Lisa Pressman and Jim Napierala at Susan Eley Fine Art

In Dialogue with Lisa Pressman


Lisa Pressman, Things That Were Never Said, 2021, Drawing and encaustic, 48” x 38”. Photo courtesy of Lisa Pressman and Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson

The current exhibition at Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson features Lisa Pressman’s newest encaustic paintings and works on paper. One of the primary series on view in this show is entitled Messages, a recent and ongoing series of mixed media works on various handmade papers. Pressman collects handmade paper, including Japanese Shikishi board, which is edged with gold, as well as Letraset—the rub-on letters employed by graphic designers before the computer era. Onto these unique handmade paper, she employs the press-on letters of the Letraset, as a mark-making tool to create a symbolic language—hieroglyphic and intuitive.

Continue reading “Lisa Pressman and Jim Napierala at Susan Eley Fine Art”

A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning at Old City Jewish Arts Center

Logan Gabrielle Schulman + Benjamin Behrend in Conversation


Gallery View of Exhibition A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning, 2021

A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning, featuring works by Philadelphia based artist Logan Gabrielle Schulman and writer Benjamin Behrend, is a collaborative interactive exhibit of images, objects, and video from the theatre of grief, on view at the Old City Jewish Arts Center in Philadelphia, PA through July 2nd. Benjamin Behrend, a writer and performer, says he has recently been straddling the worlds of comedy, performance art, and also various explorations of faith, especially these past few years. Logan Gabrielle Schulman (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist, with a background in theatrical performance, directing, playwriting, and designing, while also developing over the last few years a foundation in the visual arts. They say their work “primarily investigates modern crises of faith and collapse,” which they started investigating initially by drawing on their theatrical design experience through installation work, and gradually later on, in smaller scale work as well. Schulman’s work also draws upon their experience as a Jewish educator teaching about the Jewish diaspora and Holocaust history.

Continue reading “A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning at Old City Jewish Arts Center”

Noel Hennelly at PeepSpace

In Dialogue with Noel Hennelly

Installation view

Noel Hennelly’s solo show at PeepSpace, wrapped up the first year of programming at this new venue in Tarrytown, NY, founded by artists Monica Carrier and Jane Kang Lawrence. The exhibit featured sculptures and wall pieces made of mixed materials, manufactured components, wood, metal, fabric, as well as painted and photographic elements. Hennelly’s work highlights the tension between the natural world and the urban environment, mediated by mythical language and devotional ideas as vectors for the way we perceive, process, and store memory and experience.

Continue reading “Noel Hennelly at PeepSpace”

Melissa Stern: Stronger than Dirt: A twenty year Retrospective

Art Spiel Photo Story

STRONGERTHANDIRT3.jpg

Stronger than Dirt: Melissa Stern at the Lockwood Gallery, installation shot

Walking into The Lockwood Gallery in Kingston NY one is instantly transported into another Universe. One populated by people and things who clearly are living in a world parallel to ours, but profoundly different. Smiling figures stand tall, grinning at the world, while all the time missing a limb or two. Or having their feet nailed to the ground. Images from vintage magazines merge seamlessly with Melissa Stern’s drawings. Her world is populated with folks who exhibit a stubborn resilience in the face of cosmic obstacles. Hence the exhibition’s title – Stronger Than Dirt.

Continue reading “Melissa Stern: Stronger than Dirt: A twenty year Retrospective”

Vick Quezada: Interconnected Matter


Artist photographed with their work, Tabled Remains, 2018. Currently on view at El Museo del Barrio. Photograph by Jill Richards

Vick Quezada (they/them) is an Indigenous-Latinx artist, they queer the archaeological through hybrid forms and aesthetics. Inspired by the guiding principles of Aztec Philosophy, Quezada integrates the theory of interconnected matter and how it’s embedded in the cosmos, planet earth, ecology, and all lifeforms. These elements of matter cannot be governed by sovereign powers as they are inherently queer and infinte. Quezada activates these themes and histories through their work, and this is conveyed by way of digital photography, video, performance and sculpture. 

