Feriae Augusti
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- Aug 14
- 10 min read
Updated: Aug 18
Buon Ferragosto a tutti!
Ferragosto, celebrated on August 15 in Italy, originates from Feriae Augusti (“Augustus’ Holidays”), a time of rest following the hard work of the harvest. Time off from the grind, a day at the beach, and travel still play a major part in the mid-August merriment.
It is not so different for the AYB crew checking in this week. We have travelers penning reports on inspiring art exhibitions from Brazil, Spain, Ecuador, Minneapolis, and, of course, good ol’ NYC. AYB artists are at the Café, in a bar, and ensconced in their studios making new work we are excited to share with you. Plus, we have music, books, and theater reviews—including one event this evening at 5pm in Bed-Stuy that we think you will want to check out!
Art News
Ed Rath writes that both he and AYB supporter Nicolette Reim “have work in Field of Pink, an on-line exhibit which posits pink is not simply a color but a condition—a field of emotion, memory, and cultural meaning. It embodies tenderness and vulnerability while also signaling resilience, transformation, and care.
The drawing was done on an Advanced Studio Zoom session on Feb 5th, 2024. Lead by Jane Huntington, we drew several figures from iconic photographs. This is a portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe.”
TJ Edgar writes: “This week I came back to Atlanta for band camp with the Morehouse College House of Funk Marching Band where this year I serve as the Lead of Media, right now I’m the only person in the media team who is here so I’m working on everything solo!
It brings me so much joy to listen to the band so being able to capture them in photographs and have a good time while doing it is the best.
TJ Edgar, Morehouse College House of Funk Marching Band
If anyone wants to tune into our posts and what we’ll be up to, our Instagram is @morehouseband.”
Cecile Chong just arrived for a two month stay in Quito, Ecuador where she will be in an artist residency at Mujeres Atrevidasuio in September.
Cecile adds “ I am thrilled to have had an incredible fellowship with Ankhlave and the opportunity to present Held & Holding in the Bee Garden at Queens Botanical Garden. It feels especially meaningful to have the work here, surrounded by bees, my constant collaborators. Beeswax has been an essential material in my painting practice for many years through encaustic, so encountering bees again in this new body of ceramic work feels like a beautiful continuation.”
Cecile Chong, Held & Holding in the Bee Garden at Queens Botanical Garden
Mia Lew reports: “This week I spent three days at The Drawing Center for a Creative Writing and Drawing Workshop. Along with six other young artists and students, I took part in conversations and various writing and drawing exercises inspired by the work of Pope.L. I encourage all of you to check out Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L!
Pope.L was such a visionary and a great thinker and I feel like this show does a great job of honoring him. His last studio assistant worked on it and was the only person install one of the installations in the show.
I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in conversation and being challenged to write quickly. I’ve always enjoyed writing but haven’t explored it out of an academic or purely person sense.
One of the activities we did was collaging on neutral masks to reflect our internal and external selves. Though u don’t love my mask or feel that connected to it, it was a good challenge. We then had to answer some written prompts while using a phrase someone else had on their mask, the one I used was fragments piecing together, a great through line to be anchored with.
Mia Lew, Drawings inspired by Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L
I also started exploring Pope.L’s drawing practice by making a “skinset.” This piece is far from done, I’m unsure of how I feel about it but hope to revisit it. The workshop was rather short but an experience I’m very grateful for, especially as someone who dabbles in art making and writing. I feel like I got to spend some time with Pope.L.”
Marie Roberts shares some drawings from the past week or so. “I draw wherever I find myself. They are usually fast and I try to keep going and not care about making a "perfect" drawing but one that "gets at" what I am seeing - the noting of that visual experience with marks on a substrate. I find Neah Gray's AYB Summer Session visit to the Museum of the American Indian a useful memory because it forced me to find something to draw (I am usually overwhelmed by the myriad of pieces on view and the effort to try to grasp the cultures represented). That experience kind of mirrored the experience of stopping to draw in my normal wandering and trying to make sense of the world.”
