Mindscape: Patterns of Identity at L’Space

A couple of men in a room

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Moran Kliger, Installation

In the group show Mindscape: Patterns of Identity at L’Space, people, animals, and places shift and juxtapose, coming together like pieces of a map—one that charts the shared inner terrain of memory, trauma, and identity. Curated by Noa Rabinovich Lalo and Carolina Werebe, with L’Space founder Lily Almog, the show, as Almog puts it, draws on “a shared Israeli heritage and a deep connection to the contemporary art scene in Israel, a country with a rich cultural history and traditions amidst ongoing uncertainty.” And it’s that sense of uncertainty that pulls everything together—voids and absences linger in the air. Even when the work seems rooted in specific places, the setting remains layered and elusive, offering more questions than answers. This is evident in Netta Lieber Sheffer’s sweeping charcoal drawing installation of Sigmund Freud’s Vienna clinic, where he lived and worked for 47 years before fleeing the Nazis in 1938.

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Manju Shandler in Domestic Brutes at Pelham Art Center

In Dialogue with Manju Shandler


Manju Shandler working on Persistent Mothers in her studio in Brooklyn, NY 2020. Photo Stephen Estrin.

Manju Shandler creates symbolic art that speaks to current events. Building upon established storylines from myth, religion, and history, her mixed media artworks create richly layered narratives that reflect on our dense and complicated times. Shandler believes people are natural storytellers that make sense of the world through by mining both personal experience and collective memories that have been passed down. Her work dips into this well. Training as a theatre designer helps her to envision installations and her background as a puppet builder informs how she approaches building objects. Identifying as a mother seeps into everything she does.

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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

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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.

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Artists on Coping: Sonomi Kobayashi

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


Beauty of Chaos #1, 2018, Alcohol ink on Synthetic vellum paper cutouts, and collaged, 14 1/4” x 11 1/2”, © Sonomi Kobayashi All rights reserved

Born and raised in Japan, Sonomi Kobayashi, is a New York based artist who is interested in science, physics, stars, nature, and spirituality. Most of her work is symbolic and abstract.  They are based on images that she sees during her meditation.  She also paints symbolic shapes that she finds attractive in nature.

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