Artists on Coping: Katrina Bello

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


In the studio, with large drawing titled Terra Magnoliaceae, April 2020

Born in the Philippines, Katrina Bello is an artist who lives and works in New Jersey. Her work is devoted to drawing, and her subjects are migration, ecology and our complex relationship with the natural world. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and the Philippines, and has been awarded residencies in the United States. She recently received a studio fellowship from the Sustainable Arts Foundation though Gallery Aferro in Newark, New Jersey. Katrina is the founder of North Willow, an informal artist-run attic exhibition space in northern New Jersey.

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Artists on Coping: Eileen Hoffman

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

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Hoffman in her studio working on an installation. Photo by Izzy Nova

Eileen Hoffman is a textile sculptor and installation artist whose use of non-traditional materials acts as a bridge between past traditions and contemporary approaches. Her art involves making the undervalued and unseen culture of women’s work visible. Her work has been featured in Family Matters: SDA International Exhibition in Print; The Gold Standard of Textile and Fiber Art, NYC; and Art From the Boros VII, NYC.

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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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Artists on Coping: Claudia Chaseling

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


Claudia Chaseling in her Berlin studio in April 2020. In the background mutopia 5 in progress.

Claudia Chaseling lives in Berlin and Canberra and received a Masters from Udk, Berlin and a Ph.D. from ANU, Canberra. Claudia is known for “Spatial Painting”, site-mutative biomorphic murals that optically distort the familiar geometry of the space, whilst carrying socio-political content. In 2013 she published the graphic novel Murphy the mutant that became an anchor for her work to follow. Her work has been featured at over sixty exhibitions internationally, including X-Border Biennial, Finland, LAB11 Biennial, Sweden, and the Lorne Biennial, Australia. Recent solo exhibitions were held at Art Gallery Nadezda Petrovic, Serbia; Wollongong Art Gallery, and Yuill Crowley Gallery, Australia; Kunstverein Duisburg and Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany; and AiB, NYC. “Vfzkt Berlin” published her monograph in 2016. Grants include DAAD, Karl-Hofer Award, Samstag Scholarship, OZCO and artsACT. Residencies include Art Omi and ISCP, NYC. 

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Artists on Coping: Ellen Hackl Fagan

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

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Ellen Hackl Fagan, Seeking the Sound of Cobalt Blue, Installation during Bushwick Open Studios, 2018. Photo: Charles Geiger

Ellen Hackl Fagan is an artist and the creator of ODETTA, a contemporary fine art gallery in Harlem, NYC. Fagan builds connections between color and sound using color-saturated paintings, sculpture, installations and collaborative projects that explore our potential for synaesthesia, often resulting in ad hoc performances with viewers. Balanced between randomness and intention, like jazz music, Fagan’s art reveals limitless possibilities for improvisation. Fagan also invented The Reverse Color Organ (RCO), a web app that enables viewers to playfully interact aurally with color. Fagan exhibits her work extensively, curates, writes, and creates opportunities for collaborations with artists, curators, musicians, and coders to further her projects.

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Artists on Coping: Julian Kreimer

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

The artist at his studio

Julian Kreimer is an associate professor of Painting and Art History at SUNY Purchase. Solo and two-person shows have included TSA LA (CA), Lux Art Institute (CA), and Weeknights Gallery (Brooklyn) and his work has been included in group shows at Fluc space (Vienna), Hotel Pupik (Austria), Curator Gallery, Alexandre Gallery, Von Lintel Gallery, and TSA. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Hyperallergic, Artcritical, and Two Coats of Paint. He is a repeat fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell Colonies and received a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Painting Fellowship. He is a frequent contributor to Art in America.

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Artists on Coping: Rhonda Dee

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

A person standing in front of a sign

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Photo credit: ZakiP

Rhonda Dee is from Texas and currently resides in Australia. She holds a BFA, (CCA, Seattle), and MA, from Sydney College of the Arts. Her layered works explore the body as a site of transformation between human, animal hybrids and supernatural forces. Her works are in permanent collection at Macquarie University, Australia-China Arts Foundation, and Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Recently, she’s begun creating public artworks with disadvantaged communities. She features in Artist Profile, The Art Life, Torrens University Blog, Arts Hub Australia and is currently designing podcasts with Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, in response to COVID19.

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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: Gianluca Bianchino

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


Gianluca Bianchino in front of Lightmap #7, courtesy of the artist

Gianluca Bianchino is a multimedia artist and curator living and working in Northern New Jersey. Inspired by physics and architecture, his work is focused on immersive installations and interactive sculptures that often engage with optics and technology expressing lyrical qualities that stem from a background in painting and an interest in astronomy. Originally from Italy, he attended an Architectural magnet school before relocating to the US where he received a BFA from New Jersey City University, and an MFA from Montclair State University. Bianchino is currently an adjunct professor at MSU, WPU, and BMCC.

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Artists on Coping: Robin Holder

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

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Robin Holder

Robin Holder is a 2020 Clark Hulings Fund For Artists Executive Fellow. Her recent exhibit “Access and Inequities. I Hear You. Do You See Me?” featured works exploring identity conflicts. She has presented one-person exhibitions at the Mobile Museum of Art, The NCCU Art Museum, The Labor Museum, and The Spelman College Museum. She was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by The Brooklyn Arts Council as well as a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Artist As Catalyst Residency. Holder has completed 5 public art commissions, and her work is included in significant collections including the Library of Congress and The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

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