Interviews by Brainard Carey

Michael Gac Levin was born in Los Angeles in 1984. The artist earned an MFA from Pratt Institute in 2015 and a BA from the University of Chicago in 2006. Yellow Brick Road, a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings, took place at Hexum Gallery, Montpelier, VT in 2023. Gac Levin will present a solo show of new works at My Pet Ram in 2024, and will participate in A Cup is a Cup, a Tree is a Tree at Deanna Evans Projects. Gac Levin has recently shown in group exhibitions at Kaleidoscope and My Pet Ram, New York; and BOZOMAG, Los Angeles; as well as online with Taymour Grahne, Platform, and Deanna Evans Projects. His work has been featured in Artmaze Magazine and Maake Magazine, and he has completed special projects online for the Jewish Museum and SCREEN_.

Talking Married Oil on canvas 20"x24" 2024

Date Night Acrylic on canvas 24"x30" 2023

Michael Ambron is a painter and paint maker who works through wildly experimental and meditative approaches to making in order to hone in on a kind of overwhelming simultaneity of lived experience. From an investigation of and curiosity about one’s own perception, to the challenges and worries of living in uncertain and upsetting times, Ambron builds symbols, materials, and gestures into an expansive, floating, and timeless space. His paintings immerse the viewer in a loop of dreams, cartoon violence, lived experience, and world events, that create a vibrating sense of absurdity and urgency. Ambron received his BFA from Tyler School of Art and his MFA from The Ohio State University. He is currently based in Long Island City, NY where he is the owner and operator of Paint Makers Notes LLC, a small business that offers education, consulting, and paint making services to amateur and professional artists around the world.

Boundaries, 2021, 63” x 66” x 2” - pigment, glass, stone chalk, acrylic, cellulose, marker, & pastel on canvas - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios.

Dilation, 2023, 50 x 52 x 3” - pigment, cork powder, glass, stone chalk, acrylic, cellulose, airbrush, marker, pastel and sand on canvas - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios.

No Time installation view Sell Your Dreams, 2024, 66 x 66 x 3" - pigment, marker, acrylic, cellulose, airbrush, & stone chalk on canvas (small painting: "Awake" 2024, acrylic, cellulose, pigment, marble sand, shellac & chalk on wood panel) - photography for Ortega y Gasset Projects by Gidra Studios.

Portrait by Sandy Levy

Diego Singh (b. 1982, Salta, Argentina) has exhibited his work at the de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso, Italy; Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil; Palazzo Fruscione, Salerno, Italy; Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA; Luhring Augustine, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL, among others. Singh was awarded the Knight Foundation award in 2019 and 2015. He lives and works in Miami Beach, FL. His work is on view at Luhring Augustin Tribeca in a two-person exhibition with Tomm El-Saieh through June 8, 2024. Singh was awarded the Knight Foundation award in 2019 and 2015. He lives and works in Miami Beach, FL.

Diego Singh, Sin Nombre I, 2023-24 Oil and acrylic on linen 96 x 72 inches (243.8 x 182.9 cm). © Diego Singh; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and CENTRAL FINE, Miami Beach. Photo: Farzad Owrang.

Diego Singh, Sin Nombre IV, 2022-24 Oil and acrylic on linen 96 x 72 inches (243.8 x 182.9 cm). © Diego Singh; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and CENTRAL FINE, Miami Beach. Photo: Farzad Owrang.

 

Diego Singh, Sin Nombre V, 2024 Oil and acrylic on linen 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm). © Diego Singh; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and CENTRAL FINE, Miami Beach. Photo: Farzad Owrang.

Photo: Elon Schoenholz, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

For over four decades, Raúl Guerrero (b. 1945, Brawley, California) has made work informed by his experiences navigating cultures as an American of Mexican ancestry in Southern California. In his paintings, photographs, video, and performance works, Guerrero utilizes language and cultural signifiers to examine notions of place as a way to understand personal concepts of self. An aspect of his work depicts—and critiques—colonial narratives in the Americas such as the settlement of the Great Plains, the history of Latin America, and imposed notions of the American “West.” With compositions fusing Mexican, American, and European visual traditions, he incorporates influences ranging from the readymades of Marcel Duchamp to conceptually-oriented practices associated with a preceding generation of California artists (including John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha) who emerged from Guerrero’s alma mater, the Chouinard Art Institute. A long-time exhibiting artist on the West Coast, Guerrero reflects an intellectually rigorous approach suffused with humor and a deep engagement with legacies of visual art from Southern California and the Southwest.

Raúl Guerrero has been the subject of solo exhibitions at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Ortuzar Projects, New York (2018); Air de Paris (project space), Romainville, France (2014); Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, San Diego, California (2001, 2007, and 2013); CUE Art Foundation, New York (2010); Long Beach Museum of Art, California (1977); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (1989); and San Francisco Art Institute, California (1977). Guerrero was included in the California Biennial 2022: Pacific Gold at the Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California (2022–2023), and was the recipient of an NEA Photography Fellowship (1979) and the San Diego Art Prize (2006). Guerrero lives and works in San Diego.

