SaveArtSpace is pleased to announce a partnership with Art4Equality and The Untitled Space for an empowering public art and gallery exhibition curated by Indira Cesarine, founder of The Untitled Space and Art4Equality. . The selected artists are Fahren Feingold, Meg Lionel Murphy, Anne Barlinckhoff, Panteha Abareshi, Donna Bassin, Ashley Chew, Sarupa Sidaarth, Kim McCarty, Jodie Herrera, and Travis Rueckert.

“What do these words mean to you: “Equality,” “Life,” “Liberty,” “The Pursuit of Happiness”? We live in an unprecedented time, our liberties robbed by a global pandemic, which laid painfully bare the inequities that have plagued the most vulnerable in our society for far too long. Political polarization in the United States is reaching critical mass with a divisive political system at war. Realities of social inequality and racial injustice are challenging our ability to have confidence in a promising future. With the 2020 elections approaching, we feel it is a crucial time to create an opportunity for artists to respond to our current situation, with the artwork presented in a public platform, where it can reach an audience of millions of people every day and promote an inclusive dialogue. The public art series “Art4Equality x Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness” seeks to empower, enlighten, and shed a ray of hope on a city that has been under a dark cloud, in a country that is in tatters not only by an invisible virus, but also by political and civil unrest. The billboard transformed into an art display is an innovative, and ultimately accessible way to present contemporary art, transforming spaces normally dedicated to advertising into public art that has power and impact.” 

During the week of September 21, SaveArtSpace will launch public art installations for each selected work on billboard ad spaces throughout New York City, along with an exhibition of the artwork created for the series to be presented at The Untitled Space gallery on September 26th. These spaces will be on view for at least one month.

Participating Organizations

Founded in 2015, SaveArtSpace is a non-profit organization that works to create an urban gallery experience, launching exhibitions that address intersectional themes and foster a progressive message of social change. By placing culture over commercialism, SaveArtSpace aims to empower artists from all walks of life and inspire a new generation of young creatives and activists.

The Untitled Space is an art gallery located in Tribeca, New York in a landmark building on Lispenard Street. Founded in 2015, the gallery features exhibits of emerging and established contemporary artists exploring conceptual framework and boundary pushing ideology through mediums of painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video and performance art. The gallery is committing to exploring new ideas vis-à-vis traditional and new mediums and highlights a program of women in art. Notable exhibitions include “UPRISE/ANGRY WOMEN” (2017), “SHE INSPIRES” (2017),“ONE YEAR OF RESISTANCE” (2018), “IRL: Investigating Reality” (2019), and “BODY BEAUTIFUL" (2019) among many other critically acclaimed exhibitions.

Art4Equality is an initiative supporting equality themed art exhibitions and special projects including films and public art by female identifying artists and allies. The mission of Art4Equality is to create empowering artwork and exhibitions that can impact social change, raise awareness and inspire our community. Art4Equality additionally facilitates opportunities by providing mentorship to artists, as well as special programming such as panel discussions, performances, and educational art events. Art4Equality empowers by creating a platform for progress. By supporting the work of underrepresented and marginalized artists, Art4Equality demonstrates the value, quality, and diversity of their contributions to the community, encourages an inclusive dialogue, and promotes equality for all. 

Curator

Indira Cesarine is a Mexican American multidisciplinary artist who works with photography, video, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Her work as an artist has been featured internationally at many art galleries, museums, and art fairs, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hudson Valley MOCA, The Watermill Center, Mattatuck Museum, Albany Institute of History and Art, CICA Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, French Embassy Cultural Center, Art Basel Miami, SCOPE Art Fair, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Getty Images Gallery, Norwood Arts Club, Cannes Film Festival and the International Festival Photo Mode to name a few. In 2014, her public art sculpture, “The Egg of Light” was exhibited at Rockefeller Center as part of the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt. Her work was auctioned at Sotheby’s New York for the annual “Take Home A Nude” art benefits in 2017 – 2019, and at ARTWALK NY 2018 and 2019 benefiting the Coalition for the Homeless. Her artwork and exhibitions have been featured internationally in many publications including American Vogue, Vogue Italia, Forbes, Newsweek, W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, CNN Style, New York Magazine,Dazed and Confused, i-D Magazine, and The Huffington Post among many others.

