Artists on Coping: Heather and Raphael Rubinstein

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


Heather and Raphael Rubinstein

Heather and Raphael Rubinstein divide their time between New York City, northeastern Pennsylvania and Houston. Heather’s most recent exhibitions of her paintings were at the beginning of 2020 in New York, pre-covid, with a solo in Houston at McClain Gallery. Raphael had two books come out in early March as New York was shutting down: a monograph on artist Guillermo Kuitca, published by Lund Humphries, London, as part of their Contemporary Painters Series edited by Barry Schwabsky; and Albert Oehlen: Spiegelbilder 1982-1990, published by Holzwarth Publications, Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin and Nahmad Contemporary. Planned for 2020 was a new curatorial project of theirs: an exhibition on the topic of Poet+Painter collaborations—scheduled to open at a downtown non-profit in New York (pre-covid)—and in many ways, an extension of their 2019 “Under-Erasure” exhibition that took place at Pierogi Gallery in New York. In lieu of in-person projects, Heather is working on expanding their “Under-Erasure” digital archive, publishing an Under-Erasure image-book, and a virtual Poet+Painter exhibition. Raphael is currently writing The Miraculous: New York—with episodes appearing monthly in The Brooklyn Rail —a sequel to his book, The Miraculous (Paper Monument, 2014). They are currently working towards publishing The Miraculous: New York as a public art project in New York for 2021-22.

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Artists on Coping: Sally Boon Matthews

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

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Sally Boon Matthews with Soundscape for March, April, May 2020. Water Colour, Ink, Felt Tip, Pencil, Thread on Mulberry Paper. 12”x 288”, 2020

Sally Boon Matthews is a British born and educated artist, educator, and yogi living in New York City. Though her background was originally in photography, in the last eight years she has developed a multi-discipline practice that includes video, painting, collage, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited and published in Europe, the United States and Latin America. Publications include Tricycle Magazine, NY Times, Blitz Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Penguin Books, Random House, Warner Books, A&M Records, Om Yoga, Battersea Museum of Art, UK, Galerie Solado, Caracas, Venezuela, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Louisiana Museum of Art, Chateau de Trousse-Barriere, Briare, France, Jamaica Arts Center, NY.

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Artists on Coping: Jeffrey Wilcox Paclipan

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

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Jeffrey Wilcox Paclipan With Andromeda, photo credit: Rosita Czekala

Jeffrey Wilcox Paclipan is a processed-based artist who works viscerally with marginalized and discarded materials to create new objects imbued with greater meaning. His work has been exhibited in the Hortt Museum, FL; Museum Of Contemporary Art, GA; Slotin Folkfest, GA; Hathaway Contemporary Gallery, GA; Life on Mars Gallery, NY; and is part of the collection in the Fulton County Arts and Culture Acquisition Program, GA.

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David Rios Ferreira – Catalytic Lines

(detail) Don’t you see I got everythin’ you need, 2019. Photo: Jason Wyche

David Rios Ferreira‘s energetic drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations flirt with cacophony yet manage to stay on the verge, creating an idiosyncratic sense of order out of chaotic turmoils. Through turbulent lines and vibrant colors, his imagery projects a rigorous visual universe where Geo-political and mythical narratives fuse organically. David Rios Ferreira shares with Art Spiel the main ideas behind his work, elaborates on some specific projects, and sheds some light on his prolific curatorial practice. Although our interview process started a few months before the Corona pandemic and the recent global protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement, David Rios Ferreira added his response to the current events, implemented at the beginning of this interview.

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Rachel MacFarlane’s Paradise at Super Dutchess Gallery

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Rachel MacFarlane | Beacon | Single-channel video | 32” (Animation still) | 2020

I haven’t seen Rachel MacFarlane’s painting Sliver (2020). It would be reasonable to assume that I had, because Sliver is the centerpiece of Paradise, the show that this review is about. In fact, Sliver is the only painting in Paradise.

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Artists on Coping: Elizabeth Riley

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


Factory Fresh, 2019; Video stills inkjet-printed on paper and fabric, repurposed laser-cut metal, 120 x 108 x 24”

Elizabeth Riley’s art addresses questions concerning the complex and changing world we inhabit and our “mixed reality,” living between physical and digital/virtual contexts. This project includes sculptural wall works, installations, and tabletop cityscapes, made from a combination of video, video stills, and diverse materials. A longtime New Yorker, the artist graduated from Barnard College and received an MFA from Hunter College. In 2019 her work was presented in Ribbons Become Space, a solo show at SL Gallery in New York City. This show included the Dragons of Iceland Installation, a 2011 sculpture/installation with multiple live video elements, as well as, two large-scale, site-specific wall sculptures made from video stills. Elizabeth Riley curated and participated in Trill Matrix at The Clemente Center on New York City’s Lower East Side in 2018, a show of seven dynamic women artists.

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Artists on Coping: Jaynie Crimmins

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

The artist at the Active Space, 2019

Jaynie Gillman Crimmins is a Brooklyn based artist who creates alternative narratives from quotidian materials. Her work has been exhibited at ART on PAPER NYC; the Sharjah Museum of Art, United Arab Emirates; SPRING/BREAK Art Show, NYC; Governor’s Island Art Fair, NYC; the National Museum of Romanian Literature; the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, VA; Hunterdon Art Museum, NJ; and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, GA. She is represented by K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, and shows with Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta.

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Artists on Coping: Rachel Klinghoffer

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


Detail of installation at The Skirt at Ortega y Gasset Projects, March 2020

By repurposing materials, making and remaking them into paintings and sculptures, Klinghoffer prompts a reimagining of uses for these relic-like objects. Articles reflect the artist’s personal connection to femininity, craft-making, Judaism, romance, pushing the definition of painting. Through time, the items become specimens, icons. They are poked, prodded, stained, sprayed, stroked, rubbed, dipped, then pulled, torn, cracked open and broken apart making up and becoming the new work. Rachel Klinghoffer lives and works in South Orange NJ. Recently she has exhibited at Morgan Lehman Gallery and The Skirt at Ortega y Gasset, with a review in The Brooklyn Rail.

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Artists on Coping: John Descarfino

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

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Current drawings in progress.

John Descarfino is a Brooklyn based artist whose painting and drawings are informed by places in ways both literal and metaphorical, while exploring the complexities of perception and image structure. He has exhibited at the McNay Art Museum; Galeria Espacio 48, Spain; Centotto, Brooklyn; Lucas Schoormans Gallery; Blum and Poe; The Berkshire Museum; and The Edward Hopper House among other venues, His paintings are included in several collections including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; JP Morgan Chase; and Capital Group Companies. Descarfino received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and recently, from the Café Royal Cultural Foundation.

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Artists on Coping: Diane Englander

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


Gatherings I (2019), 21 x 24 x 2 inches, mixed media

With color, composition, line, texture, Diane Englander is aiming for a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. Her inspiration to work on a specific piece comes from curiosity about the materials. She’s always thinking (though not necessarily in a conscious way), What would happen if I did this? What would this other thing do? But always bending back to the goal of creating a place of calm energized by tension.

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