washington dc – Art Spiel

April 13, 2025April 14, 2025, by Etty Yaniv

DUMBO Open Studios 2025 with Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong

On April 26th and 27th, from 1 to 6 pm, artists in DUMBO will open their doors to the public as part of DUMBO Open Studios, offering a rare look inside the art studios along the Brooklyn waterfront. Since the 1970s, DUMBO has been shaped by its vibrant art community. This interview series highlights a handful of participating artists in 2025. Each response offers a glimpse of what’s waiting behind the studio door. Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong has been in DUMBO since 2015. Her studio is at 20 Jay Street #M10B (mezzanine level).

June 10, 2024June 9, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Michal Gavish: Neuro Land at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Photo Story

Synapsing 2023, mixed media on translucent architectural paper 76-82” H X 200” W (5 panels)

In planning her new exhibition at the AAAS gallery, artist Michal Gavish envisioned painted images of neurons enveloping the spiral-shaped gallery space, extending upward, downward, along, and away from the walls. Following an extensive phase of research and creation, spurred by personal family tragedies, Gavish created Neuro Land, a field guide to neurons. She devoted a piece to representing each type, painting a set of larger-than-life nerve cells images on fabric and paper. Gavish later assembled these pieces layer by layer, echoing the scientific method used in constructing representations of the unseen—similar to how MRI technology captures internal snapshots in segments and reconstructs them in three dimensions. While engaging with this invisible realm, Gavish reflected on her former practice as a scientist, interrogating the expansive vistas revealed through IR, X-ray spectra, or under the electron microscope.

January 10, 2022December 23, 2021, by Susan Hoffman Fishman

On Bearing Witness and Embracing Beauty

A picture containing text

Description automatically generated — *Unprecedented*, 8 ft. x 15 ft., mixed media on canvas, 2021. Photo by Joseph Hu

For over fifty years, Philadelphia-based painter, photographer, and activist Diane Burko has translated her love for large open spaces and monumental geological sites into powerful and alluring landscapes. Her exhibition at the American University in Washington, D.C. (August 28 – December 12, 2021), titled Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change 2002 – 2021, contained 103 paintings, photographs, and time-based media depicting mountains, oceans, snow and ice, glaciers, volcanos, and fires that address the growing impact of the climate crisis.

April 30, 2020April 29, 2020, by Melissa Stern

Artists on Coping: Tim Tate

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

Screen Shot 2020-04-08 at 1.32.14 PM.png — Sacred Heart of Chance, 18 x 10 x 4, Blown Glass, Found Objects

Tim Tate is an HIV+ studio artist co-founder of the Washington Glass School in Washington, DC. Tim’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. He was president of the Triangle Artist Group ( TAG -a queer artists coalition ), and chairman of the first Art Against Aids in Washington, DC. He was also the 2010 recipient of the Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture, 2^nd place in the 2017 London Contemporary Art Prize, and is a 2018 James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist. He participated in the Glasstress show with Ai Wei Wei and Vic Muniz during the 2019 Venice Biennale.

April 13, 2018November 15, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Michal Gavish – Crystalline City at LIU

Michal Gavish, NYC3, photo courtesy of the artist

Crystalline City is an exhibition of large-scale installations by Michal Gavish, on view now at the Humanities Gallery at LIU, Brooklyn. Presented in this unique glass walled gallery akin to a large scale oval diorama, the viewer can see the works from the outside. Designed on a combination of translucent fabrics and papers, the hand made prints transmit and reflect the surrounding lights and allow for multiple full views of the installation, through and around these fabrics. Continue reading “Michal Gavish – Crystalline City at LIU”

April 11, 2018November 15, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

Gregory Coates, Claiming Feathers

Gregory Coates, Afro Series 1 and 2 with artist, feathers acrylic on luan, 4 feet diameter, 2018, photo courtesy of the artist

Gregory Coates’ bold and colorful installations raise questions rather than offer explanations. Through his abstracted forms and unabashed use of alluring colors he creates “social abstractions” which can be read as affirmations of life – beautiful and poignant at the same time. Continue reading “Gregory Coates, Claiming Feathers”