Interviews by Brainard Carey

Carrie Moyer. Photo credit: © Girl Ray, 2016 Carrie Moyer isan artist and writer known for hersumptuous paintings which exploreand extend thelegacy of American Abstraction, while paying homage to many of itsgroundbreaking female figures, among them Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen FrankenthalerandElizabeth Murray.In equal measure abstract andrepresentational, Moyer’s workproposes a kaleidoscopic worldview that embracesthe sensual as much the rational.Playful logo-like silhouettes — vessels,towers, portals, meteorological phenomena, plantlife, animal and human forms —demarcate arched prosceniums or abstract fields ofcolor. These flattened archetypesand cheeky reference points often perform ascompositional rigging around whichflow cascades of paint, glitter and light. Whetherinvoking the natural orconstructed world, inventive paint handling and succulent colorseem to tempt allof the viewer’s senses, from sight to touch to taste (perhaps evensound!). Theresulting spaces — lush and transporting — are uniquelyMoyer’s own.Moyer’s work has been exhibited throughout the USand Europe. Her paintings werefeatured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Previousmuseum shows include a travelingsurvey,CarrieMoyer: Pirate Jenny, that originated at the Tang Museum, SaratogaSprings,NY; andInterstellar, at theWorcester Art Museum, MA (2012).Between1991-2008, Moyer and photographer Sue Schaffner collaborated as DykeAction Machine!, apublic art project that humorously dissected mainstreamadvertising through the insertionof lesbian imagery. Moyer’s writinghas appeared in periodicals such as Art in America,Artforum, the BrooklynRail and monographs on Louise Fishman and Nancy Grossman. She has receivedawards from the Guggenheim and Joan Mitchell Foundations,Anonymous Was aWoman, and Creative Capital among others. Moyer attended PrattInstitute (BFA),Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College (MFA) and theSkowheganSchool of Art. She is of the Director of MFA Program in Studio Art at HunterCollege. Moyer is represented by DC Moore Gallery in New York City. The collaborative exhibition mentioned in the interview can be explored through this link to the Portland Museum. Carrie Moyer, “Fan Dance at the Golden Nugget,” 2017. Acrylic, glitter on canvas. Collection of the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA Carrie Moyer, “The Crux,” 2006. Acrylic on canvas. Private collection

Simonida Rajcevic was born in Belgrade on April 2nd, 1974. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1997 and in 1999 she received her Post Graduate's Degree and in 2015. she finished her PhD in Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade . She obtained a DAAD stipend to do first year post-graduate studies in Berlin, Germany. Since 2000, she has herself been working as an associate professor at the Facutly of Fine Arts in Belgrade. From 2008 until 2010 she was working as a guest associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade. Simonida Rajcevic has exhibited her works independently and together with other artists, both at home and abroad. Fake Pain ,STEEL, STYRODUR, PAPER MACHE, 5,50 M X 2, 90 M, 2020 Strange waves 05,OIL ON LINEN, 203 X 160CM, 2016

Jana Danilovic, born on 1989 in Užice, Serbia. I received my Masters degree in Monumental painting from Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kraguevac in 2013, and my D.A. degree at Belgrade’s Faculty of Applied Arts, as I defended my doctoral project „City and paintig – the role of painting in public space“ in 2018. Focus of my interest is on various aspects of „public“, in my artistic practice as well as in my research. My artistic production is dominantly based on drawing, which I apply to pretty much everything, from paper, canvas, wood to walls. I like to explore possibilities of materials and contexts in everlasting attempts to illustrate and understand subjects that I personally feel affected by, but that are at the same time universal enough for pretty much anybody to empathyze with. So far,I displayed my work on thirteen solo exhibitions and over fifty collective exhibitions worldwide, and painted murals in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Monte Negro, Greece and Fance. I think that art should be approachable and democratic, which is why street art and muralism became my primary field of action. Co-founder of Rekonstrukcija Street Art Festival. Worked at the Teachers` training faculty for three full semesters, before I realised I feel way better in the studio and out on the street painting. I live and work in Belgrade. Mural titled Savage Love, painted in 2018 in Sisak, Croatia Absence / Resistance (from Trophy Room series), 2019