A graduate of Columbia University with a triple major in Art History, French and Women’s Studies, she additionally studied art and photography at Parson’s School of Design, International Center of Photography, School of Visual Arts, The Art Students League and New York Academy of Art. Cesarine had her first solo show at the age of sixteen at Paul Mellon Arts Center. She began working as a photographer from the age of seventeen, shooting for top modeling agencies Elite, Ford and IMG while she completed her degree. Upon graduation from university, she continued her career in London where she was commissioned by British Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and many other international titles while still in her early twenties. As a photographer, she focused on creating empowering images of women that encapsulated strength, sensitivity, and intelligence. Over the past twenty years, her photography has been published in hundreds of international magazines. Cesarine has been featured internationally on TV shows and networks such as E! TV, Entertainment Tonight, MTV, Inside Edition, HBO, The Ricki Lake Show, iTV (UK), High Society, H&M Life TV, Ford Supermodel of The World, Make Me a Supermodel US and UK editions, and Fashion One TV. Her work as a director has included music videos, documentary shorts, fashion, and video art films.  

After 15 years of working as a photographer between New York, London, and Paris, in 2009, she shifted her focus from photography to contemporary art and publishing. That same year she launched online publication, “XXXX Magazine” which was comprised predominately of original short films and video art productions. The magazine was re-launched in 2011 as the globally distributed print publication “The Untitled Magazine,” of which she is currently editor-in-chief. Her work for the magazine, which presents exclusive interviews with inspirational artists, as well as articles on contemporary culture, includes overseeing all creative direction and content, as well as contributing as a photographer and journalist. Ever-expanding her creative vision, in 2015 she broadened her work to include art curatorial and founded The Untitled Space art gallery highlighting a program of women in art. Since launching The Untitled Space, Cesarine has curated over 35 exhibitions and has exhibited artwork by more than 400 artists. In 2019 she launched Art4Equality, an initiative supporting equality themed art exhibitions and special projects including films and public art by female identifying artists and allies. She continues to explore her creative vision as an artist vis-a-vis traditional and new mediums and finds strength in examining new ideas in contemporary culture. Indira Cesarine currently lives and works in Tribeca, New York.

Selected Artists

Location: W 46th St & 12th Ave, Manhattan

Watercolor artist Fahren Feingold imparts an ethereal quality to her unique works depicting the female form. Her watercolors featuring bold feminine nudes reference imagery from early 20th century French erotica, vintage American magazines from the 70s and 80s, and today’s Internet girls. The Los Angeles native moved to New York at the age of seventeen to study at the Parsons School of Design. After earning her BFA between Parsons and Glasgow School of Art, she worked as a fashion designer for top brands including Ralph Lauren, Nicole Miller and J.Crew, among others. In 2016, her dreamy watercolors caught the eye of the legendary Nick Knight, who commissioned her to illustrate Paris Fashion Week for SHOWStudio. Her work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions including “Moving Kate,” curated by Nick Knight for SHOWStudio in London and The Mass in Tokyo; “The Vulgar” at The Barbican in London, curated by Judith Clark and Adam Phillips; “Red Hot Wicked” at Studio C Gallery in Los Angeles; as well as a number of exhibitions at The Untitled Space, including her debut solo show in 2017. Celebrated as “a trailblazing artist on a meteoric rise” by Vogue, her watercolors have steadily gained recognition from collectors and critics alike for their sensitive, dreamlike colors, graceful brush, and rendition of the female nude. Through her erotic depictions, Feingold gives new voices to women of the past and present while exploring larger notions of female constructs in contemporary society. Her work was featured at The Untitled Space in her 2017 solo show FAHREN FEINGOLD, as well as a solo show presented in collaboration with brand Fleur du Mal in 2018 titled, PEEP SHOW. She has additionally been featured in the gallery’s group shows BODY BEAUTIFUL, IRL Investigating Reality, ONE YEAR OF RESISTANCE, SECRET GARDEN, UPRISE / ANGRY WOMEN, The Female Gaze on Love, Lust & Longing, and LIFEFORCE, as well as at SCOPE MIAMI and AQUA MIAMI Art Fairs in 2018.  Her work was featured at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in “(Hotel) XX” (2018) and “EDEN” (2019) exhibitions presented by The Untitled Space, and was recently featured at Sotheby’s New York for the annual “Take Home A Nude” benefit exhibit and auction in October 2019.

