queer art – Art Spiel

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 29, 2026July 28, 2026, by Adria Arch

America, Unfinished?! at WaterFire Arts Center

America, Unfinished?!, a national exhibit at WaterFire Arts Center in Providence, RI, features the work of 80 artists from 13 states and territories. I visited the 15,000-square-foot former rubber factory on a hot July day. The light-filled space is several stories high and could dwarf almost anything smaller than a jet, so it took me a while to find my bearings and focus on the work.

June 24, 2026June 24, 2026, by Taylor Bielecki

Dynamic and tender moments in Angelo Vasta’s Luci Spente Exhibition at Tappeto Volante’s new gallery location

Angelo Vasta’s exhibition, Luci Spente, meaning Lights Off, at Tappeto Volante’s newest gallery in Tribeca, greets you with energetic works on paper in which bodies overlap, lean into one another, and drift across the surface. The figures carry a deeply personal connection as Vasta stresses the importance of closeness, exchange, and intimacy within domestic spaces. While not as brightly colored as his previous works, the colors here are deeper and softer, carrying a more somber tone. Vasta welcomes us into the spaces. He welcomes us as if we are a part of the group.

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026, by Jessica Aguilar

Art Seen Philadelphia: Spring 2026

HIGHLIGHTS

During this season, art spaces across Philadelphia step up to demonstrate the voices of underrepresented communities as the city prepares to celebrate the semi-quincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. While institutions and sports fans are celebrating, artists take this moment to reflect on America’s 250 years, and how definitions of liberty, equality, and justice have evolved beyond what the Founding Fathers drafted.

May 13, 2026May 12, 2026, by Mike Dressel

On the Edge of Meaning: Lucy Sante’s Collages

Interspersed throughout the stately library of the Academy of Arts and Letters in Washington Heights, in and around shelves holding works by Academy members like John Cheever, Pearl S. Buck, and Grace Paley, a new exhibition of collages by the cultural critic, essayist, and Dylanologist Lucy Sante is on display. Knots, organized by curator Kristin Poor, features mostly recent works from the last few years, save one, Haussmann, or the Barricades, which dates to 1979.

November 5, 2025October 31, 2025, by Amalia Rizos

Myth as Metamorphosis at Freight + Volume

Jorge K. Cruz & Elizabeth Insogna, Divine Myth– Faith and Flesh, installation view, photo courtesy of the gallery

In the quiet hum of Freight + Volume, myth breathes anew — through clay, through oil, through the occulted pulse of memory and transformation. Elizabeth Insogna’s luminous ceramics rise from ionic pedestals like ancient offerings, while Jorge K. Cruz’s visceral canvases create a kaleidoscopic backsplash, drawing viewers into a dialogue between the sacred and the subversive.

July 17, 2025July 11, 2025, by Vita Eruhimovitz

Through the Kaleidoscope: Vojislav Radovanović on Dreams, Memory, and Finding Color in California

In Dialogue

*Vojislav Radovanović at the studio*. Photo by Jason Jenn

Vojislav Radovanović’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, installation, video, and performance. His work touches upon themes of queerness, memory, the immigrant experience, spirituality, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Influenced by his upbringing in Serbia during a time of war and social upheaval, Radovanović approaches art as a therapeutic space for healing and transformation. His process-driven works often combine recycled materials, vibrant color, and symbolic imagery to create poetic, emotionally resonant narratives. Through layered compositions and dreamlike logic, he invites viewers into a shared space of reflection, imagination, and emotional release.

April 19, 2025April 19, 2025, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions April 2025

Highlights

*If They Told You, Would You Listen?* at Thayer Academy, Braintree, MA

Spring has sprung and many beautiful exhibitions are in full bloom across the city of Boston. Several exhibitions celebrating fiber art are on view along with multiple shows that highlight the season of rebirth. One of my favorite things about Spring in New England is seeing the trees awake from their dormancy and plants sprouting from the earth. The area thaws out and inspires a creative push toward summer. This means a lot of play, or spiel, for artists who experiment with unconventional materials and new media. This is wonderfully evident in the work on view this month as artists and galleries display playful and profound creations for a new season. Here’s some Art Spiel for you.

November 11, 2024November 12, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in November 2024

Highlights

Hugh Hayden: Home Work at Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA.

In the aftermath of the Presidential election, I feel inspired to visit galleries and museums more than ever. Not only am I feeling a conviction to support these now-endangered organizations, but I am finding respite in their halls and holdings. Regardless of your political leanings, this is a tender time for artists and art institutions, as well as for the curators and Directors who organize exhibitions. Obviously, what’s on view this month was curated before Election Day, but now that we’re in a new world, all of it seems singed by the results and potently relevant for the time. Hugh Hayden’s exploration of public education reminds us that the Department of Education may be gutted, and J Rowen O’Dwyer’s portraits of Trans people show us a vulnerable population that’s now even more susceptible to the threats of an angry and fearful nation. It’s a sobering time, but one that calls for art and artists to persevere.

November 6, 2024December 7, 2024, by Amalia Rizos

Elizabeth Insogna: Exquisite Traces at Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery

Elizabeth Insogna, *Veil,* 2024, Glazed ceramic, 15×15”

Large-scale, multi-piece sculptures standing balanced by their own weight accompany ceramic tablets colored cream and periwinkle, which hang along the walls of Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery, echoing in their sudden coalition the deeds of a goddess from centuries ago. Hekate is her name, and she is a Greek goddess associated with fire, witchcraft, and transformation. In our search for the spiritual, returning to the philosophies of ancient times lends fresh wisdom, lighting compelling paths forward.