Photographed by: Dario Lasagni

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 several years as artists grapple with how to make sense of the crazy world in which we live.   

It was pure joy visiting each of these seven artists to select work for “Tell Me A Story”.  Their 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 and three 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.”

Heskin Projects, January 2023
Elizabeth Heskin, Tracey Ravdin Perlmutter and Patricia Spergel

Please contact Elizabeth Heskin at eheskin@gmail.com to schedule an appointment and for further information.

Mary DeVincentis is a NYC based painter whose work feels like the visual version of literary magical realism.  Each painting is filled with dream-inspired images, often depicting animals with very human attributes in starring roles.  Her deeply personal iconography touches on Buddhist philosophy and the practice of psychotherapy, but avoids being overly cerebral because of her very relatable and confident paint handling.

Barbara Friedman is a NYC based painter and educator.  Her body of work entitled “Unreliable Narrators” was one of the springboards for this exhibition.  Her most recent work, while still exhibiting her signature wit and intelligence, is filled with more ambiguity and accident.  She found that the slower pace of time while working during the pandemic allowed her to wait for incidents and imagery to be revealed through the painting process.

Scherezade Garcia is a Brooklyn based painter, printmaker, installation artist, and educator whose work often explores allegories of history, migration, collective and ancestral memory, and cultural colonization and politics. Her fierce passion for her materials and her exuberant, rapid-fire conversational style meld perfectly with her multidisciplinary approach to her complex subject matter.

KellyAnne Hanrahan is a Brooklyn based painter who paints on anything and everything she can find.  Her studio is jam packed with chair backs, old computer monitors, desk tops etc., all covered with rich, thick oil paint.  She paints from observation with wry humor, and is especially inspired by her frequent camping trips all across the country. She is currently working on a series entitled “People Being Outside”, where she gives us glimpses of humanity filtered through her idiosyncratic lens.

JoAnne McFarland is a Brooklyn based visual artist, poet and curator. She states that her mission as an artist is “to tell the sometimes brutal truth about what I see around me, and to honor and celebrate my own and others’ ability to thrive, sometimes in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.” In some of her most compelling work, she uses dolls and clothing, among other objects, to create self-portraits that communicate her unique story without limiting the viewer’s interpretation.

Avery Z. Nelson is a Brooklyn based painter whose work has recently gained an international audience. Their work exudes energy, intelligence and a joie de vivre that is tempered by subtle and gentle paint handling.  The paintings explore bodies and body parts-- touching and almost touching; there is tension and alienation, but also a deep, rich connection to the world around them.

Jackie Shatz is a NY based ceramic artist.  Her wall sculptures often depict figures dancing, twisting, swimming, or suspended in air; caught mid-movement and frozen for an instant.  There is a dream-like quality to these small scale works, and an ambiguity which allows the viewer to assign their own narrative onto these faceless beings.