Contemporary Art and Culture
Poignant moments of reflection burst from the seams in this week’s roundup of not-to-miss exhibitions across Manhattan. Exuberance, symmetry, and swathes of color bathe viewers in myriad ways through these must-see shows across New York City.
Continue reading “Picks for June”
Entanglements, Judi Tavill’s solo show at Ivy Brown Gallery, unfolds a world of biomorphic abstractions. From intimate to immersive, her curvilinear ceramic sculptures feature intertwined graphite lines on the surface that seem to emanate from within and radiate outward. Tavill’s subsequent works on paper echo these forms, creating a captivating visual journey. Tangible forms of tree systems, mycelium networks, and biological structures intertwine with intangible psychological states, interpersonal relationships, and sociopolitical tension, entangling to form elaborate networks.
Continue reading “Judi Tavill: Entanglements at Ivy Brown Gallery”Liz Maynard
The rhymes, homophones, and translations between the work of Elizabeth Duffy, Lu Heintz, and Anna McNeary are object manifestations of “Dreams of a Common Language.” The exhibition at Overlap Gallery in Newport, RI, offers up sweet and salty juxtapositions of textile, prints, sculptures, and installations of Providence-based artists. It takes its title from Adrienne Rich’s 1976 volume of poetry, which ruminates on the possibilities of life liberated from patriarchal constraints and the feminist community emerging from speech in common. Duffy, Heintz, and McNeary explore textile not just as a shared (and often gendered) medium but as a conceptual framework.
Continue reading “Dreams of a Common Language: Elizabeth Duffy, Lu Heintz, and Anna McNeary In OVERLAP”
In her 2014 essay Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain, Leslie Jamison examines the literary phenomenon of women’s suffering being depicted in almost luxuriating detail, as much an object of fetishization by men as it is a subject of shame by women. Jamison recalls a boyfriend accusing her of being a “wound-dweller,” or fixating on her own afflictions to an unhealthy, self-centered degree, to which she initially reacts with umbrage. Ultimately, she reworks this pejorative into an argument that women’s tragedy, disease and self-harm should be viewed through an empathetic lens, that women should be inclined to give themselves the space to “dwell” on their wounds as a pathway to solidarity and recovery.
Continue reading “Ophelia Arc: we’re just so glad you’re home at 81 Leonard Gallery”
Through their group show at Re Institute, Julia Kunin, Barbara Zucker, Meg Lipke, Catherine Hall, and Joanne Howard reflect on how a supportive community and friendship nourish the often solitary act of creating art. Their lives have intersected over many years, and their approach to art cross-pollinates on multiple levels.
Continue reading “A Tribute to Friendship at the Reinstitute”
Over-Compression, a group show featured in Ridgewood Open Studios, is the culmination of Eunice Chen Yuyue’s curator-in-residence program at Level Gallery, supported by Rockella Space. From February to April 2024, Eunice visited over 20 artists in their studios at One Eyed Studios and Brown Bear Studios. The exhibition highlights the work of Brooklyn and Queens artists, including Christine Abraham, Luis Aguilera, Britt Harrison, Ben Blaustein, Alexander Brewington, Sir, King David, Karryl Eugene, Yunierki Felix, Joe Gray, Kristen Heritage, Jason Karolak, Teddy Lane, Sheila Lanham, Sfera Louis, Spencer Patrick, Jean Rim, Alejandra Rojas, Chimera Singer, Md Tokon, and Amanda Valle. Over-Compression is displayed across five galleries at One Eyed Studios, running from May 3rd to May 19th, 2024.
Continue reading “Over-Compression in Ridgewood Open Studios, curated by Eunice Chen”
During her solo exhibition at the NARS Foundation, artist Marina Kassianidou spoke with Mary Annunziata, who previously curated Marina’s work, A Partial History, as part of the inaugural Immigrant Artist Biennial in 2020. In her exhibition at NARS, Marina presents new work inspired by her grandmother’s collection of 19th and 20th-century schoolbooks from Cyprus. On display are four photographs of selected pages from these books, four artist’s books that recreate the full original texts, and four large sculptural drawings. The show celebrates a call and response with ancestors’ material history, showcasing Marina’s time-intensive artistic process in which she works with surfaces found in her surroundings, such as walls, floors, fabrics, paper, and screens, and experiments with ways of marking that respond to the surface’s appearance, use, or history.
Continue reading “Marina Kassianidou: A Partial History”
In 2018, I interviewed David Samuel Stern about his process of creating woven photographic portraits. In these portraits, he interlaced photographs into intricate, tactile artworks, emphasizing the medium’s tangible qualities. Stern has been relentlessly exploring what it means to portray through photography and the medium’s place as a recorder of time and nature. Since our initial interview, he has produced captivating new work. Here, we survey his evolution over the last six years and his current work.
Continue reading “David Samuel Stern: Does a portrait need a subject?”
The Space Between, curated by Tracy McKenna at Platform Project Space, combines works in paint and fiber by Lauren Luloff, Tessa Greene O’Brien, Mark Olshansky, and Amy Kim Keeler. They all share a sense of desire to capture the elusive space in between—where the artist’s perception and hand meet your gaze.
Continue reading “The Space Between at Platform Project Space”
In her mixed-media work, Jeanne Ciravolo integrates collage, print, and stitching, materializing the stories of her female relatives—their stories of loss and hope. The female figures often reference representation of women in art history, such as medieval carvings or paintings from the Renaissance. The figure imagery is based on Ciravolo’s sketches, figure drawings, photos from newspapers and magazines, or photos she took.
Continue reading “Jeanne Ciravolo – the resistance in making do”