Interviews by Brainard Carey

Photo by Helmut Spudich, Vienna, 2022

Dave Bopp (b. 1988, Basel, Switzerland) is an ultra contemporary artist based in Berlin. His paintings have been featured in gallery and museum shows throughout Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, South Korea, and the US and has been acquired by prominent private, corporate, and museum collections.

Conjunction After Sunset, 2022, Mixed media on aluminum composite board, 31.5 x 39 in (80 x 99.1 cm)

Incursion 1, 2022, Mixed media on aluminum composite board, 60 x 79 in (152.4 x 200.7 cm)

Juggernaut, 2021, Mixed media on aluminum composite board, 79 x 120 in (200.7 x 304.8 cm)

Peter Frederiksen champions the art of embroidery. Throughout his exploration of the medium, the artist has developed a free-motion machine technique, commonly working on a standard sewing machine that has been altered by removing the presser foot andlowering the feed teeth, allowing Frederiksen to engage tension while moving an embroidery hoop around freely. The result is dense embroidery stitched onto linen canvas, which is then stretched onto a wooden panel as a nod to traditional painting. Described by the artist as “drawing with a sewing machine,” Frederiksen produces scenes with subtle gradients and uniform textures that closely resemble colored pencil drawings when viewed from a distance. The nostalgic, soft-edged scenes are born from the artist’s love of cartoons (notably post-war Warner Brothers and the Simpsons) and come together through a fervent editing process.  Beginning with screenshots taken from old cartoons, often focusing on the smallest of elements while featuring as much action as possible, Frederiksen crops, edits and adds additional details, be it from other cartoons, eclectic designs or abstract images, before tracing, sketching and eventually stitching his creations onto linen.

Peter Frederiksen attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 2006 - 2008, with a focus on painting, drawing and fibers. It was during these years that the artist explored the techniques of other mediums and expanded his painting practice to include soft sculpture and fiber art. Following his time at SAIC, Frederiksen worked at ad agencies as an art producer where he fostered his passion for promoting and representing other working artists. He is currently a partner, representative and producer at RAD Represents, an artist representation company located in Chicago, IL.

The artist’s work has been presented at a number of institutions in Chicago including the Chicago Athletic Association (solo exhibition, 2020), the Hyde Park Art Center (group exhibition, 2019) and the Arts Club of Chicago (group exhibition, 2018).  Most recently, the artist’s embroideries have been featured in group exhibitions internationally at Haverkampf Leistenschneider in Berlin (Text-ile, June - August 2022), Galleri Urbane in Dallas (Intersections, July - August 2022), Daniel Raphael Gallery in London (Go Figure!, July - August 2022), and Bulls Fest in Chicago, curated by All Star Press Chicago (The Art of the Game, September 2022). Frederiksen has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including The Guardian, Colossal, It’s Nice That, gallerytalk.net, Textiel Plus, The Fiber Studio, Composite Arts Magazine, and Chicago Art Review. The artist lives and works in Chicago, IL.

The book mentioned in the interview: How High We Go In The Dark.

Peter Frederiksen, Massey Klein Gallery, no-no-no-no-no, 22-2022 Freehand machine embroidery on linen, 9 x 12 inches. Image courtesy of Massey Klein Gallery and The Artist.

Peter Frederiksen Massey Klein Gallery, some locks wont hold, 22-2022, Freehand machine embroidery on linen, 8 x 6 inches. Image courtesy of Massey Klein Gallery and The Artist.

Peter Frederiksen, Massey Klein Gallery, "out from under rocks, clearing the crust from dreary eyes and seeing friends again", 2022, Freehand machine embroidery on linen, Each panel 7 x 5 inches, Overall 7 x 10 inches. Image courtesy of Massey Klein Gallery and The Artist.

Monia Ben Hamouda, photo: Michele Gabriele

Monia Ben Hamouda (b. 1991, Milan) lives and works between al-Qayrawan and Milan. She graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan. Previous positions include a visiting professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden and a Master of Curating at Istituto Marangoni, Florence, and a seat in the jury at the Filmmaker Festival, Milan. 

Her work has been presented in various venues including ChertLüdde, Berlin; ASHES/ASHES, New York; Ar/Ge kunst Kunstverein, Bozen; Jevouspropose, Zurich; Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Florence; Et.Al, San Francisco; Ada, Rome; Galerie Valeria Cetraro, Paris; Universitätssammlungen Kunst, Dresden; Alios 16me Biennale d’Art Contemporain, La Teste de Buch; Marselleria Permanent Exhibition, Milan. Awards include: Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (winner); VI Club Gamec Prize (finalist); TSI Art Award x Artissima (winner); Art Business Accelerator Grant, Artwork Archive and Redline Contemporary Art Center (winner); DUCATO Contemporary Art Prize  (special prize winner).

