New York City – Art Spiel

August 25, 2026August 25, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Blizzard at Dimin Gallery- intertwined times- nostalgia, stillness, and ecological urgency

Installation view, Blizzard, Dimin Gallery

Walking into Dimin gallery on a humid summer day, Blizzard, the exhibition currently on view, envelops you with a welcoming dynamic, though like a winter storm, often all-encompassing, bitter, and fierce. Despite these negative associations coinciding with the theme of blizzard , there is a sense of peace and serenity while observing a storm safely. As long as you are observing from a safe distance, both the winter season and its storms can offer great solace and opportunities for contemplation. Similar to the work in this show, we are welcomed to dive into the environments of the works and take note of what themes are driving the artists. Given our growing concerns over climate change, global warming, and changes in the environment, this exhibition is very timely; especially ecologically, this show calls for attention. These artists certainly show how a snow day can slow time and force us to have more respect for the unyielding natural world.

August 11, 2026August 10, 2026, by Yasmeen Abdallah

The Art of Drag & NYC at Culture Lab LIC

A retrospective of drag was recently presented with great aplomb at Culture Lab LIC. Queens: The Art of Drag & NYC featured an array of artists deeply embedded in the glorious culture of drag. Honoring its rich history through performance, fashion, music, makeup, design, and more, the essence of this multifaceted experience was distilled through celebratory expressions of artistry, beauty, community, and resilience.

July 28, 2026July 28, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Greater New York and the identity and pulse of the city at MoMA PS1

Walking through MoMA PS1 for the first time in several years, I realized how much it has changed and how much I still remembered from my first visit, before officially becoming a New Yorker. The meandering, bustling energy of the building remained, each turn and new corridor offering discoveries. It was special to witness how eclectic and unique each artist’s vision and process was and how many identities and stories are gathered under one roof. Organized for the first time by MoMA PS1’s full curatorial team, the exhibition emphasizes the forces that shape daily life in the city today. This includes strategies of resistance and adaptation in the face of increased surveillance, shifting identities, economic uncertainties, how we view ourselves and others, and the ever-changing technologies around us. This exhibition notes both optimism and anxiety throughout all of the artists’ attention to the layered, eclectic lived textures of New York City and the people intertwined within it.

July 27, 2026July 27, 2026, by Michele Jaslow

Interview with Daina Higgins: On Graffiti, Risk, and the Art of Impermanence

Pioneer graffiti artist and painter Daina Higgins explores the shifting visual identity of urban spaces across the American Northeast. Our conversation, centered on Daina, also reads as a message to the emerging women graffiti artists she encounters on the streets. A how-to guide including the rules- yes, graffiti has rules- a way to value yourself as an artist, and a sisterhood joining the past and present.

March 2, 2026March 20, 2026, by Mer Mora

Cathleen Clarke: The Past Won’t Stay Put at Margot Samel

It had just rained in New York City when the smell of wet grass and pine in Central Park transported me somewhere else entirely: back in my hometown, a place I hadn’t lived in for a decade. I could’ve sworn I heard the same birds I woke up to every morning. The reminiscence was completely involuntary, but for a few seconds, I found myself caught inside an instant that felt like a different lifetime. This is the feeling that Episodes, Cathleen Clarke’s new exhibitionat Margot Samel, creates. There is no nostalgia or comfort, but instead, the disorienting realization that the past has intruded on the present uninvited.

May 13, 2025May 11, 2025, by Etty Yaniv

Naomi Lev and the Art of Process Curating

In Dialogue

Installation view with Naomi Lev at *The Space Between Knowing* exhibition at The TL Studio. Photographed by Argenis Apolinario. Left (top to bottom): Shony Rivnay, *The Loss of Innocence Squared,* 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 43.3 x 43.3 inch; Shony Rivnay, *Keep Movin’,* 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 43.3 x 43.3 inch. Right: Shony Rivnay, *Initiation of Movement No.1*, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 77 inch.

Naomi Lev is a curator, cultural program director, and arts writer based in New York City. She works closely with living artists and calls her approach “Process Curating”—a method that follows a project from its earliest stages through final installation. It’s about long-term exchange and staying present as ideas shift.

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025, by Taylor Bielecki

William Carroll- Trees at 57w57arts

Installation shot (photo courtesy of 57w57st Gallery)

Willam Carroll’s newest painting series titled Trees has found a nice place to debut in 57w57arts. Each artist has their own room within the gallery space, the other artists include: Michael Voss, Steph Krawchuk, Seth Dembar, and Christopher Boyne. The rooms are also active office spaces where employees and clientele enjoy the work during appointments. Carroll’s series of seven new paintings on wood panels find themselves in the waiting room, stoically standing alongside a wonderful view of the New York Public library right outside of a nearby office window. Seeing the work within this space, especially it being a waiting room, allows viewers an opportunity for quiet contemplation, a foil to the hustle and bustle of what is right outside. You begin to feel as if you are journeying through the forest on a silent winter day.

October 25, 2024November 2, 2024, by Anna Shukeylo

Bill Scott: Two Decades at Hollis Taggart

Installation view at Hollis Taggart Gallery

Bill Scott’s solo show Two Decades at Hollis Taggart Gallery’ celebrates this painter’s long career of collaboration with this renowned New York City gallery. Bill, a fairly reserved individual, often clad in neutral colors at gallery openings, produces profoundly beautiful works bursting with color. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Bill, a friend and mentor for more than 15 years, dating back to my days as an undergraduate at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

July 7, 2024July 7, 2024, by Art Spiel

Rukh Art Hub

Featured Project

Merging with the Garden Art Show by Rukh Art Hub. Mriya Gallery, Tribeca, NYC. Photo by Lesia Dutchak

The word Rukh stands for Movement in Ukrainian. Rukh Art Hub, the creative initiative promoting Ukrainian contemporary art in New York City, focuses on giving Ukrainian art momentum and a voice to Ukrainian creatives and curators. Polina Kuznetsova, Mariia Manuilenko, and Olga Severina are leading Rukh Art Hub, a project dedicated to cultivating and promoting Ukrainian art and culture in New York City and beyond.

May 3, 2024May 1, 2024, by MICHELE JASLOW

Monika Drożyńska: Resistance Embroiderer

Photo Story

A blue sign with text on it Description automatically generated — **Latte Capitalizm, hand embroidery on cotton, 8×14 inch**

Polish artist Monika Drożyńska brings her resistance embroidery to a New York audience in a solo show at Open Source Gallery and her Urban Embroidery project. The connections she makes with words within many different languages are a dexterous game of text and symbols on fabric, an adept study of transformative change for a better world. Polish curator Bartek Remisko, speaking about the work, said, “Embroidery can be about threads that bring us together to create social change.” Remisko’s insight speaks to Drożyńska’s focus on embroidery techniques in contemporary art and textiles in public spaces to further the collective conversation and play with conventional expectations.