Interviews by Brainard Carey

Aaron Wilder is an interdisciplinary artist who blurs boundaries between the analog and the digital, the public and the private, and the unassuming and the instigative. He uses his own experiences and sense of identity as a lens through which he explores the introspective and social processes of contemporary culture.

Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Wilder has also lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and France and currently resides in Roswell, New Mexico. With the history of being a self-taught artist since 2002, Wilder received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. He has exhibited his work extensively across the United States as well as in Italy. “Omission Rituals” is Wilder’s first solo exhibition at Amos Eno Gallery after joining as an artist member in 2020.

Wilder’s curatorial practice organically grew out of his artistic practice starting in 2009 and he is currently Curator of Collections & Exhibitions at the Roswell Museum. His curatorial philosophy is centered on the belief that art can change the world. Wilder has a deep interest in emphasizing the possibilities of artistic practice to engage with others about not only art, but also about the world and how we perceive it individually and socially.

Aaron Wilder, “Neither Sand nor Rock,” 2022, Digital Photography Collage, Courtesy of the Artist

Aaron Wilder, “Delivered Under the Similitude of a Dream: Isn't it weird how life's unexpected twists and turns take us to unexpected places? Some good and some not so good.” 2017, Digital Mixed Media, Courtesy of the Artist

Aaron Wilder, “Expletive Block: Non-Normative,” 2018, Plywood, Painted and Laser Cut MDF Sculpture, Courtesy of the Artist

Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo

Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo (b. 1978, Bandung, Indonesia) is an artist based in Bandung, Indonesia who received his Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from Bandung Institute of Technology (2001) and a Master’s in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins (2005). Sunaryo is interested in the utilization of resin as a medium that captures minerals, pigments, and other particles in various states of flux within a sense of stasis. Working initially with more industrial pigments, he has more recently worked with volcanic ash, perishable food ingredients, as well as crude palm oil and converted them into his own distinctive pigments.

Sunaryo’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Southeast Asia, Europe, the UK, and USA, including No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia (2014) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA. Selected solo exhibitions include Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo: New Paintings (2021) at Art Basel OVR: Portals presentation by ROH Projects; ARGO (2019) at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK; after taste (2017) at Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia; Silent Salvo (2015) at ARNDT Gallery, Berlin, Germany; and group shows include External Entrails (2022) at Silverlens New York, New York, USA; IRL (2020) at Art Basel OVR: 2020; Ripples: Continuity in Indonesian Contemporary Art (2019) at Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan; These Painter’s Painters (2018) at ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia; iris (2018) at Silverlens Galleries, Manila, Philippines; ω (2017) at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong; Biennale Jogja XIV: Age of Hope (2017) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Constituent Concreteness (2017) at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore; Lines of Flight (2017) at Gallery Exit, Hong Kong; Lompat Pagar/Crossing Borders (2015) at National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Marcel Duchamp in Southeast Asia (2012), Equator Art Project, Gillman Barracks, Singapore; and Manifesto (2008), National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia. Sunaryo was nominated as a Finalist for Best Emerging Artist using Painting by the Prudential Eye Awards in 2015; and a Finalist in the Sovereign Asia Art Prize in 2010.

Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo. Liniresin (Bongkah #1), 2009-2022. Pigmented resin. Variable dimension. Installation shot at Silverlens New York. Courtesy of The Artist, ROH and Silverlens.

Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo, Liniresin (Sawit #3), 2022. Palm oil charcoal, fiber and pigmented resin mounted on wooden panel. 200 x 200 x 5,5 cm. Courtesy of The Artist and ROH.

External Entrails, 2022-2023. Installation shot at Silverlens New York. Courtesy of The Artist, ROH and Silverlens.

Photo by Kate Orne/Upstate Diary

Melissa McGill, (born in Rhode Island, 1969) is a New York based interdisciplinary artist known for ambitious, collaborative, site specific public art projects. They take the form of site-specific, immersive experiences that explore nuanced conversations between land, water, sustainable traditions, and the interconnectedness of all living things. At the heart of her work is a focus on community, meaningful shared experiences and lasting impact. Spanning a variety of media including performance, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, sound, light, video and immersive installation, McGill has presented both independent public art projects and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally since 1991. She lives in Lenapehoking (Beacon, New York).

Her recent endeavor, Red Regatta (2019), was an independent public art project that activated Venice’s lagoon and canals with four unprecedented large-scale regattas of traditional vela al terzo sailboats hoisted with hand-painted red sails, presented in collaboration with Associazione Vela al Terzo Venezia, co-organized by Magazzino Italian Art.

