Surrealism – Art Spiel

December 2, 2025December 1, 2025, by Jac Lahav

Maureen McCabe: Feminine Surrealism, Witch Culture and the Original Goth

Tod Gangler (b. 1953), Professor Maureen McCabe, 1975, Hand-altered photograph, 5″ × 4⅜”

I’ve never been to a séance; however, walking into Maureen McCabe’s exhibition Fate and Magic at the William Benton Museum of Art invokes strong séance vibes. Artworks on black slate whisper, engravings of shooting stars, goddesses, brew potions, and long-forgotten stage magicians appear at the Benton like reliquaries of the past. For over six decades, Maureen McCabe has been an overlooked alchemist of memory, transmuting her personal experiences and arcane cultural references into this intimate magical retrospective.

November 26, 2025November 22, 2025, by Chunbum Park

Yi Hsuan Lai: The Ontology of the Body at SoMad

Yi Hsuan Lai, *Rubber, Rubber*. Installation view in SoMad, 2025. Imagery courtesy of SoMad and the artist

Yi Hsuan Lai exhibits her works in a solo show at SoMad, a femme- and queer-led art space that serves as a platform for emerging artists to experiment, collaborate, and challenge conventions. SoMad comprises a combined gallery and artist residency program, a production house, and an event space. The name “SoMad” reflects both the physical location — south of Madison Square Park — and the collective’s frustration with the current landscape of resources and support structures available for emerging artists, particularly artists from marginalized communities.

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.

May 6, 2025May 4, 2025, by Eva Zanardi

Io Sono LEONOR FINI – Decoding the Sphinx of Surrealism

Installation view, *Io Sono LEONOR FINI* *(I Am LEONOR FINI)*

The grand halls of Milan’s Palazzo Reale currently host a seminal tribute to artistic defiance and fierce individuality. On view from February 26 through June 22, 2025, Io Sono LEONOR FINI (I Am LEONOR FINI) presents one of the most comprehensive retrospectives dedicated to an artist whose untamed, rebellious gaze still challenges and mesmerizes viewers from across the temporal divide.

March 11, 2025March 12, 2025, by Riad Miah

Guan-Hong Lu at Nunu Fine Art New York

*The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, 2024 oil on canvas 11 7/8 x 11 7/8 in. Image courtesy of Nunu Fine Art Gallery

Currently on view at Nunu Fine Art’s New York Project Space is View from My Window, a solo exhibition by Taiwanese painter Guan-Hong Lu. The exhibition features over 20 small oil paintings, predominantly 13” x 10” in size, and is housed in the gallery’s lower level—below ground—intensifying the sense of intimacy in both subject matter and conceptual approach. Lu’s subject matter, at first glance, appears as fleeting moments captured in time, but upon closer inspection, they reveal layers of surrealism, irony, and political undertones.

December 10, 2024December 10, 2024, by Anna Shukeylo

Object Relations: Michael Gac Levin at My Pet Ram

A painting of a living room

Description automatically generated — We Had an Agreement, 28”x24”, Acrylic on canvas

As one enters My Pet Ram’s humble gallery space full of moderately-sized Gustonesque paintings, the viewer is transported into the surreal personal nooks and crannies of Michael Gac Levin’s reality. His paintings are heavily influenced by his family life. Familiar landscapes are juxtaposed with foreign characters and shapes. The artist tells a fantastical story in this new body of work through a day in the life of two characters embodied by an apple and a tree-like figure.

September 14, 2024October 6, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in September 2024

Highlights

Dali: Disruption and Devotion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

September in Boston is all about “back-to-school,” and this year, the art scene offers its own rich set of lessons. Along with some beloved galleries closing, a number of outstanding exhibitions are on view around the city. At the Museum of Fine Arts, a small but captivating Dalí exhibition pairs his works with those of Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco. The Harvard Art Museums are unveiling an exhibition dedicated to German identity, exploring the country’s complex cultural narrative through a variety of artistic expressions. Beyond the museums, Boston’s galleries showcase an exciting range of shows, from many different artists exhibiting a wide range of work. Here’s a look at some of the standout shows happening now.

May 5, 2024May 1, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Peggy Cyphers: Passages at The Front Room

Featured exhibition

A painting of a mountain range

Description automatically generated — Peggy Cyphers “Floating Passage” (2012-6) acrylic, sand, leafing on canvas 54”x50”

Peggy Cyphers’ exhibition at The Front Room Gallery in Hudson, titled Passages, integrates disparate painting traditions into abstract landscapes. The technique—fluid brush strokes combined with sand and paint pour—draws from Chinese landscape art, Native American traditions, and Postwar Abstraction. These paintings suggest the natural world’s fragility, mystery, and grandeur, recalling the upward gaze from the base of a canyon.

April 29, 2024May 6, 2024, by Amy Talluto

Whisperings from the Wormhole with @talluts

Dear Grete Stern

Grete Stern, *Autorretrato (Self-Portrait)* 1943, Gelatin silver print, Estate of Horacio Coppola, Buenos Aires

Today, I’m sending out a Valentine – a non-valentine’s Day Valentine, a good-for-eternity Valentine – to the feminist photo montage artist, Grete Stern. Because who else slyly slid their radical societal critiques into photomontages that they made for a light and airy 1950s women’s magazine (chock full of romance serials, crosswords, and lipstick ads)? Grete Stern, that who.

April 25, 2024May 12, 2024, by Saul Ostrow

Accommodating the Object: Elizabeth Yamin and Bosiljka Raditsa at The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation

Opinion

A room with art on the wall

Description automatically generated — Installation view. Photo courtesy of The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation

The exhibition Accommodating the Object of paintings by Elizabeth Yamin and Bosiljka Raditsa is presented by The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York and was curated by William Corwin, who describes this exhibition as an intimate survey that offers the viewer an opportunity to compare the works of these two artists, who were active during the latter part of the twentieth century without attaining prominent careers.