ART

January Release: Untangle Series

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This year I am going to make a small collection of works every month and release the works for sale here on my website. Each collection will include works on paper, textiles, and/or works on canvas. Creating these smaller works will allow me needed breaks form my larger Toto with Moon series and my woven soft sculptures. It will also help me practice photographing, writing about, and selling my work.

Here is my first release:

01.2021 | What does it mean to untangle?

For me, untangling is something that I do daily to my hair, my necklaces, and to my thoughts. This past year has been a rollercoaster of emotion—not just because of COVID-19 and Trump, but also because of my own personal triumphs and trials, love and loss. You’ve probably had your own personal ups and downs that have shaped how you’ve dealt with the larger issues at hand.

As a woman of color, who recently married a white, Jewish man, I’ve also been untangling what it means to be Chicana, what it means to be a wife, what it means to create a home, and what it means to plan for an uncertain future. I left corporate America partly because I was sick of being the only brown woman in the room, now being a brown woman of certain means and access, I know I need to be in the room, just on my own terms and in my own manner.

I don’t think this collection is specifically about being a woman of color in 2021, but it is about how I am dealing with the realization that we are all dealing with trauma and stress, some of us more than others. This impacts how we communicate, connect, and behave.

We are all untangling: virtually through screens, behind masks at the grocery store, silently in the shower, behind tears in the bedroom, or alone in a hospital bed.

In this collection, I use color and form to visualize the interconnections we have with each other. I consider my imagery thought-shapes (in reference to John Wyndham’s science fiction novel The Chrysalids).

We may not be able to physically see each other or communicate in person, but we are connected and collectively we are untangling.

40% of sales of this series will be donated to the NYC Crit Club BIPOC Scholarship Fund. I have been a participant in NYC Crit Club for the past couple of years and it has been extremely helpful to my development as an artist.

Recent art shows I've seen and what I'm working on

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I’m back in NYC and happy to be in my studio again. I am working on some new pieces, mostly mixed media and some painting. I’m also working on my business, Distill Creative, mainly focusing on connecting real estate developers and artists.

I’ve gone to some interesting shows that I wanted to share.

Charlie Scheips: Inventions Fugues Flowers at Richard Taittinger Gallery

JANUARY 9 - 31, 2020

This show was actually not interesting and rather underwhelming. I didn’t think the work was particularly strong and I was just really confused. They did have drinks and jazz at the opening, so I appreciated that. One highlight is that they had some work by other artists in the basement and I got to see this piece by Pascale Marthine Tayou, who also did the giant plastic bag tree and other large-scale plastic bag work.

Sammy Bennett at Deer Studios NYC

JANUARY 10, 2020

This was such a random treat! My friend and I went to see Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris and she said her friend was having a show that night so we went and made it before the end.

The work was both kinetic and fantastical. I loved the colors and surprise of what you would see when you twisted the blinds. I also really liked the use of a very lame and recognizable material — those cheap vertical blinds that you see in like a motel or crappy apartment. This work helped me visualize how to move one of my works by just literally laying them out next to each other to paint across. It’s a stupid easy thing, but his work helped.

Work by Sammy Bennett

Work by Sammy Bennett

An example of how I’m laying out to get parts connected the way I want. In progress artwork by Stephanie Echeveste.

An example of how I’m laying out to get parts connected the way I want. In progress artwork by Stephanie Echeveste.

Hans Haacke: All Connected at the New Museum

OCTOBER 24 - JANUARY 26, 2020

I really liked this show, well most of it. It is always nice to see the work of an artist who paved the way for much of today’s status quo. It puts you in your place. Nothing is original, everything has been done. It’s a good reminder.

The surprising part of this show was the weird science fair work on the top floor (was it the third floor?). I mean, I really felt like I accidentally took the elevator to the wrong educational institution. Maybe all the work on that floor together is what made me feel like a second grader on a field trip? I think a lot of this work is older, so perhaps this very work inspired science museum installations as we know them today?

There’s something about his work that feels very familiar. This is probably because it has influenced so many other artists whose work I now see, and also inspired the very way exhibitions are setup.

Anyway, Haacke is a pioneer and I am very thankful for his institutional critique work and also wish I got his kinetic work.

Hans Haacke: All Connected at the New Museum

Hans Haacke: All Connected at the New Museum

Below is just something I saw while out with friends in St. Pete’s.