In the Waves (2021) was a series of collaborative performances presented by Art&Newport that moved over the landscape in Newport Rhode Island evoking the urgency of rising sea levels and a rapidly changing climate with an ensemble of local community members. The artist invited members of the local community to join the ensemble of this inclusive movement-based public artwork to create a shared meaningful experience about these environmental themes. Her land art project, Constellation (2015-2017), installed on an island in the Hudson River, lit each night creating a new constellation transforming The Bannerman Castle ruin. She has been exhibiting her artwork nationally and internationally since 1991, and additional recent projects include Canaletto and Melissa McGill:Performance and Panorama, 2022, The Lightbox, United Kingdom; Palmas, 2014, Manitoga, Garrison, New York ; The Campi, 2018, Venice, Italy, as well as solo exhibitions at The Permanent Mission of Italy at the United Nations, New York organized by Magazzino Italian Art; Mazzoleni London-Torino; TOTAH, New York; White Cube, London; Power House, Memphis; Palazzo Capello, Venice; and CRG Gallery, New York. She is a graduate of The Rhode Island School of Design, a member of the Lenape Center Advisory Council, and a National Endowment of the Arts ArtWorks Grant recipient. In 2022 she was awarded the Helena Rowe Metcalf Visionary Award by the Rhode Island School of Design Alumni Association.

Melissa McGill Sea Saga, 2022 organic indigo on clay coated wood panels (diptych) 36 × 30 × 1 ½ inches (91.5 × 76 × 4 cm) 36 × 30 × 1 ½ inches (91.5 × 76 × 4 cm)

Oceanus, 2021 Organic indigo on clay coated wood panel 36 x 30 x 1.5 inches

Celestial River, 2022 Organic idigo on yupo paper, 9″ x 12″

Portrait of Jessica, photo by Shark Senesac

Jessica Westhafer (b. 1990, Denver, CO) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from the University of Arkansas in 2014 and her MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 2020. Using a deceptively playful form of figuration, Westhafer explores psychosocial experiences. Westhafer’s imagery taps into memory and sentiment in order “to invent, reimagine, immortalize and even create” idealized or fictitious narratives. These “surrogate scenes of time and place” arouse feelings of vulnerability through which she invites viewers to revisit their own histories. While very specific in its choice of subject matter and detail, her art captures ineffable aspects of early formative experiences that are universal.

JESSICA WESTHAFER Partial Installation. SOMEWHERE THAT’S GREEN NOVEMBER 9, 2022 - JANUARY 7, 2023. Photo: Shark Senesac.

Jessica Westhafer Always & Forever, 2022 Oil and watercolor on canvas 44 x 108 inches (111.8 x 274.3 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery

Jessica Westhafer Bubble Wand, 2022 Oil, watercolor, and glass on canvas 80 x 90 inches (203.2 x 228.6 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery

Jessica Westhafer 7th Period Science Class, 2022 Oil on canvas 84 x 72 inches (213.4 x 182.9 cm) © Jessica Westhafer; Photo by Shark Senesac; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery

Jennifer Paige Cohen lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has been the subject of solo and two-person exhibitions at The Pit, Los Angeles; The Saint-Gaudens Memorial, New Hampshire; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; Salon 94, New York; and White Columns, New York. Group exhibitions include Petzel Gallery, Regina Rex, PPOW, Creative Time, The Elizabeth Foundation, Casey Kaplan and Public Art Fund, all New York, NY; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; September Gallery, Hudson, NY; Kate MacGarry, London, UK; and Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, among numerous others.

Jennifer holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale University School of Art. She has received grants and fellowships from Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Saint-Gaudens Memorial, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, MacDowell, The Corporation of Yaddo, The Marie Walsh Sharpe/Walentas Space Program, Civitella Ranieri and the Chinati Foundation. 

Untitled (self-portrait), clothing scraps, plaster, plaster gauze, fabric collage, zipper, watercolor, 23”H x 14”W x 16”D, 2022

Untitled, clothing scraps, plaster, plaster gauze, fabric collage, watercolor, 37 ½” x 14 ½” x 9”, 2022

Untitled, clothing scraps, plaster, plaster gauze, fabric collage, watercolor, 24 ½”H x 24”W x 23”D , 2022

Dana Robinson (b. Brooklyn, NY) is an artist and designer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Robinson’s practice aims to address topics of youth, Black feminine identity, ownership, and nostalgia. With a background in graphic design and a love of Black vintage media, Robinson uses her layered practice to bring the past in dialogue with the present. She has exhibited at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Texas State University, Fuller Rosen Gallery, 92nd Street Y, Spellerberg Projects, Kates-Ferri Projects, the Wassaic Project, A.I.R. Gallery, Haul Gallery, and Regular Normal. She has upcoming solo exhibitions at Turley Gallery and Kates-Ferri Projects in 2023.

More Wishes Come True for Chris Harris Too, 2022, 18 x 24 inches, Acrylic on wood panel

Hand 001, 2022, 11x14 inches, multimedia in clear acrylic case

Mouth 006, 2022, 11x14 inches, gouache and collage on paper on wood panel in clear acrylic case

Jodi Hays (b. 1976) is a Nashville-based artist whose work explores the material vocabulary of the American South through reclaimed and repurposed cardboard, textiles, and fabrics that resemble screen doors, old boards, and sign paintings. She is a 2019 Finalist for the Hopper Prize. Her work has been seen most recently in a solo exhibition at Night Gallery, Los Angeles.

