Artists on Coping: Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Constellation, 2017-2018. Installed at Seward Park Library, Lower East Side, NY.

Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong is a New York-based artist and trained architect working at the boundary of art, architecture and social practice. Cheryl investigates the transformation of shared space over time through sculpture, installation, performance and site-specific architectural interventions. Cheryl received her B.A. in Art and Italian at the University of California at Berkeley, studied sculpture at Brera Academy and earned her Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP. Cheryl’s work has been commissioned by NYC Parks and DC Percent for Art and she has exhibited at Triangle Arts Association, NYFA, Istanbul Design Biennial, Taliesin West, Venice Biennale, Berkeley Art Museum, Museo della Permanente.

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Artists on Coping: Paul Behnke

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Paul Behnke and Gulley in his studio in Lambertville, NJ. Photo courtesy of Robin Stout.

Paul Behnke’s painting comingles references from pop culture, religion, and imagery associated with mysticism and the occult with an abstracted interplay of pure color and open and closed spaces and forms that become further complicated by realistic collaged references. His works ultimately relate to the intersection of pop culture and spirituality and how sacred beliefs become co-opted in a disconnected, consumptive society. Behnke’s work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally. He has edited Structure and Imagery art blog since 2011 and was the co-director of Stout Projects in Brooklyn. Behnke currently lives and works in Lambertville, NJ.

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Artists on Coping: Alison Lowry

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.

Alison Lowry

Alison Lowry, with handmade glass awards at the Business to Arts awards ceremony in Belfast

Alison Lowry is a glass artist living and working from her studio, ‘Schoolhouse Glass’ in Saintfield, Co. Down in Northern Ireland. In 2009 she graduated from Ulster University with an Honors degree in Art and Design. Since then she has won numerous awards including first place in the category, ‘Glass Art’ at the Royal Dublin Society in 2015 and 2009, the Silver Medal at the Royal Ulster Arts Club’s Annual Exhibition in 2010, the Warm Glass Prize in 2010 and 2011 and more recently the Bronze Award at Bullseye Glass’ exhibition for emerging artists, ‘Emerge’. Alison exhibits nationally and internationally, and her work is held in several public collections. Her current exhibition, ‘(A)Dressing our hidden truths’ is currently on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin

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Artists on Coping: Ellen Hackl Fagan

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.

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Ellen Hackl Fagan, Seeking the Sound of Cobalt Blue, Installation during Bushwick Open Studios, 2018. Photo: Charles Geiger

Ellen Hackl Fagan is an artist and the creator of ODETTA, a contemporary fine art gallery in Harlem, NYC. Fagan builds connections between color and sound using color-saturated paintings, sculpture, installations and collaborative projects that explore our potential for synaesthesia, often resulting in ad hoc performances with viewers. Balanced between randomness and intention, like jazz music, Fagan’s art reveals limitless possibilities for improvisation. Fagan also invented The Reverse Color Organ (RCO), a web app that enables viewers to playfully interact aurally with color. Fagan exhibits her work extensively, curates, writes, and creates opportunities for collaborations with artists, curators, musicians, and coders to further her projects.

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Artists on Coping: Iris Häussler

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Iris Häussler. Studio-shot by Brian Lynn, 2018

Iris Häussler studied conceptual art and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany, and lives and works in Toronto, Canada. She is known internationally for her unsettling, immersive installations that she creates around her fictitious characters and constructs them in situ in collaboration with museums, art institutions and galleries. Recent projects & exhibitions include: Apartment 5 at Platform, Armory Show (2019), New York USA; Apartment 4. John Michael Kohler Arts Center & Chipstone Foundation, Wisconsin, USA, (2018/19); The Sophie La Rosière Project @: PSM Gallery Berlin (2019), Daniel Faria Gallery (2017), Scrap Metal Gallery (2016), Art Gallery of York University (2016), Toronto, Canada; He Dreamed Overtime in the 18th Sydney Biennale in Australia (2012). Awards include the Karl-Hofer Prize (Berlin), the Kunstfonds Fellowship (Bonn) and the Canada Council for the Arts. Häussler is represented by: Daniel Faria Gallery & PSM Gallery

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Artists on Coping: Julian Kreimer

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.

The artist at his studio

Julian Kreimer is an associate professor of Painting and Art History at SUNY Purchase. Solo and two-person shows have included TSA LA (CA), Lux Art Institute (CA), and Weeknights Gallery (Brooklyn) and his work has been included in group shows at Fluc space (Vienna), Hotel Pupik (Austria), Curator Gallery, Alexandre Gallery, Von Lintel Gallery, and TSA. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Hyperallergic, Artcritical, and Two Coats of Paint. He is a repeat fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell Colonies and received a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Painting Fellowship. He is a frequent contributor to Art in America.

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Artists on Coping: Rhonda Dee

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.

A person standing in front of a sign

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Photo credit: ZakiP

Rhonda Dee is from Texas and currently resides in Australia. She holds a BFA, (CCA, Seattle), and MA, from Sydney College of the Arts. Her layered works explore the body as a site of transformation between human, animal hybrids and supernatural forces. Her works are in permanent collection at Macquarie University, Australia-China Arts Foundation, and Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Recently, she’s begun creating public artworks with disadvantaged communities. She features in Artist Profile, The Art Life, Torrens University Blog, Arts Hub Australia and is currently designing podcasts with Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, in response to COVID19.

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Artists on Coping: Leslie Kerby

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Candyland, 2016, Mixed media collage: paper litho transfer, pen and ink, oil, 30 x 22 inches

Leslie Kerby works in a variety of media to create thematically interlinked bodies of work. Motivated by social networks at moments of change, she examines the shipping container and medical industries, cemeteries and financial inequality. Represented in collections at Columbia University and Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Kerby has received commissions from Norte Maar, BRIC Arts | Media and Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and was awarded residencies at the American Academy in Rome, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (Virginia and France), and the School of Visual Arts. Her work has also appeared at Verge, Spring Break and AQUA Miami, and has been reviewed by Hyperallergic and Two Coats of Paint.

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Artists on Coping: Jamie Martinez

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Jamie Martinez in front of “Neo Kingdom”, a virtual Reality Installation with artist Erin Ko for the group show ” Speculative Cultures” curated by Tina Sauerlaender, Peggy Schoenegge, and Erandy Vergara at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons/The New School.

Jamie Martinez uses the concept of triangulation throughout his work. His new work is a series of spells and poems to protect him and guide him through his journey into the underworld. The spells/poems are based on the Mayan language which used logograms complemented with a set of syllabic glyphs. The process begins with a meditation session to reveal a vision/message for each piece then it’s translated using Mayan glyphs.

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Artists on Coping: Gianluca Bianchino

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Art Spiel is reaching out to artists to learn how they are coping.


Gianluca Bianchino in front of Lightmap #7, courtesy of the artist

Gianluca Bianchino is a multimedia artist and curator living and working in Northern New Jersey. Inspired by physics and architecture, his work is focused on immersive installations and interactive sculptures that often engage with optics and technology expressing lyrical qualities that stem from a background in painting and an interest in astronomy. Originally from Italy, he attended an Architectural magnet school before relocating to the US where he received a BFA from New Jersey City University, and an MFA from Montclair State University. Bianchino is currently an adjunct professor at MSU, WPU, and BMCC.

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