John Mendelsohn – Art Spiel

September 30, 2025September 30, 2025

Sue and Al Ravitz of 57W57ARTS

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.

July 9, 2025July 7, 2025

Phantom Attractions at Astor Weeks

Zoe Beloff, *Model for Drive-In Dreamland by Albert Grass (c. 1945)*, 2012, Wood, paint, plexiglass, found objects, 67 × 27 ⁵⁄₁₆ × 19 ³⁄₈ inches, 170 x 70 x 48.5 cm., photo courtesy the artist and Astor Weeks

When my mother was very old, I wanted to tell her what it was like to be in the art world. I said, “It is a little like joining the carnival.” While not affording her much comfort, I tried to convey the disorderly balancing act of the ridiculous and the transcendent, the illusory and the real, the sincere and the piratical. I wanted to suggest a midway of precarious lives, thrill rides, and a dubious game of chance.

May 9, 2025May 8, 2025

Mark Dagley at Abaton Project Space

In Conversation

Mark Dagley and Lauri Bortz of the Abaton Project Room

Mark Dagley is an artist who has exhibited his paintings and sculptures, which explore the intersection of abstraction and materiality, in New York and Europe since the 1980s. Lauri Bortz is a playwright and author whose farcical tragedies have been performed in theaters in New York, and over the past decade, she has created a series of children’s books. Abaton Project Room, or APR, is a temporary exhibition space conceived by Lauri, located at 11 Broadway, in the historic Bowling Green Office Building in Lower Manhattan. Over a one-year period (August 2024-2025), APR is alternating monthly presentations of Mark Dagley’s work—paintings, sculpture, and works on paper—with thematic group exhibitions as well as selections from Mark and Lauri’s personal collection.