TAMIKO KAWATA

Courtesy of artist and Alison Bradley Projects.

Alison Bradley Projects
526 W. 26th Street, Suite 814
New York, NY 10001

December 13, 2023 - February 24, 2024
Artist reception on January 11, 2024

Alison Bradley Projects is pleased to announce TAMIKO KAWATA, a solo-presentation of groundbreaking sculpture, works on paper, and site-specific installation defining the artist’s trajectory over six decades. On view from December 13th, the exhibition runs until February 24th, with an artist reception on January 11, 2024.

New York-based artist Tamiko Kawata (b. Kobe, 1936) came of age in postwar Japan: a climate in which resistance to predominant gender roles and class hierarchies of the era became core to both her personal and professional mission. She received her BA in Sculpture at the University of Tsukuba / Tokyo University of Education, developing a practice conceptually informed by the avant-garde aesthetic philosophies and movements of the post-war period, including Dadaism, Bauhaus, and Gutai, particularly in their use of unconventional and socially symbolic media. After graduating in 1959, Kawata worked as an artist-designer with Kagami Crystal Glass Works in Tokyo and, as the company’s first woman designer, earned the second highest salary in the nation, and the highest national women’s salary at age 23. In 1961, the artist immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City in 1962, working as the arts and crafts curator of the Japan External Trade Organization.

Read more

Elizabeth Columba: Vogue Magazine

Courtesy of artist, photography by Adrianna Glaviano for Vogue, December 2023.

EFA Studio Member, Elizabeth Columba is featured on Vogue and Vogue UK online.

Fashion loves art, and designers love to pay tribute to artists—Yves Saint Laurent put Piet Mondrian on his graphic mini, Miu Miu collaborated with John Wesley, Dior's Kim Jones has worked with Peter Doig, and Louis Vuitton handbags brandish Yayoi Kusama dots, to name just a few. But what if an artist was directly asked to make something that was inspired by a designer? For this portfolio, that's exactly what happened. We asked 10 artists from different parts of the world if they would respond to recent collections. Vogue paired each one with a particular designer, and the artists had complete freedom to do what they wanted.

—Dodie Kazanjian

Rhona Bitner: New York Times Book Review

EFA Studio Member, Rhona Bitner had her book Listen reviewed by Jeff Gordinier in the New York Times.

Read the review on the New York Times website.

Del Geist: Cracked Ice at Garment District, NYC

Photo by Sabrina Eberhard

EFA Studios and The Garment District Alliance unveiled Cracked Ice by renowned artist Del Geist – a series of three towering structures made of stone and stainless steel titled Laurentide, Muir and Champlain that represent erratic boulders being held by immense ice-age glaciers. Located on the Broadway plazas in the Garment District between 39th and 40th Streets, the free installation invites viewers to reflect on the dynamic forces of nature and profound impact of climate change and will be available to the public through March 2024.

For more information, visit garmentdistrict.nyc

Simonette Quamina: Artnews @ Frieze London

EFA Studios Member Simonette Quamina was recently featured in an Artnews story about Frieze London - read more here! Established Artists Champion Rising Stars In a Can’t-Miss Frieze Project

Tessa Solomon writes: “Artist-to-Artist” is a standout of Frieze’s 20th anniversary programming, as it smartly subverts self-reference, instead projecting its hopes into the future by means of these rising and under-sung voices.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for Frieze to put artists—some who may not be new, but who aren’t mainstream—on this international platform,” Simonette Quamina told ARTnews.  Quamina, who was nominated by Alvaro Barrington, made an especially topical contribution given the fair’s preoccupation with the passage of time. 

A Praxis artist, she’s best known for her varied collage and printmaking techniques which incorporate autobiographical imagery. The newest works, shape-shifting graphite drawings which variously absorb and negate light, depending on the pressure she applied to the graphite, are a departure from her usual materials, though. Talking to ARTnews via phone from London, she was reluctant to concede the story unfolding here, though she said that like much of her work, they reflect the mutable nature of memory—in particular her memories of growing up across Canada, Guyana, Saint Vincent, and the United States.”

Artists' Fellowship, Inc. 2024 Medal Honoree

In May 2024, EFA will be honored with the 2024 Gari Melchers Memorial Medal by Artists' Fellowship, Inc. This honor recognizes EFA as a unique and laudable organization in supporting visual artists. The Gari Melchers Memorial Medal is awarded to a person or an organization that has materially furthered the interest of the profession of the fine arts. Thank you to Jessica Daryl Winer, her staff, and the Board of Trustees for their program's resolute support of the arts.