(Republication of a dArt magazine Summer 2003 article.)
Young, attractive, and successful executive at an assets management firm in New York, Gail Rothman, is also an enthusiastic collector of art. She started collecting in 1998 and has already acquired over one hundred pieces, but she still humbly labels herself a neophyte. She approaches her “vice” passionately and hopes to follow in the steps of her two idols, Dr. Alfred C. Barnes and herbert Vogel. Barnes, a very wealthy man, collected according to his personal intuitions regardless of current trends, and was proven by time to have been astute in his selections. And she emulates Herb Vogel because he amassed a legendary collection on his postman’s salary, demonstrating that a great collection can be assembled on a limited budget.
Christopher Chambers:Do you collect current fine art exclusively?
Gail Rothman: My collecting criteria is that the piece must have been made from 1990 onwards, the artist still has to be alive, and the proceeds – these are primary sales – either has to benefit the artist or a charity that the artist has designated. I am currently not doing anything in the secondary market, so in a sense I am acting as a patron.
CC:Who do you buy from?
GR: Benefit auctions, artists directly, or through a gallery – a dealer.
CC:It seems like you really launched into collecting with a vengeance. What precipitated this? What was the impetus?
GR: A lot of white walls in my apartment. I had been a member of museum groups at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim, and I said, “Ooh, you know maybe it’s a little embarrassing for people to come over to my house and there’s no art.” I think you get to a certain point in your life and you decide, “I’d rather have something that’s an original piece.”
CC:Do you bargain with the dealers?
GR: I buy art like I buy clothes. If I see something that I like, but I can’t choose the color, then I get more than one. As with anything, if you are buying more than one, or if you are potentially going to be a customer that comes back, you get discounts. I have to work for my art vice. You try to be smart shopper.
CC:Do you have relationships with particular dealers, or do you pretty much scour the market?
GR: A combination of both. I I have a good relationship in Frankfort with L.A. Gallery. In New York with Derek Eller Gallery and Paul Morris Gallery. In California: Mark Moore Gallery.
CC:Where is your collection housed?
GR: Several places right now, depending on the kindness of friends and family.
CC:Do you fraternize with other collectors?
GR: I do fraternize with some collectors. I’d like to fraternize with more. It seems to be a small conspiracy to keep collectors away from each other. When you go to a gallery the’re always very discreet and very mysterious about who the other collectors are, so you don’t run into them too often, Slowly but surely you build up your collector’s network.
CC:Have you collected specific artists in depth?
GR: Yes, I have to say I love all my artists, but I have particularly strong crush now on Oliver Boberg (Constructed reality photos. Shows with Paul Morris, New York and L.A. Gallery Frankfort). I have several pieces of Thomas Scheibitz (figurative German painter, represented in New York by Tanya Bonakder Gallery), and Michael Reafshneider (an American, he makes abstract, heavy impasto, colorful paintings. Shows with Mark Moore in Los Angeles), Giles Lyon (young American abstract painter represented by Feigen Contemporary in New York) Whiting Tennis (innovative young American collage/painter with Derek Eller gallery, New York).
CC:How much do you usually spend for a young artist?
GR: Smaller works under $3000.
CC:Who do you listen to?
GR: I listen to my internal voice. If I love a piece it doesn’t really matter what anyone says. I listen to dealers when they have an artist that they have an artist that they think might fit my taste, and I ask other artists what they think. I have bought some pieces by the artists I just mentioned that people have pooh-poohed and then allof a sudden the artist’s career started expanding two years later and everyone said, “Oh, I can’t believe you got that artist, you were such a visionary!” And I’m thinking, “Don’t they remember what they told me two years ago? They thought it was a piece of crap.”
The art world is a realm where new discoveries occur on a daily basis. While some may argue that finding a life-changing bargain is improbable, the reality is that such opportunities do exist, often emerging unexpectedly. Artworks are unearthed regularly in the most surprising locations. One must simply open their eyes and comprehend what they are observing.
N. C. Wyeth, Ramona, Frontispiece illustration, 1939, oil on panel
N. C. Wyeth (1882-1945). A woman bought a painting measuring 25-1/8 x 16-7/8 inches in a frame 28 x 19-1/2 inches for $4 at a thrift store, primarily for its frame. This was the aspiration of a woman as she rummaged through a collection of old frames during her visit to Savers, a thrift store located in New Hampshire. This situation highlights the notion that a frame can sometimes be more valuable than the artwork it holds. Only to later learn that the painting within the frame was an N.C. Wyeth original artwork valued at around $150,000 to $250,000 USD. The identification of the painting as the work of the esteemed American painter and illustrator N.C. Wyeth was facilitated by an art conservator based in Maine.