Mural by Elle Leblanc in the bathroom of a bar in St. Petersburg (I was there for a writing retreat with some friends).

Mural by Elle Leblanc in the bathroom of a bar in St. Petersburg (I was there for a writing retreat with some friends).

Linnéa Sjöberg: Upwards Through The Ceiling at Company Gallery

DECEMBER 13 - FEBRUARY 2, 2020

I wish Company had said ‘we are on the third floor’ on their instagram, because I walked around the block trying to find it. I realize it says so on their website but still.

I loved this show! It was very inspiring for me and also made me jealous. How did Linnéa create such wonderfully intricate work?! Why haven’t I completed all the work I have in my head?!

I don’t love Linnéa’s style, but I do love her artistry and craftspersonship. Her exhibit for some reason gave me permission to just go for it — use all the things, put all the things together, make all the things, do all the themes. It was refreshing and really fun to look at and dissect.

Linnéa Sjóberg at Company - 1.jpg
Another in progress work by me, Stephanie Echeveste. Inspired probably by Linnéa’s work.

Another in progress work by me, Stephanie Echeveste. Inspired probably by Linnéa’s work.

Zilia Sánchez: Soy Isla at El Museo del Barrio

NOVEMBER 20 - MARCH 22, 2020

I am so glad I got to see this exhibit! It was amazing. I only even found out about this because there was a piece in the NY Times (Zilia Sanchéz’s Island Erotic Forms by Jillian Steinhauer) and I happened to see it. I, probably like many other people, did not even know about Zilia’s work and I feel really upset that she is not as well know as her contemporaries since she’s been working for over 50 years making gorgeous abstract, sculptural work. The way she forms canvas and uses that as the structure of her work is amazing. I almost want to write her and see if I can study with her, but I’m sure I’d be like one of hundreds of people.

She’s an inspiration to me because not only has she always been a working artist — like did other jobs to be able to make art it seems via her biography (which was on the wall!), but she has collaborated with other artists, particularly latinx artists, on other projects like literary magazines and feminist zines. She was born in Cuba, lived in New York, traveled often to Europe, and now lives and works in Puerto Rico.

This exhibit inspired some new work I did, mostly drawings and paintings but I’m still thinking about the structural aspects of her work.

In progress work inspired by Zilia by me, Stephanie Echeveste

In progress work inspired by Zilia by me, Stephanie Echeveste

In progress work inspired by Zilia by me, Stephanie Echeveste and Yoshi, the office dog (of JPG Legal — I share the main office with them)

In progress work inspired by Zilia by me, Stephanie Echeveste and Yoshi, the office dog (of JPG Legal — I share the main office with them)

Some other work I made shortly after the show (the drawings and painting). I did the textile piece late last year, but I thought they all went well together. By Stephanie Echeveste.

Some other work I made shortly after the show (the drawings and painting). I did the textile piece late last year, but I thought they all went well together. By Stephanie Echeveste.

Marcia Resnick at Deborah Bell Photographs

NOVEMBER 16 - FEBRUARY 1, 2020

This was another find by my in-the-know friend who suggested we go here after El Museo del Barrio. We walked up all the stairs in this charming building in the Upper East Side and found ourselves in the most delightful gallery. Photographs were up on the wall and some art books were on a small table in the center of the room.

Marcia’s work is hilarious. It is tactile — her pencil (I think it’s pencil) handwriting on the prints is precious. I have so many questions about her Re-Visions series but mostly I wish I could be Marcia’s friend, on Twitter — oh wait, I can! Here’s her profile. This show was excellent and I am so glad we went.

Marcia Resnick from her Re-Visions (1978)

Marcia Resnick from her Re-Visions (1978)

This was inspired, I think, by Marcia’s work, though I am only now realizing it. I did it for the Fe* Mail* Art* Postcard show at A.I.R. because the theme was ‘networked communities initiated through correspondence.’ Pen and ink on paper by Stephani…

This was inspired, I think, by Marcia’s work, though I am only now realizing it. I did it for the Fe* Mail* Art* Postcard show at A.I.R. because the theme was ‘networked communities initiated through correspondence.’ Pen and ink on paper by Stephanie Echeveste.

I also started NYC Crit Club weekly a few weeks ago and it has been fascinating and intimidating and wonderful. If you are an artist in New York City, I highly recommend checking them out!

Books I’ve read this year so far:

Alright, time for real studio time.

-Stephanie