Jodi Hays and Michi Meko come together in The Burden of Wait to present a selection of works rooted in their shared focus, the Southern landscape. Hays employs reclaimed cardboard, dyed fabrics, and other quotidian materials to explore the visual lexicon of the American South. She describes her practice as “a southern povera,” calling upon the use of unconventional and humble materials. Hays' work is further inspired by the material habits of Robert Rauschenberg and the rituals and repetitions of Beverly Buchanan. Through her deliberate use of found material, the artist visualizes the resourceful labor of women in the South as those that make, stack, sew, mend, and fix.

JODI HAYS Meridian, 2022 Dye, paper, ribbon and cardboard collage on panel 24 x 30 in. (JHY0006) Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

JODI HAYS May/December , 2022 Dye, and cardboard collage on wood strainer 45 x 46 in. (JHY0007) Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

JODI HAYS Cotton, 2022 Dye, paper, and cardboard collage 71 x 56 in. (JHY0005) Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.

Georg Óskar (b.1985, Iceland) currently works and lives in Oslo, Norway. He graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from Akureyri School of visual arts in 2009 and subsequently obtained his MFA from the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design in Bergen, Norway, in 2016. Since then, Oskar has exhibited internationally in various countries, including United States, Spain, Germany, China, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, to name a few.

Fundamentally, his practice is regarded as a visual diary of his personal observations of the mundane, specifically in nature and people. His works are composed in a unique manner to allow multiple entry points for viewers, prompting them to reflect on the complexities of contemporary life.

Infused with a distinct twist, Oskar’s narratives are often sarcastic but always offer genuine observations of his lived and built environment. A sense of levity and innocence is located within his narratives and murkiness of his palette, to operate as a ‘psychological counteract’ that enables him to maintain a bemused distance from the profane, the dark, and the obscene.

Georg Óskar, Romeo and Juliet, 2022, Oil on canvas, 200 × 150 cm

Georg ÓskarThe end of Everything, Oil on canvas, 200 × 250 cm

Georg Óskar, Drowning little bit Everyday, 2022, Oil on canvas, 200 × 150 cm

Chason Matthams' focus is on capturing the ephemeral experience of consciousness and pointing to its fragmentary nature. While at first glance his paintings seem to be contemplative experiments in mimesis, prolonged looking reveals threatening undertones. Matthams’ employs specific combinations of colors, angles of perspective, and exhaustive detail to anthropomorphize each of his subjects, rendering them just barely sinister. Flitting between mechanical and organic objects, Matthams’ exacting brushwork is the connective thread leading our eye through every sumptuous detail.

Matthams graduated with a BFA in Fine Art from New York University in 2004 and an MFA from New York University in 2012. Previous solo exhibitions include Glimpse, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2022), A Hell for Rainbows, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY (2019); Advances, None Miraculous, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY (2015); and Tyler Wood Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2019, 2013). He was included in Blossom, a three person exhibition with Ted Pim and Marisa Takal organized by the Tong Art Advisory at the Artron Art Centre, Shenzhen, CN (2021); and his work was included in Artforum’s “Portfolios” feature in March 2020.

Previous group exhibitions include Stockholm Sessions at Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden (2021); Nature Morte at The Hole, New York, NY (2021); Cynthia Daignault’s The Certainty of Others, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY (2017); L’IM_MAGE_N, Ashes/Ashes, New York, NY (2017); Break Out, Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection, Brussels, Belgium (2015); and Beyond the Pale, Interstate, Brooklyn, NY (2014).

The book mentioned at the end of the interview is The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, a 2009 book written by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain.

Chason Matthams, Corsage (aqua, blue, pink), 2022, Oil on linen over panel, 24 x 30 in., 61 x 76.2 cm. Courtesy the artist and Magenta Plains, New York.

Chason Matthams, Untitled (RED, Sebastian rig - slider), 2021, Oil on panel, 72 x 60 in., 182.9 x 152.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and Magenta Plains, New York.

Chason Matthams, Untitled (Fuji GX680, orange/purple), 2022, Oil on linen over panel, 36 x 29 in., 91.4 x 73.7 cm. Courtesy the artist and Magenta Plains, New York.

For over fifty years, Dona Nelson has made series of different kinds of paintings, distinguished by a variety of approaches to both image and material.Nelson was born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1947. She received a B.F.A. from Ohio State University (1968), and studied at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program (1967). She is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, where she has worked since 1992. Her paintings are included in museum collections such as The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of New South Wales in Australia. Among other grants, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994 and in 2011, she received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

The Night of the 25th of May, 2022. Acrylic and acrylic media on canvas. 80 x 80 inches.

The Night of the 25th of May, 2022. Acrylic and acrylic media on canvas. 80 x 80 inches.

Surveyor's Lunch, 1981-1982. Oil on canvas, 72 x 78.5 inches.

Untitled05, 1978. Oil on canvas. 32 x 17 inches.