symbolism – 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.

June 18, 2025June 15, 2025, by Nicole Michaud

Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in June 2025

HIGHLIGHTS

Installation view of *Tea Party* at Locks Gallery, courtesy of Locks Gallery

As we get into the summer months, June exhibition picks for Philadelphia are vibrant, sensuous, and bold. Works currently on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Locks Gallery, and Moore College of Art touch on subjects surrounding how we see ourselves and each other, and the transitory nature of existence. All things physical and sensual ultimately act as a foil to death, and these surreal and vivid works offer the viewer insight into how each artist considers what makes us human. Whether created of glitter, paint, ceramic, velvet, or butterflies, the works in these exhibitions remind us that we are stardust, and golden.

March 27, 2025March 25, 2025, by Caitlin Reid

1000 Days of Drawing: A Conversation with Joshua Drayzen

In Dialogue

Installation shot of *Spirit Wave*, a solo exhibition of drawings at Massey Klein

I met with Joshua Drayzen at Massey Klein shortly after the opening of his solo exhibition, Spirit Wave. A Brooklyn-based artist, Drayzen recently surpassed 1,000 consecutive days of drawing. I wanted to learn more about the enigmatic images and the devotional practice behind them. What I discovered, however, was that this was more than just a habit—it’s a ritual that shapes and invigorates his entire creative practice.

March 19, 2025March 19, 2025, by Taylor Bielecki

Judi Keeshan – Mixed Magic at Tappeto Volante Projects

Mixed Magic, the first solo exhibition in New York by Judi Keeshan, curated by Jared Deery and JJ Manford at Tappeto Volante. The show runs through April 6th, 2025.

In Judi Keeshan’s first New York Exhibition, titled Mixed Magic, curators Jared Deary and JJ Manford present a wide survey of works from 2017 to 2024. To assemble the show, they selected the works directly from her studio, flipping through a massive collection of works as if browsing a record store. They let the images on canvas guide them—the characters and stories revealed themselves to the curators, just as they now await discovery by new audiences within the gallery.

February 12, 2024January 21, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Laura Williams: A proponent of mixed messages

In Dialogue

A person sitting in a chair

Description automatically generated — Laura Williams home studio 2023 by Rebekha Robinson

New Zealand-based painter Laura Williams began her artistic journey twelve years ago in her late 40s, following significant personal upheaval and loss. Turning to art as a means of coping, she replaced alcohol consumption with creativity, using her work to express and manage her anxiety and depression. Diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s, Williams found clarity in her penchant for patterns and symbols, which she employs as a unique language in her paintings. Her work, extensively exhibited across New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, is marked by its distinct yet universally resonant themes. The figures in her art, often women alongside men, clothed or unclothed, convey a sense of isolation despite their physical proximity. The dense and intricate patterns combined with vivid colors create an intensely claustrophobic space vibrating with charged psychological tensions.

June 5, 2023May 29, 2023, by Amy Talluto

Whisperings from the Wormhole with @talluts

The (Real) Dream in Art

A picture containing painting, drawing, illustration, art

Description automatically generated — Cadavre Exquis with Valentine Hugo, André Breton, Tristan Tzara, Greta Knutson *Landscape* c.1933, Museum of Modern Art, Purchase

In an online artists’ talk in January 2022 between artists Chie Fueki, Alexi Worth and Catherine Murphy at DC Moore Gallery (produced by Painters’ Table), Murphy mentioned that her paintings were occasionally based on dreams. She revealed that her most recent show at Peter Freeman Inc. included two dream paintings: Flight (2020) and Begin Again (2019). “Flight” shows a gingham apron splayed at the bottom of four carpeted stairs and “Begin Again” shows five blue hand outlines on yellow-green wallpaper. During the course of the conversation, Worth also noted that Jasper Johns’ Flag painting came from a dream. And it got me wondering: How common is dream inspiration in art?

June 18, 2021July 22, 2021, by Elizabeth Meggs

Twenty Twenty Twenty One

Art Spiel Photo Story

A picture containing indoor, floor, wall, gallery

Description automatically generated — Partial view of gallery installation, photo courtesy Jon Bunge

Twenty Twenty Twenty One is a group exhibit and corresponding artist book created by 18 artists. During the darkest days of the past year, the fellowship this group of artists built became a beacon of hope. The artists initially congregated in early April of 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, via weekly Zoom meetings launched by artist Mike Sorgatz, that continued through the year and up to the present. Inspired by their camaraderie, in late summer of 2020 they began casually discussing making a book to share artwork loosely relating to themes of community and connection. This book expanded into a corresponding exhibit, with Janice McDonnell generously taking the initiative in early December of 2020 to curate the exhibition at Sweet Lorraine Gallery.

March 3, 2021November 2, 2022, by Anna Mikaela Ekstrand

Heather McLeod: Hide and Seek

In Dialogue with Heather McLeod

Macintosh HD:Users:annamikaela:Downloads:Wreath VI.jpg — Heather V McLeod, Wreath IV, oil on canvas, 16” diameter, 2020. On view at and photograph courtesy of Trotter&Sholer.

Heather V McLeod is an artist exploring identity and the psychology by which we perceive others. Interested primarily in portraiture and representative work, McLeod creates pieces with the intent of capturing the character of the figure portrayed. She plays with the use of symbolism and concealment to enhance the narrative and evoke a playful yet ominous side to portraiture.

August 6, 2019August 7, 2019, by Etty Yaniv

Brian Wood Drawings: Visions of Hyperawareness

Brian Wood, Plank, 2017, Graphite on paper, 11 x 14 in., photo courtesy of the artist

Brian Wood’s drawings are literally visionary. They derive from what the artist describes as a “trance-like” state, where the ego is consumed by the image, as the inner mind and hand become vital conduits for arising images. This inner process results in drawings that invoke nuanced mental states, fragmented memories, and perhaps most important, a glimpse at the unknown. Holland Cotter wrote in his NY Times review of Brian Wood’s 2014 solo show Enceinte that the artist creates “a kind of Symbolist world in which emerging into life and being devoured by it are part of the same inexorable process.” In a cynical age with ubiquitously ironic art, this unabashed approach to the spiritual elements in the process of art making is quite refreshing.

October 21, 2018June 4, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Elisa Jensen: Gazing Inward

Elisa Jensen‘s imagery draws upon pre-historic narratives – ancient rock art scattered in pristine Irish landscapes, a Danish bog person sacrificed during the Iron age, or stone age burial mounds spotted in a Danish island. Her paintings and sculptures bring to mind mysterious rites and myths salvaged from a forgotten ancient past or perhaps from the depth of our collective unconscious memory. In her interview for Art Spiel Jensen shares some thoughts on her process, imagery, and context.

Elisa Jensen , Gold Boat detail, 2018, self drying clay, acrylic paint, gold leaf 2 x 7 inches, photo by Apiwich

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