The American painter, whose life spanned from 1882 to 1945, had an extensive career that included creating illustrations for magazines and authors over several decades. The painting found in a thrift store has been identified as one of four potential cover designs for the 1939 edition of Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel, Ramona. This story follows the life of a fictional girl of mixed Scottish and Native American heritage, who is left orphaned shortly after the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848. In this piece, Wyeth illustrates a critical moment in the story, where Ramona adopts a defiant posture in front of her adoptive mother, Señora Moreno, whose chilly disposition is effectively represented by her stark black dress.
The details regarding how this artwork came to be in a New Hampshire thrift shop are still unknown. The painting was eventually sold 19 September 2023 for $191,000 USD at Bonhams Skinner Auctions in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA.
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, The Adoration of the Kings, circa 1628, oil on oak panel
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669). The painting titled The Adoration of The Kings, an oil on oak panel measuring 24.5 x 18.5 cm (9-5/8 x 7-1/4 inches), created circa 1628 which possesses a distinctive provenance that traces back to Amsterdam. It was first recorded in an estate inventory sale on 17 May 1715, listed as lot 1. Subsequently, it was sold in London at Phillips on 2 June 1814, listed as lot 40, where it fetched 215 Guineas. The artwork was later presented for sale again in London at Phillips on 29 June 1822, identified as “by” Rembrandt van Rijn, under the title The Adoration of the Magi. On 27 March 1963, it was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London listed as lot 13, as “by” Rembrandt van Rijn, but went unsold at £3,800. The piece was eventually sold in Amsterdam at Christie’s on 3 December 1985, cataloged as “Circle of” Rembrandt van Rijn. It reappeared at an online auction at Christie’s in Amsterdam on 6 October 2021, listed as lot 7, also attributed to “Circle of” Rembrandt van Rijn, with an estimated value of 10,000-15,000 EUR, ultimately achieving a sale price of 860,000 EUR. The auction house catalogued it as a work from the “circle of” Rembrandt however the interest shown in the bidding indicated that several bidders suspected it might truly be a creation of the Old Master.
Following a thorough analysis that incorporated infrared and x-ray imaging, along with evaluations by prominent Rembrandt scholars, experts have reattributed the small Biblical painting, which had been absent from historical records for many years, to Rembrandt van Rijn. The characteristics typical of his late 1620s style are apparent in both the visible painted surface and the underlying layers uncovered through scientific methods, revealing numerous alterations made during its creation and providing new insights into his artistic process.
Sotheby’s has confirmed that the artwork is indeed an authentic Rembrandt. It was featured in the auction house’s evening sale of Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings listed as lot 11, held in London on 6 December 2023, with an estimated value ranging from 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 GBP. Ultimately, the piece was sold for a final bid price of 10,965,300 GBP.
Giorgio da Castelfranco (Giorgione), Portrait of Giovanni Borgherini and Trifone Gabriele, 1509/1510, oil on canvas
Giorgio da Castelfranco (Giorgione) (1473/74–1510). A remarkable discovery has been made by an interdisciplinary team of scholars and scientists at the Alte Pinakothek and the Doerner Institute in Munich, Germany. Comprehensive art-historical and art-technological studies, undertaken as part of a research initiative focused on the Venetian Renaissance paintings within the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections), have validated the insights that began to surface during the exhibition ‘Venezia 500 The Gentle Revolution of Venetian Painting’ from October 2023 to February 2024.
The enigmatic double portrait, titled Portrait of Giovanni Borgherini and Trifone Gabriele, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 67 cm (36 x 26-1/4 inches) painted in 1509/10 previously showcased at the Grüne Galerie in the Munich Residenz since 2011 and currently housed in the Alte Pinakothek, has been ascribed to Giorgio da Castelfranco, commonly referred to as Giorgione.
