Art Spiel – Page 115 – Contemporary Art and Culture

Exhibition Review by Katie Hector

Plush Paint: please do not pet, caress, fondle

Step off of the gray pavement, step out of the chilly dullness of an impending New York City Winter, traverse the threshold of Next to Nothing Gallery, and indulge in the celebration of painting currently on view at 181 Orchard Street.

“Plush Paint: please do not pet, caress, fondle” features the work of Jason Stopa, Osamu Kobayashi, and Susan Carr in a bounty of paintings and sculptural hybrids that boast tenacious gestures, mysterious shapes, and amped up colors. As the eyes adjust to the stark whiteness of the minimalist space, at first glance the work appears as a collection of unearthly gemstones unified by candied commercial hues and vibrating combinations of paint. Robert Erani, Gallery Director and Curator employed the cohesion of color to serve as an “accessible commonality that any viewer can appreciate.” For Erani the visual pleasure of these works seduces the viewer to take a deeper look and discover less obvious nuances that distinguish the individual work of each artist.

Exhibition Review by Sharilyn Neidhardt

Così via at Centotto

Opened Dec 16

All photos by Sharilyn Neidhardt

On a rainy December night with little else to recommend it, I made my way to residential gallery Centotto to find it warm, lively, and packed with many of the luminaries of the cozy East Williamsburg scene. Although the weather was so cold and unpleasant that there were scant Christmas shoppers on the L train, artists and art lovers were packed snugly into Centotto for the opening reception of the latest exhibition, “Così via” (Italian for ‘so forth’).

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 3

AS: What can you tell me about your painting process?

Anne Sherwood Pundyk: To begin, I am alone in my studio out in the country. I clear away the past. I am free. I don’t need to do anything. I have no expectations based on prior work. I wait. An urge eventually calls me toward my materials. My materials are humble drop cloth canvas and house paint. They will be transformed and elevated. I want to make something new. It will affirm a hopeful light. It will hold a dark truth. It will be more than the sum of its parts. It will take whatever size and shape it needs to take. I am there to shepherd its creation. I start by mixing a color that matches my mood. I pour a large quantity of paint onto canvas on the floor of my studio or outside on the lawn. I watch the movement and density of the paint. I pour more paint or water to compose in response to what I see. I work with large heavy pieces of canvas sometimes soaking wet with paint and water, bending, rolling, and pulling. I learn as I go. I extend my body to my materials. The canvas becomes my skin and the paint is a bodily life fluid. Action becomes image.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 2

AS: I am curious why you chose to use the term “manifesto.”

Anne Sherwood Pundyk:I could say, “Artist Statement,” but that feels too passive as a prescription for how and why I paint. I associate the term “Manifesto” with an urgent call to action. Since 2009, my painting has formally become more reductive through three distinct bodies of work each with their own written manifesto . Respectively, each written piece affirms a new order in a different way. Common to all is my concern with the idea of agency taken together with my on-going re-examination of the tradition of the medium. As my thinking and understanding changes, so does my work.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Anne Sherwood Pundyk With Art Spiel – Part 1

Art Spiel’s Interview with artist and writer Anne Sherwood Pundyk has evolved into a cohesive and richly layered personal essay that will be published in sections over three days – one part a day. Anne Sherwood Pundyk’s essay in three parts seals Art Spiel’s Interview series for 2018, while opening a portal into 2019 with fresh insights and new writing formats.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Time Waves – Simona Prives at John Doe

Time Waves, the new upcoming exhibition at John Doe features collage and animation by Simona Prives. The Brooklyn based artist examines in her new body of work our complex relationship to the environment. The structures within each of her compositions prompts the viewer to piece together an alternative reality, created out of imaginative juxtapositions between growth and decay, the organic and man-made.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Gail Winbury – Day by Day

In her diverse series of paintings and collages Gail Winbury expresses reflections on love, identity, feminism, aging, and mortality – with psychological and emotional resonance. For Art Spiel she elaborates on her formative experiences as an artist, her work practice, and thought process.

[caption id="attachment_2395" align="alignnone" width="458"] Gail Winbury, Mixed Media Collage: oil paint on canvas and paper, sumi ink on vellum, a piece of acrylic on canvas from Jim Fliess, pearls, magazine, enamel paint on paper on Bristol Board, 24″ x 19″, 2016. Photo by Peter Jacobs[/caption]

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Cecile Chong – The Layers Beneath

In her layered paintings and installations Cecile Chong brings to life notions of “otherness”, how cultural filters make us see each other. Her departure point derives organically from her experiences since early childhood. Here she shares some of these experiences, the genesis of her diverse body of work, and her upcoming projects.

[caption id="attachment_2417" align="alignnone" width="385"] Cecile Chong, DNA Matching, 2018
Encaustic and mixed media on wood
11 x 8 inches, photo courtesy of the artist[/caption]

Exhibition Review by Sharilyn Neidhardt

Las Gravitas at ODETTA

Photos by Sharilyn Neidhardt, unless otherwise indicated

A show of swirling color and geometry finds ways to discuss complicated issues of violence and social collapse.

What drew me to ODETTA on a very chilly Saturday were the colorful, pagoda-like structures in the main space. Human-scale structures that echo lanterns or birdcages are covered in awkward spiky garlands of colored plastic tubes. The festive air created by the riot of bright color seems fun at first, and it’s only on second inspection that a viewer realizes the color is coming from spent shotgun shells.

[caption id="attachment_2434" align="alignnone" width="500"] Margaret Roleke, ‘pop pop’ (installation view) spent shot gun shells, wire, zipties, steel boxes. 2 boxes each approx. 9’h x 5’w x 5’d[/caption]

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Tamar Zinn – Field and Geometry

Throughout her drawings and paintings Tamar Zinn has developed her own visual vocabulary, rooted in abstraction. Zinn shares with Art Spiel her growth as an artist, work process, and current art and curatorial projects.

[caption id="attachment_2408" align="alignnone" width="289"] Tamar Zinn, Pavane 21, 2017, pigmented charcoal and conté crayon on paper, 17 x 9”. Photo courtesy of the artist[/caption]