Deep Color

Graham Collins makes sculpture and paintings that often combine complex structures, minimalism and material exploration. Graham talks about his approach to making and how different bodies of work connect and disconnect, thriving off of deadlines, being skeptical of art as a healthy exercise, allowing for fun in studio, small versus big galleries, green smoothies as placebo, how feelings aren’t fac...

Joshua Abelow makes abstract paintings that feature a mix of geometric patterns, angular bursts, and stick figures that awkwardly vibrate up and through the picture plane. Josh talks about balancing broadness and specificity in his work, his writing and the futility of artist statements, his curatorial project and exhibition space “Freddy”, the value of maintaining a routine, and the similarities...

Erin M. Riley is a fiber-based artist that makes large scale, hand woven tapestries that depict still lives of forlorn objects, scenes of intimacy and self-portraiture. Erin talks about women expressing masculinity through art, selfies as a form of existence, her source material, ritual and the physicality of process, code words as privacy, slowing down and looking, and art as a fundamental surviv...

Jennie Jieun Lee makes ceramic sculpture covered with luscious layers of glaze, and wall works that combine assemblage, drawing and painting. Jennie talks about graduate school as a way to check ego and stretch the brain, otherness and an immigrant’s ear, emotions as appraisals of intelligence, collapsing boundaries between craft and fine art, her glazing strategies, and personal fulfillment throu...

Eric White makes representational oil paintings that often depict cinematic scenes and unsettling but graceful interactions between people and objects. Eric talks about film as an influence and using reference material, finding ideas in dream states, sleep and painting as obsession, the perverse satisfaction of using tiny brushes, and enjoying all the variables and challenges of making a good pain...

Hilary Pecis makes vibrant acrylic paintings that depict still lives, landscapes and domestic interior spaces. Hilary talks about the benefits and challenges of a home studio, translating camera phone photos into dynamic paintings, looking for opportunities to try different types of mark-making and visual vocabularies, throwing a pie at Renoir, her takeaways from working in a contemporary art gall...

Sophie Stone makes work that shifts between painting, sculpture, and domestic floor rugs. Sophie talks about the state of ambiguity in her work, allowing materials to use their own muscles, her installation at NADA House on Governor’s Island, stains as gesture and grungy versus polished surfaces, frustration leading to revelation, letting go in studio, and reinterpreting decorative art and beauty.

Sarah Zapata makes textile-based installations and sculpture. Sarah talks about research, reading and writing as important parts of her process, her sculpture at NADA House on Governor’s Island in New York City, the contentious history of stripes in textiles, writing foot erotica, time as currency, her connection to Evangelicalism, guilt as a driving force and exchanges between craft and contempor...

Heather Hubbs is the Executive Director of The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), a non-profit membership organization for art galleries and alternative art spaces. Heather talks about NADA’s history and curatorial vision, the NADA House exhibit on Governor’s Island in NYC, where NADA fits within the landscape of contemporary art fairs, the impact of arts-based social media and online platforms, and...

Fabienne Lasserre makes three-dimensional work that oscillates between sculpture and painting. Fabienne talks about using materials that allow her to change her mind, the process of unthinking and undoing, how color can linger in memory, the indescribable aspects of art, making work that can adapt to its surroundings, a feeling of ease in studio and stubbornness as a guiding principle.

Megan Dickerson is the Senior Exhibitions Manager at The New Children’s Museum in San Diego. Megan talks about identifying as a “play worker,” working at the intersection of the contemporary art world and children’s museums, how kids explore and find agency through play, art materials as potentially “gnawable,” considering physical and emotional risks within an exhibit, re-balancing the relationsh...

Sean Kelly has been a contemporary art dealer for over three decades, establishing a reputation for presenting diverse, intellectually driven and unconventional exhibitions. Sean talks about his role as an Armory Show selection committee member, suggestions on how galleries might prepare a strong and memorable fair application, how his relationship with performance artist Marina Abramovic develope...

