Elly Fishman, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

Candida Alvarez's Full Life in Living Color

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Elly Fishman

After mentoring a generation of artists, the seasoned "Diasporican" painter has a career in bloom, with a solo show and a bold dialogue with Bob Thompson. The painter Candida Alvarez at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan, which is presenting her first large-scale museum survey. Credit... Sabrina Santiago for The New York Times After mentoring a generation of artists, the seasoned "Diasporican" painter has a career in bloom, with a solo show and a bold dialogue with Bob Thompson.
Chicago artist Nick Cave lands Midwest home for monumental bronze sculpture

1 month ago | wbez.org | Elly Fishman

A towering bronze figure, clothed in sculpted branches and blooming with birds, will soon find its home on the grounds of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Standing 26 feet tall, Amalgam (Origin) by Nick Cave marks the Chicago-based artist’s first major outdoor commission and a striking into the realm of permanent public sculpture. Green Room Newsletter You’re subscribed!Please check your inbox for your confirmation.
Rhona Hoffman — a gravitational force in Chicago's art scene for half a century

2 months ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Elly Fishman

Rhona Hoffman leans forward in her chair. “I turned Rashid Johnson down when he was begging me to do a show,” she recalls, placing her hands on the table in front of her. “I was either busy or just stupid, because I didn’t understand the work. Sometimes things happen and you’re just not in the right place to do it. And then, looking back, you go, ‘Jesus, that was a lapse.’ ”In her decades running her namesake gallery, Hoffman hasn’t had many such regrets.
The most powerful person in Chicago art is closing her gallery. Don’t count her out.

2 months ago | wbez.org | Elly Fishman

Rhona Hoffman leans forward in her chair. “I turned Rashid Johnson down when he was begging me to do a show,” she recalls, placing her hands on the table in front of her. “I was either busy or just stupid, because I didn’t understand the work. Sometimes things happen and you’re just not in the right place to do it. And then, looking back, you go, ‘Jesus, that was a lapse.’ ” Green Room Newsletter You’re subscribed!Please check your inbox for your confirmation.
Can Kat Abughazaleh Help Democrats Grow a Spine?

2 months ago | gq.com | Elly Fishman

Kat Abughazaleh leans over her campaign manager’s shoulder as they review a video from her live appearance on CNN Max the night before. “I want to see if I rolled my eyes,” she says, eyes locked on the screen. “I feel like I did.”It’s late March, less than a week after Abughazaleh, 26, announced her run for Congress in Illinois’s Ninth District—a safe blue seat currently held by longtime incumbent Jan Schakowsky (who is, at 80, more than three times Abughazaleh’s age).
Roxane Gay on feminism’s fragility and the fight ahead in the Trump era

Mar 21, 2025 | wbez.org | Elly Fishman

For more than a decade, Roxane Gay has been one of the most influential voices in modern feminism. Through works such as Bad Feminist, Hunger and Not That Bad, she has explored the contradictions, complexities and personal stakes of gender, power and culture, bringing both sharp critique and deep empathy to the conversation. Her writing challenges traditional feminist narratives, making space for nuance and imperfection in ways that have reshaped contemporary discourse.
With 100 Pounds of Blue Pigment, an Artist Conjures Spirits of the Past

Mar 16, 2025 | businessandamerica.com | Elly Fishman

Standing in her studio on the South Side of Chicago earlier this winter, the abstract painter and architect Amanda Williams was surprised by a dark blue form that filled the earth-toned canvas, which she had poured with paint the day before. Williams’s process is precise yet fluid; she knows just where the paint should hit the canvas but surrenders to its diffusion.
With 100 Pounds of Blue Pigment, an Artist Conjures Spirits of the Past

Mar 15, 2025 | ourcommunitynow.com | Elly Fishman

Share Standing in her studio on the South Side of Chicago earlier this winter, the abstract painter and architect Amanda Williams was surprised by a dark blue form that filled the earth-toned canvas, which she had poured with paint the day before. Williams’s process is precise yet fluid; she knows just where the paint should hit the canvas but surrenders to its diffusion.
With 100 Pounds of Blue Pigment, an Artist Conjures Spirits of the Past

Mar 15, 2025 | nytimes.com | Elly Fishman

Standing in her studio on the South Side of Chicago earlier this winter, the abstract painter and architect Amanda Williams was surprised by a dark blue form that filled the earth-toned canvas, which she had poured with paint the day before. Williams's process is precise yet fluid; she knows just where the paint should hit the canvas but surrenders to its diffusion.
Chicago’s 20th Century art hits auction, spurring overdue recognition

Feb 19, 2025 | wbez.org | Elly Fishman

Inviting fresh attention from the art world is a group of fiercely independent artists who flourished in Chicago over the last century, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, when a sense of grit and surrealism characterized much of the city’s postwar art.