"It was not a single concept that began this work, but as I started to put these paintings together certain things seemed to tie everything together," McCann says. "One of these things was this idea of this staging of events or this connection to fame or the technological screen."

Nancy Elsamanoudi studio. All photographs by Naomi Falk.

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It is a Sunday morning in Nancy Elsamanoudi’s studio. Arriving here at Brooklyn Army Terminal to listen to her make long brushstrokes across the canvas brings to mind the cathartic conclusion of a great pilgrimage. Alongside the sound of this labor, she describes how the act of creation in New York City, and how the anonymity and nonlinearity of life here, have recalibrated her lived experiences of art and gender.

Chris Esposito: Material Elements

Hatidza Mulic: Visual Notes from a Provocateur

Tulu Bayar: Cans, Pills & Bullets

CAA NEWS TODAY CWA PICKS FOR FEBRUARY 2019

CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship to share with CAA members on a monthly basis. 

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We love CAA's introduction of the work using this quote from Rage Becomes Her. Here is an except of their notes on Meza-DesPlas's show and a link to the quote below:

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Artist Rosemary Meza-DesPlas explores all of these elements of anger and more through her sinuous lines in hand-sewn human hair drawings, watercolors and onsite installations in her solo show, Jane Anger, the title referencing a 16th century pamphlet published in England titled Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women. She also utilizes art history as inspiration by juxtaposing found art historical imagery along with social media and mass media imagery, exploring how the social movements, Women’s Marches and #MeToo, harnessed anger in order to forefront an array of gender-based burdens, presenting anger as a tool rather than detriment, as media often reflects. Moreover, by using her own gray hair in her drawings, Meza-DesPlas implicates further thought on socio-cultural symbolism, feminism and body issues, and religious symbolism, invoking both contemporary and classical perspectives around anger. Building on the multi-media experience, during the opening reception, the artist will present her piece titled Intervals of Anger, performing a poem every fifteen minutes. Taken altogether and individually, Jane Anger will surely rile and provoke audiences on this timely issue.

Thanks to Art Spiel and Paul D'Agostino for the mention in his Nota Bene in January!

Andre Rubin interview with Phoenix Gallery where the artist discusses his relationship to themes such as Accelerationism, Wormholes, the Far Future and Distant Past, Climate Change and Disaster, New York City, Social Justice, Hegel’s Owl of Minerva Who Flies Only at Dusk, Classical sculpture and architecture, Object Oriented Ontology, the Eternal Return, Perspectivism.

In back-to-back interviews, Natasha Wright and Nancy Elsamanoudi discuss each other’s work. 

The Best Female Art Exhibitions to See This Fall:

This season, female figurative painters are out in full force. Here are the shows you can't miss.

Nature Studies takes a close look at Elsamanoudi's new series of paintings and their cultural context today:

Mention of the show in Japanese Newspaper NY Seikatsu.

Living in New York, you get used to loss–not necessarily just the loss of beloved people, but of establishments. These bars, clubs, dives and cafes, particularly queer and queer-friendly spaces, are not just favored locations to grab a bite or a beer, but they’re where communities and even, worlds are built and thrive (even if temporarily). “Spiritually, gentrification is the removal of the dynamic mixture that defines urbanity–the familiar interaction of different kinds of people creating ideas together,” writes Sarah Schulman in her seminal The Gentrification of the Mind. “Urbanity is what makes cities great, because the daily affirmation that people from other experiences are real makes innovative solutions and experiments possible.”

Since 1994, Cubbyhole has been a kitsch haven for the city’s LGBT community. Inside, fizzy pop tunes reverberate against $2 happy hours and a ceiling covered with paper holiday ornaments. Outside, though, you’re crashed back into the touristy, suburban feel of the West Village.

On this episode of Arts & Letters, we speak with artist Robert McCann who talks about his paintings, which interrogate the drama that is entertainment culture and place us smack down between studio wrestling and external ideas of contemporary spaces. 

A ‘Fair’ Roger Ailes Memorial, The Secret Life of Plants, and More Art This Week

This multidisciplinary group exhibition is named for a fresco created by Diego Rivera, which was displayed in Rockefeller Center from 1932-1934. Its lifespan was not intended to be that brief, but it was cut short due to its controversial nature. Known for possessing leftist politics, at the last minute Rivera decided to turn the mural from a more generic depiction of a man imagining a better future to a scene with recognizable figures like Vladimir Lenin and a Rockefeller “drinking martinis with a harlot.” The capitalist upper crust Rockefellers, shockingly, were not exactly pleased, and the mural was destroyed.

Mary J. Saran: Escape Earth

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As Buddha found importance in the interconnectedness of all things, Mary´s work strives to connect personal emotions and philosophy creating a balance that stems from that interconnectedness, that lack of absolutes. These colorful organic universes are created and resemble astronomical clusters of mass or craters, the way matter accretes in space. The goal is to have her viewer share a glimpse into these magical free flowing and yet structured compositions that become trapped on the canvas.

Cynthia Laureen Vogt. Vice Versa

These intimate collages are dominated by paper cut-outs and photographs of wooden block letters, their three-dimensional appearance aligning the phonetic symbols with their relationship to the human body. Their sense of depth, furthered by the strata of media as well as the accordion-fold book forms into which they are sewn, is drawn into contrast by cutting both around and against the characters and by silhouetted human figures whose gestures recurringly perform as text. This cutting additionally acts to unify letters and figures with the surfaces on which they are printed, text and support becoming interchangeable.

Art that is ‘Vapid and Screaming,’ Philosophical Collage, a Solo Show Duo, and More

Andre Rubin’s new solo show at Amos Eno Gallery on Bogart Street (an artist-run space founded in 1974!) showcases an assortment of “approximately 35” collages that “explore timely philosophical and political themes.” Though it’s not immediately clear what these themes are, the fact that they must be there, somewhere makes the eye linger a little longer on Rubin’s already compelling creations, which feature imagery of the Manhattan skyline, angelic sculptures, iPhone lock screens, and advertisements. Some are more patchworky, where lines clearly where one image ends and another begins, and others are more of a streamlined work, where you’re stuck wondering what is collaged and what already existed.

Rae Goodwin at Amos Eno Gallery – “The Weight of It”

The collaborative performances between Rae Goodwin and Thomas Albrecht explore the challenge of individuals in relationship, the complexities of language shared, and the intimacy and distance between bodies in space. The performance for Amos Eno Gallery in Brooklyn continues this line of questioning in a durational action that investigates the weight of experience, and the demands of personal histories on the body and mind.

Amos Eno Gallery Presents a Perfect Quad

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Harmony and balance are two things that takes time for any artist to master. It takes discipline and a shrewd editing eye to capture those qualities existing in equal measure with every piece created. Amos Eno Gallery on Front Street in Brooklyn presented four such artists mastering Resilient Suspension. AF trekked off the island last January 12th to traverse boroughs and explore the DUMBO (down under Manhattan Bridge overpass) area to discover the vibrant art scene.