphite capture sunspots, planetary alignments, and the human pull to the awesomeness of the universe. Poetic handwritten text is included in some of the framed works, underscoring the philosophical questions that go unanswered between human and sky. These celestial divinations are a most welcome reprieve and harken one’s earliest sensory connections within the womb. A serene sense of calm is the tone in this special world they’ve created. A journey beyond the immediate and the opportunity to explore through the various media what lies in existence. Like stars, we are all born and will eventually wither out and die, but for now, we shine as brightly as we can, illuminating our pathways through daily persistence.
Brennan and Deleget’s work serves as a record, rumination, and inspiration to dream big and reach for those stars. Within the confines of these walls, a magical realm is unveiled, a library of wonders shared. Stargazer generously presents us with an exquisite gift, should we dare to accept. Stardust, sunspots, and solar eclipses give way to waterways and expansive skies full of dreams and unknown possibilities. As this show explores the stories of the universe, worlds collide, meld, and give birth to infinite meaning within the intimate vignettes of sea and sky. One can look for hours and continue to find meaning and reflection anew.
Disquiet, all the frustrations and fears subtly expressed at Ghostmachine, 23 Monroe Street, NY, NY @ghostmachine.nyc @cathouse_proper @frankfrancesstudio @patrickkilloran @benischekbrad @shadiharouni @robtmars @carldalvia @solocitations @maria_d_rapicavoli @_polinaria_every_day @historypainter @zac_hacmon @polyesterabish @danilocorreale
On view through: Feb. 1, 2025
Curated by: David Dixon with “harvestings“ from his Cathouse FUNeral / Proper gallery project, including wall drawing from Brad Benischek’s exhibition Ghost City (2015).
Featuring: Andy Cross, Carl D’Alvia, Polina Elster, Frank Frances, Zac Hacmon, Shadi Harouni, Patrick Killoran, Ru Marshall, Paolo Piscitelli, and Maria D. Rapicavoli, with a gift from Danilo Correale

Upon entering the exhibition, one is whisked away from a familiar existence into one of contemplation and wonderment. A new awareness takes root, and one is left reflecting on the reckonings we witness, both in our private lives and in the complex systems we navigate as citizens, neighbors, strangers, and friends. The gallery is fabulously transformed in this lineup of impressive artists, fearlessly spearheaded by curator David Dixon. A wall from another lifetime is resurrected into this formidable experience. Sound, light, and energy enrapture and behold all who enter as the many whispers from the bones of the gallery and the works themselves resound through the space.
This plane of existence is one in which the amorphousness and the tangible converge, command, and sweep you into a world as tempestuous and unpredictable as wonderland itself. All things great and small converse in this new territory, where Shadi Harouni’s duck embeds itself into the wall; Brad Benischek’s scrawling notes serve as a ripe reminder of societal norms and conventions, and the large and whimsical work of Andy Cross serves as the threshold between the two worlds. The ghostly two-dimensional works by Frank Francesand Ru Marshall are delightfully countered by sculptural works by Polina Elster, Carl D’Alvia, Patrick Killoran, Paolo Piscitelli, and Maria D. Rapicavoli, while the show culminates with the incredible sound installation by Zac Hacmon.
It is here that I feel certain that the earth has spun off its access or is syncing up with the mystery spot in Santa Cruz, and all are moving in waves and tundras beyond the door. The beautiful pull is tantalizing and transcendent. Utter glee is felt as one discovers the tales and histories that reside in so many of the works abound, fertile and tantalizing. The riddles embedded expound playfully with wit and grit through their manifestations with intentionality and purpose. The works speak in various frequencies, where inner dialogue melds with ambient sounds reverberating through the architectural structure reminiscent of a long-lost home. Little nuances provide a comforting, lived-in feeling, like the bottle of mezcal perched in the corner or a glorious old nail that serves as a protector of the realm. Here, too, metaphysical elements are felt, and that submission to the knowledge that greater forces rule is both relieving and unsettling. To conjure such a porridge of emotions is to the strength of a truly great exhibition. Deeply curious, with an air of mystery, I remain truly spellbound by its magic.
Gathering at Alexander Gray Associates @alexandergrayassociates
On view through: February 8, 2025
Featuring: Hassan Sharif

Sharif’s exhibition, Gathering, is exactly as it’s titled. The sculptures on view are incredible amalgamations of the mundane, elevated into the majestic. Merging aspects of the old and the new through methods, concepts and materials, Sharif’s talent for transformation while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the singular ingredient of each work is an impressive feat. This posthumous exhibition highlights the ingenuity of Hassan’s practice in assemblage in which each sculpture takes form. The localized specificity elevates the ordinary and uneventful into spectacles of greatness and achievement. The unceremonious fate of mass objecthood is granted a welcome seat at the alter of high art, as tire rubber, cheaply made mass-produced hats, and aluminum food pans are reinvented into extraordinary beings that behold regal stature in the royal court of their contemporaries.
Speaking about the over-consumption that plagues our planet, Sharif demonstrated the severity of the issue through hefty sculptures that defy language, amplifying it through gorgeous structures that are crafted with the mastery of a sonnet. Works such as Weave 4, with its woven rubber, cables, and wire, conjure familiar memories of disdainful tasks like spending all day waiting for the repair person or awaiting the fate of a relied-upon an object that is prohibiting you from going about your day and fulfilling your needs. 555 is also born out of the practice of weaving, where disposable food trays are constructed into a gleaming cascade that is slick and seductive. Its scale and shimmery veneer pull you to it and hold you there with the strength of a thousand magnets. A third work, Hats, also incorporates weaving, although the weaving in the hats is manufactured, and the colorful range of this configuration is a stark contrast to the other monochromatic sculptures. This spherical orb that hangs suspended from the ceiling aligns with Stargazer and Disquiet in this realm of world-building, research, and reflection.
These works carry the might of planetary beings, where life once existed, and all that remains are the remnants. These exhibitions align like stars and can serve as cautionary tales of what is to come if we don’t change course. As each artist navigates their personal paths, they each bring deeply insightful interpretations to the reality we create collectively, and each opens a door into their unique dimensions, offering precious slivers into what just might be possible.
About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator and educator examining history, contemporary culture, materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting and teaching artist at institutions including New Museum; Pratt Institute; Sarah Lawrence College; Residency Unlimited; BRIC; Kean University; Parsons; Columbia University; Children’s Museum of NYC; El Barrio Artspace; Fairleigh Dickinson; and University of Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology (focus in Historical Archaeology) and in Studio Art with honors, with a Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from University of Massachusetts; and received an MFA in Fine Arts, with distinction, from Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include Art in Odd Places; the Boiler; Bronx Art Space; Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center; Cornell University; Ed Varie; Elizabeth Foundation; NARS Foundation; Open Source; Pratt Institute; PS122 Gallery; Spring Break Art Show; University of Massachusetts; and Westbeth. Publications include Anthropology of Consciousness; Ante Art; Art Observed; Bust Magazine; Emergency Index; Hyperallergic; Papergirl Brooklyn; Free City Radio; Radio Alhara; Tussle Magazine; the Urban Activist; and Transborder Art. Her work is in public, private, and traveling collections in the U.S. and abroad. @86cherrycherry