Notice: Function WP_Object_Cache::add was called incorrectly. Cache key must not be an empty string. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.1.0.) in /www/artspiel_344/public/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131

Ron Milewicz – Axis Mundi at Elizabeth Harris

Macintosh HD:Users:patrickmccreery:Desktop:axisadjustedphotos:Jpegs_1240px:20200103_RMilewicz-008_1240px cropped.jpg
Pink Moon, 2019 oil on linen, 18 x 13.5 inches, courtesy Elizabeth Harris Gallery

In Axis Mundi, his current painting exhibition at Elizabeth Harris, Ron Milewicz shows a body of work that reveals his continuous fascination with the mystery of trees. While focusing his gaze on a specific woodland landscape ,the Hudson Valley woodlands, Ron Milewicz is opening a portal not only to the universal meaning of trees, but also to the overall vulnerability and wonder of life on this planet. Ron Milewicz shares with Art Spiel some reflections on his approach to painting and on what draws him to his consistent thematic exploration.

Continue reading “Ron Milewicz – Axis Mundi at Elizabeth Harris”

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.

Continue reading “Museum as Muse at the Flatiron Project Space”

‘Fabrications’ at George Billis

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Steve Hicks

Macintosh HD:Users:stephenhicks:Desktop:Install SW copy.jpg
Installation image, from left to right: No Exit, In Flesh, Night Sequence. Image courtesy of the artist

Painter Steve Hicks shares with Art Spiel his reflections on the body of work he is currently exhibiting at George Billis gallery, focusing on how he sees these paintings within the wider context of his overall work.

Continue reading “‘Fabrications’ at George Billis”

Blue in Green at Platform Project Space

Art Spiel in Dialogue with Alyssa E. Fanning on Blue in Green

Elliott Green. Inhale, Exhale, 2018, Oil on linen, 30 x 40 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Pierogi Gallery

Platform Project Space, a Dumbo art venue geared to support curatorial projects by artists and independent curators, features the group exhibition “Blue in Green”, curated by artist and curator Alyssa E. Fanning. The show features paintings and drawings by 13 artists: Eric Wolf, Lee Lee Walker, Emma Tapley, Barbara Takenaga, James Siena, Alexander Ross, Joey Parlett, Andy Mister, Daniel Herwitt, Elliott Green, Nancy Goldring, Alyssa E. Fanning and Alec Dartley. Alyssa E. Fanning shares with Art Spiel her background, the art venue, and her premise for this show.

Continue reading “Blue in Green at Platform Project Space”

Elizabeth Garvey – on Garvey/Simon

In Dialogue with Liz Garvey on her Programming

A picture containing clothing Description automatically generated
Constance Scopelitis, God is in Clean Laundry: Wash and Wear, 2019, Carbon on fabric. 11h x 11w in

Liz Garvey says that one of her favorite aspects of the Garvey/Simon Select program is seeing how artists reinvigorate traditional media with innovative techniques. Established in 2010, Garvey/Simon is both a private dealer and art advisory service co-founded by advisor/dealer/curator Elizabeth K. Garvey and contemporary collector, Catherine G. Simon. In this interview Liz Garvey sheds some light on her gallery model and her upcoming programs.

Continue reading “Elizabeth Garvey – on Garvey/Simon”

Spotlight: “On Collecting Works of Art- An interview with Yelena Ambartsumian and Miroslav Grajewski”

Yelena Ambartsumian and Miroslav Grajewski at their home with work by Andre Butzer. Image courtesy of collectors and author.

Yelena Ambartsumian and Miroslav Grajewski are two young collectors who are passionate about contemporary art. They both have a sharpened sensibility of the art market. With a keen understanding of the auction prices, one of the things that separates them from other collectors is they firmly believe in going after the work they feel is most important to them. If there is such a thing as destiny their story would define it. Fittingly, they first met at the Museum of Modern Art in 2016. Six months into their relationship they purchased their first work of art together. They got married and continue to actively appreciate art and collect as a couple. I conducted an interview with them this past summer. I narrowed the field of questions to the nature of collecting; what interests them, and; the advice they would provide to other young collectors. The following is a transcribed interview.

Continue reading “Spotlight: “On Collecting Works of Art- An interview with Yelena Ambartsumian and Miroslav Grajewski””

TRAPS! Ebecho Muslimova at Magenta Plains

Exhibition review by Torey Akers


Ebecho Muslimova, Fatebe Deep Frog Organza, 2019, oil and acrylic on cavas, 60” x 66”, courtesy of Magenta Plains

Human civilization has always maintained an uneasy relationship with female monstrosity—just watch the cavalcade of sirens, witches, harpies and hags that stalk the perimeters of every major mythology on earth, luring hapless men to their deaths. This hyper-visible, oft-storied, but deeply erasive marginalization has long plagued the non-normative woman; however, there’s a certain freedom in the fringes. Take Baubo, the Orphic goddess of chaos and mirth, whose paunchy, wizened appearance belied a frisky bawdiness that ancient Greeks adored. Ebecho Muslimova’s ‘Fatebe’ character, whom she has been drawing since 2011 and features vivaciously in her latest solo exhibition, TRAPS!, at Magenta Plains, New York, builds on Baubo’s cultural legacy with appropriately grotesque panache, taking a wide-eyed, manic approach to the tandem joys and pitfalls of embodiment.

Continue reading “TRAPS! Ebecho Muslimova at Magenta Plains”

Plastic Expressions in Particularity: Nature Moves in Tracy McKenna’s Shift at Able Baker Contemporary

Elise Ferguson. Pebble. Pigmented plaster on MDF panel, 2018. Photo courtesy of Able Baker.

“Wisdom was the feeling for what is high, great, broad, sharp, even, heavy, bright, light, colorful . . . Wisdom was the feeling for an essentially shared reality, for the mystical, for the indeterminate indeterminable, for the greatest determinacy of all . . . but art is reality, and the reality we share must assert itself beyond all particularity.” Hans Arp, Introduction to a Catalogue

Continue reading “Plastic Expressions in Particularity: Nature Moves in Tracy McKenna’s Shift at Able Baker Contemporary”

BOS Studio Spotlight: Yolande Heijnen

Yolande_Studio_145.jpg
Heijnen’s “The bed we lay in”, 60″x72″

Yolande Heijnen was born and raised in Luxembourg, and has lived in New York since 1998. She has an MFA in painting from the New York Studio School, has won the Edward G. McDowell Travel Grant of the Art Students League, and is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant.

All photos byCatherine Kirkpatrick

Continue reading “BOS Studio Spotlight: Yolande Heijnen”

Riad Miah: Moving Pigments

Riad Miah, Untitled Spaces,, 2019, acrylic on Dura-lar and oil on canvas over panel, 49 1/4″ x 90 1/2″, photo courtesy of the artist

Riad Miah‘s vivid abstract paintings and bold installations reflect his deep ongoing preoccupation with representation of materiality, time, and light. Riad Miah shares with Art Spiel some thoughts on his own trajectory as a painter. He describes how his painting process has evolved, and elaborates on some projects, including his upcoming exhibition “Magical Spaces, Familiar Places” at Kean College Gallery.

Continue reading “Riad Miah: Moving Pigments”