Additional information for Monia can be found on her artist page.

The book she discussed in the interview is The Big Something by Ron Padgett.

Monia Ben Hamouda Denial of a Red-Winged Blackbird (Aniconism As Figurative Urgency), 2022 laser-cut steel, spice powders, charcoal 86 1/4 x 76 3/8 x 3/64 inches (219 x 194 x 0.3 centimeters). © Monia Ben Hamouda, courtesy ASHES/ASHES, New York and ChertLüdde, Berlin.

Monia Ben Hamouda Denial of a Red-Winged Blackbird (Aniconism As Figurative Urgency), 2022 laser-cut steel, spice powders, charcoal 86 1/4 x 76 3/8 x 3/64 inches (219 x 194 x 0.3 centimeters). © Monia Ben Hamouda, courtesy ASHES/ASHES, New York and ChertLüdde, Berlin.

Portrait by Gabriella Marks

Paula Wilson received an MFA from Columbia and a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Alongside her current exhibition at Denny Dimin Gallery, she is currently exhibiting within a group exhibition Plein Air at MOCA Tucson and has an upcoming solo exhibition Toward the Sky’s Back Door at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs in 2023. She has also recently had an acquisition placed at Colby College Museum of Art. In addition, her upcoming Albuquerque Museum show: Nicola López and Paula Wilson: Becoming Land opens October 8th, 2022 and is part of a larger umbrella of shows titled: Historic and Contemporary Landscapes including work by Thomas Cole and Kiki Smith.

Wilson’s has held other recent solo exhibitions at Locust Projects, Miami, FL (2020-2021), 516 ARTS Contemporary Museum, Albuquerque, NM (2019), Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2018), and Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, NY (2018). She has been included in four exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, exhibitions at Tufts University Art Galleries (2021), Skidmore College (2015), Inside-Out Art Museum in Beijing (2014), Postmasters Gallery (2010), Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (2010), Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2009), Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (2007), Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (2006), just to name a few. 

Wilson’s artwork is in many prestigious collections including, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the New York Public Library, Yale University, Saatchi Gallery, and The Fabric Workshop.

Microhouse, 2022 Mixed Media. Courtesy of Paula Wilson and Denny Dimin Gallery

Earth Angel, 2022 Acrylic and oil on muslin and canvas (relief, silkscreen, monotype, and lithography print), wooden and beaded jewelry made in collaboration with Mike Lagg. Courtesy of Paula Wilson and Denny Dimin Gallery

Up My Sleeve, 2021 Acrylic on muslin and canvas (woodblock, relief, monotype, silkscreen, collagraph, and digital print) Courtesy of Paula Wilson and Denny Dimin Gallery

In Takuji Hamanaka’s mosaic-inspired works on paper, multiple sections of monochrome color interlock within dimensional, polychrome compositions. Adapting the ‘Bokashi’ technique of woodblock printing to a contemporary practice, Hamanaka prints multiple papers in color gradients and arranges them onto paper in organic designs that call to mind lattices, prisms, and slopes. Color and its absence draw attention to the paper’s opacity, as well as more theoretical ideas of windows and grids, and the tension between nature and pure abstraction.

Takuji Hamanaka was born in 1968 in Hokkaido, Japan and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. From 1986-89 he trained at the Adachi Institute of Woodblock printmaking in Tokyo, Japan. Hamanaka is the 2022 recipient of a prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the recipient numerous other grants and awards including The Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant (2021), the Rauschenberg Emergency Grant (2020), and the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Printmaking (2017 and 2011). He was a fellow at the Kala Art institute, Berkeley, CA in 2016 and a Barbara and Thomas Putnam Fellow at MacDowell Colony in 2013. His works are included in the collections of the Fleming Museum, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection among others. Recent group exhibitions include 'Focus on the Flatfiles: Between Worlds,' Kentler International Drawing Center, Brooklyn, NY, and 'Here and Now,' The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ. His exhibitions have been reviewed by John Yau (Hyperallergic) and Johanna Fateman (The New Yorker).

The book he mentioned at the end is Early Light by Osamu Dazi.

