Wooden
Peter Dudek
Emily Feinstein
Open to the public: Friday, March 27 - Friday, May 29, 2026
Open hours: Monday - Friday, 11am - 5pm
Opening reception: Thursday, March 26, 6-8pm
Project: ARTspace is pleased to present Wooden, an exhibition of recent sculptures by New York- based artists Emily Feinstein and Peter Dudek. Both employ wood for its inherent structural properties and color. Using basic woodworking tools and methods of cutting, notching, and laminating, the artists create objects that explore a dialogue between abstract, figurative and architectural forms. In Wooden, each will be showing a new body of work. Dudek’s work tends to be solid vertical or horizontal chunks that hug the walls, while Feinstein’s sculptures are predominantly free-standing floor pieces composed in a more open, three-dimensional space. Both artists use the process of making to arrive at the final product, rather than relying on pre-planned drawings. After having made works in a variety of materials, Dudek has recently focused on wood, exploring its inherent constructional use and architectural reference. In the exhibit he will present small wall mounted sculptures from his Notational Series. Made primarily by notching and laminating, they continue his interest in how sculpture engages architectural languages. Feinstein’s wood sculptures range from abstraction to structures that are both imagined and familiar. Her work has been described as an incomplete idea of the familiar. In Wooden, she will present several pieces referencing elements of the figure, drawing and architecture on constructed pedestals and surfaces that are integral to the piece itself.
Peter Dudek was born in Adams, MA. He currently divides his time between Western Massachusetts and Brooklyn. Early on, Dudek’s artwork was concerned with built things; architectural structures that were enter-able. As his work evolved, a dialogue between sculpture and modern architecture became a primary focus. Aspects of museum display crept into the work, which then led to a flurry of curatorial projects. Currently his practice consists of sculpture, installations, drawing, photography, printmaking and the occasional bit of writing with a dash of curating thrown in. He started exhibiting in New York in the late 1970s, initially installing temporary sculptures in public spaces that had little or no history of art being exhibited there. While active in making work for such spaces, he simultaneously exhibited sculptures at galleries such as Tibor de Nagy, BravinLee, Marilyn Pearl, Ventana, LABspace and Markel Fine Arts. Dudek received a BFA in Sculpture from School of Visual Arts, NYC in 1978 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture that summer. In 1983 he graduated with an MA from Hunter College (his thesis: The Social and Aesthetic Influences on Frederick Law Olmstead.) Dudek teaches sculpture at Hunter College and at School of Visual Arts. www.peterdudek.com
Emily Feinstein was born in Franklin Square, New York, and she currently lives in Brooklyn. Her work stems from her experience growing up and later apprenticing and working with her father, a furniture maker, after time studying and working in the film business. Her work flows between abstraction and figuration, balancing craft with a rawness that reveals the hand and the process of making. She’s been making sculpture and exhibiting since the mid 1980’s. Feinstein received an MFA. from Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College in 1992. Her work has been shown at Socrates Sculpture Park, Katonah Museum, Islip Art Museum, Long Island University, Brooklyn Public Library, Governors Island, Private Public Gallery, LabSpace, Five Myles Gallery, Odetta and Lesley Heller Workspace, among others. In 2018 she co-curated with Matt Freedman and collaborated with six artists in the exhibit “Billboards and Broadsides” at LIU’s Humanities Gallery. This past Fall she had a solo exhibit “Musings/Constructions” at 490 Atlantic Gallery. Feinstein has been awarded residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and Blue Mountain Center. She’s received grants from Change Inc., Adolph Gottlieb Foundation and Center for Contemporary Performance Art. Reviews of her work have been featured in The New York Times by Roberta Smith, Ken Johnson and Grace Glueck as well as numerous online resources. www.Emily-Feinstein.com
The artists will invite the public to the gallery on Wednesday, May 6, 6-8pm for a conversation.
High resolution photos available upon request.
Contact:
Leslie Kerby or Michelle Weinberg
projectartspacenyc@gmail.com
projectartspace.com | @project.artspace
Peter Dudek, Notational #4, wood, 14 × 3× 3 in
Emily Feinstein, Studio View