ArtSpiel – Page 20

March 6, 2020November 15, 2020

Ron Milewicz – Axis Mundi at Elizabeth Harris

Macintosh HD:Users:patrickmccreery:Desktop:axisadjustedphotos:Jpegs_1240px:20200103_RMilewicz-008_1240px cropped.jpg — *Pink Moon*, 2019 oil on linen, 18 x 13.5 inches, courtesy Elizabeth Harris Gallery

In Axis Mundi, his current painting exhibition at Elizabeth Harris, Ron Milewicz shows a body of work that reveals his continuous fascination with the mystery of trees. While focusing his gaze on a specific woodland landscape ,the Hudson Valley woodlands, Ron Milewicz is opening a portal not only to the universal meaning of trees, but also to the overall vulnerability and wonder of life on this planet. Ron Milewicz shares with Art Spiel some reflections on his approach to painting and on what draws him to his consistent thematic exploration.

March 4, 2020November 15, 2020

A Romantic Comedy hosted by Wallplay

Steven Pestana in dialogue with Art Spiel

*Installation View, A Romantic Comedy. L to R: Kevin Frances, Andrew Allison, Amanda Thackray*

A Romantic Comedy, co-curated by Steven Pestana and Sophia Sobers , is a large-scale installation-based group exhibition which explores the mystery and ambiguity of romance in the 2020s through the actions and objects of everyday life. The opening takes place during Armory Weekend and the show runs throughout the end of March. Steven Pestana describes for Art Spiel the curators’ background, elaborates on the genesis of the show, then gives some background on its host, Wallplay, and its venue at 25 Kent street in Williamsburg.

March 3, 2020November 15, 2020

Yasue Maetake – Intersubjective Narratives

A picture containing indoor, wall

Description automatically generated — *Urethane Flower on Steel Stem Clad with Foam* (2013-2019), H91 x 110 x 67 inches (H233 x 284 x 177 cm), steel, polyurethane resin, epoxy clay, burnt and varnished Styrofoam, photo by Mark Waldhauser

The Japanese born Brooklyn based sculptor Yasue Maetake largely draws on laws of nature like gravity, as well as on her Japanese cultural heritage like Butoh dance/theater. The artist describes for Art Spiel her artistic impetus, layered ideas, and elaborate process.

March 2, 2020May 30, 2020

Museum as Muse at the Flatiron Project Space

*Museum as Muse, Installation, Image courtesy of Leigh Behnke*

A favorite experience of mine is to visit the Metropolitan Museum without a show or work of art in mind to see. I enjoy wondering the galleries until I come across something I had not noticed before and then spend the time looking and analyzing the work. This experience is likened to one I have recently had at “Museum as Muse”, a show curated by Leigh Behnke, consisting of works by the artist herself, Joe Fig and Peter Hristoff. The show is not at a sprawling Chelsea gallery or at a small, but relevant Lower East Side venue. It is tucked away within the confines of an academic institution, School of Visual Art, located on 21^st Street in the SVA Flatiron Gallery Project Space. As the title suggests, all three artists have used the museum in some capacity as a starting point for their work.

February 27, 2020May 30, 2020

Controlled Entropy, Taher Jaoui at 81 Leonard Gallery

*Taher Jaoui: Controlled Entropy installation view, photograph by Hannah Rozelle, photo courtesy of the artist*

One might find Taher Jaoui introverted the moment meeting him. It might be less about an aloof temperament commonly found in an artist than a reserved and prudent character often associated with a science person. The way in which Jaoui’s artworks act out follows a similar interpersonal pattern. Those scratchy mathematics signs and formulas are the most prominent elements of the new series of monochrome paintings featured in Taher’s current solo exhibition Controlled Entropy at 81 Leonard Gallery, co-hosted by Uncommon Beauty Gallery. The juxtaposition of the handwritings of mathematical formulas and the gestural brushwork in an abstract expressionist manner not only prompts questions about Jaoui’s background, but also problematizes the hostile split between art and mathematics. Reminding viewers of a lecturer running a mathematical calculation across the blackboard with chalk, this series of paintings highlights the performative elements in mathematics, as well as the craft aspects of labor invested in this intellectual activity.

February 21, 2020November 2, 2022

Surface and Sky: Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects

Jeffrey Morabito’s show “Birds and Flowers, Vases and Windows” is beautiful and lush and draws you in. There are vibrant colors and wandering lines, rich passages that feel like small works unto themselves–secret gardens waiting to be discovered within each larger piece. But if there are elements that delight the eye, there are ideas that tease the mind. For running through his art and practice is a sense of duality and contradiction where opposites collide and play, posing gentle questions as they merge into new concepts and forms.

January 28, 2020November 15, 2020

Todd Bienvenu – Stories within Stories

A picture containing canyon, valley, colorful, building

Description automatically generated — Todd Bienvenu, Bain de Pâquis, 88x76in, acrylic on canvas, 2019 .
Courtesy Todd Bienvenu Studio

No matter what Todd Bienvenu chooses to depict in a painting – a male nude lying on a bear skin rug in a Venus pose, a fearless female city bike rider, or a crowded water-park vista- his surfaces consistently pull you in by their bold vitality and idiosyncratic humor. Todd Bienvenu shares with Art Spiel some insights on his process, ideas and studio work.

January 14, 2020November 15, 2020

Nina Mdivani – NY Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness Part I & II

In Dialogue with Nina Mdivani on her curatorial project at Kunstraum LLC (Brooklyn) and The Assembly Room (LES)

Rusudan Khizanishvili, *Producing The New Body* 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 31.49 x 27.55 inches

Nina Mdivani is an independent curator, art writer, and current Curator-in-Residence at Kunstraum located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard neighborhood. Her rigorous curatorial process and research have recently culminated in a two-part exhibition, New York Meets Tbilisi: Defining Otherness. This dynamic group show pairs the works of Georgian and American artists to create multilayered dialogues across cultural identities. Nina Mdivani shares with Art Spiel some of her background, and elaborates on the premise for the upcoming group show she has curated.

January 8, 2020November 15, 2020

Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard at Super Dutchess

In Dialogue with Andrew Woolbright

Installation view of Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard. Alex Kovacs, Fernando Pintado, Craig Taylor

Andrew Woolbright, a NY based artist, curator and founder of Super Dutchess, shares with Art Spiel the genesis of this lower east side art space, sheds some light on its key organizers, and describes the philosophy behind it. He elaborates on Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard, the 3-person current show that he has curated at the venue, with an upcoming reception on January 10^th.

December 22, 2019November 15, 2020

‘Fabrications’ at George Billis

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Steve Hicks

Macintosh HD:Users:stephenhicks:Desktop:Install SW copy.jpg — Installation image, from left to right: *No Exit, In Flesh, Night Sequence.* Image courtesy of the artist

Painter Steve Hicks shares with Art Spiel his reflections on the body of work he is currently exhibiting at George Billis gallery, focusing on how he sees these paintings within the wider context of his overall work.