Takuji Hamanaka , Collapsing Stair, 2021, Cut and pasted woodblock printed papers, mounted on museum board, 32 x 25 1/2 inches, TH1165, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Lance Brewer

 Takuji Hamanaka, Stream Mineral, 2021, Cut and pasted woodblock printed papers, mounted on museum board, 32 x 25 1/2 inches, TH1165, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Lance Brewer

Takuji Hamanaka, Broken Screen, 2021, Cut and pasted woodblock printed papers, mounted on museum board, 32 x 25 1/2 inches, TH1165, Courtesy of the Artist and Kristen Lorello, NY, Photo: Lance Brewer

Anthony Akinbola Photo by Fredrick Nwosu

Anthony Akinbola is an interdisciplinary Nigerian- American, Brooklyn-based artist. Born in Columbia, Missouri, Anthony Akinbola, is a first-generation American raised by Nigerian parents in the United States and Nigeria. His layered, richly colored compositions celebrate and signify the distinct cultures that shape his identity. The artist’s signature Camouflage paintings, consisting of single and multi-panel works, utilize the ubiquitous du-rag as their primary material. Universally available and possessed of significant cultural context, the du-rag represents for Akinbola a readymade object that engages the conceptual strategies of Marcel Duchamp and other significant artistic predecessors. Throughout his work Akinbola unpacks the rituals and histories connecting Africa and America, addressing the power of fetishization around cultural objects.

Anthony Akinbola was selected for the Anderson Ranch Art Center Residency in 2017 and created a monumental wall collage for The Queens Museum in 2018. In 2019, Akinbola was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship and named the eighth Museum of Arts and Design Artist Fellow, which resulted in a solo exhibition at the museum. In September 2022, Anthony Akinbola was awarded the Silver Arts Project residency in New York. Akinbola’s work is currently featured in a group exhibition at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. His work will be included in a group exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art in March 2023. His work has been featured in exhibitions at The Queens Museum, NY; the Bronx River Art Center, NY; The Zuckerman Museum of Art, GA; and The Verbeke Foundation, Belgium, amongst others. Following his exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design, NY in 2020, Akinbola mounted a significant solo exhibition in early 2021 at the Kohler Arts Center, WI. Akinbola received a BA in communications and media from SUNY Purchase College. His work is included in the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH, the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, and The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY amongst others.

Installation view of Anthony Akinbola: Natural Beauty at Sean Kelly, New York, September 8 - October 22, 2022, Photography: Adam Reich, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Anthony Akinbola White Bronco, 2022 durags, acrylic on wood panel overall: 110 x 72 inches © Anthony Akinbola Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Anthony Akinbola Camouflage Study "Lilac/Green", 2022 durags, acrylic on wood panel 48 x 96 inches © Anthony Akinbola Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Anthony Akinbola Lift Every Voice, 2022 durags, acrylic on wood panel overall: 149 x 73 1/2 inches © Anthony Akinbola Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Kyle Thurman (b. 1986, West Chester, PA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In 2016 he received an MFA in painting from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. From 2011 to 2012, Thurman studied with Christopher Williams and Peter Doig as a guest student at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. In 2009 he received his BA in Film Studies and Visual Arts from Columbia University.

Most recently, Thurman was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta; his work is now included in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Other recent solo and group exhibitions include Central Fine, Miami Beach, FL; The Meeting, New York, NY; Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna, Austria; 1301PE, Los Angeles, CA; Off Vendome, New York, NY; The Cleveland Triennial, Cleveland, OH; Parapet Real Humans, St. Louis, MO; Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Cookie Butcher, Antwerp, Belgium; Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium; Kostyal, London, England; Benevento, New York, NY; OFFSITE, New York, NY; Bodega, New York, NY; MOCA Tucson, Tucson, AZ; Fluxia Gallery, Milan, Italy; Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY; Dickinson Gallery, New York, NY; Galeria Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain; Lisa Cooley and Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY; Room East, New York, NY; Middlemarch, Brussels, Belgium; Nudashank, Baltimore, MA; Shoot the Lobster, Miami, FL; Maison Particuliere, Brussels, Belgium; West Street Gallery, New York NY; Eleven Rivington, New York, NY; Clearing, Brussels, Belgium; M and B Art, Los Angeles, CA; Martos Gallery, New York, NY; Printed Matter, New York, NY; and The Mercantile Fiction Library, New York, NY among others. The artist’s upcoming exhibitions include Central Fine, Miami Beach, FL and Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna, Austria.

Kyle Thurman Dream Police (My neck) 2022 Acrylic dispersion, gouache, oil, and watercolor on PVA primed paper and Dibond panel in artist’s frame 49 7/8 x 73 7/8 x 2 7/8 in 126.7 x 187.6 x 7.3 cm Image courtesy the artist and David Lewis.

Kyle Thurman Forest (our shadow) 2022 Gouache, graphite, oil, and watercolor on PVA primed paper and Dibond panel in artist’s frame 49 7/8 x 73 7/8 x 2 7/8 in 126.7 x 187.6 x 7.3 cm. Image courtesy the artist and David Lewis.