Raul Guerrero, Fernando y Isabela: 1494, 2023 oil on linen 56 1/8 x 76 1/8 x 1 5/8 inches (142.6 x 193.4 x 4.1 cm) Photo: Jeff McLane, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

Raul Guerrero, Del Taco, 2023 oil on linen 56 x 76 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches (142.2 x 193.7 x 3.8 cm) Photo: Jeff McLane, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

Raul Guerrero, The Alhambra: 1492, 2024 oil on linen 96 x 76 x 1 1/2 inches (243.8 x 193 x 3.8 cm) Photo: Jeff McLane, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

Alison Kudlow (b. 1981) lives and works in Brooklyn. She earned a BA from the University of Southern California, a post-baccalaureate degree from Brandeis University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Studio Art. She has shown at galleries including Swivel, Parent Company, Field Projects, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Flux Factory, UrbanGlass, Deanna Evans Projects, Doppelgänger Projects, Paradice Palase, Wavelength Space, and at Fullerton College in California. She is a member of Underdonk, an artist-run gallery. She presented a solo show, Meaningful Rituals in Irrational Times, at Elijah Wheat Showroom’s Brooklyn location in 2019. She was an invited resident at the Art Ichol Center in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, India in January 2023. She is presenting a solo show at Deanna Evans Projects in Tribeca, NY May 17 - June 22, 2024.

Suture, 2024, Ceramic, glass, rubber, 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. 36.8 x 29.2 x 8.9 cm.

Bolbos, 2024 Ceramic, rubber, glass, iron hardware 28 x 22 x 13 in 71.1 x 55.9 x 33 cm.

 

Thoracic Surge, 2024 Ceramic, glass, mother-of-pearl, bronze hardware 20 x 22 x 6 in 50.8 x 55.9 x 15.2 cm.

Sari Carel, Portrait. Photo by Argenis Apolinario. Courtesy KODA

Sari Carel is a Brooklyn-based, interdisciplinary artist and environmental activist. Her projects consider interspecies communication, nature and the built environment, and how the senses inform perception. Sari Carel participated in a KODA Land + Environment artist residency in 2021. She was offered a studio space on Governors Island in partnership with Swale House, exhibited at FiveMyles and organized a tree-care and stewardship workshop with Trees NY in Brooklyn, NY. Recent exhibitions: The Sun Is A Mouth Of Blue at Melanie Flood Projects, Portland, OR; The Shape Of Play, a public art project in Boston’s North End, and Mud Songs For Anni at The Schneider Museum of Art’s Art Beyond in Ashland, OR. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Stundars Museum, Solf, Finland; Atelier Stipendium des Bundeskanzleramtes, Vienna, Austria; and Bundanon, Illaroo, Australia; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; and LMCC Residency on Governors Island, NY, among others. She is a recent recipient of a commissions award for Korea Art Forum's 2024-2025 “Shared Dialogue, Shared Space” program.

A More Perfect Circle, features a series of ceramic sculptures inspired by the single-use coffee cup, a ubiquitous object that brings into focus people’s daily experience of interacting with trash. It is informed by research the artist conducted in collaboration with Nicholas Hoynes, a PhD student in Environmental Sociology at NYU and visual interpretations of the data collected.

Sari Carel, A More Perfect Circle, 2024, at Lentol Garden. Photo by Argenis Apolinario. Courtesy KODA

Sari Carel, A More Perfect Circle, 2024, at Lentol Garden. Photo by Argenis Apolinario. Courtesy KODA

Sari Carel, A More Perfect Circle, 2024, at Lentol Garden. Photo by Argenis Apolinario. Courtesy KODA

Alan Belcher, courtesy of Hunt Gallery

Alan Belcher's concept-based work is decidedly multi-layered and object oriented. He has been recognized in the past as an originator of a tactile fusion of photography and object-making. A transparency of vision and simplicity of fabrication with a concentrated regard for materials remain hallmarks of his serial productions. A sense of humour and a reverence for both Pop and Poveric sensibilities, as well as a hands-on approach; invade much of his work. His lifelong study of the works by artists Manzoni, Fontana, Pascali, Balla, Boccioni, and Scarpitta inform much of his work history, and indeed the pieces included in this exhibition.

Works by Alan Belcher are held in various public collections which include the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Le Consortium (Dijon), Musee des Beaux-Arts (Montréal), Deste Foundation (Athens), Fotomuseum Winterthur (Zurich), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Chase Manhattan Bank, Credit Suisse Collection, Dropbox HQ (San Francisco), The Progressive Insurance Art Collection (Ohio), MoCA San Diego, Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC (Vancouver), and Musée Nicéphore Niépce (Chalon-sur-Saône, France) —as well as numerous prominent private collections.

Napoli, 2024, Neapolitan ice cream on canvas 10 x 16 x 3 inches 25.4 x 40.7 x 7.7 cm, courtesy of LFdocumentation

Vesuvio Vesuvio, 2024 Oil on canvas, pepperoni pizza, lava from Vesuvius 22 x 22 x 5 inches 56 x 56 x 12.7 cm, courtesy of LFdocumentation

Roma, 2024, Oil on canvas, 24k gold on Bulgari soap 8 x 6 x 2⅜ inches 20.3 x 15.3 x 6 cm, courtesy of LFdocumentation

Alexander Brewington (b. 1996, Silver Spring, MD), lives and works in Ridgewood, NY. He holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, and a BFA in visual art from St. Johns University.

