Art Spiel – Page 121 – Contemporary Art and Culture

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Trish Tillman – Souvenirs of a Moment

[caption id="attachment_1002" align="aligncenter" width="356"] Trish Tillman, Afterschool Locker, 2017, Hand-printed vinyl, wood, metal, horsehair, resin, 66” x 37” x 6”, photo by Ethan Browning[/caption]

Trish Tillman flirts with materials. She fuses in her sculptures elements of fashion and interior décor like leather, vinyl, studs, ropes, and chains, to create art objects which are often both humorous and enigmatic. While her sculptures bring to mind old relics, early symbols, or mysterious calligraphic forms, they also embody the allure of faux luxury.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Perfected Scene at John Doe

[caption id="attachment_1010" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Jeff Liao, Coney Island from Steeplechase Pier, pigmented print, 2011, image courtesy of LYK Art Projects[/caption]

Curated by LYK Art Projects,”Perfected Scene” the upcoming show at John Doe Gallery features work by Jeff Liao, Jaye Rhee and Jason River, whose photographic works share a sense of manipulated stage-like worlds. Jeff Liao creates cityscapes with Utopian undercurrents, Jaye Rhee questions authenticity in making art, and Jason River creates enigmatic spaces with bare bodies and everyday objects.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Meryl Meisler – LES YES!

[caption id="attachment_986" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Meryl Meisler 1978 / courtesy of The Storefront Project & Steven Kasher Gallery[/caption]

In 2008, The National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the LES on their list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places. “LES YES!” at The Storefront Project upcoming exhibition features Meryl Meisler’s photographs of the Lower East Side during the 1970’s & 1980s. Meisler, who was born in the Bronx and raised in Long Island, captured in her photos a tight knit immigrant and working-class neighborhood during difficult times in NYC history.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Helen O’ Leary: No Place for Certainty

[caption id="attachment_918" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Helen O’Leary, installation view of Home is a foreign country, 2018, photo courtesy of Lesley Heller by Eva O’Leary[/caption]

Helen O’Leary‘s sculptural paintings are delicate and rough, subtle and raw, literal and metaphoric – they embrace and prick the viewer at the same time. Her current exhibition “Home is a foreign country“ at Leslie Heller indicates not only clear incisiveness and impressive mastery of form, but also a deep generosity- sharing with the viewer her rigorous process of grappling with material: visible jointing, disjointing, bending, folding, knitting. She says that somewhere through the struggle some magic happens. And magic does happen in her artwork.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Hecho en Tránsito / Made in Transit at Salena

[caption id="attachment_939" align="aligncenter" width="396"] Travis Leroy Southworth & Lisbet Roldan Collaboration Version 3, photo courtesy of the curator[/caption]

What happens when artists who come from different worlds encounter one another through art? How does access to information and materials in the U.S. and the constraint and lack in Cuba affect making art? What does a dialogue look like without words? The exhibition “Hecho en Tránsito / Made in Transit” that is currently presented at the LIU Salena gallery, is posing these questions with rigor. The artwork in this show is resulting of a long term project which was designed to foster intercultural dialogue between U.S. and Cuban artists, primarily through the exchange and collaborative creation of artwork. The visual dialogue between the artists is sustained in thought provoking ways across time, place, cultural differences, and political transitions.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Pop Goes The Weasel

POP GOES THE WEASEL- An exhibition that asks the question “why not”?

[caption id="attachment_890" align="aligncenter" width="500"] POP GOES THE WEASEL, installation view, photo courtesy of the curator[/caption]

The group show “Pop Goes The Weasel” at The Williamsburg Art and Historical Society brings together a group of nineteen artists from Japan and the US, fifteen women and four men who are working in seemingly disparate ways. Curator and artist William Norton presents his premise as “Why not”? Why not bring together artists who simply share their pathos, political intent, psychological depth ,a love of materials, and above all, their joy in creating art?

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Andrew Cornell Robinson – Transgressing Across Time and Line

[caption id="attachment_820" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Andrew Cornell Robinson in the studio, photographed by Alex Reyes 2017[/caption]

Andrew Cornell Robinson ‘s website indicates: “art + crafts research studio.” Largely known as a prolific ceramicist, Robinson’s oeuvre embraces a wide range of craft and design methods – resulting in an extensive body of drawings and diverse mixed media installations, all the way to performance. Throughout our multiple conversations I have been increasingly intrigued by his multi faceted imagination and asked him to learn more about his visual explorations.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Liminal Worlds at Trestle Gallery

[caption id="attachment_783" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Anne Polashenski , Aliens in a New Land: Josef & Francziska Podleszański (Great Grandparents), 2015, C-prints, cut paper collage & gouache on paper, 23 x 19 in, photo courtesy of the artist[/caption]

Curated by Katerina Lanfranco, “Liminal Worlds,” the upcoming show at Trestle features four artists who reflect on the fluid dividing line between the multiple realities we experience as part of the human condition. Anne Polashenski and Greg Thielker examine notions of “self and other” through ethnography, immigrant experiences, and national borders. Ashley Hope and Elizabeth Insogna explore the elusive notions of spirit and afterlife. Altogether, through their artworks, these artists invite us to venture into territories that make us contemplate not only politics, but also the potential for deeper self-awareness.

Exhibition Review by Etty Yaniv

Michal Gavish – Crystalline City at LIU

[caption id="attachment_809" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Michal Gavish, NYC3, photo courtesy of the artist[/caption]

Crystalline City is an exhibition of large-scale installations by Michal Gavish, on view now at the Humanities Gallery at LIU, Brooklyn. Presented in this unique glass walled gallery akin to a large scale oval diorama, the viewer can see the works from the outside. Designed on a combination of translucent fabrics and papers, the hand made prints transmit and reflect the surrounding lights and allow for multiple full views of the installation, through and around these fabrics.

Artist Interview by Etty Yaniv

Gregory Coates, Claiming Feathers

[caption id="attachment_707" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Gregory Coates, Afro Series 1 and 2 with artist, feathers acrylic on luan, 4 feet diameter, 2018, photo courtesy of the artist[/caption]

Gregory Coates’ bold and colorful installations raise questions rather than offer explanations. Through his abstracted forms and unabashed use of alluring colors he creates “social abstractions” which can be read as affirmations of life – beautiful and poignant at the same time.