Kyle Thurman Crown (model monument, emotion) 2022 with altar by Lesser Miracle Patinated bronze and wood Sculpture Dimensions: 21 1/10 x 21 1/10 x 21 1/10 in 53.6 x 53.6 x 53.6 cm Altar Dimensions: 30 x 70 x 33 in 76.2 x 177.8 x 83.82 cm. Image courtesy the artist and David Lewis.

Andrea Kantrowitz, an artist and educator, has lectured and led workshops on art and cognition internationally, and has twice served as a Singapore Ministry of Education Outstanding Educator in Residence. She was a teaching artist in the New York City public schools for many years, involved in multiple local and national research projects that demonstrated the positive academic impact of an integrated art curriculum for students growing up in poverty. As a director of the Thinking through Drawing Project, she co-organized 10 years of international drawing and cognition research symposia and workshops, in collaboration with colleagues from around the world. She holds a doctorate in Art Education and Cognitive Studies from Columbia University Teachers College, an MFA in Painting from Yale, a BA in Art and Cognition from Harvard and is an Associate Professor and Director of the Art Education Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz.  Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and are in many private collections.  She has curated multiple exhibitions on themes of drawing, cognition, and the creative work of artist/educators.  She is an artist member of The Painting Center in New York City, and her artwork is also represented by Kenise Barnes Fine Art.

Homage to Las Meninas, Mixed media on paper, 32 x 40. 2022

Many Stories Could Be Told, Charcoal and pastel on paper, 28 x 40. 2022

Polyhhedra, Charcoal and pastel on paper, 24 x 40. 2022

Noah Jemisin, 2022

Noah Jemisin was born in Birmingham, AL and obtained an MFA degree from University of Iowa, in 1974. His extensive travels in Africa, Europe and  Asia over the years have helped him to develop an approach to life and art that enables him to synthesize into a distinct and dynamic whole the various components of his identity and create work that strives to make meaning of his personal history as well as the ambiguities and contradictions of contemporary culture. There is a great deal of critical experience, of knowledge and admiration of art historical precedents in his work as well as an

ever sensitive deftly balanced interaction between modernism’s formal concern’s with a belief in the emotive potential of painting.

He is included in the highly anticipated exhibition Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, Museum of Modern Art, (MoMA), New York, October 9 , 2022 – February 18, 2023. JAM was an art gallery that welcomed artists and visitors of many generations and races in New York City from 1974 until 1986. Upcoming solo exhibitions include Noah Jemisin: Paintings-1970s-1980s, Skoto Gallery, New York, October 13-November 26, 2022; and “Back to B’ham”, a survey exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL.; Spring 2024.

He is also represented in numerous public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Library of Congress, Washington DC, the Museum of Art at the University of Iowa, Montclair Museum of Art, Museum of Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Miami-Dade Public Library, Florida. Awards include New York Foundation for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, a travel grant from Arts International, Artist in Residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Bronx River Art Gallery, Bronx, New York.

The Immortality Of The Human Soul, Nyame Nwu Mawu I, 2021, acrylic, gouache on canvas

Maiden Bathers, 1985, Encaustic on canvas, 54x36 inches

Perrotin New York is pleased to present the first survey exhibition in the United States of the late Norwegian-born painter Anna-Eva Bergman (1909-1987), entitled Revelation. A central figure in the development of European modernism, Bergman abstracted the landscapes of Norway into spiritually transcendent compositions. Despite Bergman’s colorful life and strikingly original creative output, there has yet to be such a spotlight on her talent — a situation that is soon to change, given a major pair of retrospectives set to open at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the National Museum of Oslo in 2023.

This interview is with Thomas Schlesser, the director of the Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman foundation.

N°63-1961 Big universe with small squares, 1961. Oil and metal sheet on canvas Framed: 198.2 × 208 × 6 cm. Photographer: Claire Dorn. ©Anna-Eva Bergman /ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York 2022. Courtesy Fondation Hartung -Bergman & Perrotin

Anna-Eva Bergman N°59-1962 Small golden fire on black, 1962 Tempera and metal sheet on canvas Unframed: 24 1/16 x 19 11/16 inch Framed: 25 7/8 x 21 9/16 x 1 9/16 inch ©Anna-Eva Bergman/ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York 2022. Courtesy Fondation Hartung-Bergman & Perrotin

Anna-Eva Bergman N°17-1976 Nunatak II, 1976 Acrylic and metal sheet on canvas Unframed: 98 7/16 x 78 3/4 inch Framed: 101 3/8 x 81 9/16 x 2 3/8 inch ©Anna-Eva Bergman/ADAGP, Paris & ARS, New York 2022. Courtesy Fondation Hartung-Bergman & Perrotin