steel sculpture – Art Spiel

March 25, 2026March 25, 2026, by Melissa Stern

Reflections on The Outsider Art Fair 2026

I have been going to the Outsider Art Fair almost every year since it first opened at The Puck Building in 1993. As with most aspects of the art world, much has changed in the field of outsider art and at the fair, its leading annual exhibition. Long gone are the giddy days of discovering artists such as Howard Finster, Adolf Wolfli, Mary T. Smith, and Judith Scott (to name a few). These are now blue-chip outsider or self-taught artists whose work is collected by major institutions and collectors, and rightly so. “Outsider” has become insider and the genre a mainstay of the art world, A kind of artistic oxymoron, some of the most “established outsider artists” command major prices.

April 11, 2024April 8, 2024, by Art Spiel

Behind the Mask: Women Welders at the Culture Lab LIC

Featured Exhibition

Installation view, photo courtesy of Janet Rutkowski

At Culture Lab LIC in Queens, NY, the exhibition Behind the Mask: The Art of Women Welders, curated by Janet Rutkowski and Karen Kettering Dimit, is transforming perceptions of welding as a male-dominated field. Running until April 28, 2024, the show highlights the contributions and creativity of women in welding, with over 50 artworks by 30 artists.

August 2, 2023July 23, 2023, by Eva Zanardi

Tony Smith: Sacred Geometry at PACE

A room with black objects

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At the crossroads of architecture, painting, and sculpture, one encounters the awe-inspiring steel monoliths of Tony Smith (1912–1980). Tony Smith: Wall, New Piece, One-Two-Three showcases the evolution of the artist’s sculptural practice throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

March 7, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Terrarium at Ice Cream Social

Featured Project with Curator and artist Jenn Cacciola, and Artist/Owner of Ice Cream Social Matthew Shively

Installation view, photo courtesy of Ice Cream Social.

The inaugural group exhibition, Terrarium, at Ice Cream Social features painting, photography, sculpture, fiber and site-specific installations by 26 artists. Terrarium examines growth of different forms, inside and outside of containment, managed and wild, protected and exposed, as well as growth that sometimes requires destruction or thorny discoveries. The show runs from March 5th through May 6th, 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.