In The Tale of Lost Waters at Five Points Arts in Connecticut, Susan Hoffman Fishman exhibits seven vertical scrolls resembling satellite imagery. Four are layered in deep, earthy browns—recalling land formations and dry blood—pressing against vibrant blues reminiscent of water. The bodies of water seem suspended between presence and disappearance, drifting toward an undefined space—a light or a void.
Diane Burko’s Bearing Witness at Cristin Tierney Gallery combines mixed-media paintings shaped by her experiences in extreme environments—glaciers, coral reefs, deserts, and rainforests. She has engaged with the shifting landscape for fifty years, responding to the accelerating changes that threaten these places. This marks a significant moment in her career—her first solo exhibition in New York in over forty years and her debut at Cristin Tierney Gallery.
If you haven’t visited the little paradise up in the Bronx called Wave Hill recently, now is the time to go there, not only to experience the beautiful gardens but to see exhibitions that are not to be missed, one of them being Stephanie Beck’s Bough. Beck, who has always been a risk-taking sculptor, either building cities out of paper or manipulating wood into gravity-defying constructions, speaks with me about her latest body of work constructed from materials found at Wave Hill and bringing to light crucial environmental issues beautifully and elegantly. This is the last week to see the show, which runs through December 1st, 2024.
“Bubbly Barnacles” after launch photo, courtesy of UMAFL
Sculptor Donna Conklin King draws on the philosophy of Kintsugi, the centuries-old Japanese art that highlights an object’s imperfections by emphasizing its cracks with gold leaf. She works primarily with concrete, experimenting by casting forms from unconventional materials such as tin ceiling tiles, food containers, and fabric. Her sculptures often incorporate delicate elements like doilies and 24-karat gold leaf, exploring the relationship between nature, architecture, and the inevitable decay of civilization. In her recent focus on public sculptures, Conklin King’s pieces are “openly cracked and repaired,” evolving and enduring over time. They reflect themes of resilience, history, and archaeology.
Sari Carel, A More Perfect Circle, 2024. Courtesy KODA, photo by Argenis Apolinario.
Artist and activist Sari Carel created A More Perfect Circle, a series of ceramic sculptures inspired by the single-use coffee cup, a ubiquitous object that brings into focus people’s daily experience of interacting with trash. Lentol Garden in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, hosts its first public art project that includes columns built of stacked ceramic forms and disks in the shape of plastic cup covers. The handmade, intentional, and individualized quality of each unit contrasts with the mass-manufactured coffee cup that inspires this project. Some of the drawings, experiments and observations that inform the installation are on view at the Greenpoint Library. A series of programs with 350Brooklyn and Climate Families NYC accompany the exhibition. Find out more here. The project is organized by KODA, a New York-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to mid-career artists of diverse backgrounds. It is curated by Jennifer McGregor, who interviews Sari Carel for the Hot Air section in Art Spiel.
It consists of nature walks and community interventions in the gallery and various locations throughout the Bay Ridge community from April 15 through June 17, 2023. Art Spiel features a series of interviews related to this project throughout its duration. Kate Dodd, whose library installation will be until after Labor Day, is featured here.
Mark Tribe, Bottsford Hollow, 2012, inkjet print, 24” x 38”. From the series Rare Earth.
A founder of Rhizome, Mark Tribe is known for his early contributions to the field of new media art and his socially-engaged performances and installations. His current practice engages the power of aesthetic experience to illuminate the challenges we and future generations will face in the climate crisis. Since 2012, he has made landscape pictures that unpack American ideas about nature and land, from Manifest Destiny to contemporary environmentalism. In this interview, Mark talks about his views on the climate, his landscapes, and his integration of machine learning tools (AI) into his latest project Learning to Love the Future.
Installation view Desire Lines, photo Argenis, courtesy of KODA
Sa’dia Rehman:Desire Lines is a solo exhibition as part of artist’s residency with KODA on Governors Island, New York. Rehman’s exhibition focuses on the building of the Tarbela dam in Pakistan in 1968-1976 – a hydroelectric dam responsible for the displacement and forced migration of 184 villages and the climate devastation following the completion of this project.
It consists of nature walks and community interventions in the gallery and various locations throughout the Bay Ridge community from April 15 through June 17, 2023. Art Spiel will feature a series of interviews related to this project throughout its duration, here with artist Nancy Nowacek.
It consists of nature walks and community interventions in the gallery and various locations throughout the Bay Ridge community from April 15 through June 17, 2023. Art Spiel will feature a series of interviews related to this project throughout its duration, here with artist Peter Edlund.