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Shari Urquhart: Selections from the Fuzzy Museum and other warm worlds


Suspended Judgement, 1983, Persian wool, satin, rattail, metallic, mohair, angora fibers, 78 x 107 inches

Shari Urquhart produced visual narratives from candy-like yarns that seem to glow. Each piece presents sensual fields that we can easily get lost in, absorbing each story as it slowly unfurls. The colorful works are made from fibers of wools, rayons, angoras, mohairs, metallics, fake fur, plastic and even Urquhart’s own dog’s hair. Each of her tapestries exhibits a brevity of controlled execution, awareness of composition that is meticulously constructed, making each piece monumental.

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Heather McLeod: Hide and Seek

In Dialogue with  Heather McLeod

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Heather V McLeod, Wreath IV, oil on canvas, 16” diameter, 2020. On view at and photograph courtesy of Trotter&Sholer.

Heather V McLeod is an artist exploring identity and the psychology by which we perceive others. Interested primarily in portraiture and representative work, McLeod creates pieces with the intent of capturing the character of the figure portrayed. She plays with the use of symbolism and concealment to enhance the narrative and evoke a playful yet ominous side to portraiture.

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Artists on Coping: Elizabeth Riley

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


Factory Fresh, 2019; Video stills inkjet-printed on paper and fabric, repurposed laser-cut metal, 120 x 108 x 24”

Elizabeth Riley’s art addresses questions concerning the complex and changing world we inhabit and our “mixed reality,” living between physical and digital/virtual contexts. This project includes sculptural wall works, installations, and tabletop cityscapes, made from a combination of video, video stills, and diverse materials. A longtime New Yorker, the artist graduated from Barnard College and received an MFA from Hunter College. In 2019 her work was presented in Ribbons Become Space, a solo show at SL Gallery in New York City. This show included the Dragons of Iceland Installation, a 2011 sculpture/installation with multiple live video elements, as well as, two large-scale, site-specific wall sculptures made from video stills. Elizabeth Riley curated and participated in Trill Matrix at The Clemente Center on New York City’s Lower East Side in 2018, a show of seven dynamic women artists.

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Artists on Coping: Nancy Cohen

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

Nancy Cohen in her studio, photo courtesy of the artist

Nancy Cohen’s work examines resiliency in relation to the environment and the human body. Recent exhibitions include Force: Observations from the Interior, a solo show at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in NYC, and group exhibitions at Accola Griefen and BioBat Art Space in Brooklyn, Dorsky Gallery in Long Island City, Heller Gallery in Manhattan and The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ. Her current work has been featured in the blogs Artists and Climate Change, Art Spiel, Less than Half and Delicious Line, in the anthology the Body in Language edited by Edwin Torres and in ArtTable’s Artist Perspective Podcast.

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Artists on Coping: Jaynie Crimmins

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

The artist at the Active Space, 2019

Jaynie Gillman Crimmins is a Brooklyn based artist who creates alternative narratives from quotidian materials. Her work has been exhibited at ART on PAPER NYC; the Sharjah Museum of Art, United Arab Emirates; SPRING/BREAK Art Show, NYC; Governor’s Island Art Fair, NYC; the National Museum of Romanian Literature; the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary, VA; Hunterdon Art Museum, NJ; and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, GA. She is represented by K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, and shows with Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta.

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Artists on Coping: Gail Winbury

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


Gail Winbury in her studio, photo by Nancy Ori

Gail Winbury brings a psychological lens to her art. She shows in museums, universities and galleries in the States, Europe and Mexico. Her work was in OTAContemporary in Santa Fe, Aferro Gallery in Newark, St Peters University in Jersey City, NJ, The Jersey City Museum, the Monmouth Museum of Art and the Henrich Heine Haus in Germany and other venues. She was a resident at the School of Visual Arts, Manhattan, and at Edgewood Farms, Truro, Ma., a Fellow with the Bau Foundation in Puglia, Italy, and received a grant for an artist exchange in Israel.

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Artists on Coping: Patricia Fabricant

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


Patricia Fabricant, Alexi Rutsch Brock, Beth Dary at the opening for Among Friends, May 2019

Patricia Fabricant is a painter and book designer, from New York City. She received her BA from Wesleyan University and studied painting in Italy. Her abstract paintings have been exhibited widely at such galleries as SFA projects, M David & Co, Front Room, Morgan Lehman, the Painting Center and the National Arts Club. More recently she has worked figuratively, both on a political series, Paper Dolls, and on woven self-portraits, which she began in response to the 2016 election and its aftermath. She is also curating shows. She lives in Brooklyn and shares a studio at the EFA, in Manhattan.

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Artists on Coping: Sylvia Schwartz

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


Queen and Dressing Up, ODETTA 2019

Sylvia Schwartz was born in Australia but has lived more than half her life in NYC. Her art work explores the relationship between drawing painting and sculpture, or the shifting relationship between the imagined and the real. A recurring theme in her work is the physical and psychological spaces we inhabit. Schwartz’s work has been seen in group exhibitions in Manhattan, New Jersey and Brooklyn, including ODETTA, Lesley Heller gallery, Nurture art, several university galleries, the Attleboro Museum, and the Visual Art Center of New Jersey.

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Museum as Muse at the Flatiron Project Space

Museum as Muse, Installation, Image courtesy of Leigh Behnke

A favorite experience of mine is to visit the Metropolitan Museum without a show or work of art in mind to see. I enjoy wondering the galleries until I come across something I had not noticed before and then spend the time looking and analyzing the work. This experience is likened to one I have recently had at “Museum as Muse”, a show curated by Leigh Behnke, consisting of works by the artist herself, Joe Fig and Peter Hristoff. The show is not at a sprawling Chelsea gallery or at a small, but relevant Lower East Side venue. It is tucked away within the confines of an academic institution, School of Visual Art, located on 21st Street in the SVA Flatiron Gallery Project Space. As the title suggests, all three artists have used the museum in some capacity as a starting point for their work.

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A Visit with Nancy Baker

Baker working with laser cut wood

Nancy Baker’s art is colorful and bright, with filigree shapes that fuse, multiply and pulse outward in vibrant, sweeping waves. Individually the panels seem molecular and scientific; layered together they suggest vast networks and digital flow, yet clearly are the work of an artist’s hand. The eye zooms in and picks out familiar details–a candy wrapper, a takeout tray–then moves out again to appreciate the larger whole.

Panel in Baker’s Studio (full and detail images)
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