Spanierman Modern: Equinox

Gavin Spanierman brings over 30 years of experience to Spanierman Modern’s new location at 958 Madison Avenue. His philosophy as a gallery director and art dealer is to spotlight and contextualize the work of accomplished, yet under-represented, post-war artists, revealing how these hidden figures have advanced the discourse of modernism and art history. Additionally, Spanierman Modern is pleased to present a robust roster of living artists, furthering schools such as Color Field, Pop, Minimalism, and Abstract Expressionism.

A haven for art enthusiasts and collectors alike, the gallery represents an eclectic stable of artists, deftly navigating the complexities of modern and contemporary abstraction. Underrepresented, soon to be canonized names, such as Sam Middleton and Felrath Hines, are given art historical context alongside Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg. The gallery offers exceptional secondary market works by artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Wayne Thiebaud, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Spanierman Modern offers collectors an opportunity to invest in a contemporary view of the past, diversifying the discourse of art history.

The younger Spanierman began his career at Spanierman Gallery, one of Manhattan’s foremost galleries, founded by his father, Ira. After serving for many years as the director of the Upper East Side stalwart, he became the founding director of Spanierman Modern in 2005. Through these experiences he has had the honor and privilege of working with some of the world’s finest museums, auction houses and private collectors. Spanierman's extensive experience and network qualifies him to provide a level of connoisseurship and guidance for collectors who wish to invest in a fine personal collection that will garner esteem, relevance, and value in years to come.

The Spanierman legacy returns to the upper east side in a beautiful two thousand square foot exhibition space located on the second floor of 958 Madison Avenue. Spanierman Modern is situated within Museum Mile, across the street from the historic Breuer building, current home of the Frick collection, and future home of Sotheby’s auction house. Spanierman Modern looks forward to a grand opening in October of 2023, joining the ranks of the world class institutions, collections, and galleries the Upper East side has to offer.

STEVEN ALEXANDER

Steven Alexander, an esteemed American artist, was born in 1953 amidst the vast landscapes of West Texas. After immersing himself in the vibrant art scene of New York City, he obtained his MFA in painting from Columbia University in 1983, following studies in art history and painting at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Luminous colors, sensuous surfaces, and iconic configurations characterize Alexander's abstract paintings. With remarkable simplicity, his works reflect the viewer's being while alluding to the body and psyche’s rhythmic interplay and dualities. Meditative encounters with his art invite exploration of perception and imagination.

As an elected American Abstract Artists group member, Alexander has received grants from prestigious institutions such as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. His art has been featured in over one hundred exhibitions, including prominent venues like the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Maintaining a studio in eastern Pennsylvania, he continues to push artistic boundaries, leaving a lasting mark on the contemporary art landscape.

Seven Alexander, Nomad 4, 2019, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 in., $16,000

Steven Alexander, Tracer 7, 2017, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 in., $16,000

NATHAN BRUJIS

Nathan Brujis has developed a visual language that mirrors a sensation of the expressive power of the subconscious and the spiritual. Starting from simple geometric forms and gestural brushstrokes arranged in layers, Mr. Brujis' voyage solidifies into a multidimensional discovery of opposing forces, an embodiment of the universal fabric as seen through the eyes of the artist. His works abandon direct representation of recognizable objects in favor of abstract forces, an expressive lyrical experience of instant reaction with subconscious images. Each piece is its own intuitive process of discovery. Some works find themselves quickly, while others have layers exploring the density of time and take months to make.

Nathan Brujis was born in Lima, Peru, in 1971. He studied art and philosophy at Brandeis University and graduated from the American University of Washington DC with a master's degree. He has been awarded important art prizes such as the Deborah Josepha Cohen Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting in 1992, the New York Studio School Faculty Award in 1994, il Premio per la Pittura Lorenzo il Magnifico at the Florence Biennale d'Arte Contemporanea in 2001 and 2003. He has exhibited extensively in New York, Lima, Peru, and Italy. He currently lives and works in New York.

Nathan Brujis, Inside the Mind, 2023, Oil on linen, 95 x 78 in., $45,000

Teo Gonzalez was born in Quinto, a small town in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1964. Teo had always been drawn to photography, design, and whatever other two-dimensional types of artistic expression there might be, but it was not until he was twenty years old that it became evident to him that he was a painter. At the end of 1990, he developed his signature style works consisting of thousands of drops of water arranged into a grid pattern, inside which a small amount of ink or enamel was dropped and left to dry.

