Contents for February 16th, 2026
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1. Franklin Furnace’s LOFT program “Lettrism in America” now available online
2. Dynasty Handbag, FF Alumn, live online, March 10, 17, 24, 31
3. Grisha Coleman, Toni Dove, FF Alumns, receive Doris Duke Foundation Inaugural Performing Arts Technology Lab awards
4. Cheri Gaulke, FF Alumn, at McMinnville, OR, Short Film Festival, Feb. 28, and more
5. Alvin Eng, FF Alumn, at World’s Borough Bookstore, Jackson Heights, Queens, Feb. 22
6. Candace Hill-Montgomery, Kite, FF Alumns, at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, opening April 10
7. John Kelly, FF Alumn, February update
8. Papo Colo, Alicia Grullón, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Lee Quiñones,Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Yasmin Ramirez, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com
9. Alicia Grullón, Dread Scott, Mark Tribe, FF Alumns, at 601Artspace, Manhattan, Feb. 21
10. John Kelly, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
11. Adrianne Wortzel, FF Alumn, now online at https://franklinfurnace.org/random-excess-linearity-to-labyrinthian/
12. Barbara Rosenthal, FF ALumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, Manhattan, Feb. 19
13. Roberta Allen, FF Alumn, now online at NewWorldWriting.net
14. Deb Margolin, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, March 6, 7, 13, 14
15. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Book Club Bar, Manhattan, Feb. 26
16. Mira Schor, FF Alumn, at Lyles & King, Manhattan, opening Feb. 21.
17. Irina Danilova & Hiram Levy, FF Alumns, at Westward Cottage, Ryde, Australia, Feb. 19
18. Toma Fichter, FF Alumn, at 2-1@105, Manhattan, opening Feb. 26 and Mar. 1
19. Paul Lamarre / Melissa Wolf (aka) EIDIA, at Plato’s Cave, Brooklyn, thru Feb. 28
20. Jane Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Independence Plaza Senior Center, Manhattan, Feb. 27
21. Heide Hatry, FF Member, at Strand Bookstore, Manhattan, Feb. 19 and more
22. Michelle Handelman, Lynn Hershman Leeson, FF Alumns, at WHAMMY! Analog Media,
Los Angeles, CA, Feb. 23
23. elin o’Hara slavick, FF Alumn, at Grand Rapids Museum of Art, MI
24. Naoto Nakagawa, Edward Gomez, FF Alumns, now online at BrutJournal.com
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1. Franklin Furnace’s LOFT program “Lettrism in America” now available online
Dear artists and friends,
The recording of the January 27th Franklin Furnace LOFT event “Lettrism in America – An Avant-Garde’s Journey Overseas” on January 27, 2026 is now available at https://franklinfurnace.org/lettrism-in-america/
You can also find it on Franklin Furnace’s Vimeo, here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1163003045?fl=pl&fe=ti
Thank you.
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2. Dynasty Handbag, FF Alumn, live online, March 10, 17, 24, 31
back by popular demand + deranged times…
MARCH WORKSHOP!
FEAR IS THE LITTLE DEATH\
Fascism got you down? Can’t get anything started or anything done? Wondering who/what crushed yer creative hopes and dreams?
FITLD is 4 week online workshop tackling, embracing,
snuggling up with creative fears – the big and the small, the real real and the fake fake. We contain multitudes… of terror 🙂
this workshop is live ON ZOOM
TUESDAYS, MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31
4:00PM – 5:30PM PST
+ 30 min private consultation with me
early bird special – $666.00
after Feb 28th – $785.00
TO REGISTER fill out this quick and easy form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsFcX-5c0c7ffuvR9r5eX5cPA8jQrkXC44rmae9CopkhvSkw/viewform
Why do this with me?
I have been making performance work for almost 3 decades. I am a 2022 Guggenheim fellow, a 2021 United States Artist Award recipient and a 2020 Creative Capital Grant awardee. My film Weirdo Night, directed by Mariah Garnett is an official 2021 Sundance Film Festival selection. I was included in Made In LA 2023 and am publishing my first book, a memoir, Hell In A Handbag, in April 2026 on DOPAMINE books. I have performed in big fancy institutions and tiny crap holes across internationally. But also, who cares!!!! The important thing to me is that I was able to do all this shit even though I was/am terrified.
I have developed a toolkit. I am very excited to share it with you!
