On Water as Polluted Body, Place of Solace, and Life Force

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sTo Len, detail of FOAM (FutureOfAMaterial) installation. Gomitaku print, sumi ink on linen, 64” x 360,” 2020.

Since June of 2017, artists Jarrod Cluck, Gina R. Furnari, sTo Len, Leslie Sobel and Rachel Wojnar have been on an intense physical, emotional, spiritual, and art-making journey, which culminated with their MFA Thesis Exhibition, Confluence, on view at the Joseloff Gallery of the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford (Connecticut) from September 10-19, 2020. They are the third cohort to complete the Nomad Interdisciplinary MFA program. Founded by director Carol Padberg in 2015, the program uses an innovative field-based model and offers a curriculum that includes art, ecology, the study of place, indigenous knowledge systems, and technologies. Encompassing two hands-on residencies per year, the Nomad MFA provides courses in El Salvador; New York City; New Mexico; Mexico; Oakland, California; Miami; and Minneapolis.

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The Ocean Inside

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Video still from The Ocean Inside projected on the Veil (2018-2019). Photo by Eveline Kolijn.

Dutch-Canadian printmaker Eveline Kolijn grew up in the Caribbean where she developed an enduring interest in natural history and the environment, as well as a love of the ocean. Having spent a great deal of her childhood scuba diving in the coral reefs, she originally thought of becoming a marine biologist before her life took her in another direction. 

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Common Frequencies / Frecuencias Comunes at BioBat Art Space

In Dialogue with Elisa Gutiérrez Eriksen


Elisa Gutiérrez in conversation with Miguel Gleason, Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute in NY, at the opening of Common Frequencies. Background video shows Marcela Armas’ video piece “Tsinamekuta”. Image: @onwhitewall

Common Frequencies brings together a group of Mexican artists whose work explore the intersection of art and science through sound, urban ecology, language, and collective imageries through performance, installation, photography, sound, and drawing. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of free bilingual educational programs that encourage the participation of families. The exhibition runs through October 16th. 2021.

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I Wish I had a River, The Underground Lobby Garden: Keren Anavy at ZAZ10TS

Art Spiel Photo Story

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The artist in front of the billboards featuring her work, I Wish I Had a River, The Underground Lobby Garden.Photo credit:ZAZ10TS

Keren Anavy’s site-specific multi-media installation I Wish I Had a River creates a sense of a painted garden made of paintings, drawings, laser cutouts, sculptures, and video within the confines of the lobby of 10 Times Square. The artist draws on the history, architecture, and ecology associated with her installation site–the center of the bustling garment district; and Art Deco architecture of the building. Moreover, merely 40 years before its completion, New York’s biggest reservoir and supplier of all of Manhattan’s drinking water in the 19th century was decommissioned and torn down one avenue to the East. This relationship between nature, particularly water, functioning as a cultural agent and an important element of consumerism is of particular importance for Anavy, who grew up in a desert region of conflict, where the water resource was scarce. The show is curated by Lauren Powell and runs at ZAZ10TS through August 31, 2021.

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Imagining Icebergs


Arctic Magnetism, photograph of Russell Glacier, Greenland. Printed on backlit film. Drawing by removal with scratch nibs, steel wool with water-based crayons, 106” x 44,” 2019.

Multi-media artist and educator Itty Neuhaus has spent a great deal of time observing and interpreting environmental changes in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and in Iceland and Greenland. Since 2000, when she took her first trip to Iceland, her drawings, photographs, sculptures, and videos have addressed the degradation of glaciers and the nature of icebergs. 

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A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning at Old City Jewish Arts Center

Logan Gabrielle Schulman + Benjamin Behrend in Conversation


Gallery View of Exhibition A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning, 2021

A Golem Sleeps and Wakes in the Mourning, featuring works by Philadelphia based artist Logan Gabrielle Schulman and writer Benjamin Behrend, is a collaborative interactive exhibit of images, objects, and video from the theatre of grief, on view at the Old City Jewish Arts Center in Philadelphia, PA through July 2nd. Benjamin Behrend, a writer and performer, says he has recently been straddling the worlds of comedy, performance art, and also various explorations of faith, especially these past few years. Logan Gabrielle Schulman (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist, with a background in theatrical performance, directing, playwriting, and designing, while also developing over the last few years a foundation in the visual arts. They say their work “primarily investigates modern crises of faith and collapse,” which they started investigating initially by drawing on their theatrical design experience through installation work, and gradually later on, in smaller scale work as well. Schulman’s work also draws upon their experience as a Jewish educator teaching about the Jewish diaspora and Holocaust history.

