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.

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Yasue Maetake – Intersubjective Narratives

A picture containing indoor, wall

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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.

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Magdalena Dukiewicz at Stand4 – In Every Dream Home a Heartache

In every dream home a heartache, installation view. Photo courtesy of the Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen

A former medical office located in the heart of Bayridge Brooklyn, hosts Magdalena Dukiewicz solo exhibition “In Every Dream Home a Heartache“, a visual, physical and poetical exercise in which the artist revisits particular objects and memories from her childhood in Poland to explore an idea of “home” that has been inoculated in her mind from an early age. For Dukiewicz, the thought of a home brings a cumulus of anxieties related to social expectations, which calls into question the preconceived ideas of how things are supposed to be in life: motherhood, marriage, work, living in a place other than your birthplace, fulfilling certain obligations.

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Zac Hacmon at the Border

Eva Mayhabal Davis in dialogue with Art Spiel – Beyond the Pale

Installation view of Beyond the Pale by Zac Hacmon. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Etienne Frossard

Zac Hacmon‘s sound sculptures at the intimate Border project space are overpowering in size, as if cutting the air with their sharp diagonal tiled lines to create a sense of suffocating sterility. Their oddity is intriguing and repelling simultaneously, and their placement in the room forces the visitor to navigate around with considerate effort. The sound consists of a series of stories recorded at the Arizona-Mexico border, and adds another layer of urgency, creating altogether an inspired fusion of sound/form. Eva Mayhabal Davis, the curator of Beyond the Pale , elaborates on the premise behind the show.

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Surface and Sky: Jeffrey Morabito at SFA Projects

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Monstera Deliciosa Vase, 2019

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.

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Intermediate Geochromatic Studies at Nars

In dialogue with Jason Urban & Leslie Mutchler on their collaborative project at Nars Foundation

Jason Urban & Leslie Mutchler, Intermediate Geochromatic Studies at NARS Foundation, installation view, 2020. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Artists Jason Urban and Leslie Muchler who have been collaborating on art projects since 2012, share with Art Spiel their ideas, process, and ways of collaborating on their current exhibition, Geochromatic Studies, at NARS.

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Rachel Owens – The Hypogean Tip at the Housatonic

Art Spiel in dialogue with Rachel Owens on her sculpture exhibition at The Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport CT

Rachel Owens, installation view

Rachel Owens seamlessly incorporates rigorous research of history and place in her visceral sculptural environments, offering us not only a feast for the eyes – in form, textures, and color – but also engaging us in a mysterious space where detritus like broken bottles, abandoned coal, and even the dust left from marble excavation transform into new forms. Altogether her sculptures prompt complex ideas about multi layered and urgent social issues of race, gender, history and capitalism among others. Rachel Owens elaborates for Art Spiel on her thought process behind this exhibition.

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Todd Bienvenu – Stories within Stories

A picture containing canyon, valley, colorful, building

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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.

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Annesta Le at Yi Gallery

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Cecilia Zhang Jalboukh, founder of Yi Gallery in Bushwick

Installation view of Annesta Le solo exhibition “Inner Space” at Yi Gallery Project Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2020. Photo by Yi Gallery.

The Bushwick based Yi Gallery evolved out of Cecilia Zhang Jalboukh’s experience and vision. At its current form it shares space with The Border at 56 Bogart. Yi Gallery’s founder elaborates on Annesta Le’s current solo exhibition, shares with Art Spiel the genesis of Yi Gallery, as well as her vision for the space.

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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.

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