** Workshop includes a custom cute fun easy modern not scary demented but not culty PDF workbook
THIS IS FOR YOU IF YOUR BRAIN SAYS
The world is too fucked up and doesn’t need my art right now
I don’t have any ideas (WE WILL HAVE PROMPTS!)
I don’t know how to ask for help
I don’t have enough money
I don’t have enough time
I procrastinate
I don’t have any space
I am not cool enough to make art/be in the art world
People will think I’m stupid
I think I ‘m stupid
I actually AM stupid
I can’t get started
I can’t finish anything
There is no “market” for what I want to create
There is no room for me
People will abandon me if I am successful
People will abandon me if I am not successful
I will choke, I will not be able to follow through
I have stage fright and people fright
I can’t and I don’t know why
This workshop is open to ANYONE in a creative process,
OR NOT. If you don’t have a current practice + want one you are welcome.
*Sponsorship available to Queer BIPOC individuals – please email me at dynastyhandbag@gmail.com to inquire.
*Questions – email me at dynastyhandbag@gmail.com.
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3. Grisha Coleman, Toni Dove, FF Alumns, receive Doris Duke Foundation Inaugural Performing Arts Technology Lab awards
Please visit this link:
https://www.dorisduke.org/grants/projects/performing-arts-technologies-lab
Thank you
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4. Cheri Gaulke, FF Alumn, at McMinnville, OR, Short Film Festival, Feb. 28, and more
Cheri Gaulke, FF Alumn — Old Girl in a Tutu (short film + upcoming screenings)
Artist and filmmaker Cheri Gaulke’s short film Old Girl in a Tutu: Susan Rennie Disrupts Art History is a tender, mischievous love letter celebrating queer, elder creativity and art as an act of resistance. Susan Rennie inserts herself into iconic artworks with wit, wisdom, and an iPhone—flipping the male gaze and claiming space with humor and heart.
Upcoming Screenings:
• McMinnville Short Film Festival — McMinnville, Oregon LINK
Feb 28, 2026, 10:00 am
• Sedona International Film Festival — Sedona, AZ LINK
Feb 26, 2026, 10am
Feb 28, 2026, 4pm
More info & tickets: https://oldgirlinatutu.com
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5. Alvin Eng, FF Alumn, at World’s Borough Bookstore, Jackson Heights, Queens, Feb. 22
Sunday, FEB. 22, from 4 – 5pm
Our Laundry, Our Town:
Alvin Eng in conversation with Radha Vatsal
The World’s Borough Bookshop
34-06 73rd St, Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC
Looking forward to celebrating the Lunar New Year in my home borough at the
renowned World’s Borough Bookshop! I will read from my memoir, Our Laundry, Our
Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond (OLOT). then be joined in conversation with Jackson Heights’ own Radha Vatsal, essayist and author of No. 10 Doyers St. Please join us to celebrate NYC literature, community, and the Year of the Fire Horse! RSVP/Ticket Info
About the memoir: OLOT decodes and processes the fractured urban oracle bones of
growing up in what was then one of the few Asian families in Flushing, Queens. From
behind the counter of his parents’ laundry and a household rooted in a different century and culture to the turbulent, exciting streets of 1970s NYC, he shares his riveting, tender story of finding voice, identity and community through the transformative power of Asian American arts & activism, punk rock and downtown theater.
As a 2024-25 New York Public Library Fellow, Eng started researching a companion
book to OLOT entitled, OPIUM DREAMS OF ORACLE BONES: Grandfather, Burroughs and Punk.
RSVP/Ticket Info:
https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLQ9KMCS5AWVN/checkout/B7KPDZ7WIYP33A5LGNYV6V4F
Thank you.
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6. Candace Hill-Montgomery, Kite, FF Alumns, at MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY, opening April 10
Please visit this link:
https://www.artforum.com/news/moma-ps1-reveals-artists-for-2026-greater-new-york-1234743451
Thank you.
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7. John Kelly, FF Alumn, February update
Dear Friends,
I’m at a challenging pivot point – my exhibition at PPOW is up for another 2 weeks, while I am in tech rehearsals for BUGHOUSE which begins previews next week. (Info for both projects below).
The opening was fantastic, especially as there were so many young people there. If you click onto the PPOW (https://www.ppowgallery.com/) website you can find links to some deep-dive essays and reviews. The staff is incredible and especially the care with which they hung the work. I am honestly blown away by the response. Stop by if you can. I’m super proud of this exhibition, which runs through Feb. 21st.