Marie Roberts, On the street in SoHo, From Window at City Point (The building where I got my first vaccinations as a child) l & ll and Elizabeth Street Garden l, ll & lll, 2026
Travis Pereira has taken to making cafes his studio. Here is his latest creation:
From his travels to Minnesota, Jacob Rath writes: “My aunt Mona who lives in St. Paul told me all about life during operation Metro Surge. She organized a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti in the park across the street from her house. Over 80 people from the neighborhood showed up. They connected, and worked together to figure out ways to protest, to check in with their neighbors of color to make sure that everyone is safe and has what they need, and how to monitor ICE activity. This is a memorial she made for Alex Pretti and Renee Good. During the winter time, they always made sure to have a candle burning for them, no matter how cold (and this was a brutal winter for Minnesota). This photograph is what the memorial is like today. I'm proud of all the work she has done, and it is people like her that make me miss living in Minnesota.”
Adding, “I stayed with my friend Samael for a few days in St. Paul. We had a long conversation about sexy underpants. I made this painting for their birthday, which is a portrait of the two of us.”
In between beach visits, Jazz Guillet has been sketching.
Drawings by Jazz Guillet
Cheyenne Rivera texts: “I’ve been drawing lately! I just did this colored pencil sketch this week inspired from the cute outfits in the devil wears Prada 2 movie.”
Maria Polanco has been experimenting with oil pastels. She just completed this octopus drawing.
In keeping with the sea creature theme, I (Meridith McNeal) have completed my new large Inside Outside Windowphila painting.
Evelyn Beliveau writes from Vermont: “I sketched this view overlooking some power lines and farmland near my parents' neighborhood! The tiny roof in the distance is an old water tower, which once had an art installation that looked like a Rapunzel braid falling from the window.”
Adji Ngathe Kebe shares progress on her self-portrait.
Chris Allen just completed found wood sculpture titled ‘it ain’t always gon be meat on the prize’ 13 x 10 x 17” and made of found wood scrap.
Chris Allen, ‘it ain’t always gon be meat on the prize’, 2026, Found wood scrap, 13x10x17”
Exhibitions We Enjoyed
Flo Kiniffo-Neven du Mont and Sanjay Velayandom Neven du Mont have two great exhibitions in NYC to report on!
Flo writes: “At Cooper Hewitt, we experienced Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3, an audio system installation. We spent a good 45 minutes inside the listening room, and I can’t recall listening to records on a sound system that felt so close to a live performance. Particularly great were the songs by Alice Coltrane and Donald Byrd.
We also went to see our friend Lloyd Foster’s exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery. The installation is set up on two floors and is very spatial and mystical. Many of the pieces are floating in space. I have always loved Lloyd’s work, and I always feel like I’m traveling somewhere when experiencing his art. This time, it felt like traveling in space, inside a school of colorful and mystical meteorites.”
Iviva Olinick enjoyed seeing “Esther Pearl Watson, our friend who makes UFO paintings, at Andrew Edlin Gallery. The exhibition American Landscape celebrated this country’s great visionary experiment in identity and belonging with a broad collection of artists whose divergent perspectives reflect the cultural spectrum of our commonality. The American Landscape is a place of possibility, the irrational sum of the facts on the ground and the dreams that permeate our consciousness. Iviva taught an Advanced Studio session inspired by Watson’s work last year for our Year of Migration and we loved her paintings!
Vyomika Tewary went to see CJ Hendry’s exhibition Pastel, a giant bead pit on view at Salon 94, 3 East 89th Street, NYC.
Vyomika explains “This exhibition was a fun little scavenger hunt for all the different beads hidden in this massive tub full of them! The kids had a great time swimming and digging through it all and had so much fun. Everyone helped each other find the ones they were missing too and it felt like a truly wholesome experience.”
Travis Pereira reports: “I’m gallery hopping São Paulo, Brazil where I saw the work of Marcos Amato who creates mixed-media and tactile works using granules from quartz inspired by natural environments, water, and light. His works are featured Art Communities Project a gallery in the Jardins district.”
