Artists on Coping: John Descarfino

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

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Current drawings in progress.

John Descarfino is a Brooklyn based artist whose painting and drawings are informed by places in ways both literal and metaphorical, while exploring the complexities of perception and image structure. He has exhibited at the McNay Art Museum; Galeria Espacio 48, Spain; Centotto, Brooklyn; Lucas Schoormans Gallery; Blum and Poe; The Berkshire Museum; and The Edward Hopper House among other venues, His paintings are included in several collections including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; JP Morgan Chase; and Capital Group Companies. Descarfino received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and recently, from the Café Royal Cultural Foundation.

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Artists on Coping: Diane Englander

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


Gatherings I (2019), 21 x 24 x 2 inches, mixed media

With color, composition, line, texture, Diane Englander is aiming for a place between discord and tranquility, a zone with a charged harmony that energizes as it also provides refuge. Her inspiration to work on a specific piece comes from curiosity about the materials. She’s always thinking (though not necessarily in a conscious way), What would happen if I did this? What would this other thing do? But always bending back to the goal of creating a place of calm energized by tension.

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Artists on Coping: Jamie Martinez

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


Jamie Martinez in front of “Neo Kingdom”, a virtual Reality Installation with artist Erin Ko for the group show ” Speculative Cultures” curated by Tina Sauerlaender, Peggy Schoenegge, and Erandy Vergara at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons/The New School.

Jamie Martinez uses the concept of triangulation throughout his work. His new work is a series of spells and poems to protect him and guide him through his journey into the underworld. The spells/poems are based on the Mayan language which used logograms complemented with a set of syllabic glyphs. The process begins with a meditation session to reveal a vision/message for each piece then it’s translated using Mayan glyphs.

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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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Artists on Coping: Zac Skinner

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


Zac collecting trash along the shoreline of the Hudson River, 2020, courtesy of the artist

Zac Skinner’s work explores geo-engineering, global warming, and the Anthropocene Landscape. His solo exhibitions include Rockland Center For the Arts, West Nyack, NY, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY, and Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY. Recent group exhibitions include CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea, Spring Break Art Show, New York, NY; SITE:Brooklyn, New York, NY; WAAM, Woodstock, NY. He was recently interviewed and featured in Lowdown Magazine, Berlin, Germany. He is currently a Lecturer at Ramapo College, NJ, and SUNY New Paltz College. Skinner will have a solo exhibition at Wave Hill’s Sunroom Project Space this October through December, 2020.

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Artists on Coping: Michael David

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

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Brenda Goodman and John Yau in conversation at Life on Mars for her one -person exhibition

Michael David, a Guggenheim Fellow artist, has been exhibiting his paintings internationally since 1981, first with the Historical Sidney Janis and then with M. Knoedler & Co. for over two decades. His work is included in the permanent public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Brooklyn Museum  in New York, The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and was the subject of a one -person exhibition at Aspen Museum of Art . As an extension of his painting practice over the last six years David has established two reputable galleries, Life on Mars and M. David & Co., as well as an adjunct residency program at M.David &Co.

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Artists on Coping: Mary DeVincentis

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


Mary DeVincentis in her home studio

Painter Mary DeVincentis employs a deeply personal iconography to investigate the mysteries and dilemmas of existence. Her most recent body of work, Between the Light and Me, will make its debut at M. David and Co. Gallery in Brooklyn later this year. Her work was recently featured in ArtMaze Magazine, winter 2020 edition. She is represented by M. David and Co. in New York and by Gibbons and Nicholas in Dublin, Ireland.

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Artists on Coping: JoAnne McFarland

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

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Selfie With Swiss Chard, 2020

JoAnne McFarland is an artist, poet, curator, and independent publisher. She is the Artistic Director of Artpoetica Project Space in Gowanus that exhibits work exploring the intersection of visual art and literature. She is the former Exhibitions Director of A.I.R. Gallery in DUMBO. She has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally for over 30 years, and is the author of ten poetry books, chapbooks, and libretti. Her most recent curatorial project, co-curated with Sasha Chavchavadze, is SALLY, a multi-venue, muti-year exhibition that showcases lost histories of women artists and philosophers, and contemporary artists whose work exemplifies passionate inquiry.

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Artists on Coping: Andra Samelson

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

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“ Circling”, 30 x 30 inches Acrylic on Canvas 2018 Courtesy of the Artist

Andra Samelson is a multi-media artist whose work explores the relationship of microcosm and macrocosm with imagery associated with molecular and galactic systems. She holds a B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence College and has received fellowships from the NY Foundation for the Arts, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally, and is represented in several private and public collections including the Rubin Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, Chase Manhattan Bank, Dow Jones, and the Loyola University Museum of Art.

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Artists on Coping: Kay Sirikul Pattachote

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


Kay Sirikul Pattachote in her studio. Photograph by Pratya Junkong

Kay Sirikul Pattachote‘s paintings utilize the abstracted forms of flowering plants as a vessel for channeling her daily meditations. These plant forms provide parameters for her interpretive brushwork and within them she is able to record her experienced energies and emotions. Ritualistic actions, such as sewing and repetition, further her meditative practice and deepen her ability to record the ephemeral on her surfaces.

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