artists Archives » Michelle Trauring

Calling ‘Mr. Apology’: Confessional Phone Line Inspires New Wondery Podcast

Blog April 7, 2021

The bar was dark, long and narrow, soul music blasting from a back room sectioned off by shabby, velvet curtains — parted just enough to see revelers dancing in the shadows.

It was November 1980 in the heart of Tribeca, and there was an aliveness to the place, a buzzing energy swirling around 24-year-old artist Marissa Waichunas, who had fully embraced the rising era of promiscuous feminism and all that it entailed. She had no intention of meeting someone to date, or to marry, that night, let alone a fellow artist.

But then she locked eyes with Allan Bridge.

New York City Galleries Find a Home on the East End

Blog July 23, 2020

Despite a legacy that includes contemporary giants such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Lee Krasner and Robert Rauschenberg — who all famously lived and worked here — high-end New York galleries have largely shunned the East End as a serious year-round art destination, until an international pandemic buoyed it to the surface.

Gone are the days of summertime pop-up galleries, many of the converted newcomers agree. Now, they’re finally here to stay.

“I’d like to say this was one big strategic decision,” said Gordon VeneKlasen, managing partner of Michael Werner Gallery, three days after opening the new East Hampton space. “But in fact, it was sort of an instinctual thing. It seems so obvious now.”

Artists Inspired in Days of COVID-19 Pandemic

Blog May 30, 2020

Artists across the East End have reported mixed impacts on their creativity and productivity while sheltering in place — a concept that is foreign to some, but not much of a departure for many who are already accustomed to, and prefer, working in isolation.