Giorgione, an influential Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, died in 1510 at a young age in his thirties. Originating from the quaint town of Castelfranco Veneto, which is also the birthplace of my father, Peter Bernardi, who was born in 1935. The town is situated 40 kilometers inland from Venice. An important milestone in Giorgione’s life was his encounter with Leonardo da Vinci in the year 1500. Giorgione is celebrated for the elusive and poetic nature of his artwork. However, only a limited number of paintings can be definitively attributed to him. The ambiguity surrounding the identity and interpretation of his pieces has rendered Giorgione one of the most enigmatic figures in European art history. He is widely regarded as the first Italian to incorporate landscapes as a background for figures in his paintings. In addition to altarpieces and portraits, he created works that lacked a narrative, whether biblical or classical, focusing instead on conveying moods of lyrical or romantic sentiment through form and colour.
This attribution positions it among the rare known works of this remarkably gifted artist, whose brief career significantly transformed Renaissance painting. The research results, represent a remarkable breakthrough in the study of Italian Renaissance art.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Penitent Mary Magdalene, circa 1625/1626, oil on canvas
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653). The Kimbell Art Museum, located in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, has acquired a significant work by Artemisia Gentileschi. This painting is believed to be the original of a composition that has been replicated in several copies, a masterpiece once thought to be lost. Numerous reproductions of this artwork exist, including one that was auctioned in Genoa at Cambi Auction House on 30 June 2020. This particular copy, Lot 121 listed as “After” Artemisia Gentileschi, had an estimated value of 5,000-6,000 EUR but ultimately sold for 47,500 EUR.
For years, scholars have been in pursuit of this artwork, which had been thought to be lost. The painting titled Penitent Mary Magdalene circa 1625-1626, oil on canvas, 109.22 x 93.98 cm (43 x 37 inches) was first acquired, by Fernando Enríquez Afán de Ribera, the third duke of Alcalá and viceroy of Naples, during his role as the Spanish ambassador to Rome from 1625 to 1626. It was believed in the 18th century that the duke might have commissioned Artemisia, as indicated by the references to the painting in the inventories of his collection. The painting was later displayed in his Seville home, the Casa de Pilatos, where it became renowned and was widely reproduced.
Following the passing of the Duke of Alcalá, the painting was retained by his heirs in Seville until it vanished completely. It resurfaced at Tajan Auction House Old Master Paintings sale in France 19 December 2001, Lot 7, where it was attributed to the “studio/workshop” of Artemisia Gentileschi. Bidders, under the impression that it was an original creation, ultimately purchased it for $206,441, a figure that greatly exceeded the high estimate of $11,000. Artemisia’s artwork has achieved sales figures reaching as high as $5,259,897 USD. Subsequently, it was acquired by a private collection and remained there until Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. of New York purchased it on behalf of the Kimbell Art Museum in 2024. The artwork is displayed in the section of the museum dedicated to showcasing other masterpieces of early 17th-century Italian painting, alongside renowned works such as Caravaggio’s The Bari (circa 1595) and Guercino’s Christ and the Samaritan Woman (circa 1619-1620).
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino), Moses, 1618–1619, oil on canvas
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino) (1591-1666). An oil on canvas painting depicting Moses, and measuring 72 x 63 cm (28-1/4 x 24-3/4 inches), was consigned to a sale held at Hôtel Drouot in Paris 25 November 2022, which was organized by the Paris auction house Chayette & Cheval. At that time, the artwork was attributed to an unidentified “follower’ of Guido Reni from the 17th-century Bolognese school, with an estimated value ranging from €5,000 to €6,000.The catalogue of Chayette & Cheval indicated that the auction house had contemplated attributing the work to Guercino, citing the fact that a replica of the same composition by his student Benedetto Zalone was presented by the Franco Semenzato auction house in Venice in 2001. However, the catalogue did not disclose the reasons for dismissing this evidence.
The artwork evidently attracted the discerning attention of at least two bidders, who engaged in a competitive auction. Ultimately, an Italian Old Master expert emerged victorious, securing the piece for an impressive €590,000. However, this amount pales in comparison to the painting’s true worth, which is estimated to be around €2 million.
Over the following year, the astute dealer commenced the process of restoring the painting and verifying its provenance. After months of careful examination, experts announced that the newly discovered painting was actually completed bythe Italian Baroque master Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Il Guercino. A measured risk was undertaken, as acquiring a painting in a dirty condition inherently carries a degree of uncertainty.
Recent studies indicate that this artwork was created circa 1618 or 1619, during Guercino’s late twenties while he resided in Cento, near Bologna. This timeframe positions it as a quintessential representation of the artist’s esteemed prima maniera, a term that refers to the pieces he crafted prior to his relocation to Rome in 1621.
