Presented in collaboration with CuraArt during NYC Spring Art Week, this engaging panel conversation uses the work of Louisa Chase, featured in Berry Campbell Gallery’s current exhibition The Eighties, as a starting point for a broader discussion about art as a language of inner experience.
Artists do not simply depict what they see; they give form to what is felt, remembered, imagined, inherited, and questioned. Through gesture, color, composition, material, and symbol, artists translate emotion, identity, memory, and personal truth into visual form.
Chase’s work, charged with psychological intensity and a sense of landscape as both external place and emotional terrain, opens up broader questions about how artists make the unseen visible. What drives artists to externalize their inner worlds? How do intuition, memory, vulnerability, and experimentation shape the creative process? And how do viewers encounter and interpret the emotional life embedded in a work of art?
Moderated by Shakira Polite, the conversation will bring together Larissa Bailiff, Amanda Garcia, and Schwanda Rountree to explore how art becomes a space for self-revelation, connection, and discovery.
Following the discussion, attendees are invited to join a curator-led walk-through of the exhibition. Guests may also continue the afternoon with a self-guided visit to surrounding Chelsea galleries; recommendations will be provided to registered guests.
Coffee & light breakfast bites to be served.
Please note this event is already included for those who are participating in the Spring Art Week in NYC Art-full Insider Experience.
Event flow:
11am | Arrival, mingling & breakfast bites
11:30am | Panel with Q&A
12:15pm | Exhibition walk-through
1pm | close - option to continue on a self-guided visit to neary Chelsea galleries (recommendations will be provided to registered guests)
Location:
Berry Campbell Gallery, 524 W 26th St.
🎟 Tickets:
FREE with RSVP for Art-full Members*
$10 suggested ticket for non-members
Event is co-ed and open to all with an interest in art, community & culture.
*Learn more about the Art-full membership and join here.
Due to the intimate, community-oriented nature of our events, each guest plays an important role in shaping the experience, so please RSVP with the full intention of attending and helping to co-create a shared experience that is enjoyable for all attendees
If your plans change, kindly update your RSVP on Luma at least 24 hours in advance (except in the case of illness or emergency), so we can create the best possible experience for everyone.
More about the Exhibition: Louisa Chase: The Eighties
Marking the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery since announcing representation of her estate, this exhibition features paintings and works on paper from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, a pivotal and emotionally expressive period of Chase’s practice. This exhibition is be Chase’s largest and most comprehensive in New York City in over 25 years.
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More about the Panelists
Larissa Bailiff is a New York-based art historian, educator, and writer with more than two decades of experience in the arts and culture sphere. A specialist in modern and contemporary art, Bailiff has developed talks, tours, and programs at several NYC museums, including MoMA, The Morgan Library, and The Jewish Museum. She has also taught courses at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2020, she founded ARTSMUSE, a digital platform offering art appreciation classes for learners across the U.S.
Amanda Garcia, LICSW is a licensed independent clinical social worker, therapist, speaker, therapeutic consultant and educator. She is the founder of AGarcia & Co. | Therapeutic Studio, a space dedicated to helping people find their voice, reclaim their power, and reimagine what’s possible. With over a decade of experience supporting vulnerable populations across the globe, include leadership roles in early learning education, the foster care system, therapeutic behavioral schools, and clinical therapy with individuals, couples, families and communities. Amanda translates neuroscience and mental health research into practical tools that foster regulation, resilience, and mind body connection. As a speaker and facilitator, she creates engaging, supportive spaces where individuals and organizations feel seen, heard, and empowered. Known for her warmth, humor, and dynamic presence, Amanda blends clinical expertise with her background in improv, musical theater, and dance, bringing energy, authenticity, and creativity to every room she leads.
Schwanda Rountree is an attorney and independent art consultant. Schwanda has worked with galleries domestically and internationally in placing contemporary art in museums and private collections. She currently serves as National Advisory Council Member of Creative Capital, Professional Arts Consultant for the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Collections Committee Member of the Ackland Art Museum, National Advisory Board Member at the Ackland Art Museum, and Accessions Committee Member of the Baltimore Museum of Art. She has also served as Advisory Panel Member of CulturalDC, an Executive Board Member of the Porter Colloquium on African American Art, and a member of ArtTable. She has been featured in Artsy’s “Inside My Collection” editorial profile and Artnet News.
Shakira Polite is a strategist, ethnographer, writer, and cultural producer whose work sits at the intersection of culture, creativity, media, advocacy, and social impact. Her practice uses ethnographic research and cultural insight to explore how people make meaning, connect with one another, and shape contemporary culture.