Hop over to Greenpoint where we'll be welcomed into the studios of three artists who each manipulate traditional materials in contemporary ways that nod to and directly question their expected limits.

• Lauren Seiden's dedication to graphite, artists' drawing medium of choice for centuries, pushes past the boundaries of the page and into the sculptural realm.  With painstaking patience and guided by her materials, Seiden takes traditional pencil marking to experimental extremes, incorporating marble, textiles and mylar to explore a variety of themes that invoke past practices in new spaces.  Seiden's work has been included in numerous US and international exhibitions and will appear in the 2020 Biennial exhibition at Denmark's HEART-Hening Museum.

• Amanda Valdez incorporates a multiplicity of commonly considered "craft" materials like yarn and fabric into her abstract textile paintings, sometimes renouncing the canvas completely to create full-on woven tapestries and wall hangings.  Her composite canvases acknowledge and draw upon influencers like Annie Albers and Sheila Hicks, iconic predecessors who pioneered the elevation of "women's work" into high art.  Valdez has been awarded multiple artist's residencies and been the subject of both solo and many group shows.

• Matthew Hansel approaches the epic painting with distorted modern twists that call into question traditional uses of paint and canvas.  Classical artworks from Dutch Renaissance to Surrealism, comic images, and trompe l'oeil figures come under Hansel's deft manipulation to force revised readings of the then-and-now.  At times, even the canvas itself changes shape. Matt is the recipient of the White Column Artist Registry and the New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, as well as numerous residencies in LA, NY and CT.

We are all in for a real treat visiting these three diverse, cutting edge artists.