Marcos Amato installation photos by Travis Pereira
Ty Fletcher is in Spain visiting the Museo del Prado! Ty writes: “Francisco de Goya's black paintings are something to behold. Very eerie and I loved seeing Saturn Devouring His Son in person. For some reason, that was the piece of art that changed things for me and got me interested in taking lessons! I think I had appreciated art but something about it spoke to me. So it was a full circle moment seeing it today!!”
Jacob Rath writes again: "I'm at the Walker Art Center (a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota) looking at fantastic art!”
Alice Neel, Charlotte Willard,1967; Edward Hopper, Office at Night,1940; 2 views of Yayoi Kusama, Passing Winter, 2005; KingDemetrius Pendleton, George Floyd, 2021, and Jim Denomie, Custer's Retreat 2009. Photos by Jacob Rath.
My friend Samael Leopold-Sullivan has a solo show "A Cage So Light [you hardly feel it]" up at Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center.
Samael Leopold-Sullivan, "A Cage So Light [you hardly feel it]". Photos by Jacob Rath.
Jacob finishes up sharing: “I saw the memorial for Alex Pretti at the site where ICE agents murdered him.”
Memorial for Alex Pretti, Photos by Jacob Rath (use arrows to view photos)
What We Are Reading
I (Meridith) have three books to recommend this week. One, Everybody’s Fly, made an excellent follow-up to last week’s reading; the other two work in tandem as an intense look at American history. All three were well worth the read—informative, thought-provoking, and engaging.
I really enjoyed Everybody’s Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture (Viking, 2026) by Fab 5 Freddy and Marc Rozzo I listened to the audiobook which is wonderfully read by Fred. Lovingly and positively written, it reminded me of Barry Walters’ Mighty Real, which I reviewed last week. In both, the authors are as much witnesses to their time as they were active, devoted participants. Fab 5 Freddy brings NYC pride, an encyclopedic knowledge of music, and a wonderful ability to connect the dots between art, music, and the city’s many creative worlds.
As usual, the book had me looking things up, researching, listening, and recollecting referenced songs, artists, and locations. I especially enjoyed being reminded of Jane Dickson, whose current work is so evocative of the familiar landscape of Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen. The work is big, and I look forward to seeing it in person sometime soon!
I also finished Pulitzer Prize-winning Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Metropolitan Books, 2017) by Caroline Fraser. What became immediately obvious is that Wilder’s published stories were, in fact, a sort of prairie-life-lite. The grim realities of her life were much starker and often frightening. And the relationship between Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who collaborated with her in many ways, was nothing short of fraught. Fraser does an excellent job of separating the mythology of the Little House books from the much harder realities of Wilder’s life, while placing both within the larger story of American history.
Perhaps a bit less focused on the grim realities of the times, Victoria Johnson’s Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World (Scribner, 2026) was particularly good at conjuring up the artist’s impetus and methods, as well as his thoughts about his subjects. Frederic Church (1826–1900) lived a generation before Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957), but both books offer fascinating windows into the history of this country.
Johnson brings Church vividly to life through his letters, sketches, paintings, and diaries, following him from the Andes and Jamaica to Egypt, Jerusalem, and his beloved Hudson Valley. I especially loved the descriptions of how he worked and thought about landscape. Of course, I had to text Jazz mid-read to send over some Frederic Church cloud pictures!
Cheyenne Rivera is “reading a super addictive book Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl (Ace Books, 2024), it’s great if you’re into sci-fi fantasy. It has grown a cult following over a beloved main character who is a Persian cat named Princess Donut!”
What We Are Listening To
Abriel (bob) Gardner “delved into Chic’s discography while cleaning my room today. I think they have the best bass lines in disco/in general!”
Lilo Lewis invites you to join them for Mortals: A Sunset Social:
Performance to See TONIGHT!
I am posting the recap early so I can run over to The Billie Holiday Theater to see Ajani Russell perform in The Billie’s Black Arts Initiative 2026 Showcase!
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