A wonderful article by Bob Krasner. You can read it HERE (https://www.amny.com/entertainment/arts-entertainment/john-kelly-art-tribeca-gallery/)
On January 19th RIMBAUD HATTIE performed at the LESLIE LOHMAN MUSEUM for the closing of the DAVID WOJNAROWICZ: ARTHUR RIMBAUD IN NEW YORK exhibition. C. CARR, the esteemed author of FIRE IN THE BELLY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DAVID WOJNAROWICZ provided a contextualizing introduction to our set.
photo: Bob Krasner
SO – I am currently adhering to that famous Ethyl Mermam quote, about the reality of performing 7 shows a week (starting next week): “You have to live like a **cking nun”. Seriously, this being a solo play, directed by Martha Clarke, with some gorgeous set and projection elements – I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck, and come see it if you can – it runs through March 29th.
TICKETS FOR BUGHOUSE (https://vineyardtheatre.org/shows/bughouse/)
John Kelly: The Body is Never Abstracted
Two Coats of Paint
by Bill Arning (https://www.billarning.com/)
January 23, 2026
In the mid-1980s, great art experiences of every conceivable stripe seemed to bloom prodigiously and organically from a single club on Avenue A called the Pyramid Club. Out of this dark, sticky-floored dive came a motley congregation of artists, musicians, drag queens, filmmakers, and poets who launched shockingly original cultural provocations that still reverberate globally, even though relatively few people witnessed them at the time. Bands like Deee-Lite and Fischerspooner, performers such as Klaus Nomi, Jack Smith, the Lady Bunny, and Ethyl Eichelberger all passed through its doors. Even Madonna and Nirvana played there early on. Many of these figures were lost far too young – to AIDS, to drugs – but one of the Pyramid Club’s seminal presences has flourished and maintained a steady, fearless output. John Kelly, inimitable then and now, is having a major exhibition at P·P·O·W: his magisterial autobiographical opus A Friend Gave Me a Book.
Like Smith and Eichelberger, Kelly has always treated the larger world of art and culture as a personal playground – something to be inhabited, subverted, and remade. Moving fluidly between real and imagined selves, he has performed as historical figures like Egon Schiele or Joni Mitchell, as well as semi-fictional creations such as his Teutonic alter-ego Dagmar Onassis. With his soaring countertenor and statuesque, often unclothed presence, Kelly could hold a room of drunken revelers in rapt attention, turning nightlife into something closer to ritual. While gallery objects have never been central to his practice, they have been a constant companion over the decades. Walls of self-portraits in his various guises as well as the heartbreaking drawing series Sideways into the Shadows – 54 small, lovingly rendered portraits of artists famous and obscure, friends and lovers, whose lives and practices were brutally cut short by AIDS.
Kelly’s visual vocabulary is largely drawn from his performance work and his cultural obsessions. A Friend Gave Me a Book takes the form of wall-mounted book pages, with hand-painted images and illuminated letters, telling the raw, poetic, and often uncomfortable story of his 2014 performance Escape Artist Redux. One of its most harrowing threads recounts a performance in which Kelly was channeling Caravaggio and fell from a trapeze, breaking his neck. Unsure whether he would ever walk again, he lay frozen, unable to move, obsessing over the small technical mistakes that led to the accident – foot placement, balance, timing. In the text and images here, and in a beautifully edited video montage drawn from the performance, that dread is palpable. His immobilized body, animated only by alert, searching eyes, asks us to imagine what it means not to know whether your physical autonomy has ended. The works derived from this moment retain that tension, even at a remove.
The sheer labor involved here is almost numbing. The amount of text and imagery on offer can feel overwhelming at first encounter. Viewers may find themselves stepping back, unsure how to proceed. That’s okay. It’s edifying enough to graze – to read a little, look a lot, read some more, and move on. The experience still lands. Trained originally as a visual artist, Kelly paints with a modernist, precisionist edge that evokes mid-century queer figures like Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and George Tooker – artists who feel less like influences than chosen ancestors.
Living through the AIDS crisis permanently altered a generation’s relationship to the body. Caring for dying friends, monitoring one’s own T-cell counts – these experiences made corporeality unavoidable. Kelly’s work understands this deeply. The body is never abstract here; it is fragile, stubborn, fallible, and astonishingly resilient. The exhibition benefits enormously from the involvement of P·P·O·W’s in-house curator Isaac Alpert, whose work with artists’ estates makes him an ideal collaborator for someone with Kelly’s scale of ambition. And ambition there is. Despite decades in the global performance spotlight, the number of new theater projects Kelly has on the horizon is startling. Yes, the demands of long-form video and a wall-length graphic narrative will test some viewers’ patience. But for those willing to meet the work even halfway, the rewards are profound.
