Meg Atkinson – Painting as a Leap of Faith

One Tree, Two Mouthy Ghosts, 2019, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, photo courtesy Max Yawney

Meg Atkinson‘s paintings resemble puzzles open to multiple solutions. Her imagery is embedded with associative literary and visual layers, as clues to an open-ended riddle. Meg Atkinson shares with Art Spiel what brought her to art, as well as the way she has developed her approach to mark-making, space, gird, and color.

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Solstice at Flux Factory

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Jonathan Sims, curator of Solstice: An Exhibition of Works in Light

Solstice at Flux Factory

The group show “Solstice” at Flux Factory in LIC brings together ten installation, sculpture and performance artists who utilize light as a core element in their work. The gallery is darkened and the only light in the space will emanate from the artists’ work – LED, fiber-optics, incandescent, altogether “lensed into being.” The show features installations by Luba DrozdLaurent FortSizhu LiLindsay PackerKsenia SalionJonathan Sims and Performances by ÉMUNight ShiningPaloma KopTestu Collective . Jonathan Sims, the curator whose work is also featured in the show, shares with Art Spiel the idea behind this project and some info on the venue.

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Rachael Wren – Shimmers and Hums

Rachael Wren, Defenders, 2017, oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches. Photo by Bill Orcutt

Rachael Wren’s delicate paintings pulsate with repetitive brush strokes that both allure you to look closely at the elaborate geometric surfaces and at the same time pull you into mysterious psychological interiors or perhaps cosmic fields. Her grid structure serves as an anchor for the paint /space- anchoring facilitates a greater freedom of movement and flow within. The artist shares with Art Spiel her ideas on color, painting, and studio process.

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Jeanne Heifetz – Ordered Chance

Jeanne Heifetz‘s art has evolved from weaving and fiber early on to drawing and painting later on.  While her previous body of work has typically derived from a process of material  exploration, the impetus for her more recent work has been prompted by concept. As Heifetz puts it, “in spite of herself,” after the election it can  also be seen as politicized.  She was recently awarded a LABA fellowship for 2018-2019 at the 14th Street Y, where she will study ancient Jewish texts on a given theme with other artists of different disciplines. In this interview for Art Spiel Jeanne Heifetz talks about her art, ideas, and projects.

Jeanne Heifetz, Pre-Occupied 18, 2016, silver graphite on flax paper tinted with iron oxide, 21″ x 29″ Photo: Paul Takeuchi

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Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, installation view, photo courtesy Rick Wester Fine Art

Get Loose, the three person show Curated by Tracy McKenna at Rick Wester Fine Art, features work by Cat Balco, Ben Godward, and Jason Rohlf, who all show a knack for unexpected twists of material resulting in exuberant abstracted forms and unorthodox color across the board. The  abstract paintings and sculptures in the show prompt loose  interpretations of Geometric Abstraction, where the hand is rigorously present. Continue reading “Get Loose at Rick Wester Fine Art”