An exhibition curated by Heskin Projects:
Elizabeth Heskin, Tracey Ravdin Perlmutter, and Patricia Spergel

It is a fact of life in 2026 that it is hard for individuals to always make sense of the cacophony of noises and images with which we are constantly being bombarded.  There are just SO MANY things constantly running through our heads!  The four artists exhibited here are visual storytellers-- filtering and editing this firehose of information through their creative processes, distilling ideas while also leaving the images available for open-ended interpretation. They seduce the viewer into their worlds with bright colors, playful drawing, and whimsical, often humorous, motifs; but once the viewer is immersed in the work, more serious and introspective themes emerge.

About the Artists:

Matt Blackwell (b.1954, Lyons, NY) received his BFA from the Portland School of Art and his MFA from University of North Carolina.  He has won countless prestigious awards and residencies, and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. His paintings explore the rhythms of American life, with a sense of wry humor and a fairytale-like absurdity. Blackwell draws inspiration from disparate sources such as folklore, mythology, car culture, and politics, presenting us with narratives that feel both familiar and unexpected. His muscular approach to paint handling — layering brushwork with spackle, scraping, and ground charcoal — gives his pieces a raw, tactile energy that offsets the sophisticated and teasing commentary on our society.

Luiza Furia (b. 1993, Seattle, WA) received her BA from Columbia College and her M.Arch from GSAPP at Columbia University in NYC.  She is an architectural designer and ceramic artist who divides her time between NYC and Germantown, NY. Furia works mainly with porcelain slip to create tiles and plates that are brightly colored with richly delicious painted and glazed surfaces. There's a wonderful cheekiness to her pieces that catches you off guard — delicate and fragile in their making, yet bold and fearless in addressing serious themes of identity, rites of passage, and the female experience.

Michael Gac Levin (b. 1984, Los Angeles, CA) received his BA from the University of Chicago in Illinois and his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He has exhibited widely, been featured in many publications, and currently lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Pratt. Levin’s paintings present quotidian, familiar objects in settings that evoke both the joy and mystery of childhood memories and dreams.  His diaristic practice includes a lot of drawing, and he has even collaborated with his two young children, allowing serendipity, humor and innocence to appear side by side with more serious and unsettling conversations.

Taylor Keister (b. 1994, Horseheads, NY) received both her BFA and MFA from Alfred University in Alfred, NY and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has been included in many exhibitions and art fairs, both locally and in Europe. Keister’s paintings, drawings and assemblages transport the viewer into a dreamlike world of storytelling-- touching on issues of girlhood/adulthood, and inner/outer reality. There is a bold, “crawling out of your skin” energy in her work.  There is also a nod to an Alice in Wonderland aesthetic with respect to changes in scale, as well as allowing the viewer to step through the looking glass and lose themselves in a surreal and nostalgic world.

Running Through My Head will be on view at 1GAP Gallery through August 25, 2026.  The gallery is located at 1 Grand Army Plaza, across the street from the Brooklyn Library, a few short blocks from the Brooklyn Art Museum, and easily accessible by subway.

Please make an appointment to view the exhibition. For further information, please email: 1grandarmyplazagallery@gmail.com