John Kelly: A Friend Gave Me a Book, P·P·O·W Gallery, 392 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY. Through February 21, 2026.
Read Full Article at twocoatsofpaint.com (https://twocoatsofpaint.com/2026/01/john-kelly-the-body-is-never-abstract.html)
RIMBAUD HATTIE – Heather Litteer, John Kelly, C. Carr, Doug Bressler, Julie Hair, & Dany Johnson.
photo by Bob Krasner
Hoping this finds you warm and hopeful,
~ John
DONATE (https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/john-kelly-performance)
Donations to John Kelly Performance made through Fractured Atlas are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Follow the link to make a secure online donation or get information on how to donate by check.
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8. Papo Colo, Alicia Grullón, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Lee Quiñones,Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Yasmin Ramirez, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com
Please visit this link:
https://hyperallergic.com/a-visual-archive-of-diasporican-liberation/?ref=daily-newsletter
Thank you.
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9. Alicia Grullón, Dread Scott, Mark Tribe, FF Alumns, at 601Artspace, Manhattan, Feb. 21
An Incomplete Haunting: Performing the Past
601Artspace, 88 Eldridge Street
Saturday, February 21, 2026
4:30 – 6:00pm
Join us on the closing weekend of An Incomplete Haunting for Performing the Past, a conversation with artists Alicia Grullon, Andrea Ray, Dread Scott, and Mark Tribe about reenactment and performance. Guided by writer, curator, and scholar Dr. Gervais Marsh, the artists will discuss strategies that bridge history and memory by physically, emotionally, and intellectually remaking the past.
Within the exhibition, Dread Scott’s “Slave Rebellion Reenactment” restages the 1811 German Coast Uprising, the largest slave rebellion in North America, to examine political power, slavery’s economic foundations, and the pursuit of freedom. Mark Tribe’s “Port Huron Project” video series documents reenactments of Vietnam-era speeches by New Left leaders and activists—including Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, Howard Zinn, and Cesar Chavez—performed at their original sites.
Andrea Ray’s “The Sound of Women’s Rights” layers audio from archival women’s marches in 1970, self-recorded audio from 2017 protests, and other sources, tracing a continuous lineage of activism from the Equal Rights Amendment through the 2017 Women’s March to the present moment. Alicia Grullon’s video works combine reenactment and role-playing to capture collective solidarity during social crises, including the then near-total ban on abortion in Texas in 2023 and George Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer.
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10. John Kelly, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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11. Adrianne Wortzel, FF Alumn, now online at https://franklinfurnace.org/random-excess-linearity-to-labyrinthian/
The documentary recording of the Adrianne Wortzel’s artists’ book event “Random Excess: Linearity to Labyrinthian” on Franklin Furnace’s digital LOFT, hosted live in person by Center for Book Arts on January 26, 2026, is now available at https://franklinfurnace.org/random-excess-linearity-to-labyrinthian/
You can also find it on Franklin Furnace’s Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/1162212209
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12. Barbara Rosenthal, FF ALumn, at Bowery Poetry Club, Manhattan, Feb. 19
On Wed., Feb. 18, Barbara Rosenthal (FF Alum) will give a short talk at the Bowery Poetry Club with 8 projected images about her back cover (WHITE CIRCUS HORSE) and page 37 (COMPOSITIZATION INDIANA) pieces in issue 17 of “LiveMag!” Her talk will frame an understanding of her ongoing project SURREAL TO CONCEPTUAL PHOTO-BASED WALLWORKS, the latest 32″ x 40″ works which will be reproduced in the upcoming issue. She will also distribute a printed list with imagery of the provenances of the components of the “compositization,” (also online: editors JC Wright and Lori Ortiz included an online list of the extraordinary provenance of this piece as a whole, and of each separate element, which, like much of her over 60 years of artmaking, often comprise iconography from her projects in other media, her body parts and belongins, etc. :COMPONENTS of this piece:
-Brainscan Rondela H117-IM1+C, 2003 (from brainscans, 2002);
-Surreal-to-Conceptual Indiana 1-05-10-25, 2006 (from 35mm photograph, 2005);
-Left Palm over Right, Facing Right, 2006 (from VHS video, 1988)
-Self-portrait, Full-frontal, Nude, 2006 (from VHS video, 1988)
https://livemag.org/issue_17/barbara-rosenthal
https://livemag.org/issue_17/barbara-rosenthal/bRosenthal-ConceptualCompositizationIndiana.pdf
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026
Doors Open 7 pm
Bowery Arts and Science
BOWERY POETRY, 308 BOWERY, NEW YORK, NY, 10012
HOST: Editor Jeffrey Cyphers Wright
MORE INFO: Featuring art, photography and poetry by
The Home Team
Luigi Cazzaniga
Andrei Codrescu
Monique Erickson
Anders Goldfarb
Uche Nduka
Lori Ortiz
Barbara Rosenthal
Bob Rosenthal
Jerome Sala
Ilka Scobie
Plus the Live Mag! 9th Annual Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Barbara Henning.
