Yulia Topchiy

Yulia Topchiy is an independent curator and co-founder of Assembly Room, a platform for independent women curators located in lower Manhattan. Originally from Russia, Yulia has spent sixteen years in New York working for commercial galleries, auction houses, art fairs, and non–profits before launching her curatorial debut with CoWorker Projects. Yulia works with emerging and established artists and collaborates with galleries, non–profits, and independent curators on special projects and exhibitions. Until recently Yulia served as Senior Gallery Relations at Artsy and participated in several Artsy Projects initiatives.

Mark Starling

Born 1987, Harlem, Georgia. Lives and Works between Brooklyn, New York and Georgia.

2014 MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. 2011 BFA, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

"I am drawn to Mark’s use of unusual material for his work such as casket lids (Untitled, 2016) where he continues his investigation of funerary presentation and the related themes of time, comfort, anxiety, and the mourning process as the ritual for closure. The artist grew up above his family’s funeral home in Harlem, Georgia, and involves this biography and maker’s sensibility into these meditations on death and renewal."

Artwork Image: Semi Sweet Solace, 2017. Oreo cookies, dye, clay, resin, oil paint, oil stick, acrylic, wax, colored pencil, polyurethane, glass beads, epoxy putty and iridescent powder on steel casket lid. 55 x 28 x 7 in.

Suchitra Mattai

Born 1973. Lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

2003 MFA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

"Suchitra Mattai's work is a network of experiences of an artist spending years in Guyana, South America, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, New York City, Minneapolis, and Udaipur, India. Such diverse, natural, and cultural environments have greatly influenced her work and research. She examines the complex relationship between the natural and artificial worlds, questioning of historical and authoritative narratives, especially those surrounding colonialism. I love the wide range vocabulary of materials used in her sculptures and installations; fiber, drawing, collage, ropes, and common objects, they all intertwine well with the space creating fractured landscapes for the viewer to dive in."

Artwork Image: Bound, 2018. Found objects, rope, graphite. 60 x 60 x 72 in.

Sophie Eisner

Born 1985, New York, New York. Lives and works in Detroit, Michigan.

2015 MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

"Sophie’s works are visually inviting, minimal, and exquisite. Her colors are soft, feminine, and translucent and there is a fragile component to her work. I love how she uses very utilitarian objects in her work like basins and explores the intimate and physical purpose of them in her work and in the space, flirting in the subjective realm of emotional narrative."

Artwork Image: Betty, 2017. Cast silicone with pigment, fiber board, paint. 11 x 10.75 x 7 in.