Karakatag collective group photo 2015 Karkatag is Belgrade based Serbian art collective. It exists since 2009. Work of collective includes machines, interactive and autonomous installations and manipulable objects. Collective uses industrial materials and technologies in research of different natural and scientific phenomena, interactivity and performativity of machines, sound, motion. Through public actions and performances, by placing installations and machines in space as urban scenography and props, collective also introduces social aspects of its work. In those settings spectator/passer-by is being involved in co-play with machine/installation and thereby becoming an active partaker in changing the perception of space and daily routine of the city. Karkatag works are participatory and the situation generated through their use is integral part of their realization. Aiming to encourage experimentation and to make its metalworking and mechanical knowledge available, collective organizes series of workshops as well as offering workplace, tools and advising in itsopen studio/artist-in-residenceproject. Karkatag has three permanent members that are together defining, managing and realizing the work of collective. Nevertheless, team structure is generally fluid and from project to project it involves new people. Setting up of the Rehearsal installation, roof of the Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria 2016 The Rehearsal installation 2016 Linz, Austria The Machine, production phase, 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space, Newbury, UK, 2016

Born in San Francisco, California, Christopher Grimes founded Christopher Grimes Gallery which presented a diverse yet rigorous program of contemporary art in a variety of media including painting, photography, installation, performance, sculpture and video. Over the gallery’s 40-year history he organized its many exhibitions, most notably Amnesia and Super 8, which traveled to institutions in the US, Europe, North and South America, including the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and the Bronx Museum, NY among others. The gallery was involved in the early development of the careers of artists such as Katharina Grosse, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Ernesto Neto, Fred Tomaselli, and Lisa Yuskavage. He has presided over the Santa Monica/Venice Art Dealers Association and served on various international institutional boards, panels and juries including the ARCO Art Fair in Madrid, Spain, the Otis College of Art and Design Board of Governors in Los Angeles, the Otis Parsons School of Design, President's Advisory Council, Los Angeles, and served as Program Advisor for the Getty for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Inspired by an interest in architecture and its relationship with art, he began developing a program focusing on integrating the two disciplines by collaborating with artists who incorporate architecture in their work. Following the closing of the gallery in 2018, he launched Christopher Grimes Projects, a multidisciplinary contemporary art program which focuses on facilitating the integration of art and architecture for large scale, site specific environments. He, alongside his son Jarred Grimes who assists in program development, aims to bring architecturally and culturally informed work to the public sphere bridging the connection between art and architecture through impactful and innovative projects. The book mentioned in the interview wasZen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. CHRISTINE CORDAY, Sans Titre (untitled), 2020 Permanent installation, Crane Hall, Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, ITER, France Christine Corday’s two-pound sculptural object, Sans Titre, represents Art as the 36th contributor to mankind’s largest terrestrial realization of the celestial. The site-specific and functional work, which the artist forged from metals derived from ancient stars, was integrated into the ITER fusion device late last year, a physical manifestation of Art that stands alongside the material contributions of the 35 major international country collaborators, an infrastructural object within the fabricated star that will harness fusion energy for human use. Sans Titre functions both symbolically and functionally in merging the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings between Art and Science, an intersection that is frequently overlooked. Both science and art are human attempts to understand and describe the world around us. The categorizations of science, art, chemistry, architecture, archeology, and cosmology separate what materially is unified. The subjects and methods have different traditions, and the intended audiences may be different, but the motivations and goals are fundamentally the same. Image credits: ITER Organization / R. Arnoux / EJF Riche LUCIA KOCH, Dusk and Dawn, 2019 TEGNA Headquarters, Tysons, VA Light and air are the vital substances of a space, converting it into a place to be inhabited and transformed. Dusk and Dawn was created for an environment of coexistence and communication—though sound and air are isolated, transparent (glass) walls offer a visual continuity in between distinct spaces. For the TEGNA headquarters designed by the architectural firm Lehman Smith & McLeish (LSM), Koch created a work comprising a thirty foot LED back-lit color gradient lightbox that spans the height of the three-floor atrium. The lightbox establishes a dialogue with the free-flowing curtains installed on the opposing side of the atrium. The curtains, though separated by a floor, represent one continuous vertical color gradient est...