Website: http://untitled-space.com/artists/fahren-feingold-2/

Connect with Fahren on Instagram at @fahrenhaute

Artwork co-created by Indira Cesarine 

Connect with Indira on Instagram at @indiracesarine

Website: www.indiracesarine.com

Location: Myrtle Ave & Cornelia St, Queens

Meg Lionel Murphy paintings are informed by debilitating PTSD from severe domestic violence. She works out of a little blue shack in a junkyard on her family’s property in Wisconsin, where she paints detailed, vivid works on paper and panel depicting heartbroken giants that magically grow larger, stronger, and scarier than the world around them. Her work has been featured in a number of exhibitions including “Interior Violence” solo show at CoExhibitions Gallery (Minneapolis), as well as group shows at Public Functionary (Minneapolis) and at the Other Art Fair (Los Angeles). She is currently working on her debut New York solo exhibition which will take place at The Untitled Space gallery in 2021.

Website: www.meglionelmurphy.com

Connect with Meg on Instagram at @MegLionelMurphy

Location: Pulaski Bridge (11th St) & 53rd Ave, Queens

Anne Barlinckhoff is an artist whose work is a study of the human body and our relationships. With her remarkable eye for detail and evoking emotions for trust, close to skin of her subjects are an exploration of the sculptural bodies turned into shapes and stories, forms and contours that transform the ordinary into a new kind of intimacy. Sometimes even deliberately placed out of context, and thus urge the viewer to recalibrate the visual and cultural assumptions we live by. The power she feels within her body and soul is infinite and that power is strengthened when shared with others.

Barlinckhoff’s body of work harmonises serenity, strength, and love. By applying nudity within her work, her images invoke a sense of trust between the model and their body as well as the photographer and model. She’s drawn by her intuitive experience of reality — her past, dreams and daily physical contact with people. With her intimate and caring approach to this and capture the beauty and pure aesthetic of it all, is what marks her work in any context.

Her work has been exhibited in the USA, South Africa, Australia and across Europe. She has additionally been published at Magnum Photos, i-D, Vice, Dazed, Nataal, Playboy and Vogue Italia. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Design in 2016, and currently lives and works between different cities in Europe and Africa.

Website: www.annebarlinckhoff.com

Connect with Anne on Instagram at @AnneBarlinckhoff

Location: Park Ave & Emerson Pl, Brooklyn

Panteha Abareshi work is rooted in her existence as a chronically ill/disabled body existing with multiple medical illnesses, at the root of which is sickle cell zero beta thalassemia- a genetic blood disorder that causes debilitating pain, and bodily deterioration that both increase with age. Through her work, she aims to discuss the complexities of living within a body that is highly monitored, constantly examined, and made to feel like a specimen. Taking images that are recognizable as “human” forms, and reducing them to the gestural is a juxtaposition of her own body's objectification, and dissection. Through her performance work, she pushes her body to, and often beyond, the limits of its ability. The radicalized abjectification of her own corporeal form allows for a continued examination of her bodily deterioration, and its connection to a larger context of universal fragility, fear, pain and mortality. In her video work and installations, she aims to make the viewer hyper-aware of their own body, and actively employ accessibility as a tool, both withholding and over-extending it as a means of casting light onto the ill/disabled experience. With every piece, her practice traces and documents her body's malfunction, and its disintegration. With this deterioration comes implantation of medical devices, prosthetics, and the use of mobility aids. Her body is the primary medium in her practice, and these materials become vital to the visual language of her work. Currently, she is contemplating the prosthesis, and simultaneous abstraction and mechanization of the fundamentally inorganic “body.”

