Art Spiel – Page 103 – Contemporary Art and Culture

February 23, 2020November 15, 2020

Catchat, following an Interview With a Cat
by Noa Ginzburg and Kristen Clevenson

Kristen Clevenson in conversation with Noa Ginzburg, February 2020

Catchat, a screenshot of a skype conversation, 2019.
Photo by Hannah Bruckmueller

“This is an interview recorded at the Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles, 12 Burgplatz Düsseldorf,” announces the interviewer. “MIAOW! MIAOW!” replies the interviewee.” In 1970, the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976) conducted and recorded an Interview With a Cat. In Catchat, a trans-Atlantic collaboration between Hannah Bruckmüller, Michal Ron, and Noa Ginzburg which was recently published on PROTOCOLS, the three listen carefully to the protagonist cat and transcribe French and Cat tongues into Hebrew and Latin letters. Kristen Clevenson and Noa Ginzburg share with Art Spiel their conversation about cats, collaborating while in different time zones, transcribing illegible languages, and using deep listening to assert agency.

February 21, 2020November 2, 2022

Surface and Sky: Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects
by Catherine Kirkpatrick

Jeffrey Morabito’s show “Birds and Flowers, Vases and Windows” is beautiful and lush and draws you in. There are vibrant colors and wandering lines, rich passages that feel like small works unto themselves–secret gardens waiting to be discovered within each larger piece. But if there are elements that delight the eye, there are ideas that tease the mind. For running through his art and practice is a sense of duality and contradiction where opposites collide and play, posing gentle questions as they merge into new concepts and forms.

February 17, 2020November 15, 2020

Michael Alan is New York’s Past, Present and Future
by Markella K

Michael Alan In conversation with Markella K

(*The American Legend*, Image courtesy of Michael Alan)

It’s time to question the nature of a city when everything you loved or heard about it has changed so much. NYC now has changed into a huge playground with high end food prices, fancy cell phones and luxury condos. I came here full of dreams just like everyone else, hoping to fit in and to see what Warhol left behind.

February 10, 2020November 15, 2020

Kit Warren – Moments of Recognition
by Etty Yaniv

*Altered States (untitled),* 2019, Acrylic, flashe on birch panel, 36 x 36 inches, photo courtesy the artist

Kit Warren‘s works on paper present complex and elaborate visual cryptography – patterns of lines, dots, and bold colorful shapes. They evoke layered associations ranging from microcosmic to cosmic. Kit Warren shares with Art Spiel some of her ideas and work process.

February 7, 2020November 15, 2020

Susan Luss at the Museum of Art & Culture in New Rochelle
by Etty Yaniv

Artist in Residence Susan Luss highlights her installation in House 4 MAC Gallery and windows.

Partial installation view, *today, I am…*Photo credit: Susan Luss

In 2019 Artist Susan Luss was invited by the New Rochelle High School to be their first visiting artist working on site responsive installations. The school has its own museum and cultural center on its campus, called The Museum of Arts & Culture, which is the only Regents-chartered museum inside of a school in the state of New York. This collaborative project became a formative experience for the artist. Susan Luss describes the ways she formed her ideas, her collaborative work with students and faculty, as well as her takeaway from this multi layered project overall. The exhibition runs through Feb 13th.

February 4, 2020November 15, 2020

Intermediate Geochromatic Studies at Nars
by Etty Yaniv

In dialogue with Jason Urban & Leslie Mutchler on their collaborative project at Nars Foundation

Jason Urban & Leslie Mutchler, Intermediate Geochromatic Studies at NARS Foundation, installation view, 2020. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Artists Jason Urban and Leslie Muchler who have been collaborating on art projects since 2012, share with Art Spiel their ideas, process, and ways of collaborating on their current exhibition, Geochromatic Studies, at NARS.

February 3, 2020November 15, 2020

Rachel Owens – The Hypogean Tip at the Housatonic
by Etty Yaniv

Art Spiel in dialogue with Rachel Owens on her sculpture exhibition at The Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport CT

Rachel Owens seamlessly incorporates rigorous research of history and place in her visceral sculptural environments, offering us not only a feast for the eyes – in form, textures, and color – but also engaging us in a mysterious space where detritus like broken bottles, abandoned coal, and even the dust left from marble excavation transform into new forms. Altogether her sculptures prompt complex ideas about multi layered and urgent social issues of race, gender, history and capitalism among others. Rachel Owens elaborates for Art Spiel on her thought process behind this exhibition.

January 28, 2020November 15, 2020

Todd Bienvenu – Stories within Stories
by Etty Yaniv

A picture containing canyon, valley, colorful, building

Description automatically generated — Todd Bienvenu, Bain de Pâquis, 88x76in, acrylic on canvas, 2019 .
Courtesy Todd Bienvenu Studio

No matter what Todd Bienvenu chooses to depict in a painting – a male nude lying on a bear skin rug in a Venus pose, a fearless female city bike rider, or a crowded water-park vista- his surfaces consistently pull you in by their bold vitality and idiosyncratic humor. Todd Bienvenu shares with Art Spiel some insights on his process, ideas and studio work.

January 16, 2020November 15, 2020

Annesta Le at Yi Gallery
by Etty Yaniv

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Cecilia Zhang Jalboukh, founder of Yi Gallery in Bushwick

Installation view of Annesta Le solo exhibition “Inner Space” at Yi Gallery Project Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2020. Photo by Yi Gallery.

The Bushwick based Yi Gallery evolved out of Cecilia Zhang Jalboukh’s experience and vision. At its current form it shares space with The Border at 56 Bogart. Yi Gallery’s founder elaborates on Annesta Le’s current solo exhibition, shares with Art Spiel the genesis of Yi Gallery, as well as her vision for the space.

January 14, 2020November 15, 2020

Nina Mdivani – NY Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part I & II
by Etty Yaniv

In Dialogue with Nina Mdivani on her curatorial project at Kunstraum LLC (Brooklyn) and The Assembly Room (LES)

Rusudan Khizanishvili, *Producing The New Body* 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 31.49 x 27.55 inches

Nina Mdivani is an independent curator, art writer, and current Curator-in-Residence at Kunstraum located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard neighborhood. Her rigorous curatorial process and research have recently culminated in a two-part exhibition, New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness. This dynamic group show pairs the works of Georgian and American artists to create multilayered dialogues across cultural identities. Nina Mdivani shares with Art Spiel some of her background, and elaborates on the premise for the upcoming group show she has curated.