Painters Isca Greenfield-Sanders and Sebastian Blanck work in adjoining studios. Their work, like their work space, is very different, yet there is a synergy here that you feel when you step into their worlds. Isca and Sebastian have been married for nearly ten years and have two young sons, but after dropping them off at school and before picking them up, this is where they spend their time. A recent visit found both at work preparing for shows in the fall. Here is a corner of Isca’s studio looking into Sebastian’s. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Here’s Isca sitting in a wooden chair that she inherited from her “art godfather,” Ross Bleckner. Isca has been surrounded by artists all her life, starting with her father, the photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Pictured here are two of Isca’s recent paintings. Isca collects vintage 35-mm. slides from the fifties and sixties that she finds in flea markets and on eBay. “How could people throw these out?” she asks, showing a handful of what seem to be family photos. “But thank you very much!” The images in these photographs form the composition of her paintings after a process of scanning and enlarging them until she finalizes what she is after and begins to paint her final canvas. Isca’s last solo show at Haunch of Venison ran from November to December 2012. Photo: Wendy Goodman
In one corner of Isca’s studio is a school desk and stool given to her by Ross Bleckner. Apparently, the studio space was also apparently used by Donald Baechelor and Lisa Yuskavage variously over the years. Photo: Wendy Goodman
On the other side of the wall, Sebastian’s studio has a different vibe. But there is definitely a method to his madness as he uses these piles of paper for his collages. Sebastian’s first show in New York in 2002 gained a lot of attention with a series of nudes”“Isca was the model. The New York Post’s Deborah Schoeneman dubbed Isca and Sebastian “the new, young, hot couple of the art scene, the hippest duo since Rachel Feinstein and John Currin.” Photo: Wendy Goodman
Here are some of Sebastian’s portraits of family and friends done in paint and paper collage. Sebastian is also a musician. He was member of the band Black Dice and is now recording under his own name. Sebastian met Isca when he was a student at Rhode Island School of Design and she was at Brown. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Some of the work is not for sale: this portrait of the artists’ son, for example. Photo: Wendy Goodman
This portrait, “Hannah in the Orange Hat,” is for sale. “It’s a dream,” Isca says of the life she and Sebastian have created in their East Village neighborhood where work and the kids’ school are just blocks apart and therefore easy to navigate. “We are actually spending their childhoods with them.” Isca’s next show opens in September at Munich’s Galerie Klüser, and Sebastian’s opens in October at the Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Photo: Wendy Goodman