Continue reading “Vick Quezada: Interconnected Matter”

STREAMING at Stand 4

In Dialogue with Melissa Staiger


Keisha Prioleau Martin, Head Over Handlebars, 2020, acrylic on paper, 10 x 13.5 inches, photo courtesy of the artist

In March 2020 the New York art world shut down and soon went online for exhibition opportunities. Like many artists, Mike Childs was furloughed from his job, and stayed at home, drawing as well as supporting his 6th grade son. To foster a sense of community, he reached out to fellow artist and curator Melissa Staiger to see if she was interested in combining their skills. They came up with the idea to create an online group of artists who worked on paper. The collective identity of this group was envisioned as eight individuals who reflect the creative New York community and exhibit a compulsive nature towards the making of images. Childs referred to these image makers as “producing work via a stream of consciousness in the modernist literary tradition”. In referencing this type of creative approach, Staiger immediately seized on the word to title their project Streaming, referring both to a creative thought process and the online reality of contemporary artistic existence. This led to the creation of the website https://s-t-r-e-a-m-i-n-g.com, which was the foundation for the current exhibition at Stand 4 Gallery. The group exhibition at Stand4 Gallery, brings together work by Mike Childs, Deanna Lee, Keisha Prioleau-Martin, Rafael Melendez, Benjamin Pritchard, Sharmistha Ray, Melissa Staiger, and Julie Torres. The show runs through July 10th.

Continue reading “STREAMING at Stand 4”

The Alternative States at Project Gallery V

In Dialogue with Arina Novak


Arina Novak is holding a laptop with the main page of The Alternative States displayed on the screen. Photo courtesy: Robert Oliver

The Alternative States is a virtual exhibition at Project Gallery V on view from May 3 through June 30, 2021. Inspired by a condition of daydreaming, the show explores the alternative states of mind where one finds solace in creative freedom and ethereal fantasies.

Continue reading “The Alternative States at Project Gallery V”

Kathy Goodell: Infra-Loop at the Dorsky Museum

In Dialogue with Kathy Goodell


Kathy Goodell, Mesmer Eyes, 2020, ink on synthetic paper, 120 x 300”, photo courtesy of Ferris Ramirez

Infra-Loop, Kathy’s Goodell’s survey exhibition at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, explores the visual vocabulary that runs throughout the artist’s diverse disciplines, across geographies and time periods. Guest curator and artist Andrew Woolbright brings together more than 40 artworks including paintings, sculptures, and multimedia installations from 1994 to 2020. This is the first time Goodell’s work has been presented on a large scale. The exhibition runs through July 11th.

Continue reading “Kathy Goodell: Infra-Loop at the Dorsky Museum”

Painting the Narrative at the National Arts Club

In Dialogue with Dee Shapiro

A picture containing indoor, floor, wall, ceiling

Description automatically generated
Installation view

In the group exhibition Painting the Narrative at the National Arts Club in New York City the artist Dee Shapiro brings together six contemporary artists who explore content and form of narrative painting ranging from interiors to landscapes, personal to imagined, realistic to fantastic. Featured artists: Jennifer Coates, Laura Karetzky, Judith Linhares, Ernesto Renda, Kyle Staver, and George Towne. The show runs through June 28th.

Continue reading “Painting the Narrative at the National Arts Club”

Beatrice Scaccia: My Hope Chest at Katonah Museum of Art

In Dialogue with Beatrice Scaccia


Beatrice Scaccia at the KMA, in the spot Gallery with the install of My Hope Chest. Courtesy of Ellen Rachlin. The animation was realized also thank to the Queens Arts Fund Grant.

Beatrice Scaccia’s solo show at The Katonah Museum of Art includes a stop-motion animation and site-specific wall drawings, altogether exploring the links and tensions between tradition and modernity. This body of work by the Italian born and NYC based multi-disciplinary artist has developed based on a furniture item with layered connotations – Hope chests were (and are) used by young women to collect items in anticipation of married life. The show runs through June 27, 2021

Continue reading “Beatrice Scaccia: My Hope Chest at Katonah Museum of Art”