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A Studio 54 Reject Is At It Again 40 Years Later

Lisa Levy in dialogue with Art Spiel

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Studio 54 Reject Re-Performance by Lisa Levy, Photo Credit: Phil Buehler.

Right before the Coronavirus outbreak prompted a mass-shutdown of New York City’s galleries and museums, multidisciplinary artist, radio show host and (self-proclaimed) psychotherapist Lisa Levy recreated her classic guerrilla art project ‘Studio 54 Reject’. On the opening night of the “Studio 54: Night Magic” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Levy stationed herself outside the institution’s main entrance. Standing behind a small table encircled by red velvet ropes and four stanchion posts, she gestured toward a sign reading “Studio 54 Reject T-Shirt, $20” while imploring passersby to take pride in “reject status” with the purchase of a shirt, newly re-designed in gold glitter and the official logo.

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Artists on Coping: Manju Shandler

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

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Manju Shandler

Manju Shandler creates symbolic art that speaks to current events. Building upon established storylines from myth, religion, science, and contemporary events her mixed media artworks create a richly layered narrative reflective of our dense and complicated times. Manju Shandler has shown at The National September 11th Memorial & Museum, The Hammond Museum, Brown University’s Sarah Doyle Gallery for Feminist Art, The ISE Cultural Foundation, The Honfleur Gallery, The Governor’s Island Art Fair, The Untitled Space, and throughout the US, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. She regularly shows in her community of Brooklyn, NY.

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Artists on Coping: Bonny Leibowitz

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


The Cloud As An Object, 2020, foam, acrylic, branches, faux fur

Bonny Leibowitz explores in her work the inner workings of consciousness, the transitory nature of thought and questions the construct of certainty. She utilizes a variety of materials including Tyvek, Plaster, Vinyl, Fosshape, Dura-lar, foam, wax, pigments, ink, found objects and more. Her solo exhibitions include Cohn Drennan Contemporary – Dallas, TX, The Museum of Art – Wichita Falls, TX, Art Cube Gallery – Laguna Beach, CA, Liliana Bloch Gallery – Dallas, TX, No.4 Studio – Brooklyn, NY and The Neon Heater – Findlay, OH. Originally from Philadelphia, Leibowitz lives in Dallas, TX. where she maintains her studio practice.

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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: 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: Angelica Bergamini

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

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Angelica Bergamini in her studio

Angelica Bergamini is an Italian born New York-based artist. Interested in the relationship between the personal and collective unconscious, her creation manifests through painting and paper-cuts assemblages, video, and sculptural installations. She has shown in collective and solo shows in New York (C24 Gallery; Tanja Grunert; Ground Floor Gallery; Ivy Brown; White Box; BRIC Arts Media; Photo New York), Los Angeles (Torrance Art Museum), London (Chelsea Space), Paris (Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre), Stockholm (Färgfabriken), Milan (Pari&Dispari), Hong Kong (Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery), Addis Ababa (Addis Video Art Festival). Her latest video was presented at the 55th Pesaro International Film Festival in Italy, in the selection “Best in Short – Contemporary Italian Animation.”

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Artists on Coping: Lasse Antonsen

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


Lasse Antonsen in Assens, Denmark, during a residency in 2018, talking about his early years as an art student at the Experimental Art School in Copenhagen

Lasse Antonsen is an artist, art historian, and curator. He was born in Copenhagen in 1947, and attended the Experimental Art School as a teenager. After living in Spain and Morocco, Antonsen studied art history at Copenhagen University. Moving to the US in 1978, he continued his studies at Tufts University. He received an MA in art history in 1985. Antonsen was a researcher at the ICA in Boston, and for 25 years director of the University Art Gallery at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he, among others, presented the work of Ana Mendieta, Frank Stella, Ilya Kabakov, and Nancy Spero.

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Artists on Coping: David Borawski

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


David Borawski with his work You go forward I go backward somewhere we will meet, 2020, in the exhibition Mill St. in New Haven. Photo by Peter Brown.

David Borawski is a multi-media installation artist and an independent curator living and working in Hartford, Connecticut. His artistic practice is comprised of sculpture, video, drawing and digital prints. Conceptually driven, the work reflects upon pop culture, radical politics, art history and the dark alleys of society while drawing upon lived personal experience.

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Artists on Coping: Barbara Lubliner

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

Barbara Lubliner, "Two Zips" 2019, paper relief with staples and zipper, 12 x 16 inches, photo courtesy of Paul Takeuchi

Two Zips, 2019, paper relief with staples, zipper, 12 x 16 inches. Photograph by Paul Takeuchi

New York artist Barbara Lubliner transforms traditional and nontraditional materials into thought-provoking expressions that are both iconic and quirky. She moves fluidly from performance art to works on paper to sculpture, both large and small. Solo exhibitions include Gibson Gallery Museum at SUNY Potsdam; Carter Burden Gallery, NYC; Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ; and Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ. Recent group exhibitions include City Reliquary Museum, NYC; Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY; Edison Price Lighting Gallery, L.I.C., NY; and Ceres Gallery, NYC. Performance venues include the Brooklyn Museum and the Après Avant Garde Festival on the Staten Island Ferry.

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Artists on Coping: Liz Jaff

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


Liz on the street

Liz Jaff creates installations, objects, outdoor interventions and drawings using formal structures, pattern and repetition to talk about permanence and impermanence, perceptions of time and the role of memory in shaping experience. Poetry, storytelling, Flamenco, Butoh theater and personal narrative are important influences. She lives and works in New York City.

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