Born on the stage of the Bowery Poetry Club, Live Mag! celebrates its long run. Featuring contemporary art and poetry, the magazine comes out both in print and online. The annual publication has stayed true to its inception as a forum for live poetry, producing events at NYC downtown hotspots like La Mama, Howl, KGB Lit Bar, and other venues. Join host and MC, Publisher Jeffrey Cyphers Wright, Contributing editor and Designer Lori Ortiz and Deputy Editor Ilka Scobie at the legendary Bowery Poetry Club.
for more info: www.livemag.org or livemagnyc@gmail.com
Magazines and books will be available for discounted sale and signing! free event, cash bar
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13. Roberta Allen, FF Alumn, now online at NewWorldWriting.net
Delighted to have a new story at New World Writing.
TWO WISE WOMEN TALK ABOUT LYING
https://newworldwriting.net/roberta-allen-two-wise-women…
A writer as well as a conceptual artist, Roberta Allen is a Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction and the author of nine books. She pioneered flash fiction in the 1990s. Well over 200 stories have been published in magazines and anthologies, including Conjunctions, Guernica, The Bennington Review, Epoch, The Brooklyn Rail and Bomb.
Thank you
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14. Deb Margolin, FF Alumn, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, March 6, 7, 13, 14
Remember when a phone was a phone,
not a newspaper, a computer, a GPS, a game of solitaire, or a spycam?
Come be part of OBIE award-winning playwright and performer Deb Margolin’s newest work in progress “A Brief History of the Telephone.”
Deb insists that when a young person’s phone rings, they call the police, because they never heard that sound before. Is that you? Let’s chit chat and chew the fat, as Deb explores a lifelong passion for the sexy, disembodied possibilities of talking with friends and strangers on the phone. At this show, not only can you leave your hat on, you can leave your phone on! You can call Deb during the show if you want! Let’s bring talking to people back in fashion! Live and in-person, Deb Margolin…she’s a smooth operator.
Please visit this link:
https://dixonplace.org/performances/a-brief-history-of-the-telephone/
Thank you.
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15. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Book Club Bar, Manhattan, Feb. 26
Galinsky’s Poetry in New York – FF Alumn Galinsky hosts 10 poets 5 mins each, Feb. 26, 8pm Book Club Bar
This is a controlled explosion of today’s truth. Love, sex, politics, pain, solutions… ten voices, one lit room, and an audience that gets satiated. Poetry in New York, hosted by Galinsky, four years running at Book Club 197 East 3rd St. NYC
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16. Mira Schor, FF Alumn, at Lyles & King, Manhattan, opening Feb. 21.
Mira Schor
Figures of Speech
February 21 – March 28, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21, 5-8 pm
Lyles & King
19 Henry Street
New York, NY 10002
646-484-5478
gallery@lylesandking.com
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 11am – 6pm
Lyles & King
21 Catherine Street
New York, NY 10038
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17. Irina Danilova & Hiram Levy, FF Alumns, at Westward Cottage, Ryde, Australia, Feb. 19
A free event supported by Ryde Council
WHEN 19th February 2026 6.30-9.00PM
WHERE Westward Cottage, 8 Turner Street, Ryde
The 59 Seconds Video Festival 20th anniversary
The 59 Seconds Video Festival was launched in 2005 by Project 59 (Irina Danilova &
Hiram Levy) at 59 Franklin Street in Tribeca, NYC.
59 videos at a time, 59 seconds each were shown 59 times around the globe.