Elisa Strinna, photo by Jessica da Silva Elisa Strinna is an Italian artist currently based in the Netherlands. Her work investigates the nature/culture bisection, addressing, in particular, the interdependence between individuals and technologies and the byproducts of such affiliations. She does that by studying different types of infrastructures -from the geodetic to telecommunication ones, up to green infrastructures. Through sculpture, sound, and video, the artist intends to activate aesthetic ecosystems in which some of the hidden relationships that constitutea landscapes emerge. In these hybrid worlds, it becomes difficult to draw a separation between natural and artificial, geological and human, spiritual and material. Her works have been exhibited at Culturgest Porto (2020), Hong-Gah Museum in Taipei (Taiwan, 2018), at Giardini Greenhouse oftheVenice Biennale (Italy, 2015), at the MAXXI Museum (Italy, 2014), at 2012 Taipei Biennial (Taiwan, 2012), at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Guarene (Italy, 2009), amongst others. She attended the international residency program at Jan Van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, the Netherlands 2018/2019). The book mentioned in the interview is Laboratory Life. Blind Sun/ Sol Cego, Installation view, Culturgest Porto (PT), 2020; Mixed Media (Porcelain, stoneware, copper, alum crystals, sound (30 m). courtesy the Artist, photo © Alexandre Delmar Blind Sun - Third Nature, Culturgest Porto (PT), 2020; Mixed Media (Porcelain, copper, alum crystals, sound (30 m). courtesy the Artist, photo © Alexandre Delmar

Andre Bogart Szabo creates paintings and wall mounted sculptures that explore the transformative power of repetition. Embracing informal materials such as gravel, fireworks, and foraged materials, Szabo creates expansive abstract fields that are chaotic, expressive, and minimal all at once.He received his BA in Post-Production from Emerson College’s Visual Media Arts department in 2012.Szabo currently lives and works in New York. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1990. Untitled (Rock Garden I), Gravel, foraged media, canvas on panel, 92 x 74 x 1 1/2 inches Untitled (detail, Rock Garden II), Gravel, bone, canvas on panel, 84 x 54 x 1 1/2 inches Untitled (PPE Field), 2020, Foraged used gloves, mixed media, canvas on panel, 92 x 74 x 1 1/2 inches

Geoffrey Moss defines himself as “… simply a working New York artist”; painter, photographer of motorcycle culture (The Biker Code), former art restorer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, syndicated captionless political satirist of MOSSPRINTS, conceptual illustrator, children’s book author, set designer, essayist and university teacher. Ultimately all my work is about drawing…the purity of drawing in both paintings and works on paper. Over time, the work has become comfortably less representational, focusing more on the reduction of shapes, forms to reflect the interaction of color, the energy of paint; the way the paint – the physicality of painting -- documents the personal dialogue of spontaneous movement, finding form as a visual statement as in the architecture of water. It’s about my dedication to the anatomy of shapes I arrange and rearrange. I work in series, a process beginning with sufficient numbers of drawings to continue idea-to-canvas. My lexicon stems from restrictions of the Bauhaus, 18th C. erotic Japanese prints, Russian Constructivism, religious symbols, Chinese medicine labels and vintage comic books. Experience confirms my personal truth, that art begets art, feeding a compulsion to generate and continue the dance. I received Pulitzer Prize nominations for MOSSPRINTS, (Watergate and 9/11) resulting in the publication of a collection of my early works, The Art and Politics of Geoffrey Moss, as well as an invitation to paint Bus with White Walls for the Smithsonian Institution exhibition In the Spirit of Martin. Moss holds degrees from The University of Vermont (B.A., Distinguished Alumnus) and Yale School of Art and Architecture (B.F.A., M.F.A.). Learn more about Moss from Quogue Gallery and an article in Discoveries in American Art. Shimmering Water Series: Beach Blanket, 2011, 36" x36", Oil on Canvas. Gensler New York Project Black Drawing Series: Brief Encounter, 2015, 15" x 13", dry pigment and waxes on Stonehenge paper Bus With White Walls, 2003, 30" x 40", Oil on Canvas. Smithsonian Institution, In The Spirit of Martin exhibition