He moved to Southern California the following year. Within a month, he produced 3036 Gotas de Tinta his first piece to ever enter a museum's permanent collection, when it was acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art. He had his first show at a professional art gallery in San Francisco in 1996 and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in art from California State University in 1997. Two years later, he moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he currently lives and works.

Although the use of the pictorial field and exploration of color in his work draws comparisons to Abstract Expressionists such as Rothko and Pollock, his grids and working process recall Minimalists such as Agnes Martin and Sol Lewitt. For more than twenty-five years, he has relied on the grid to serve as the foundation for his work, building layers of carefully plotted cells The result is a topography of undulating patterns and glistening surfaces.

Teo Gonzalez, Arch Horizon 2, 2013 Acrylic on canvas over board, 60 x 60 in., $25,000

Teo Gonzalez, Arch Horizon, Black, White, Gray, 2015, Acrylic on canvas over board, 42 x 36 in., $17,500

MARK S. KORNBLUTH

Mark S. Kornbluth is a photographer captivated by the vibrancy of New York City. Born in San Francisco in 1966 and raised in Montreal and Cleveland, Mark's lifelong connection with this dynamic metropolis began thirty years ago, during his first visit. Since then, New York City has become the primary subject of his work. Through his lens, Mark explores the emotional resonance embedded in specific times and places, and the profound impact of shared experiences.

Mark embraces the city's ambient light at night, allowing billboards and streetlights to illuminate his subjects like studio lights, revealing the enduring grandeur intrinsic to New York City. His images are not mere snapshots but rather layered compositions, constructed like paintings. Mark invites viewers to witness the interplay of memory, time, and the shared anticipation of future events.

Mark's extensive academic and professional background adds a unique perspective to his photographic practice. He holds an M.F.A. in acting from Sarah Lawrence College and has honed his craft in various genres, including fine art, commercial, documentary, and event photography. Throughout his career, Mark has had the opportunity to photograph a diverse range of subjects, from dancers, musicians, actors, and politicians to everyday people. This multifaceted background has shaped his unobtrusive approach and distinct artistic vision, enabling him to create compelling, authentic images that resonate with viewers.

Mark S. Kornbluth, Sleeping Neighbors, 2021, Pigment print on Canson Platine paper, 36 x 63 inches, Edition AP, Signed verso., $9,000

Sam Middleton was born in 1927 and raised in Harlem during the height of its renaissance. He was immersed in the vibrant cultural and musical scene of the era, becoming acquainted through performances at the Savoy Ballroom with jazz music, which would remain a primary influence on his art throughout his career.

In the 1950s, after serving in the war, Middleton immersed himself in the Greenwich Village art scene, befriending the likes of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline. His circle of beat writer and artist friends soon gravitated to The Five Spot Café on the Lower East Side where jazz greats Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Charlie Parker performed nightly. As jazz evolved during this time, so did Middleton’s output. His collages, paintings, and drawings made the staccato improvisation visual. He found liberation in the free form of the music that surrounded him, seeking to paint sounds. To quote the artist, “For me, improvisation is a galaxy of color. When I listen to music I feel like a soloist ”

After nearly a decade of travel, Middleton settled in the Netherlands in 1962. He was one of the preeminent American-expatriate artists working in Europe during his lifetime.

Sam Middleton, Everyone’s Music Book, 1975, Watercolor, Gouache, and pencil on paper, 19 ½ x 25 1/4 in., $12,500

ERIN PARISH

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1966, Erin Parish creates deeply meditative work. Her abstract imagery alludes to the universal and the specific, inviting the viewer to reflect, interpret, and actively participate in bringing the piece to life.

Composed principally of fields of circles, Parish's paintings do not have primary focal points. Rather, a depth is implied through coats of resin, resulting in textured surfaces that guide the eye. Layered and dense, Parish's works convey a distinct tension between the textured surface and the underpainting resulting in structurally rigorous and complex compositions. Abstraction, as non-representative style, it is void of all reference to our physical world. It allows viewers to interpret and project their own emotional and spiritual feelings onto it. Parish intends for a conversation to occur between the painting and the viewer –preferably over a significant length of time.

Parish likes to imagine that her paintings reside with people who meditate on them often, observing how they change under different lighting situations, seasons, and even internal emotional shifts. Her works' full complexity reveals itself through a gradual unraveling. Complex and subtle, her paintings are equally approachable and open.