The painting of Moses was initially part of the esteemed collection belonging to Cardinal Alessandro d’Este in Rome. Following his passing in 1624, it remained within his family. It is believed that during the years 1796-97, the painting was likely seized by Napoleon’s troops in Modena and transported to France.
Guercino’s depiction of Moses has been purchased by the charitable foundation of Jacob Rothschild. The painting is set to be permanently showcased at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, managed by the Rothschild Foundation on behalf of the National Trust.
Anthony van Dyck, A Study for Saint Jerome, circa 1615-1618, oil on canvas
Anthony van Dyck(1599-1641). An Anthony van Dyck painting, titled A Study for Saint Jerome, has been rediscovered. This oil on canvas piece measures 95 by 58.5 cm (37½ by 23 inches) and was previously left in a dilapidated state in a farm shed located in Kinderhook, New York. It was acquired for a mere $600 USD. It was not until after the collector’s death in 2021 that his family opted to auction the piece, at which point it was identified as a Van Dyck.
The portrait depicts a nude man sitting on a stool and was likely painted between 1615 and 1618 when Van Dyck was working with Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp. This piece serves as a study for a subsequent work by the Flemish master titled St. Jerome. The completed painting is currently housed in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
The artwork was offered for sale at Sotheby’s Old Master Painting auction in New York on 26 January 2023, listed as Lot 110, with an estimated value of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 USD, ultimately selling for $3,075,000 USD.
Ran Hwang’s latest exhibition at the uptown Leila Heller Gallery re-introduces an abundance of transient forms and the eternal ephemeral. Hwang’s oeuvre – many of her artworks are located in such prestigious collections as, the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Seoul’s National Museum of Contemporary Art– is inspired by her ever-changing life between the US and Korea, as well as her life-long practise of Seon Buddhism. Hwang’s two-dimensional sculptural pieces are embedded with a delicate sense of ethereal melancholy as if mourning for the end of a life lived and for the pain imbuing the one to come.
Ran Hwang, Evanescense and Regeneration, Becoming Again_ETBF, 2024, paper buttons, pins, beads on Plexiglass, 94.4 x 141.7 inches (6p)
Hwang’s new artworks created site-specifically for the Evanescence and Regeneration exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery– represent yet another step into an abstract vocabulary in radiant images of impermanent evanescent blooming forms. As seen in her series titled Becoming Again, in which branches of yellowish, rose and white plum blossoms flourish in snake-like constellations against a deep-blue sky, tangled together with cobweb-like boughs – all recurring symbols for the incessant ephemeral and fragility of life and nature – Hwang, carefully perfects with eloquent mastery, the unique embodiment of her well-known iconography into a static background of transparent Plexiglas.
Ran Hwang, Evanescense and Regeneration Healing oblivious aqua_OS, 2024, buttons, Hanji paper, beads, pins on wooden panels, 78.7 x 141.7 inches
Similarly, in her maximalist work titled Healing Oblivious Aqua_OS, Hwang reformulates the silver-coloured wooden panel – in which her overflowing floret clusters, organically spring – into an immense two-dimensional ellipsoid shape, symbolizing the imminent transitory of natural forms. At the same time through her expression, she comments on the constant eternal cosmic regeneration of the Earth’s biosphere, despite the fleeting nature of phenomenal life. Her delicate blossoms with their colorful petals, appear to flow into a liquid phantasmagoria of becoming. Hwang’s Hanji paper and button-made florets appear to effortlessly meander through the dark branches into blooming bracelets of iridescent stars against the silver firmament.
But Hwang’s artistic ingenuity stands out in her two small tondos, aptly titled Beyond Serenity. Poetically transforming with a totally new approach, a similar concept as her work Ode to the Full Moon, in which, the bright moon disc appears in fiery colors, beautifully interwoven with blossoms. The lunar disk is traditionally a beloved motif of earthly ephemerality and waning change in Korean art. However, in Beyond Serenity, Hwang reverses its customary meaning revealing like a Zen poem, the hidden and metaphysical connectivity beneath all of life’s phenomena and their apparent change through a conceptual paradox. The spherical geometrical shape of the full-moon now becomes a mystical symbol, not as symbol of constant impermanence, but of a fixed serenity; a static tranquility, into which all worldly change is melded into an abstract oneness, despite the ever-changing becoming of life and nature. In this way, the two monochromatic pieces delve into the transcendent realms of non-objectivity. The individual floral figures, which once engulfed the moon’s surface have dissolved now into a primordial womb, into a regenerating eternal One, in which fading and becoming has totally ceased. Something, that is reinforced by their crushing red or pink monochrome.