A great opportunity for artists experimenting with new technologies and applications,
during this new AI era, to build a bridge with the generation of artists experimenting
with video in the early 2000s.
Join us in the historical atmosphere of Westward Cottage to watch new works by
Peter Callas, Cinzia Cremona, Fiona Davies and Naomi Oliver in dialogue with a
great selection of international videos. Enjoy sharing a drink with some of the artists
and the founders of Project 59 visiting from New York City.
Participating Artists:
Carine Doerflinger, Petri Ala-Maunus, Jenny Vogel, Lucia Warck Meister, Akiko and Masako Takada, Alain K, Serena Calò, Angelica Bergamini, Maria Lynch, Dubi Kaufmann, Are Hauffen, Jinho Im, Zvonka Simcic, Anka Schmid, Sara Rajaei &Hadas Itzkovitch, Luca Acito and Dario Carmetano, Estelle Artus, FULANA, Gruppo Sinestetico, Maxim Burlaka, Myriam Thyes, Lelo Lopez, Andrew Eyman, Herve Constant, Javier J. Plano, Damián Durán, Mariana Bertoldi Youssef, Irina Danilova, David Lachman, Avi Dabach, Darya Zhuk, Michael Borras AKA Systaime, Renata Janiszewska, Isa Keimel, Eva Davidova, Randi Matushevitz, Peter Callas, Naomi Oliver, Cecilia Enberg, Galina Bleikh, Colin Goldberg, Aleksandra Dementieva, Cinzia Cremona, Fiona Davies, Cari Ann Shim Sham, Lilia Chak, David Moscovich, Beatriz Albuquerque, and Michael Betancourt.
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18. Toma Fichter, FF Alumn, at 2-1@105, Manhattan, opening Feb. 26 and Mar. 1
OPENING RECEPTION SHOW DATES:
There will be two opening show dates on
Feb 26th , from 6 – 9 pm and on March 1st , 12 – 7 pm.
The artist will be present for both opening show dates.
P.S. I’m Thinking About You
This exhibition got its start in 1955 when I was eight. Looking at a postcard that resonated with me. It took me 70 years to figure out the significance of that postcard and where it took me. And here we are with 150 more. More to follow later, Toma.
More About The Show:
As a 1950’s child growing up in a mixed race working class family in northeast, New Jersey, I recall my mother decorating the enclosed windowed porch with Christmas cards from family and acquaintances. The cards were stapled together at their top left corners and suspended like paper icicles from the tongue and groove vertical knotty pine walls. Out of all the cards delivered to our mailbox at 201, there was one card that stood out from all the rest…a handmade greeting card made by the Maryknoll Sisters. I later came to understand the Sisters were Catholic missionaries working internationally to promote their beliefs. What intrigued me about this particular card were the canceled stamps collected from their correspondences with their fellow sisters from abroad. The repurposed stamps were subsequently cut to fit within the outlines hand drawn by the sisters to compliment the otherwise hand colored compositions primarily of figures and occasional landscapes. The repurposed stamps got to go for another ride…
When I arrived in New York in early 1970 to study photography at SVA, I was recommended by a former high school friend for a part-time position at the Paula Cooper Gallery in Soho where he was departing from, to pursue a more lucrative career as a drug smuggler. During my 5 year tenure working at the gallery I became acquainted with the gallery artists, who coincidently were also instructors at SVA. While employed at the gallery and upon opening the gallery doors at the beginning of the business day, I fetched the mail dropped through the mail slot. Some of the unsolicited mail in the form of postcards generated by other galleries and artists like Eleanor Antin and Ray Johnson began to appear. That experience receiving and perusing the gallery mail sparked my curiosity about Mail Art and subsequently influenced my decision to switch my studies from photography to fine arts. One day while I was processing a mailing at the gallery for an upcoming exhibition for Jennifer Bartlett Drawing exhibition on a mimeograph machine, the automatic cardstock feed grabbed two announcements instead of one and printed partially on the two otherwise blank surfaces. The slip of the cardstock created my first accidental artwork, printing one word from the mailing address ‘Art’ on the second announcement.
In the mid 70’s after leaving SVA & PCG I began my search for identity. Since driving was a natural fit, having been a light vehicle driver for field grade officers in the U.S. Army (1967 to 1969 ), I took to the road. Initially to ‘amuse myself’ ( Henri Matisse) I sent postcards addressed to myself to document my travels transporting Drive-aways as the ‘perfect vehicle’ ( Alan McCollum ). During this time I self-produced artist books that became part of the Franklin Furnace archives ( now in the MoMA collection ).
