social commentary – Page 2

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October 8, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Genevieve Gaignard – To Whom It May Concern at Rowan

Featured Project with Mary Salvante

*Vanilla Ice*, 2016, Edition 3 of 3. Chromogenic print, 24 x 36 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles

To Whom It May Concern, the current exhibition featuring an installation and collages by Los Angeles based artist Genevieve Gaignard, raises poignant questions related to nostalgic notions of American history and culture. The work ranges from staged photographs, questioning social stigmas and beauty standards, to a room installation made of found furniture and other objects. The artist says the aim is to “beckon viewers to dig into the imperfect relationship between our inner worlds, public lives, and modern events.” Mary Salvante, the director and chief curator of Rowan University Art Gallery sheds some more light on this show. The show runs through October 29, 2022.

September 26, 2022October 14, 2022, by Melissa Stern

Vanessa German – SAD RAPPER at Paul Kasmin

VG 15.jpg — Partial installation view of Sad Rapper

So much has happened in six years. It was six years ago that I last wrote about the work of Vanessa German for Hyperallergic. Donald Trump had just been elected, and the country was bracing itself for a trip down a new and dangerous path. Vanessa German, a poet, activist and visual artist, had mounted a powerful show at Pavel Zoubek Gallery entitled I am armed. I am an army. German filled the gallery with a fighting corps of women, armed with weaponry, poetry, history and power. It was a fierce exhibition, and one that both mourned and celebrated the power of women.

January 26, 2022January 25, 2022, by Etty Yaniv

Doomscrolling at Petzel

In Conversation with Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston

Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, “May 27” (2021), multi-color woodblock print on paper. 57.5 x 42.25 inches (courtesy the artists and Petzel, New York)

The woodblock prints by the artists Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston at Petzel refer to recent harsh events that occurred in the United States and the way we perceive them through iconic media imagery. The prints specifically address 18 moments that took place between May 24^th, 2020 to January 6^th, 2021—marked by the COVID pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, the ensuing protests, and the insurrection at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The exhibition is on view at the gallery Upper East Side location through February 12, 2022.

December 2, 2021November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Rebecca Welz – Displacement at June Kelly

Featured Artist

The artist, photo courtesy of Candace Rudd

In Rebecca Welz’s recent sculpture series, the sculptor reflects on the global phenomena of people who have been displaced from their homes due to a wide range of hardships—political, economic, climate change. The steel structures in her Displacement series represents a quest for safety and belonging. This body of work is featured at the June Kelly Gallery through January 4^th, 2022.

September 27, 2021November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Burbville – New Works By Kumasi Barnett

Jac Lahav and Kumasi Barnett in Conversation

A person standing in front of a wall with pictures on it

Description automatically generated with medium confidence

In his first solo exhibition at 42 Social Club (Lyme CT), Kumasi Barnett explores American culture, police violence, and stereotypes through the lens of comic books. Barnett’s immaculate paintings over vintage comic book covers masterfully transform well-known superhero tropes into brutal social commentary. Kumasi Barnett and 42 Social Club founder, Jac Lahav, share their reflections on Barnet’s new work.

September 24, 2021September 22, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Tamara Kostianovsky – Between Wounds and Folds at Smack Mellon

Featured Artist

A picture containing person

Description automatically generated — The artist at Smack Mellon, photo courtesy of Rachel Vera Steinberg

Between Wounds and Folds, Tamara Kostianovsky’s solo exhibition at Smack Mellon, features sculptures which link issues of gender-based violence, personal memory, and ecological destruction through consumption into a complex and speculative ecosystem. Her dimensional forms, both soft and brutal, combine discarded fabric with industrial materials, often drawing their shape from mutilated fauna and flora in various states of decay, including tree stumps, cow carcasses, and birds of prey.

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Greg Drasler: Crowded Places / Open Spaces at Betty Cuningham Gallery

In Dialogue with Greg Drasler

Crowded Places / Open Spaces installation Betty Cuningham Gallery

Greg Drasler came to be a metaphorical figurative painter when he lost everything he owned in a fire in 1978, except for two paintings. At that moment he decided to focus exclusively on painting — he was a painter and painting would be everything he needed. He began to rebuild his pictorial world with scenes from the self-help DIY magazines and for over 40 years has continued to explore and expand his visual vocabulary through several bodies of work. Greg Drasler says he identifies with the subjects of his paintings “as personal questions, metaphors, and allegories often responding to social and cultural topics.” His current solo exhibition at Betty Cuningham Gallery includes both works from his lengthiest series, the Hats Paintings, and some from his most recent series, the Road House paintings. Sparked by the effects of social distancing due to the pandemic, the paintings overall assume another layer of meaning.

June 13, 2020July 10, 2020, by Nathalie Levey

A Studio 54 Reject Is At It Again 40 Years Later

Lisa Levy in dialogue with Art Spiel

A person standing in front of a building

Description automatically generated — *Studio 54 Reject Re-Performance by Lisa Levy, Photo Credit: Phil Buehler.*

Right before the Coronavirus outbreak prompted a mass-shutdown of New York City’s galleries and museums, multidisciplinary artist, radio show host and (self-proclaimed) psychotherapist Lisa Levy recreated her classic guerrilla art project ‘Studio 54 Reject’. On the opening night of the “Studio 54: Night Magic” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Levy stationed herself outside the institution’s main entrance. Standing behind a small table encircled by red velvet ropes and four stanchion posts, she gestured toward a sign reading “Studio 54 Reject T-Shirt, $20” while imploring passersby to take pride in “reject status” with the purchase of a shirt, newly re-designed in gold glitter and the official logo.

May 29, 2020May 30, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Artists on Coping: Manju Shandler

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

A person sitting at a table

Description automatically generated — Manju Shandler

Manju Shandler creates symbolic art that speaks to current events. Building upon established storylines from myth, religion, science, and contemporary events her mixed media artworks create a richly layered narrative reflective of our dense and complicated times. Manju Shandler has shown at The National September 11th Memorial & Museum, The Hammond Museum, Brown University’s Sarah Doyle Gallery for Feminist Art, The ISE Cultural Foundation, The Honfleur Gallery, The Governor’s Island Art Fair, The Untitled Space, and throughout the US, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. She regularly shows in her community of Brooklyn, NY.

May 12, 2020November 2, 2022, by Catherine Kirkpatrick

Artists on Coping: Leslie Kerby

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

*Candyland*, 2016, Mixed media collage: paper litho transfer, pen and ink, oil, 30 x 22 inches

Leslie Kerby works in a variety of media to create thematically interlinked bodies of work. Motivated by social networks at moments of change, she examines the shipping container and medical industries, cemeteries and financial inequality. Represented in collections at Columbia University and Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University, Kerby has received commissions from Norte Maar, BRIC Arts | Media and Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and was awarded residencies at the American Academy in Rome, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (Virginia and France), and the School of Visual Arts. Her work has also appeared at Verge, Spring Break and AQUA Miami, and has been reviewed by Hyperallergic and Two Coats of Paint.