In Dialogue by Etty Yaniv

Gravity of Light at BMoCA

The Gravity of Light, on view at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), features seven artists who use light as a key element in their work: Sami Al Karim, Bill Armstrong, Alyson Denny, Chuck Kelton, Anne Lindberg, Elizabeth Mead, and Gelah Penn. The media include photography, cameraless chemograms, video, drawing, and site-responsive installation, and several works were created specifically for the show. New York-based artist Kate Petley curated the exhibition; her own work combines photography and painting, which shaped her interest in light. Here, Petley discusses how the exhibition came together, the idea behind it, how the works sit together across the museum’s three spaces, and what she hopes light can offer viewers right now.

In Dialogue by Ella Jackson

In Conversation with Claudia Bitrán: Titanic, Britney Spears, and Her Studio Practice

As a young girl, Claudia Bitrán would patiently wait for Britney Spears to come across the screen, then hurriedly hit Play and Record on the VCR, ready to rewind, rewatch, pause, and then pose, memorizing every nuance, note, mannerism, and movement. Born in Boston, raised in Chile, and now a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, Bitrán’s work often imitates, recreates, and reimagines iconic artistry, from impersonating, painting, and paying homage to Britney Spears to recreating James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic, which Bitrán produced over the span of twelve years. Having first watched Titanic as a young girl, the splendor and sublimity of the ship, both in its triumph and tragedy on the seas, mesmerized her from the get-go, leading to a lifelong dedication to honoring and recreating the film through her own practice. Fascinated by spectacle, inspired by iconic artistry, Bitrán shares a glimpse into her artistic world and practice. 

Installation image, Under the Common Sea | 海的下面还有海
Featured Exhibition by Arete Xu

Under the Common Sea | 海的下面还有海

It is difficult for anyone to tell a story about being Chinese. On the surface, we have consummatory trends like “At A Very Chinese Time of My Life”; otherwise, we often see over-sensationalized narratives about geopolitical maneuverings. Yet, in the undertow, Chinese people work and make in conditions full of positional and situational complexity, and they belong to nuanced communities. Under the Common Sea is a group exhibition where artists and cultural workers came together to showcase the range and diversity of experiences, relationalities, and perspectives on identity among Chinese and Sinophone diasporic peoples in NY and across the United States.

Babs Reingold with Lost Trees, 2022
In Dialogue by Etty Yaniv

Babs Reingold: Forest Bathing at Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art 

For two decades, Babs Reingold has reflected throughout her mixed media work on the intersections of poverty, climate change, and beauty in the environment. In her current solo show, Forest Bathing at Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida, brings together two ongoing series, Hair Nest and Lost Trees. Both series mark a deliberate shift toward celebrating the beauty and resilience of nature. Whether confronting social inequities, ecological destruction, or the persistence of beauty amid crisis, her work arises from a deep belief that art can create both awareness and change. By transforming unconventional materials—human hair, salvaged wood, silk organza—into immersive environments, Reingold invites visitors to think about their place within larger systems of survival, destruction, and renewal. We discussed this exhibition in the context of her larger body of work.

Meg Hitchcock, Fang (2025)
In Dialogue by Etty Yaniv

Fall Exhibitions at The Hammond Museum

At the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in North Salem, New York, art doesn’t stay inside the galleries. Since 1964, the museum has staged exhibitions that move from its gallery walls to its patio, tea hut, and garden paths, with about fifteen shows a year and the number growing. Contemporary and historical, drawn from many styles and cultural traditions, the exhibitions often aim to build cross-cultural understanding, while those set outdoors open a dialogue between art, nature, and personal reflection. This fall, five shows fill the grounds: Tomoko Amaki Abe’s Heaven Come Down in the Main Gallery, Meg Hitchcock’s Fang in the Hays and Goelet Galleries, Soli Pierce’s Poetry of Place in the Tea Hut, Matthew Weber’s Ground Shift on the Patio, and Kurt Steger’s In the Garden along the Japanese Stroll Garden. In this conversation, the museum team talks about how the Exhibition Committee selects its shows and how each one carries the museum’s mission forward.

Installation view of Vessels: Bodies, Tales & Machines
Exhibition Review by Taylor Bielecki

Vessels: Bodies, Tales & Machines at Westbeth Gallery 

The concept of a vessel offers multiple realities and interpretations that can vary, grow, and expand. In this exhibition titled Vessels: Bodies, Tales & Machines, the idea of a vessel takes the shape of both three-dimensional and two-dimensional works–all of which flow throughout the meandering Westbeth Gallery space. The term vessel itself can be considered a container: its external surroundings, the content, and the internal parts that are often unseen are included with it. These visible aspects of form and material, along with the invisible stories that are nested within the forms, are present throughout the works of the four artists: Jeanne Verdoux, Fanny Allié, and the collaboration between Nicolas Touron and Amy Lemaire. Each artist’s interpretation of a vessel connects the inside to the outside in their own ways and allows viewers to experience each artist’s narrative within their work.

Asher Liftin, Installation View
Exhibition Review by Sara Aparicio

Asher Liftin’s Lines Explored at 125 Newbury Gallery

Looking at Asher Liftin’s work, the viewer might first ask, “Is this a textured surface? Is it purposefully pixelated? How is it pixelated?” As the viewer moves closer to these pictures, Liftin’s unique way of building the picture with lines rather than shapes becomes clear, using crosshatching – lines intersecting in different directions to create form and value. Another thought that follows: “Is it ink? Is it paint?” The uniformity of line makes the viewer think that this must be a drawing; however, the distinct paint drips that break the illusion of perfection suggest it is a painting instead. The short answer is both. Spoiler alert: the smaller works used colored pencils, while the larger works used acrylic ink and paint. But most importantly, why are these images so convincingly realistic?

Exhibition view of Tarik Jeremiah Brown
In Dialogue by Yasmeen Abdallah

Autumn Exhibitions at Wave Hill

An autumnal lineup of exhibitions at Wave Hill delve into the splendor of the landscape through intersections of nature, societal transmission, history, and political climate. These engagements are created through processes involving acts of listening, archival practices, explorations of bodily autonomy and mythologies. The following is an interview with Wave Hill curators Rachel Gugelberger and Gabriel de Guzman, unpacking key takeaways about its most recent projects.