I half-heartedly continued sending postcards and collecting postcards as a way to validate my search for identity. Upon my return from the road I established my roots in NYC in 1980 by becoming a rent stabilized tenant on Mott Street. To facilitate my decision to become a New Yorker I applied for and was accepted as a ‘permanent intermittent’ worker at the Cooper Hewitt Museum. In my 8 year tenure at the CHM, I recall an exhibition of postcards commemorating Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic legacy contribution building libraries throughout the USA and subsequently named after him. The idea of collecting postcards gathered momentum. In and around that timeframe I began to also collect USPS stamps to be used in conjunction with the postcards. While intermittently being employed at CHM I was afforded the opportunity with my museum ID to visit other museums for free. This opportunity allowed me to collect museum postcards at a staff discount. The moment had arrived to integrate the postcard purchases with the USPS stamps ( MCNY 1982 ). To create the vocabulary enabling the images to collide took some time to accrue. When there was sufficient and diverse printed matter accrued the arranged marriage of the two collections started to bear fruit. The stamped postcards that follow this statement are evidence of that intention toward diversity, equality and inclusivity, better known as DEI.
201@105
is located in ‘Little Italy’ on the northwest corner of Mulberry and Canal Streets at 105 Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan, on the 2nd floor in Room 201 above the Gifts and Souvenirs shop.
It is open thursdays, fridays, saturdays, and sundays from noon to 7pm & by appointment.
201at105gallery@gmail.com 212.925.7999 www.201at105.com, INSTAGRAM: 201@105
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19. Paul Lamarre / Melissa Wolf (aka) EIDIA, at Plato’s Cave, Brooklyn, thru Feb. 28
The Ben Morea (Eagle) exhibition “The universe.”
in the Plato’s Cave Subterranean Vault Space
— January 16 to closing February 28, 2026 at 6pm.
https://www.eidia.com/platos-cave.html
So trudge the tundra pronto to:
14 Dunham Place, Williamsburg Brooklyn 11249
Let us know you are coming & staff will warm your soul with libations !
eidiahouse@earthlink.net / 646 226 6478
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20. Jane Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Independence Plaza Senior Center, Manhattan, Feb. 27
Tap show February 27th , 310 Greenwich St 2nd floor , Independence Plaza senior center , 1:30 pm , Changing Times Tap Dance Company, free, text 646-334-5726 for information
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21. Heide Hatry FF Member, at Strand Bookstore, Manhattan, Feb. 19 and more
STRAND BOOKSTORE, ART CAKE, and POLAR BEAR FEST
STRAND BOOKSTORE
Double Book Launch of Flaco and Flacofolio
with presentations by Jonathan Hollingsworth, Heide Hatry, and Leonard Schwartz, music by Elijah Shiffer, exhibition by contributors to the books, followed by a book signing.
Stand Bookstore
828 Broadway
19 February 7pm
STRAND BOOKSTORE https://www.strandbooks.com/jonathan-hollingsworth-flaco.html
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/p/DTtVpTRkYVx/?img_index=1
and
ARTCAKE, NY
(Shed) My Skin
a sculptural group exhibition, curated by Janet Rutkowski, about transformation, emergence, and realignment. It’s about transformation of materials, and perhaps even ideals. Each of the seventeen sculptors demonstrates this alchemy to uplift the mundane and sheds light upon that which is unseen.
Art Cake
214 40th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Artist walkthrough: TBA
Closing party: Feb. 22, 6-9pm
Participating artists: Heide Hatry, Francesca Schwartz, Marieken Cochius, Constance McBride, Katee Boyle, Janet Rutkowski, Caitlin Miller, Elizabeth Knowles, Fara’h Salehi, Aleksandra Scenanovic, Lori Horowitz, Julie Lindell, Miller Opie, Alberto Marcos Bursztyn, Mark Gibian, Marc Bratman, Walter Kenul
ARTCAKE https://artcake.org/events/2025/5/3/charity-baker-ocean-blue/2026/1/6/kwxf93i1cul087449u2g1wumxcdopl
INSTAGRAM Https://www.instagram.com/p/DUaz-BqDTc0/?hl=en
and
POLAR BEAR FEST
It’s Polar Bear Fest time again, so please come out as soon as it is warmer and the snow buildable and help us filling the entire Great Lawn in Central Park with hundreds of snowbears! A Demonstration for the Climate Crisis. Every snowbear stands for a person who is unhappy about the environmental policies.
