Linger Still – Kaveri Raina at Assembly Room

curated by Emily Burns

Linger Still, (installation view). Image courtesy of Assembly Room Gallery

Diaspora consciousness is an acute mindfulness of one’s cultural origins post-migration. This awareness can be, “heightened by communication and visits, and is retained in memories, storytelling and other creative forms.” Individuals or families who take the risk to migrate must navigate a series of unanticipated complexities away from the support of their families and communities. For those who choose to leave or flee from their homelands the sensation of “otherness” is a pervasive factor in their quest for opportunities, stability, and safety. This uncanny sensation serves as the conceptual pulse and subtle heartbeat for Kaveri Raina’s solo exhibition “Linger Still,” curated by Emily Burns currently on view at Assembly Room Gallery.

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Mary DeVincentis – Conscious Rituals

Mary DeVincentis paintings conjure worlds that are simultaneously inner and cosmic, personal and universal, unexpected yet strangely familiar. Some of the core concepts of Buddhism, such as impermanence, emptiness, interdependence and the origins of suffering, aversion and ignorance, often surface in her work in allegorical forms. Her imagery, conveyed with a remarkable fluidity of color and form, takes the viewer deep into their own inner worlds.  The artist shared with Art Spiel some of the experiences that led her to art, some of the ideas behind her work, and her overall process.

Mary DeVincentis, Heaven Can’t Wait, 23” x 35”, acrylic on yupo on panel, 2017, photo courtesy of the artist

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Kelsey Shwetz – Other than Linear Reality

 

Kelsey Shwetz, Rec Room, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 62”x32”, 2018, photo credit Lloyd Mulvey

Kelsey Shwetz’s paintings  bring to mind fantastic landscapes and ornamented interior spaces at the same time. Her imagery depicts artificial environments saturated with unexpected color combinations, altogether conjuring intense psychological urgency- unsettling yet playful. In this interview with Art Spiel Shwetz shared some of her thoughts, specifically about color, narrative and style. Continue reading “Kelsey Shwetz – Other than Linear Reality”

Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, installation view, photo courtesy Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, the three person show Curated by Tracy McKenna at Rick Wester Fine Art, features work by Cat Balco, Ben Godward, and Jason Rohlf, who all show a knack for unexpected twists of material resulting in exuberant abstracted forms and unorthodox color across the board. The  abstract paintings and sculptures in the show prompt loose  interpretations of Geometric Abstraction, where the hand is rigorously present. Continue reading “Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art”

Peter Gynd – Studio on the Road

Peter Gynd, Blanketed 15-003, 2017, archival inkjet print on Hahnemulhe  photo rag 308gsm, 15.875 x 23.75 inches framed, Edition of 5 +1AP , photo courtesy of the artist

Peter Gynd is a prolific artist, curator, and gallery director. As a Canadian artist who has been well immersed in the New York City art world, Gynd has a vista on both worlds from a unique perspective. We have been in dialogue for several years and this is a compilation of the issues we have touched upon in our conversations. Continue reading “Peter Gynd – Studio on the Road”

Amulets Ethereal at Barney Savage

Amulets Ethereal, partial installation view, photo courtesy of Barney Savage gallery

“Amulets Ethereal,” the thought provoking group exhibition curated by Jenny Mushkin Goldman at Barney Savage features works by Kharis Kennedy, Adam Krueger & Tableaux VivantsVictoria Manganiello & Julian Goldman, Qinza Najm, Cheryl R. Riley, and Ashley Zelinskie. The artworks in this show run the gamut from manipulated found objects, like Cheryl Riley’s old farm tools and Qinza Najm’s carpet, to fabricated sculptures like Ashley Zelinskie’s 3-d printed futuristic cyborgs and Victoria Manganiello / Julian Goldman’s computerized weaving; from wearable art like the sewn tattooed silicon mask by the duo  Adam Krueger and Tableaux Vivants to Kharis Kennedy’s mysterious painting of a masked figure with a goat. Collectively the artworks are recontextualized as open-ended ritualized objects and images endowed with the questionable power to shield the viewer from the most tenuous of perceived dangers. Continue reading “Amulets Ethereal at Barney Savage”

Internalized Borders at John Jay

Francisco Donoso, Between Passages, installation, 2018 image, photo courtesy of the artist
Francisco Donoso, Between Passages, installation, 2018, photo courtesy of the artist

Curated by Maria de Los Angeles and Susan Noyes Platt, the group show “Internalized Borders” at John Jay  College of Criminal Justice examines the various ways in which language and legal systems create internal and external borders. It addresses urgent issues of  immigration, detention, and deportation; especially focusing on how these issues are related to fear, criminalization of identity, economics of migration, and  perception of otherness. Continue reading “Internalized Borders at John Jay”