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Vick Quezada: Interconnected Matter


Artist photographed with their work, Tabled Remains, 2018. Currently on view at El Museo del Barrio. Photograph by Jill Richards

Vick Quezada (they/them) is an Indigenous-Latinx artist, they queer the archaeological through hybrid forms and aesthetics. Inspired by the guiding principles of Aztec Philosophy, Quezada integrates the theory of interconnected matter and how it’s embedded in the cosmos, planet earth, ecology, and all lifeforms. These elements of matter cannot be governed by sovereign powers as they are inherently queer and infinte. Quezada activates these themes and histories through their work, and this is conveyed by way of digital photography, video, performance and sculpture. 

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Shifting Sands at ChaShaMa

Art Spiel Photo Story


From left to right: Spandita Malik ‘Salwar-Kameez on Clothesline’ 2021 Sun-printing, Phulkari silk thread embroidery on Khaddar fabric, 32 x 40 inches ; Geuryung Lee‘The movement’ 2019 Drypoint on paper 18 x 24 inches; Sofia Luisa Suazo Monsalve ‘Post-photographic landscape #1,2,3’ 2019 Digital chromogenic print on paper, 9 x 18 inches; j.p.mot ‘Stool + boogey’ 2017 Mixed media, 7ft x 5ft x 6ft; Hyun Jung Ahn ‘Blanket Windows’ 2021 Felt and linen, 72 x 62 inches

SHIFTING SANDS is a group exhibition showcasing the creative breadth of 20 artists from the 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. Each of these artists has crossed physical borders, leaving one part of the world for another – in doing so, they hold space for various identities and shifting realities. From this common experience emerges unique perspectives on identity, belonging, home, memory, hope and resilience. Many of the pieces exhibited were created during the pandemic. They express the rollercoaster of emotions, the shifting states of being, and new possibility.

Exhibiting artists: Zeshan Ahmed, Katya Akuma, Ivana Brenner, Hedwig Brouckaert, Zorica Colic, Carin Kulb Dangot, Bel Falleiros, Nathier Fernandez, Vinay Hira, Jaejoon Jang, Hyun Jung Ahn, Ae Yun Kim, Geuryung Lee, Jiaoyang Lii, Spandita Malik, Levan Mindiashvili, j.p.mot, Ghislaine Sabiti, Leila Seyedzadeh, Sofia Suazo

Curated byYvette Molina, Ghislaine Sabiti and Hedwig Brouckaert

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Ararat: Artists Coming Together in a Time of Crisis


Ararat Collective zoom session screen capture; Clockwise from left: Tusia Dabrowska, Orly Noa Rabiniyan, Jon Adam Ross, Diana Wyenn, Noa Charuvi, Randy Ginsburg, Agustin Jais and Robyn Awend

A new art collective was born out of the need to find purpose and connection during the shut down period caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. Now the collective members launch a webzine that invites everyone to peer into their minds, get inspired and think of the various ways creativity has a potential to help cope with a global disaster.

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Katya Grokhovsky: FANTASYLAND at Smack Mellon

In Dialogue with Katya Grokhovsky

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Katya Grokhovsky, Fantasyland, 2021. Images courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photos: Etienne Frossard


Katya Grokhovsky ‘s site-specific installation FANTASYLAND at Smack Mellon explores the rise and fall of a fantastical empire and its uncertain future. Giant plush toys, inflatable beach balls, deconstructed and re-assembled mannequins, an unfinished carousel structure, recycled parachute canopies, wallpaper, a glowing neon sign, and performance videos, altogether underscore American society’s surplus of objects, and unbridled desire for material possessions, ironically, the capitalist symbol of freedom. The artist scrutinizes the American Dream through an immigrant lens, exposing a desirable yet unattainable mirage. Katya Grokhovsky’s work is currently on view in the solo exhibition FANTASYLAND at Smack Mellon, through May 2nd, 2021.

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