I Love You, Don’t Touch Me

Digital exhibition 

2021, Great Neck, NY

Artist talk

Digital Exhibition

Collaboration between artists Saba Askari, Ellen Bleiwas, Steve Chiu, Becs Epstein, Clara Gross, Kristen Heritage, Rochelle Voyles

Between You and I

Envelope, graphite, ink

Dimensions vary (8.25” x 8” - 13.25” x 10.75”)

2020

Photos: Steve Chiu

Exhibition Text

On a chilly Tuesday night in mid February 2020 a group of fifteen artists gathered at TSA Gallery in Brooklyn for the first meeting of NYC Crit Club spring semester. We were shy and awkward sitting on folding chairs as we introduced ourselves and our artwork. Little did we know the seismic shifts that were heading our way as Covid-19 took over New York and the world. What we also didn’t know was the friendship and comradery that would develop over the coming months. In March the NYC Crit Club meetings went on Zoom with our moderator Rose Nestler bravely leading the way into unknown territory of sharing art online. The weekly meetings became a bright spot in otherwise dark days of isolation. How could we give this up? When the class ended in late April Steve sent out an invitation, “We are continuing the tradition of us gathering together every Tuesday night on zoom to check in with each other, share ideas re: art, be together and continue our digital community that has bloomed in the past month. If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you on the call as well! Please see below for the zoom invite link!”” 

Thus began a series of informal weekly video hangouts that would extend through to the present. As spring turned to summer, a core group of seven artists emerged; Steve Chiu, Becs Epstein, Ellen Bleiwas, Kristen Heritage, Rochelle Voyles, Saba Askari, and Clara Gross. We have been meeting weekly online in some combination continuously since April 28th. We come together to hold space for our art and community in times when art cannot be experienced in person and friends can’t gather. We share work in progress, new ideas, things we’ve read or watched, plenty of memes, and sunset photos. We grapple with the daunting questions of our times, or play a few rounds of virtual board games. It’s light, it’s heavy but most of all enduring. The reassurance of seeing familiar faces for good conversation has become a source of stability as the world shifts under our feet. 

Despite the moments of uncertainty, we’ve all eventually found a way to keep making, to keep the ball rolling, to keep on keepin on. Steve is exploring the intersections of drawing in digital and physical. Becs is busy producing merch for the Institute of Plant Motivation and stirring up artisanal cocktails. Ellen has dived into the world of mail art from Toronto. Kristen is machine embroidering skeletons and learning the mandolin. Rochelle is creating atmospheric collage paintings and tending a rooftop garden. Saba is exploring the beauty in body and detritus. Clara has embraced color and is immersed in a world of tiny buildings. 

There were days when the thought of making art felt futile. What does it matter when people are getting sick? Who cares if no one can see it in person? Yet the urge to create and the need for community is the thing that united us all in the first place. Eventually we have all come back to it, and for this I credit the support of our collective. So, now we are nine months into the pandemic and we still cannot gather in person, but our artworks can! Standing in proxy for our bodies, artworks from all seven artists will be brought together in Saba’s Basement Gallery. These are works made over the past months in parallel to our weekly meetings. We are all very different types of makers with divergent interests, but I think you will see some common themes. Connection to the environment, craft and the artist’s hand, art in the digital age, tactility and body, just to name a few.