Hwang’s thematic choice of terrestrial transience comes to grips with the current exhibition of the Japanese artist Kenta Anzai, titled Impermanence at New York’s Guild Gallery. Although both artists address themes of ephemerality, their artistic methods diverge significantly. Anzai’s abstract yet dispiriting objects –a silent plethora of black vessels, primarily made of earthenware and urushi-tree lacquer, like the aesthetic tradition of wabi-sabi – constitute a material embodiment of the brief beauty of nature, adhering thus to a minimalist abstract approach of emptiness. His hollow pottery of organic shapes reflects though raw simplicity, and monochrome materiality, feelings of corrosion, exploiting vacancy or emptiness as artistic elements to formally render the fleeting experience of time’s endless passage.
Ran Hwang, Evanescence and Regeneration opening
In contrast, Hwang’s installations tackle the metaphysical problem of impermanence, not only through ascetic minimalism but via an electrifying maximalism of regenerating form and vivacious colors. Flowers, cobwebs, branches and falling stars symbolize eternal change. Nature constantly regenerates new ephemeral forms that live until their eventual passing, repeating thus a never-ending cycle of generation, degeneration, regeneration. Firmly standing on middle ground between sensuous representation and Anzai’s negating abstraction, Hwang blithely confronts the irreversible flowing of time, not with an abstract rendering of the void, but with a poetic iconography of rejuvenating nature.
Ran Hwang, Evanescence and Regeneration opening
The Evanescence and Regeneration exhibition offers a riveting encounter with the experience of transience and rebirth. Hwang creates a material and spiritual dialectic, through her ethereal works in unconventional media, highlighting the beauty of fragility and the circularity of time. Her monumental floral imagery stabilizes a fugitive glimpse of incessant flux and temporality into biomorphic figures. But simultaneously, it transforms the vast openness of infinity into the frailest of phenomena, merely a blossom’s petal. In a way, Hwang successfully undertakes to poetically inject the eternal now of Pascal, into the brief temporality of the moment.
The Tijuana International Triennial, which opened in July 2024 and runs through February 2025, offers a compelling exploration of contemporary themes like corporeality, identity, and land. Curated by the renowned Brazilian professor Leonor Amarant, this year’s edition brings together a diverse range of international artists, including Miami-based Venezuelan artist Rafael Montilla. A returning participant, Montilla, previously exhibited Big Bang Mirror, a thought-provoking installation that challenged notions of time and space, in 2021. This year, he presents Door to the Universe, a sculpture that deepens his exploration of conceptual and spatial relationships.
Montilla’s work spans photography, sculpture, and performance, with his iconic Kube Man persona receiving particular acclaim. Having performed at prestigious venues such as the Venezuelan, German, and French pavilions at the Venice Biennale, Montilla’s work delves into the interplay of identity, perception, and public engagement.
Kube Man Performance, 2024, Acrylic Mirror Helmet, white vestments, shoes, and gloves, German Pavillion, Venice Biennale
At the heart of Montilla’s practice is the cube, a recurring motif throughout his work. Whether it appears as a hollow geometric form or a mirrored object, the cube becomes a tool for exploring identity. In performances like Kube Man, Montilla dons a cube-shaped mirrored helmet, erasing his face and replacing it with the reflections of his environment. This act invites the viewer to see themselves in his place, transforming their role from passive observer to active participant.
Montilla’s performances align with Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of “relational aesthetics,” a concept in contemporary art where meaning in art arises from social interactions. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, Kube Man creates spaces of spontaneous engagement, encouraging collective meaning-making and dissolving the boundaries between artist, artwork, and audience. This approach is central to Montilla’s artistic philosophy.
This interactive dynamic mirrors the democratic ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence, an essential inspiration for Montilla’s Kube Man, We Are One performance. As Montilla reflects:
“Kube Man, We Are One draws inspiration from the phrase ‘All men are created equal,’ penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. The work uses the figure of Kube Man to symbolize the transcendence of individual differences and our deep connection as human beings. When they see me, the viewer sees themselves, recognizing that we are all part of a collective experience. In a world fragmented by divisions, this performance seeks to create a space of unity, reminding us that we all share the same essence and rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In addition to his performances, Montilla’s sculptural works also challenge perception and spatial expectations. His Golden Cube sculpture at Florida International University’s North Campus presents a striking interplay of gravity and balance. The cube positioned precariously in one corner defies expectations of stability, creating a visual tension that draws attention to the relationship between form and space. Montilla destabilizes the viewer’s perception through this precarious balance, making the impossible seem possible.