Website: www.panteha.com

Connect with Panteha on Instagram at @pantehart

Location: McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St, Brooklyn

Donna Bassin As a photographer, film-maker, author, and practicing psychoanalyst, I feel the urgency for artistic recognition of the ruptures in our society and attempts towards repair. The Afterlife of Dolls, a solo photographic and sound installation at the Montclair Art Museum, was a response to my work at Ground Zero. This project was featured on PBS’ State of the Arts and received both a Golden Bell and Gradiva Award. I collaborated in the formation of a veterans’ art initiative called Frontline Arts and directed and produced two award-winning documentaries – Leave No Soldier and The Mourning After – about post-traumatic stress in the veterans’ community. My work has been juried into numerous group exhibitions from New York City to Los Angeles.

My photographs have been commissioned for book covers and are in private and museum collections. Recently, I was invited to represent New Jersey’s women artists in a public art project titled Her Flag (www.herflag.com). My installation, By Our Own Hand, in collaboration with Frontline Arts, will be exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum in fall 2020. I have received an honorable mention as curator's choice for ProArts Jersey City and my work has been featured as the covers for Issues 1 and 2 of "Prayers for the Pandemic," an ongoing, worldwide public art project featuring the usage of Tibetan prayer flags to inspire hopefulness in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, curated by Anne Trauben of Drawing Rooms in Jersey City, New Jersey.

My portrait series, My Own Witness, will be featured in an upcoming indoor exhibition at the Smack Mellon gallery curated by Rachel Gugelberger in Brooklyn, New York and an outdoor installation in Montclair, New Jersey for Art Off-Screen, an international exhibit curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch (www.neumeraki.com).

Website: www.donnabassin.com

Connect with Donna on Instagram at @p1nhole

Location: Flushing Ave & Waverly Ave, Brooklyn

Ashley Chew is a painter, model, activist & writer based in New York, NY. With a background in Fine Arts and career in Fashion, she connects with clients on and off the runway. In addition to painting, Chew’s skills include; instruction, murals, installations, dyes, leather goods, and silkscreening.

Milk.xyz has previously named Chew “Artist of The Week”. PATTERN Magazine listed her one of “The 26 To Watch Under 26”, and My Domaine listed her as one of “10 Uplifting Artists To Follow on Instagram.” Chew has completed Artist Residencies at Driftwood Studios in East London, South Africa, and The Madame Walker Theatre in Indianapolis, IN.

Clients and Partnerships include: Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya, Tommy Jeans, Coach, Nike Cultivator, Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” and “She’s Gotta Have It Too”, The North Face, Kipling, Topshop, Pharrell’s Billionaire Girls Club, Bumble Bizz, Dress For Success, L’Oreal, FCDA Nigeria, Midwest Fashion Week and more.

Artist Statement:

Ivory

Beige

Buff

Ecru

Sepia

Bronze

Copper

Mahogany

Brown

Ebony

Jet

Black.

-Ashley Chew

Website: www.ashleybchew.com

Connect with Ashley on Instagram at @ash_chew

Location: McGuinness Blvd & Calyer St, Brooklyn

Born in India, Sarupa Sidaarth, studied at Sir J.J. School of Art and received her MFA at Academy of Art in San Francisco, United States. Her awards and achievements include First Prize at Brea Gallery’s Made in Paint 2018, Frey Foundation Grant, Golden Foundation Residency and NordArt in Germany. Sarupa was recently selected for the NCWCA Mentorship Program. She won the K.K. Modi Fellowship and Pasca scholarship to France in 2011. She has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions in India, Europe and United States. Sarupa lives and works in St. Helena, California.

Website: www.sarupasidaarth.com

Connect with Sarupa on Instagram at @sarupasidaarth

Location: Flushing Ave & Spencer St, Brooklyn

BIO: Kim McCarty A graduate of UCLA (MFA) and the Art Center College Design, Pasadena (BFA), McCarty lives in Los Angeles Upcoming and solo projects and exhibitions include: Kim McCarty “The Forest”, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, spring 2020(canceled due to covid 19 government mandates); Kim McCarty David Klein Gallery, Detroit Michigan; Liquid Matter, Maloney Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA; Kim McCarty Paints at Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA Group Exhibitions include: C’est Comme Vous Voulez, Praz-DelaVallade, Los Angeles; Contemporary Passions at the Museo de Ponce, Puerto Rico; Contemporary Drawing” Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; UCLA Hammer exhibit,“Art on Paper “Liquid Los Angeles” Pasadena Museum of California Art. McCarty’s work is included in the Museum of Modern Art, Honolulu Academy of Art and the Hammer Museum CURATORIAL PROJECTS 1989 – Present, Curator, Art at Michael’s Santa Monica Selected Exhibitions include: UCLA MFA Graduate Students and Professors;, Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode Drawings,; Ed Moses Paintings; Works by Larry Bell; The work of John Baldessari’s Assistants; The Artists who work at The Santa Monica, Museum of Art, Group shows have included artists Luchita Hurtado, Carmen Argote, Tim Hawkinson, Analia Saban, Mary Weatherford.