Meeting point: north-west entrance of the Great Lawn in Central Park (height of 85th St.)
For announcements of meeting days please join our UPDATES WhatsApp Group. (This is only for being informed, not for communicating with other participants.)
If you want to be more involved and are interested in participating, planning, sharing ideas and strategies with frequent messages and conversations, please join our INNER CIRCLE WhatsApp Group.
HEIDE HATRY is a NYC-based German artist, former rare bookseller, and best known for her work employing animal parts or other discarded, disdained, or “taboo” materials. She has curated many exhibitions and shown her work at museums and galleries all over the world. She has produced more than 250 artist’s books, edited dozens of art catalogues, and four of her larger projects (Skin, Heads and Tales, Not a Rose, and Icons in Ash) have been documented in monographic books.
She is also the founder of ICONS IN ASH, a social art project devoted to helping people contend with loss, and of POLAR BEAR FEST, a Lumbung art initiative created to foster community while fighting the climate crisis.
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22. Michelle Handelman, Lynn Hershman Leeson, FF Alumns, at WHAMMY! Analog Media,
Los Angeles, CA, Feb. 23
WHAMMY! Analog Media, Los Angeles
February 22, 7pm
2514 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles
Twists in the Cord (or) Other Extensions of the Telephone (1994), by Lynn Hershman Leeson, featuring Michelle Handelman. Presented by T.A.P.E.
Twists in the Cord (or) Other Extensions of the Telephone (1994), 56 minutes, is an unstable melding of documentary and experimental narrative, centered on the sexual history of the telephone. Shot on videotape, the analog qualities engender a profound intimacy with the technologies that facilitate deep communication. T.A.P.E. is delighted to celebrate director Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work as part of the exhibition DEEP FAKE – an expansive showcase of her career at Hoffman Donahue.
The film features Michelle Handelman, director of BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes & Sadomasochism (1995). Hershman Leeson brilliantly grounds her work in women actors who approach filmmaking as an exploratory playground, breathing deep life and intellect into the films. It’s a striking performance from Handelman, especially for those familiar with her work.
Our series continues celebrating Lynn Hershman Leeson with her revolutionary feature film Conceiving Ada (1997) at Braindead Studios on March 8 in partnership with DEEP FAKE: Lynn Hershman Leeson.
(Jackie Forsyte)
DEEP FAKE at Hoffman Donahue is open from January 29 to March 14, 2026. Marking her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles in 40 years, Deep Fake surveys Lynn Hershman Leeson’s six-decade career, bringing together works from her iconic series Phantom Limb, Breathing Machines, Roberta Breitmore, and Hero Sandwich, alongside never-before-seen early drawings, rare video works, and newly manipulated photographs. Hoffman Donahue, 427 N Camden Dr., 90210
[https://www.hoffmandonahue.com/exhibitions/deep-fake-2026-beverly-hills/]
Special thanks to Bridget Donahue and Alexander Fulmer of Hoffman Donahue, Joanne McNeil, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Michelle Handelman.
Presented by T.A.P.E. – a Los Angeles based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to facilitating support for analog media through free digitizing, education, hands-on training, equipment rentals and volunteer opportunities. Teach, archive, preserve, exhibit.
Whammy! is located in the REAR unit of 2514 Sunset Blvd, entrance access is via Rampart Blvd.https://www.whammyanalog.com/events/twists-in-the-cord-or-other-extensions-of-the-telephone-1994-pres-by-t-a-p-e
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23. elin o’Hara slavick, FF Alumn, at Grand Rapids Museum of Art, MI
Very pleased to announce that a piece of mine, “Amchitka Island, Alaska, U.S. 1965-1971” (from my series Bomb After Bomb: A Violent Cartography), site of 3 large underground nuclear tests in the 1960s + 70s, is being acquired by the Grand Rapids Museum of Art in Michigan, thanks to Sylvia Watanabe who has had it in her collection for years. elin
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24. Naoto Nakagawa, Edward Gomez, FF Alumns, now online at BrutJournal.com
See Edward M. Gómez’s feature article about the painter Naoto Nakagawa’s new works, now on view at Kapow Gallery, 23 Monroe Street, Manhattan, in brutjournal: “We Will Survive: A New York-based Painter Uses Symbolism and Strange Imagery to Convey a Potent Message.
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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Goings On for Artists is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archive Intern
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