painting – Art Spiel

November 10, 2026November 6, 2026, by Etty Yaniv

Gravity of Light at BMoCA

The Gravity of Light, on view at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), features seven artists who use light as a key element in their work: Sami Al Karim, Bill Armstrong, Alyson Denny, Chuck Kelton, Anne Lindberg, Elizabeth Mead, and Gelah Penn. The media include photography, cameraless chemograms, video, drawing, and site-responsive installation, and several works were created specifically for the show. New York-based artist Kate Petley curated the exhibition; her own work combines photography and painting, which shaped her interest in light. Here, Petley discusses how the exhibition came together, the idea behind it, how the works sit together across the museum’s three spaces, and what she hopes light can offer viewers right now.

November 5, 2026November 5, 2026, by Ella Jackson

In Conversation with Claudia Bitrán: Titanic, Britney Spears, and Her Studio Practice

As a young girl, Claudia Bitrán would patiently wait for Britney Spears to come across the screen, then hurriedly hit Play and Record on the VCR, ready to rewind, rewatch, pause, and then pose, memorizing every nuance, note, mannerism, and movement. Born in Boston, raised in Chile, and now a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, Bitrán’s work often imitates, recreates, and reimagines iconic artistry, from impersonating, painting, and paying homage to Britney Spears to recreating James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic, which Bitrán produced over the span of twelve years. Having first watched Titanic as a young girl, the splendor and sublimity of the ship, both in its triumph and tragedy on the seas, mesmerized her from the get-go, leading to a lifelong dedication to honoring and recreating the film through her own practice. Fascinated by spectacle, inspired by iconic artistry, Bitrán shares a glimpse into her artistic world and practice.

October 28, 2026October 28, 2026, by Sara Aparicio

Asher Liftin’s Lines Explored at 125 Newbury Gallery

Looking at Asher Liftin’s work, the viewer might first ask, “Is this a textured surface? Is it purposefully pixelated? How is it pixelated?” As the viewer moves closer to these pictures, Liftin’s unique way of building the picture with lines rather than shapes becomes clear, using crosshatching – lines intersecting in different directions to create form and value. Another thought that follows: “Is it ink? Is it paint?” The uniformity of line makes the viewer think that this must be a drawing; however, the distinct paint drips that break the illusion of perfection suggest it is a painting instead. The short answer is both. Spoiler alert: the smaller works used colored pencils, while the larger works used acrylic ink and paint. But most importantly, why are these images so convincingly realistic?

October 23, 2026October 23, 2026, by Chloe Alto

“Best by 07/21/2026” at Eli Klein Gallery

For artists Clare Hu, Tianyi Sun, and Shaan Ken Rao, their residency-then-exhibition is already well past its expiration date. Entering the group show Best by 07/21/2026 may feel more like intruding on a gallery’s installation or deinstallation than attending its finished presentation. Moving blankets are spread across the walking path, with splashes of white paint visible on the quilted fabric. Glass tables lean on white walls. Enter the back room, and you may trip over one of many sandbags, or duck your head under the arm of a swinging C-stand.

October 22, 2026October 22, 2026, by Xuezhu Jenny Wang

Meet at the Ferris Wheel: Kathleen Beausoleil’s Plein Air Paintings Combine Psychology and Light

Painter Kathleen Beausoleil is enamored by her backyard, literally. The fair grounds and beaches that are synonymous to her home state, New Jersey, form her primary subjects. Visiting local fairgrounds each summer, she paints plein air, out in the open, and on view in her latest solo show at The Painting Center are works that beautifully capture the light, vibrancy, and togetherness of these places. After speaking with the artist, I understand that Beausoleil’s scenes are not only advanced in their painterly technique, but created through perspectives cleverly scaffolded by sociological terms around gathering and group behaviour.

October 21, 2026October 21, 2026, by Art Spiel

Paul Fägerskiöld’s Expanding Fields

Paul Fägerskiöld, New York. July 1, 3586. View south towards the black hole Gaia BH1 (1,560 light years).

The first painting in Paul Fägerskiöld’s solo exhibition Ergosphere, at Peter Blum Gallery, offers a modest entrance into an immeasurable subject. A small, dark blue field scattered with points of light initially suggests what could be an image taken by NASA of deep space. Its title establishes an improbably precise appointment: New York. July 1, 3586. View south towards the black hole Gaia BH1 (1,560 light-years). We have a location, a direction, and a date. Whether these coordinates help us find our bearings is another matter.

October 19, 2026October 19, 2026, by Peter Schroth

James Esber’s, My Thing, Your Thing, and the Thing Itself

James Esber’s paintings are inherently punchy, with a bold, fluoro-pop palette and active surfaces. In My Thing, Your Thing, and the Thing Itself at Satchel Projects, it is compounded by the intimate quarters as well as the scale of the works, most roughly the size of the average viewer. One can pivot in place and take in the entire exhibit with a quick rotation that may trigger a rush of associations, from Hairy Who Chicago to Ed Roth “Weirdo,” et al. It can take a moment to pause, regard each work in turn, and register the artist’s point of view.

October 15, 2026October 15, 2026, by Claire Haik

Two Shows in Dialogue: A Conversation with Tatyana Kazakova and Anna Shukeylo

New Jersey’s Watchung Arts Center brings together two distinct solo exhibitions: Entropic Flora by Anna Shukeylo and Symphony for the Unnoticed by Tatyana Kazakova. Both artists weave between abstraction and realism to create intimate portraits of nature, but their styles and vantage points diverge in dynamic ways. Kazakova fills the sprawling upstairs gallery with large drawings and paintings that pack the space with thickets, foliage, and tangled old growth, inviting viewers to contemplate the boundaries between wild spaces. In the lower gallery, Shukeylo’s compositions erupt with vibrant gestural brushmarks that capture fleeting moments of blooming flowers at their peak splendor. In this conversation, Kazakova and Shukeylo discuss their work, studio practices, and thematic vantage points, revealing the very different paths they take to create their images of nature.

October 14, 2026October 13, 2026, by Etty Yaniv

Call Mom: Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson at Bookstein Projects

Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson, installation view at Bookstein Projects

Pairing artists with assorted bodies of work spanning over a decade is not an easy task. In the current two-person exhibition at Bookstein Projects, it helps that each artist, regardless of subject matter, has a distinct approach to color and composition. And then, there is a story. Call Mom features paintings on canvas and paper by mother and son Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson. The family tie is a good cue for the curator and for us. Yet it may be more interesting to set aside the biography for a moment and, as you enter, experience the vibrant visual dialogue unfolding between two painters.

October 14, 2026October 13, 2026, by Yueliu Huang

Beautifully Fall Apart

Installation view of After Throwing, featuring works by Yuqian He.

Women constantly fall, from rule, from discourse, from childbirth, from ecstasy, from sacrifice, from love, from anguish. We are still in the place of repeatedly coalescing to regain voice and visibility across political, economic, pedagogical, and creative fields. Comprehending it through cultural theorist and sociologist Angela McRobbie, we see that women are made to bear greater precarity, conditioned by institutions, by discourse, by an economy that asks for passion in place of pay; entering the creative fields comes with a demand to be self-managing, enterprising and unquestioningly cheerful about it. Women might be naturally leading the creative sector but meanwhile, fall heavily onto body, conditions and time, carrying its costs behind the facade of the neoliberal art industry.