Golden Cube, Land art, 2023, Coroplast, PVC, wood, vinyl, Gold Metallic Confetti, 6 feet x 6 feet x 6 feet
In his latest work, Door to the Universe, Montilla slices a cube with five horizontal bands, creating a compelling visual interplay between exterior form and interior void. The cobalt blue exterior world contrasts with the yellow interior introspective sphere, while a suspended mirror invites contemplation of the void within. Montilla’s use of negative space evokes the minimalist tradition of Donald Judd, yet the work carries symbolic meaning beyond its formal properties.
Door to the Universe, Sculpture, 2024, PVC, Aluminum, steel cables, industrial paint, and mirrored acrylic, 49.21 inches x 49.21 inches x 49.21 inches
Montilla draws inspiration from Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto, whose work with geometry and abstraction has been a significant influence:
“Soto used geometry and abstraction to create a dynamic visual language. His pursuit of order and harmony through form and color has deeply influenced my work. Like Soto, I use geometric shapes, such as the cube, to represent ideas of unity, interconnectedness, and balance.”
For Montilla, the void is not simply an absence but a space of positive potential. Influenced by his decade-long stay in India and meditation practice, Montilla sees the void as a state of heightened consciousness—an openness that transcends thought and perception. This philosophical approach informs much of his sculptural work, where empty space symbolizes possibility and transformation.
His interest in spatial harmony and integration also aligns with the work of Venezuelan sculptor Alejandro Otero. Montilla describes Otero’s influence on his approach to art and environment:
“Otero conceived his sculptures as elements that engage in dialogue with their environment. He sought a harmonious integration between artwork and landscape, creating an aesthetic experience that involves both the viewer and public space. This vision has deeply influenced my interventions in urban spaces, such as in the Big Bang Mirror series, where mirrors transform the surrounding reality.”
Montilla’s connection to iconic Venezuelan artists of the 20th Century and their broader artistic tradition situates his work amongst his art contemporaries, focusing new investigations into the meaning and relevance of art today.
Big Bang Mirror, 2022, Instalation in situ, 2800 pieces of mirrored acrylic mirror cut by lazer and adhesive silicon, 16.4 feet x16.4 feet x 1.6 feet
Through geometric explorations and spiritual influences, Montilla’s works invite viewers to reflect on more profound metaphysical questions concerning reality, consciousness, and the universe. He encapsulates this philosophical inquiry in his reflections on Big Bang Mirror:
“My work challenges notions of time, space, and truth, fragmenting and recomposing the viewer’s image in a play of reflections. Big Bang Mirror calls for introspection, encouraging us to explore our origins and embrace our interconnectedness with the cosmos.”
In Door to the Universe and throughout his broader artistic practice, Rafael Montilla transforms emptiness into a potent metaphor for potentiality, urging viewers to move beyond the material realm and into metaphysical contemplation. His works evoke a sense of enlightenment and transformation, drawing on the mystic and philosophical reflections of thinkers like George Gurdjieff and Sri Aurobindo. Their explorations of consciousness, the divine, and spiritual evolution have influenced Montilla’s vision, motivating him to create art beyond aesthetics. His pieces encourage a reflexive journey for the viewer, where the moment of self-recognition before the mirror invites a deeper exploration of self-knowledge, shared humanity, and the complex interplay between our internal experiences and external realities. Through this profound interaction, Montilla’s work becomes a catalyst for personal and collective insight, offering a space where art and spiritual inquiry converge.
From the outset, by titling their exhibition “At Face Value,” the curators Robert Curcio and Leah Oates put into play a dynamic tension between appearance and subtext, the spoken message and the unsaid meaning of what is presented. Amy Hill evokes the ghost of a 500 year-old porcelain complexioned Ginerva de Benci, a Florentine painted by a youthful Leonardo da Vinci. Her own treatment of it might be of a museum-attending New Yorker with political views who is into Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Hill’s work contrasts the Andrew Owen AO1 hybrid portrait of model Winnie Harlow. Its digitally-generated spokes of eight images funnel to the singularity of a kaleidoscope of sex, gender, and ethnicity. As an artificially-generated construct transcribed from real life, it hints at the trans and post-human, but is a beauty in its own right, nevertheless.
