Photographed by: Adrian Wilson

An exhibition curated by Heskin Projects:
Elizabeth Heskin, Tracey Ravdin Perlmutter, and Patricia Spergel

Storytelling is a primal instinct and one that has stood the test of time.  We all have memories of listening to bedtime stories, hearing ghost tales around a campfire, or learning the oral tradition of our family or religion.  Visual storytelling is a rich and well-defined genre throughout art history and one that has seen a resurgence in the past decade as artists grapple with how to make sense of the crazy world in which we live.   

We’re thrilled to present “Tell Me Another Story”, a sequel to “Tell Me A Story” which was presented here two years ago.  These six artists’ communicative skills and ability to weave storytelling into their work is eclipsed only by their incredible talent to take these ideas and present them in two dimensional forms. And while each art work hints at an underlying narrative, and some of the titles give us clues along the way, none are so obvious that they don’t allow room for the viewer’s interpretation.  For as the philosopher Hannah Arendt succinctly put it: “Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”

Tell Me Another Story will be on view at 1GAP Gallery through 5/6/25.  The gallery is located at 1 Grand Army Plaza, across the street from the Brooklyn Library, a few short blocks from the Brooklyn Art Museum, and easily accessible by subway.

Please make an appointment to view the exhibition. For further information, please email: Eheskin@gmail.com.

About the Artists:

Ana Delgado is a Brooklyn based artist who was born in Cuba and emigrated to the US as a young child. She is currently the president of 1 GAP Gallery and through her hard work on its board, she has been instrumental in keeping this unique non -profit space alive and thriving.  Delgado’s Cuban culture and exodus from her birthplace have influenced all of her work, but in particular this body of altered photographs. There is a strong autobiographical feeling in the spiritual and magical world Delgado creates in these pieces. Mysterious, dreamlike figures hover above and integrate into real and imagined places.

Heather Drayzen is a Brooklyn based painter who was born in San Antonio, TX.  She creates small-scale paintings that explore intimate domestic scenes, often featuring herself and her loved ones. Drayzen’s personal narratives transcend any sentimentality by placing the viewer’s focus on light and texture through her use of prismatic color and delicious paint handling.  Ephemeral flashes of light transform these compositions into poetic experiences.

Elisa Jensen is a Brooklyn based painter whose work explores deeply private moments triggered by personal memory, dreams, travel and careful observation of her surroundings. Views of landscape glimpsed through a window or open doorway contrast with her images of an interior domestic world of humans and pets often warmly lit by lamps. There is a clear specificity to all of Jensen’s paintings—the viewer can feel the time of day, the season of the year, and even the temperature both inside and outside.

Peter Schenck is a NYC born and Brooklyn based artist and curator.  His paintings reveal his astute knowledge of art history as he draws on sources as disparate as Cubism, Chicago Imagists, Philip Guston and even some Pop Art thrown in for good measure.  Schenck digests these varied references to create paintings and drawings that touch on the life of a painter in an ever-changing political landscape.  There is an irreverent humor and a joie de vivre in the way he uses kaleidoscopic movement and disorienting pile ups of images- leaving the viewer breathless, but satisfied.

Andrew L. Shea is an artist, critic and teacher based in Providence, RI and New York City. His practice of using color to build the painting and to tell the story is reminiscent of the Nabis and in particular Édouard Vuillard. There is a timeless quality to these very personal and poetic works; shapes come into focus and dissolve, magnified by the scumbled application of oil paint.  As Shea says: “I am interested in making slow paintings that shift and move, paintings that reveal themselves in time as the viewer’s eye flits across the surface.”

Tsai-Ling Tseng is a Brooklyn based painter who was born in Taipei. Using a distinct palette of acidic colors and idiosyncratic paint handling, she creates a dreamlike environment filled with pathos and humor. Tseng draws on personal memories and experiences but is able to translate these private thoughts into paintings that  viscerally connect with the viewer over shared anxieties such as playing the piano in public or hosting a family meal. While there is a child-like quality to some of her figures and anthropomorphic characters, this sweetness often masks a darker, more stress-filled world lurking just below the surface.