The portrait is R. Yean, Sea forest at Mondulkiri province, Cambodia, ©Norm Phanith, 2017 H.R.H. (His Rebel/Revolt Highness) The Articurizer (Art[ist] Curator, Articulator/Writer, Researcher, and Art Advocate) A native of Battambang, Reaksmey Yean is a self-proclaimed art advocate, an early-career art curator, writer, and researcher. Currently, he is a program director and co-founder of Silapak Trotchaek Pneik, a contemporary art space by YK Art House. He is also a part-time lecturer at Phnom Penh International Institute of the Art (PPIIA). Reaksmey is a research affiliate at Center for Khmer Studies and a Co-Investigator on Phase 2 Large Grant project ‘Contemporary Arts Making and Creative Expression Among Young Cambodians.’ Yean is an Alphawood scholar (SOAS, the University of London for Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art – in Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian Art). He was an exchange scholar at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs, Chiang Mai University. He is an inaugural SEAsia Award Scholar (2017) of LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, an Asian Cultural Council fellow (2018), and a beneficiary of Dr. Karen Mcleod Adair grant for MA in Asian Art Histories at LASALLE College of the Arts. Yean was a curator for creative programs at Java Creative Café, Phnom Penh. Prior, he served several senior posts, including an Assistant to School of Performing Arts, at Phare Ponleu Selpak, a multi-disciplinary arts center, where he received his early education. He is also a founding father of a defunct collective named Trotchaek Pneik, a cultural and artistic collective based in Battambang. Yean is interested in multi-disciplinary practices (Film, Visual, and Performing Arts). As an Art Advocate, Yean is involved in the promotion of art and culture and their histories within contemporary Cambodia via curatorial practices, art criticism, and cultural pundit. As a scholar, Yean is concerned with Buddhist Arts, Contemporary and Modern Arts, Southeast Asia, Cultural Diplomacy, and Post-colonial theory. The books mentioned in the interview were: Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, Of Grammatology, and The Truth in Painting. Dinh Q. Lê, Splendor and Darkness #32, 2017, Foiling and screen-print on Stonehenge paper, cut, weaved and burned, 221 x330 cm, Courtesy of Reaksmey Yean

Peat Szilagyi and Umico Niwa Umico Niwa is currently residing in Richmond Virginia, having just received her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from the Virginia Commonwealth University. She recently had a solo show, Fruiting Bodies, at the American Institute of Thoughts and Feelings in Tucson, Arizona. She has also been invited to lead a workshop, together with her partner, “Meet Your Gremlin, Make Your Gremlin” at Recess Gallery in Brooklyn, New York City. Umico and Peat will be having a joint show, Solar Coochie, at the end of this month at Holding Contemporary, Portland, Oregon. Niwa’s practice explores the way Western notions of personhood subsume human life into constructs of sexuality and gender, overlooking the various other modes of unbridled existence: plant, microbial. fungal, animal, celestial bodies. Her speculative medical papers propose novel forms of body modification to combat gender dysphoria as well as playfully explore the possible efficacy of including fecal matter transplants as part of hormone replacement therapy for transgender individuals. Collaborative work made for the show, Solar Coochie Collaborative solar powered work made for the show, Solar Coochie, “Moon in the Spoon” being tested.