Arlene Rush, Chambliss Giobbi, and Claudine Anrather
The digital “Twins” photo of Arlene Rush commemorates a turn in the genetic transit of boy, girl, and parent as eerie cloning from a single egg into identical parts. The articulation of sexual distinction is achieved through the tailoring of clothing to shape anatomy. Hand-holding siblings raise their free hands in a kind of benediction to a possible new birth, the bannister before them suggestive of a crib. The fingers of the hand of the sister overlays the image of the mother bride on the wall behind them as a confirming gesture of attribution. The expressed moment is at once, intimate, lovely, and touching.
Chambliss Giobbi places the viewer on their back looking up, as if waking from a film noir delirium. The ceiling fixture behind the shoulder of the besuited man serves a hypnotic eye in the sky probe to signal the continuation of an interrogation or treatment. Where it lands is unclear. Giobbi’s melted Crayola technique captures an aura of Lucien Freud psychological disquiet. As a “votive” artist homage to the real thing, it tucks nicely under your pillow.
In her own words, Claudine Anrather inhabits “an unsteady world, figures freed from time and space,” a Jungian netherworld where the animus and anima, the masculine and feminine sides of the personal psyche play out their dialectics. Since her subjects here have since given up their ghosts, her portraits of black trans women achieve a rebirth through a channeling of their archetype. Anrather’s painted effigies waft into a visible present from the immaterial timeless.
Dana Nehdaran, D. Dominick Lombardi, and Marcy Brafman
The intimate self-portraits of Dana Nehdaran transcend mechanically-transcribed visual journals, these being just one of several series that adhere to themes consistent with “At Face Value.” The tension between past, present and future against concealment and revelation play out in the multi-layered play of impasto brush stroke, color, canvas texture, and frames within frames.
D. Dominick Lombardi “self-portraits” at ages 17, 35, and a future 95 echo Oscar Wilde’s “Portrait of Dorian Gray.” Since drawings and paintings are time stamps, his portrait at age 95 should keep the artist younger than his “portrait” for years to come. In the mean time, all three works are at liberty to display tumors and mutations at will. A connection might be made between Lombardi’s drawings and the work of Ivan Albright, which served as inspiration for the portrait in the Dorian Gray film.
The link between abstract expressionism and the cartoon is energy. Marcy Brafman effectively harnesses the latent force of the animated character without its explicit imagery. In the process, her painted strokes effectively charge her open-ended narratives with wit and vigor. This play between presence and absence sets in motion a game of multi-layered readings. Mere suggestions of eye and mouth are sufficient to drive a story line.
Shantel Miller, Noah Becker, and Pierre St. Jacques
For Shantel Miller, the oil medium has opened up formal creative possibilities to the black experience. The figure on their back on a bed with raised arms displays a complex combination of vulnerability, resignation, rest, and revery. The frame of the room, its bed, and of course the painting itself projected as four floating representations on the wall create a sense of the dreamy meditative with “eyes wide shut.”
The three characters that Noah Becker introduces in his “Three Figures” (2023) painting cannot be ignored. That they are unsmiling, is not the issue. Like insistent strangers on a doorstep, they will not go away until their “demands” are satisfied. Each subject in a Becker painting tend to be locked within its edges, figures sealed against their ground. We look, negotiate, and contemplate the hats, beards, and suits from a culture out of time.
Painted elements floating across the white of the Pierre St. Jacques paper work spin in space from the “big bang” of its creation. Three male characters seem to be residual burns from an old black and white photo. The viewer is tasked with repeated playback possibilities to solve the cause of the explosion. It seems that someone had absent-mindedly pressed the UP elevator button before all hell broke loose.
Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Sam Jackson
Ruben Natal-San Miguel tracks the aesthetic impulse in the corners and creases of culture. One such fleeting event was captured at a table in Crotona Park in the Bronx, where Jennifer had casually stopped for her “Beauty Make Up Check.” As such, it’s a collaboration and celebration of one of life’s unguarded moments out of which any community is necessarily comprised.
By overlaying classic art of the past with tropes of tagging, graffiti and tattoo, Sam Jackson manages to blend various aesthetic disciplines. Fragmented text fuses personal and societal motifs with a collective sensibility, bringing to life the “dead” art of the past. It’s a trope not different in kind to Amy Hill and her “Woman in Orange Denim Jacket.”
