contemporary art – Art Spiel

December 29, 2025December 29, 2025, by Emma Ahmad

Bonny Leibowitz: Adventures in Plunderland

In 2023, multidisciplinary artist Bonny Leibowitz’s world shifted when she stumbled upon an active demolition site in a shopping center in Richardson, Texas. She described the landscape as “both horrific and beautiful” – a scene of destruction and chaos situated right in the middle of the inner city Dallas suburb. Braving the sweltering Texas heat, Leibowitz made multiple trips to the site, photographing it extensively and collecting pieces of debris from the wreckage that would later comprise her series Adventures in Plunderland.

December 23, 2025December 23, 2025, by Taylor Bielecki

Bonesetter: Dislocations, Connections and Synergies

Walking into the space at 86 Bowery, you are greeted by a calm, welcoming exhibition, the walls warmly lit and filled with a wide array of drawings, paintings, and sculptures, featuring works by 24 artists. The exhibition title is Bonesetter, based on the idea of a bonesetter, an individual in many cultures who resets broken bones and dislocations.

December 15, 2025December 9, 2025, by Stephen Wozniak

Tom LaDuke’s Dream Sets for a Lost Message

*Tom LaDuke, Chain, 2015, Acrylic and canvas over panel, 87” x 153”*

Across trippy, iridescent seas, massive, eerie interiors, and uncanny, translucent forms, Tom LaDuke composes intimate “letters” to the cultural ghosts that shaped him—poetic reflections on perception, memory, and the subtle currents of emotional drift.

Love letters straight from your heart
Keep us so near while apart
I'm not alone in the night
When I can have all the love you write

–  Love Letters by Heyman and Young

December 9, 2025January 4, 2026, by Yasmeen Abdallah

Art Spiel Picks: NYC Exhibitions in December 2025

Colorful, mixed-media exhibitions bring vibrancy to the winter season with splashes of exhilaration and discovery.

December 8, 2025December 21, 2025, by Etty Yaniv

Curatorial visions at Montclair Art Museum

Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More!, Montclair Art Museum, installation view, photo courtesy of Jason Wyche

During her more than thirty years at the Montclair Art Museum, Dr. Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator, has shaped the institution’s vision through exhibitions that deepen public understanding of art history while highlighting under-recognized artists. Her work extends beyond the galleries to publications that introduce new scholarly perspectives — including the recent catalogue accompanying Tom Nussbaum: But Wait, There’s More! In this interview, Dr. Stavitsky discusses her curatorial approach and the ideas guiding the Museum’s current exhibitions by Tom Nussbaum and Christine Romanell.

December 1, 2025December 1, 2025, by Will Kaplan

Beamsplitter curated by David Shaw at Field of Play

Installation view of *Beamsplitter* featuring *Unnamed, Stable and True Penetrates Being with Sight in Hand*. (Gavin Wilson) and *Bleap* (Lauren Anaïs Hussey)

The artwork in Beamsplitter, a six-person show at Field of Play, functions as a series of portals. Named for a scientific device that both transmits and reflects light, Beamsplitter opens up spectrums of material, concept, and time. Using a mix of large and small works from artists across generations, curator David Shaw expands the Gowanus gallery’s 9 x 15-foot footprint into a dynamic array of gateways. The recurrence of circular forms and apertures presents a menu of windows to the artist’s interiority or world-view. Field of Play’s signature astroturf floor provides an idiosyncratic arena to home these loci.

November 26, 2025November 22, 2025, by Chunbum Park

Yi Hsuan Lai: The Ontology of the Body at SoMad

Yi Hsuan Lai, *Rubber, Rubber*. Installation view in SoMad, 2025. Imagery courtesy of SoMad and the artist

Yi Hsuan Lai exhibits her works in a solo show at SoMad, a femme- and queer-led art space that serves as a platform for emerging artists to experiment, collaborate, and challenge conventions. SoMad comprises a combined gallery and artist residency program, a production house, and an event space. The name “SoMad” reflects both the physical location — south of Madison Square Park — and the collective’s frustration with the current landscape of resources and support structures available for emerging artists, particularly artists from marginalized communities.

November 18, 2025November 18, 2025, by Etty Yaniv

Singing in Unison, Part 12: Painting in Space

Judy Pfaff, *Barcelona*, 1990, steel, plastic, glass, table and chairs, 168 x 168 x 168 inches

It began, as many enduring ideas do, over wine and conversation. Michael David, painter, curator, and gallerist of M. David & Co., was speaking at a dinner with Judy Pfaff about her close friend and early champion Al Held. The talk drifted to another dear friend, Elizabeth Murray, and then to her admiration for Frank Stella. From that exchange evolved the idea for Singing in Unison, Part 12: Painting in Space, curated by Michael David, and now on view at Art Cake in cooperation with The Brooklyn Rail.

November 10, 2025November 10, 2025, by Melissa Stern

What The House Dreams Of – Two painters at Ruby Dakota Gallery

Athena Parella, Bedtime Story, Charcoal on paper, 17.5 x 22, 2025

“Childhood” has always been a fertile source for artists in all disciplines. We all had a childhood and, for better or worse, we all carry memories that often haunt us throughout our lifetimes. Ruby/Dakota, a scrappy young gallery in the East Village is presenting a two- person show entitled What The House Dreams Of that brings together two young artists with memories to share.

November 5, 2025October 31, 2025, by Amalia Rizos

Myth as Metamorphosis at Freight + Volume

Jorge K. Cruz & Elizabeth Insogna, Divine Myth– Faith and Flesh, installation view, photo courtesy of the gallery

In the quiet hum of Freight + Volume, myth breathes anew — through clay, through oil, through the occulted pulse of memory and transformation. Elizabeth Insogna’s luminous ceramics rise from ionic pedestals like ancient offerings, while Jorge K. Cruz’s visceral canvases create a kaleidoscopic backsplash, drawing viewers into a dialogue between the sacred and the subversive.