Erin Parish, Windy Ocean, 2017, Oil, acrylic, and resin on canvas, 48 x 60 in., $18,000

Louise P. Sloane has been active as an abstract painter since 1974, infusing her works with personal text that motivates her own experimentation. The visual language of her paintings continues the legacy of reductive and minimalist ideologies, while celebrating color and the human inclination towards mark making.

Sloane’s detail-oriented works are typically divided into rectangles or squares. The quadrangle has become a repetitive motif, often centrally featured within the context of a grid. In contrast with her iterative geometries, it is important to Sloane that the works present themselves as human made objects. Thick paint constructs repetitive handmade patterns, the physical motion of her brush strokes revealing the humanity of her practice. The surface holds Sloane’s signature extrusions. Painstakingly written and overwritten, Sloane’s inscribed text is a form of private meditation. Turned into a relief, and abstracted through color blocking, the text is interpreted through its physicality, not its meaning.

Contrasting color choices intensify the dimensionality of the surface texture. Sloane uses color straight-up, without mixing. Blending takes place optically, as one color reacts to the other, red against green, or blue against yellow. The elements of markmaking, color, and geometry compete for the viewer’s focus, keeping the eyes and mind in constant motion, unifying her interests in the form of the square.

Sloane’s work has been featured in numerous institutional collections, including the Hunterdon Museum of Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, and Cornell Museum of Art and History. Sloane's works are in the permanent collections of the Heckscher Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Yeshiva University Museum, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Sidney and Francis Lewis Collection).

Louise P. Slone, Burner, 2018, Acrylic paint and pastes on linen, 36 x 36 in., $12,000

Louise P. Sloane, Danger Zone, 2018, Acrylic paint and pastes on linen, 44 x 40 in., $15,500

HEIDI SPECTOR

Heidi Spector is a geometric abstractionist. She purposefully opts for her work to convey an upbeat and lively disposition using vivid and repetitive patterns. Her work, inspired by techno beats and club life, projects a natural sense of optimism and joy. Inspired by popular music, each work’s title is based on song lyrics from recording artists such as Duke Ellington, Amy Winehouse, or Tiësto.

Her geometric compositions are created with acrylic paint on Russian birch panels, cubes, and columns. They are then coated in resin and blowtorched to create a glass-like reflective coating. The results are so pristine, the viewer can see their reflection, and thus become implicated in the work.

Spector has stated that American color field artists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Frank Stella have largely inspired her work However, the primary influence in her work is the music playing in her studio while she is working on a piece.

Heidi Spector currently lives and works in Montreal, Canada.

Heidi Spector, Dance to My Beat, 2022 Acrylic with resin on birch panel, 48 x 48 in., $16,000

Heidi Spector, Joyride, 2017, Acrylic with resin on birch panel, 48 x 48 in., $18,000

DIANE WALKER-GLADNEY

Diane Walker-Gladney is a contemporary abstract painter from Connecticut. She has garnered acclaim for her vibrant use of color, intricate layers, and whimsical subject matter.

Drawing inspiration from her early encounters with color, Diane's artistic palette was shaped by visits to the Yardage Shop, where she matched threads with fabric swatches for her mother. The silky fibers exposed her to the diverse hues and luxurious shades that continue to inform her work. Additionally, Diane's fascination with the illustrations of "Goodnight Moon" led her to recognize the significance of capturing fleeting moments, particularly those that encapsulate the essence of dusk.

As an adult, Diane’s memories have left an indelible mark on her artistic expression. The seemingly insignificant moments hold gravity for her, serving as a foundation for the narratives in her painting. Walker-Gladney’s unique history resonates with a universal voice.

Diane's artistic prowess has been recognized through numerous accolades and exhibitions. Her work has been featured in publications including Modern Luxury Dallas Magazine and New American Paintings. Diane's work is housed in public and private collections, including the Denton Public Art Project and the Longview Museum of Fine Art.

Diane Walker-Gladney, Mr. Haircut, 2021, Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 48 x 60 in., $7,500

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To make an appointment, please contact the gallery at info@spaniermanmodern.com, or via telephone at 212-249-0619.

Please visit our website at www.spaniermanmodern.com to explore more of our collection.

Our gallery is located at 958 Madison Ave., 2nd floor, New York, NY, 10021.

Tuesday-Saturday, 10-6.