Art Spiel – Page 54 – Contemporary Art and Culture

November 14, 2022December 6, 2024

Feminist Connect
by Sally Brown

Curator Sally Brown in conversation with artists Marie Bergstedt, Amy Chaiklin and Laurence de Valmy

In conversation with the artists

A picture containing text, fabric

Description automatically generated — Marie Bergstedt: *Fading*, Hand embroidery on cotton fabric, 2017, 22”H x20”W x 1.25”D

Marie Bergstedt, Amy Chaiklin and Laurence de Valmy were featured artists in Feminist Connect, on view at Charles Adam Studio Project in Lubbock, Texas, in March, 2022 and as part of a larger online exhibition by the same name, running through February 2023. The artists Bergstedt (fabric), Chaiklin (drawing/painting) and deValmy (painting) discuss their processes, concepts and relations with the co-curator, Sally Brown, expanding on the discussion the exhibition provokes around the feminist lineage of art.

November 7, 2022December 30, 2022

Emily Mae Smith: Heretic Lace at Petzel
by Saul Ostrow

Emily Mae Smith, Heretic Lace, 2019, Oil on linen, 48×37 inches

Walt Disney has taught us that cartoons can be used to distract us while conveying the most serious of subjects. Understanding this Emily Mae Smith in 2014, introduced into her developing iconography an anthropomorphized, androgynist broom consisting of a featureless phallic shaft attached to a twig brush. This broom, a descendant of the demonic mops portrayed in sorcerer’s apprentice section of Disney’s Fantasia (1940), has become a signature image in her work. Joined with icons associated with desire and fear, Smith has used this figure as both a male and female trope, as well as an alter-ego. To greater and lesser degrees Smith uses her glossary of icons in some cases to engage in heady meditations on such topics as death, vanity, desire, history, etc. and at other times to enigmatically introduce such subjects with little or no commentary.

October 31, 2022December 30, 2022

On Salt, Seaweed, and Disappearing Places
by Susan Hoffman Fishman

A close-up of some plants

Description automatically generated with low confidence — *Skin #9*, algae, insect pins, 60” x 62,” 2021

California-based artist, writer, and researcher Christina Conklin grew up spending summers along the coast of Oregon where she first developed a relationship with and understanding of the ocean as “an infinite vessel” of ever-changing and interconnected living systems. For the last 12 years, her artwork has explored the intersection of art, science, and spirituality as it relates to the sea.

October 24, 2022November 2, 2022

Five Points – Judith McElhone: Baby steps quickly
by Art Spiel

Featured Project

Judith McElhone, Founder – Executive Director Five Points Arts

In 2012, Five Points Gallery, a small 744 square foot contemporary art 501c3 non-profit exhibition space, opened in the heart of historic downtown Torrington. Against all odds, Five Points Gallery, has become Five Points Arts, one of Connecticut’s outstanding visual arts organizations and a cornerstone of Torrington’s transition from an old industrial town into a major arts destination. Judith McElhone, the executive director of Five Points Arts, sheds some light on the vision behind her organization.

October 21, 2022November 2, 2022

Rainer Gross: Double Take, Solo Exhibition at East End Arts, Riverhead, NY
by Anne Sherwood Pundyk

Gallery view, East End Arts, Riverhead, NY. Courtesy East End Arts and the artist.

In Double Take, Rainer Gross’ solo show at East End Arts through November 5, 2022 in Riverhead, NY, the artist invites the viewer to take a step closer to his abstract, intensely colorful paintings. Gross offers the viewer the satisfying experience of engaging intellectually with the underlying organizing principle of his compositions while savoring a sumptuously layered array of the results. His paintings are comprised of two (sometimes four) identically sized, stretched rectangular canvases shown side-by-side. He applies pools, bands, bars and patches of saturated hues of oil paint on one canvas and water-based pigment on the other. While the colors are still wet, the paired canvases are then placed together, face to face. When pulled apart, the forms on one canvas imprint on the other creating a shared Rorschach-like result. The artist refers to his paintings as “twins.” The side-by-side canvases are nearly identical, yet their differences become an intriguing puzzle to recognize, trace and sort. This easy-to-grasp concept offers a frisson of delight for the viewer as they experience the variety of its execution.

October 17, 2022November 2, 2022

Residency at Five Points – Flood 2.0
by Art Spiel

In Conversation with Susan Hoffman Fishman

L to R: Judy McElhone (founder and director of Five Points Arts), Susan Hoffman Fishman, Krisanne Baker and Leslie Sobel (three of the four Water Women) at the Center in June, 2022, amongst components of their upcoming multi-media installation, *Flood 2.0.*

In July of 2021, artist Susan Hoffman Fishman began talking with Canadian photographer, Joan Sullivan about the eerie similarity between future apocalyptic flood predictions and the ancient story of Noah and the world’s first apocalyptic flood. The two artists have known each other through writing, both serving as core writers for the international blog, Artists and Climate Change. Both artists have been working on issues relating to water and the climate crisis and are equally interested in mythical stories related to water that resonate in contemporary culture. That led them to weekly conversations throughout 2021 when they decided to collaborate on a multi-media installation project, which they eventually called Flood 2.0.

October 14, 2022October 14, 2022

Michael A. Robinson — Somma at DISPLAY
by Roman Kalinovski

Michael A. Robinson’s site-specific project Somma, at DISPLAY in Parma, Italy, is the sum of many parts, all operating in tandem. The installation appears simple, featuring three wall-mounted LED works and metal arcs and hoops suspended from the ceiling. The space’s glossy floor and glass façade and door reflect the light emitted by the LEDs, potentially multiplying their presence based on the viewer’s position and the level of ambient light.

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022

Alice Zinnes: Inner landscapes of Light
by Etty Yaniv

Alice Zinnes in her studio, with charcoal drawings behind

Alice Zinne‘s paintings draw from literature and mythology to create dramatic landscapes in which light and dark interplay as main protagonists. Her oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings often depict floods of light intertwined with fragmented darker patches, evoking dense and fluid inner spaces.

October 8, 2022November 2, 2022

Genevieve Gaignard – To Whom It May Concern at Rowan
by Art Spiel

Featured Project with Mary Salvante

*Vanilla Ice*, 2016, Edition 3 of 3. Chromogenic print, 24 x 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles

To Whom It May Concern, the current exhibition featuring an installation and collages by Los Angeles based artist Genevieve Gaignard, raises poignant questions related to nostalgic notions of American history and culture. The work ranges from staged photographs, questioning social stigmas and beauty standards, to a room installation made of found furniture and other objects. The artist says the aim is to “beckon viewers to dig into the imperfect relationship between our inner worlds, public lives, and modern events.” Mary Salvante, the director and chief curator of Rowan University Art Gallery sheds some more light on this show. The show runs through October 29, 2022.

October 7, 2022November 2, 2022

Arden Bendler Browning at Bridgette Mayer Gallery
by Art Spiel

Featured Artist

Image from the opening reception of *Wayfinding* at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, photo courtesy of the artist

Wayfinding, Arden Bendler Browning’s solo exhibition at Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia, follows the artist’s recent completion of a major public art project, Elastic Geography, a 25 by 140 foot mural on the side of Yards Brewery, commissioned by Mural Arts Philadelphia. The show includes 21 new paintings, a Vault installation of over 50 mixed media works on panel, and a custom interactive virtual reality. It runs through October 22^nd.