His work was previously included in the group exhibition ‘Departure’ at Thierry Goldberg. Brewington has been in residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and his work was featured in Hyperallergic and Canvas Rebel Magazine.

Alexander Brewington She Who Walks out of the Dark, 2024 oil on wooden panel 36 x 48 inches

Alexander Brewington End on a High Note, 2023 oil on wooden panel 36 x 24 inches

Alexander Brewington Back on Track, 2023 oil on wooden panel 36 x 24 inches

Marianne Nielsen

Marianne Nielsen crafts delicate ceramic arrangements, which expose the synthetic and psychological aspects of the natural world. Through the lens of botany and a naturalist approach, she produces an herbarium of gestural forms that preserve the liveliness of plants. In reexamining the still life genre, her works evoke the ephemeral forms of overgrown spaces, crystalizing transient and fleeting moments. Nielsen’s subjects are found throughout nature as well as the decorative arts: in textile patterns, architectural elements, and the general abstracting of form across vernacular craft traditions. As a result, many of her works improvise on the basic format of vase, plate, or decorative dish. At other times, the artist isolates botanical scenarios and chance compositions from field and forest through the slow and detailed observation of her surroundings. Hers is an attention which aims not to simply comprehend the whole but to see each petal, stamen, burl, and stem for its rudimentary elements. Looking at Nielsen’s porcelain and stoneware sculptures, one finds an articulation of the vast taxonomy of natural forms nested within and alongside human culture.

Nielsen graduated from the Design School Kolding in the department of ceramics and glass. Her work has been exhibited at the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, the Vejen Art Museum, the Biennale for Craft & Design in Copenhagen, and the Nordic Craft Pavilion at the Grand Palais in Paris. She is a recipient of the Annie & Otto Johannes Detlefs Ceramics Prize, the Danish Arts Foundation Award, the Danish Crafts Award, the Danish National Bank Jubilee Fund of 1968, and the Ole Haslund Foundation Grant. Nielsen’s works are in the collections of the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, Middelfart, Denmark; the Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Vejen Art Museum, Vejen, Denmark.

Marianne Nielsen, Broadleaf Bamboo, 2024, 6.75” H x 18.5” W x 8.25” D, Glazed stoneware

Marianne Nielsen, Large Leaves, 2023, 10.25” H x 10.75” L, Glazed stoneware

Marianne Nielsen, Leaf Crown no. 3, 2024 Glazed stoneware 7.75” H x 4.75” W x 4” D

Photo credit: portrait Melvin Way 1994, ARS artists rights society @ 2024 photo Andrew Castrucci, Melvin Way estate.

This is an interview with the curator Andrew Castrucci.

CO₂ Blues, scheduled since mid-2023, is the first exhibition of the enigmatic art of Melvin Way (1954-2024) since his passing, and the third solo show of his work with the gallery. It serves as a retrospective for a visionary who was one of the most admired self-taught artists in the contemporary art arena.  Way's mostly small-scale drawings are strange and alluring concoctions of science and art that seem intent on revealing the secrets of the universe.  They contain chemical and mathematical formulae, musical notes, abstract designs, and cryptic words and phrases.  It is hard to look at one without becoming entangled in trying to figure out what it means. “I felt like I was seeing another kind of infinity, thought made visible, wild nerves, optical barnacles coming to hermetic life, delirium legible,” wrote New York Magazine’s senior art critic Jerry Saltz in a 2015 review in Vulture.

The exhibition includes some of Way's most memorable creations including forays outside of his better-known ballpoint pen drawings, especially a selection of the artist’s xerography— he routinely carried his original ink drawings on his person for months at a time and was reluctant to release them for sale because they functioned as protective amulets. His raincoat pockets might be filled with as many as two hundred drawings. At times, his sweat, or a hard rainfall, would cause the ink to bleed, adding complexity to the already dense works. Andrew Castrucci, his lifelong advocate, has likened this process to a kind of baptism, a rite of passage before the works headed off into the world. Before the artist did surrender his works, he often made Xerox copies of them which inspired a new approach—Way then added blue and/or black ink to the copies.  These xerographies comprise a small but significant portion of his oeuvre.

Melvin Way (1954 - 2024) Fauvi, c. 1989 Ballpoint pen and Scotch tape on paper 10.75 x 8.5 inches. Melvin Way estate ,ARS artists rights society @ 2024.

Melvin Way (1954 - 2024) Loki, 2020 Pen and paint on paper 12 x 9 inches. Melvin Way estate ,ARS artists rights society @ 2024.

Melvin Way (1954 - 2024) D' SAIREN COPOTE, 2023-2024 Ballpoint pen and Scotch tape on paper 12 x 4 inches. Melvin Way estate ,ARS artists rights society @ 2024.