Looking at Condron and Kessman’s MONO PRACTICE exhibition, I’m struck by the aura their pieces exude. Both make work using found materials, and both represent/re-present those materials in ways that push them close, but not past, the point of recognizability. The “things” of this exhibition have been abstracted and estranged but not transcended. They exist in a liminal moment, when the subject recedes, and the idea begins to shape itself. However, the objects persist in being objects.
Continue reading “No Ideas but in Things: Jim Condron and Dean Kessman at MONO PRACTICE”At Some Point, Every Household Object Stops Being Innocent
No one ever thinks the plate is going to become a problem.
A plate survives three apartments and one bad Thanksgiving. A suitcase gets hauled across borders or shoved beneath beds; sometimes it is packed in hope, sometimes because someone has no choice. An iron presses school clothes and funeral clothes, then outlives its usefulness and sits in a closet somewhere, still holding the pressure of human hands.
That is the animating idea behind extraORDINARY things, the quietly arresting exhibition at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich Library.
Continue reading “At Some Point, Every Household Object Stops Being Innocent”Beijing Stories at the Liu Shiming Art Gallery

In 2021, a group of friends, family members, and former colleagues of the renowned Chinese artist Liu Shiming (1926-2010) banded together to form the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, an organization dedicated to both preserving the artist’s legacy and furthering his dedication to the power of the arts. The Foundation has undertaken an ambitious program of granting scholarships to university students around the world with a goal of funding 100 scholarships per year. They also have opened a gallery space on 15 East 40th Street in Manhattan to showcase Mr. Liu’s work and eventually to showcase the work of pan-Asian artists.
Continue reading “Beijing Stories at the Liu Shiming Art Gallery”Yi Hsuan Lai: Objects, Bodies, Things at Gallery 456

I was scrolling through Instagram recently when I saw a post that read: “What’s your artspeak ick?” The word “anthropomorphism” immediately came to mind. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that a friend of mine had an art history professor who once (in)famously tweeted: “I will scream into a pillow if I see another student write the word ‘anthropomorphic’ in their paper.” Therefore, I paused before ascribing “anthropomorphic” qualities to the work of Taiwanese artist Yi Hsuan Lai.
Continue reading “Yi Hsuan Lai: Objects, Bodies, Things at Gallery 456”Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley

The Kleinart James Center in Woodstock, New York, is currently presenting a very ambitious and interesting photography exhibition. Entitled Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley, the show presents 17 artists representing a portion of the many photographers working in this geography. Organized by curator Jane Hart, the show offers a wide range of aesthetic visions and techniques.
Continue reading “Here Now: Contemporary Photographers of the Hudson Valley”The Summer Show at Carrie Haddad Gallery

Carrie Haddad Gallery’s summer offering, The Summer Show, is a playful wink and a poke to bastion of every gallery’s yearly program: the month of August. Much like the title of the show, this selection of work is self-referential and effervescent. Modernities collide in depictions of leisure, wanderlust is shown as both fantastical and intimate, and universally bold palettes are a sucker punch to the senses. Though they span an array of media, each of the artists incorporate detail with nuance and ease, their pith and wit happily imbibable. The Summer Show features Robert Goldstrom, Hue Thi Hoffmaster, Louise Laplante, Andrea Moreau, Kahn & Selesnick, and Annika Tucksmith and includes painting, collage, and photography.
Continue reading “The Summer Show at Carrie Haddad Gallery”An Interview with Artists Amanda Maciuba, Jen Morris & Jessica Tam

Tip of the Iceberg by Amanda Maciuba, Jen Morris, Jessica Tam, dimensions variable, vinyl on glass and wall, 2021
This month, I have a wonderful interview with three artists for you. Amanda Maciuba, Jen Morris, and Jessica Tam are all visual artists working in different mediums. However, they share a fascination with how ecological language (surge, spike, wave, etc.) has worked its way into news reports’ descriptions of large phenomena such as crowds, pandemics, and political movements. They recently closed a show at the A.P.E., Ltd. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts titled WAVE/SURGE/SPIKE.
Continue reading “An Interview with Artists Amanda Maciuba, Jen Morris & Jessica Tam”Landscape Deconstructed at the Hammond: Mimi Czajka Graminski
Part 2: Mimi Czajka Graminski – Interview with Jennifer McGregor

Mimi Czajka Graminski, Petal Series Rose 1, 2020-2021, archival pigment print of photograph of rose petals, 10 x 10 inches
Landscape Deconstructed: Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman is a virtual exhibition on view at the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden website (hammondmuseum.org/virtual-galleries) until June 2022. It is curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. The opening on September 11, 2021, included a virtual conversation with Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman moderated by Jennifer McGregor which has been distilled and reformatted for individual interviews with each artist.
The Hudson Valley artists met in 2011 and were immediately struck by the similarities in their work and have continued a dialogue since then. Landscape Deconstructed is the first time their artwork is presented in tandem and underscores the way that both artists discover elements of their surroundings and reassemble them in ingenious ways. Through distinct processes, they each preserve fleeting moments of beauty in nature while documenting a particular time and place.
Continue reading “Landscape Deconstructed at the Hammond: Mimi Czajka Graminski”Landscape Deconstructed at the Hammond: Linda Stillman
Part 1: Linda Stillman – Interview with Jennifer McGregor

Linda Stillman, Daily Skies: 2020, February 15, 2020 focus, 2021, archival pigment print on paper, 19 x 13 inches
Landscape Deconstructed: Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman is a virtual exhibition on view at the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden website until June 2022. It is curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. The opening on September 11, 2021, included a virtual conversation with Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman moderated by Jennifer McGregor which has been distilled and reformatted for individual interviews with each artist.
Continue reading “Landscape Deconstructed at the Hammond: Linda Stillman”Nice to See you Again at Underdonk
Featured Project: with curators Leonora Loeb and Keisha Prioleau-Martin

Opening night of Nice to See you Again, In the foreground: Madeline Donahue, Butterflies, 2021, glazed ceramic, 8” x 7” x 6”
The group show Nice to See you Again at Underdonk features work by ten artists whose paintings, sculptures, and photographs address the loaded meaning of the outdoors during the pandemic—a shared sense of longing for the openness of the outdoors while simultaneously also craving for the warmth of the indoors. The show is organized by Leonora Loeb and Keisha P:rioleau-Martin and runs from October 30 th through November 20 th , 2021.
Continue reading “Nice to See you Again at Underdonk”