Sally Tallant is the incoming Director of the Queens Museum in New York and curated the Platform section of the 2019 Armory Show. Sally talks about the different stages of her curatorial process, some of the ideas and artists featured in her current project titled “Worlds of Tomorrow”, the exchanges between hope, optimism and action, a meaningful trip to Sri Lanka, being completely moved by the wo...

Christian Nagel is been a contemporary art dealer for over three decades. He is currently operating as Galerie Nagel Draxler, located in Berlin. Christian talks about the origins of The Armory Show, an important internship he had at the Kaiser Wihelm Museum, a memorable road trip with painter Günther Förg, presenting a commemorative booth that salutes the legacies of fair co-founders Pat Hearn and...

Eric Shiner is the artistic director at White Cube in New York. He was previously senior vice president of contemporary art at Sotheby’s and director of The Andy Warhol Museum. Eric talks about curating past Focus and Platform sections of The Armory Show, galleries as an important part of an artist’s support network, what he looks for during studio visits, Andy Warhol and social media, and artists...

Mark Dion is an American artist whose work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world. Mark talks about participating at the first incarnations of The Armory Show during the mid-1990’s, remembering Pat Hearn and Colin de Land, collecting objects and his curiosity cabinet installations, a forthcoming pro...

Rachelle Dang makes installation-based work and sculpture that considers the exchanges between colonial legacies, botanical sciences and personal history. Rachelle talks about how audience activates her work, shifting from painting to sculpture, her “Savages of the Pacific” project, breadfruit, finding tremendous happiness through making art and the endless responsibility of dealing with history.

Adam Helms makes drawings and paintings that often depict masked faces, opposition groups, portraits of women, or scenes from comic books and film. Adam talks about posturing and symbolism through identity, image appropriation, subcultures and black metal, divorcing himself from his own work and looking for the emotional resonance in images.

Brian Chippendale is a visual artist, drummer and singer in Lightning Bolt and Black Pus, and a founding member of the seminal work-live-performance venue Fort Thunder. Brian talks about the similarities and distinctions between his different modes of making, mistakes as the living parts of his work, the fury of parenthood, selling artwork outside of the gallery system and enthusiasm as a way to g...

Brian Chippendale is a visual artist, drummer and singer in Lightning Bolt and Black Pus, and a founding member of the seminal work-live-performance venue Fort Thunder. Brian talks about creating immersive and expansive worlds in his work; handmade masks; playing drums; improvisation as an important tool, and capturing energy, multiplying it and blowing it back out. This is part 1 of a 2-part epis...

Monona Rossol is a chemist, sculptor, singer and an industrial hygienist that specializes in visual and performing arts health hazards. Monona talks about how most artist studios fail OSHA safety regulations, her book “The Artists Complete Health & Safety Guide”, kid’s art supplies, being born into a vaudevillian family, scientific facts, human denial and the challenge of being persuasive, and...

Ryan Travis Christian makes graphite drawings on paper that often depict invented cartoon characters immersed in a world of provocative activity and goofball scenarios. RTC talks about processing emotional and political turmoil through his art, making work that transcends scene, seeing a demon and homage as a way to keep ideas alive.

Butt Johnson makes highly rendered and labor intensive drawings. Butt talks about using a pseudonym as part of his artistic identity, his technical process and drafting system, patient execution as a form of peacefulness, looking for rigorousness in art, a love for sub-cultures, biology and gardening, and setting up his own parameters of challenge in art.

Tau Lewis makes sculptural work that often utilizes fabrics, industrial debris, plaster and found objects. Tau talks about her admiration for Souls Grown Deep, the history and memory of materials, identifying as a self-taught artist, black geographies, black imagination and black resourcefulness, childhood drawings of Michael Jackson, mermaids, healing and joyfulness through making.

Maia Ruth Lee makes paintings, sculpture, jewelry and video-based works. Maia talks about growing up in Nepal, being patient and flexible with her ideas, utilizing source material like vintage clip art books, art education and her role as the director of Wide Rainbow, how motherhood has helped her become a more relaxed artist and her recent solo show at Jack Hanley Gallery.