Statement: I have always been interested in identifying an expression that suggests both longing and loss. My work has gone through stages of images of adolescence to adulthood. By using a “wet into wet” watercolor medium and without specific subject I wish to convey the transitory and emergent state. The figures heads become too large for their small, narrow bodies, their hands too large for their arms. The watercolor is so translucent that the medium expresses both flaws and perfection. The process is extremely fleeting and an image is either created or lost within seconds. It can sometimes take weeks to create a watercolor that has the delicate balance of realism and abstraction. In many ways this watercolor process feels much like the immediacy of adolescence and life itself By this process I attempt to explore the dichotomy between uncertainty and focus, and the emotional state that lies beneath the surface.

Website: www.kimmccarty.net

Connect with Kim on Instagram at @kimchimccarty

Location: Hamilton Pl & 12th St, Brooklyn

Jodie Herrera was born and raised in New Mexico and has identified and worked as an artist her whole life. She received formal training at the University of New Mexico where she graduated with a BFA Honors and a focus in painting in 2013. She currently resides in Albuquerque, where she works as a full time Photo Realism Oil Painter, Muralist, Illustrator, Mixed-Media Artist and Curator. She works locally on her main project, where she creates semi-photorealistic oil paintings portraying women that have persevered through trauma. Herrera takes great care with each story, building personal and supportive relationships with each of her participants. She uses symbolism from their culture and personal interests to visually narrate the painting and accompanies each piece with a write up that explains it in detail. She strives to celebrate the beauty and resilience of these women and hopes that they can provide inspiration for others.  Women Across Borders, is an International Arts and Activism project. She specifically works with refugee and immigrant women and creates paintings that illustrate their personal journeys. She provides monetary and emotional support for all her participants and hopes to bring attention to the issues they face and have overcome, as well as to educate and activate others around the subject.  Her Murals are meant to reflect the culture, history or mission of the space in which they inhabit. They are also meant to create awareness around certain people of impact or social justice issues that are relevant to space and the time it’s created in.  Herrera’s ultimate goal is to connect and uplift women, while providing a platform for important issues around intersectional feminism and social justice. Herrera hopes her work can be a catalyst for positive change.  Herrera was awarded “Best Visual Artist of 2017, 2018 and 2019 by Albuquerque The Magazine, and her art has been featured in such settings as Art Archives of America in the Smithsonian Washington DC, The American Art Collector Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, in seven Museums including the Denver History Museum-Denver CO, in numerous distinguished galleries including Stone Sparrow Gallery in New York, Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles Gallery Fritz- Santa Fe NM, among many others.

Website: www.jodieherrera.com

Connect with Jodie on Instagram at @chromaj

Location: 11th Ave & W 45th St, Manhattan

Travis Rueckert grew up with an Art Teacher for a mother and took to practicing his craft at an early age. He studied fine art at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois in which he graduated from in 2007. One of his acrylic paintings remains in the permanent collection there. Travis moved to Colorado in 2014. It is here that his art career really started to take shape. To date, Travis has had artwork published in a children's book (Montgomery Eugene Cobblesworth), on guitar pedal labels, a dental teaching manual (used to teach students in South Africa), murals on the walls of a private residence and businesses in four different cities/towns on Colorado's Front Range, a handful of murals in the suburbs of Illinois, along with countless hand painted signs, graffiti art, fine art prints, and oil and acrylic paintings that have hung or are currently hanging in twenty-four(?) states in the US, and in London and Madrid.

Website: www.facebook.com/theartoftravisrueckert

Connect with Travis on Instagram at @TravisRueckert