Exhibition Review – Art Spiel

September 28, 2026September 28, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Rebecca Morgan at Asya Geisberg Gallery: Traversing the Apocalypse

Rebecca Morgan’s exhibition Painting in the Age of Apocalypse is a bit of a roadmap for viewers. Morgan tackles the question of how to present images in the face of a raging political landscape, how to keep moving forward, and how to maintain oneself and some humor about it all. And most importantly to me, how to open up one’s painting style and allow both the work and the process to support you through this tumultuous and often unbelievable terrain we may find ourselves within. In this exhibition, Morgan engages potent themes from all her eras: sympathy for her rural background, feminist reappraisal of art history, and an unbridled excitement at infusing humor and technical prowess into her critique. Here, Morgan fuses all of these themes well, all the while showing us a fresh, looser style of painting that captures the frenetic energy of the moment.

September 21, 2026September 18, 2026, by Eva Zanardi

AMEN : NEMMEN — The Discipline of Listening

The opening of AMEN : NEMMEN, Vince Briffa’s installation on faith and belief, fell on the first rain of the year, closing out a hundred-and-twenty-day drought and the first completely dry Maltese summer in six years. I had not yet met the island’s infamous heat, and on September 14th, as if the island had been holding its breath, the grip finally let go. The narrow stone bridge into Fort St Elmo and the Chapel of St Anne, the exhibition’s site, act as a conduit through time, folding centuries and space into a single, intimate passage of entry. Fort St Elmo’s honey-hued limestone stood monumental, solemn, and unbothered in the late-summer light, the kind of backdrop that makes an installation about faith feel almost inevitable.

September 14, 2026September 13, 2026, by Anna Shukeylo

Light Lives as an Animal: Melissa Murray’s Nocturnal Ontology

In Light Lives as an Animal at 1053 Gallery, Melissa Murray dives into the darkness of Catskills nights, bringing the magical, haunting world of raw, gorgeous wilderness to life in her extensive solo exhibition. Drawing from her relocation from Brooklyn to the Catskills years ago, Murray shares her fascination with the immersive, nocturnal world of the forest. Darkness to her is not simply a void or a passive backdrop, but a thick, generative medium through which a landscape reveals its independent interior life.

September 9, 2026September 8, 2026, by Sara Aparicio

Latency: Reinventing Photography – MFA Parsons Show

Since its invention in the early 1800s, photography has evolved from merely capturing moments. Over time, photography became intertwined with other traditional art mediums and slowly became a more accepted medium in the fine arts space. Now, with Parsons’ 2026 Photography MFA thesis show, Latency continues to expand what photography can be, literally.

September 8, 2026September 7, 2026, by Melissa Stern

Betty Parsons: An Expanded World at The Hessel Museum of Art

Installation view of Betty Parson’s An Expanded World

The Hessel Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College has mounted a lavish retrospective on the work of artist and art dealer Betty Parsons. The first such exhibit in 25 years, it covers her career from beginning to end.

September 7, 2026September 7, 2026, by Nicole Michaud

Rebecca Rutstein: Universal Nature at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art

In Universal Nature, at Ursinus College’s Berman Museum, you can easily feel the breadth of Rebecca Rutstein’s long artistic practice. Rutstein has spent over two decades creating paintings, sculptures, videos, and textiles, buoyed by a passion to connect with and understand complex global systems that are core to our existence on this planet. Universal Nature presents a mid-career survey spanning her oeuvre, with an intellectual focus on continuous change, transformation, and interdependence.

August 31, 2026September 1, 2026, by Adria Arch

Image vs Object – Isabel Riley, John Guthrie, and Judy Riola

Isabel Riley, Cardinal Directions of the Heart

Michelle Mercaldo, an artist and master craftsperson in her own right, is hosting a strong group show in her jewelry showroom, featuring the work of Isabel Riley, John Guthrie, and Judy Riola. Michelle’s own practice is in fine metalwork, and that sensibility, precision, and materiality, with a feel for surface, inform whose work she chooses to put on her walls.

August 26, 2026September 2, 2026, by Sara Aparicio

Big Ideas, Tiny Work: Hashimoto Contemporary’s Amuse-Bouche Show Returns

Installation view of Hashimoto Contemporary's Amuse-Bouche

If you missed Hashimoto Contemporary’s Amuse-Bouche group show last spring, fret not. The miniature show is returning for the second year in a row, featuring twenty-one artists, including four returning artists: Mary Finlayson, Sara Hagale, Gabe Langholtz, and Andrew Watch. Some of the other participating artists also include Hashimoto Contemporary-represented artists Devra Fox and Seanna Hong.

August 25, 2026August 25, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Blizzard at Dimin Gallery- intertwined times- nostalgia, stillness, and ecological urgency

Installation view, Blizzard, Dimin Gallery

Walking into Dimin gallery on a humid summer day, Blizzard, the exhibition currently on view, envelops you with a welcoming dynamic, though like a winter storm, often all-encompassing, bitter, and fierce. Despite these negative associations coinciding with the theme of blizzard , there is a sense of peace and serenity while observing a storm safely. As long as you are observing from a safe distance, both the winter season and its storms can offer great solace and opportunities for contemplation. Similar to the work in this show, we are welcomed to dive into the environments of the works and take note of what themes are driving the artists. Given our growing concerns over climate change, global warming, and changes in the environment, this exhibition is very timely; especially ecologically, this show calls for attention. These artists certainly show how a snow day can slow time and force us to have more respect for the unyielding natural world.

August 13, 2026August 13, 2026, by Cristina Albu

Anne Katrine Senstad – Being (Un)schooled

Crossing the threshold of the “Veieja Escuelera” exhibition at Synesthesia Gallery, Brooklyn, visitors find themselves enveloped in an eerie haze of green light that is both sensuous and disquieting. This is not the only defamiliarizing element since the floor is carpeted with artificial grass and the light works encompass phrases in multiple languages. On Anne Katrine Senstad’s turf, nothing is what it seems at first sight. A Norwegian artist living between New York and Oslo, she uses light both environmentally and sculpturally to expose the interdependence between perceptual experience, cognition, and ideological beliefs. Her practice engages both with the phenomenological inquiries of minimalist artists such as Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin and with the tongue-in-cheek propositions of Conceptual artists such as Joseph Kosuth and Bruce Nauman who have paired neon light with text to invite reflection on the function of art as sign.