A panel discussion will be held in conjunction with our exhibition The Worlds of Chuck Bowdish, on view at NYSS’s Main Gallery from January 19 to March 10, 2024. Artists Sasha Chermayeff, Bruce Gagnier, Ernie Sandidge, and Lisa Steiner will be in conversation about the life and work of Chuck Bowdish.

Painter Sasha Chermayeff studied at NYSS with Chuck Bowdish from 1983-86. She lives and has painting studios in upstate New York and on Deer Isle, Maine. From 1991 to 2000, she worked as consultant and art expert for Fred Hughes, President of Andy Warhol Enterprises and later Executor of the Andy Warhol Estate. She has taught Taoist philosophy, yoga, and meditation at Sadhana Center for Yoga and Meditation in Hudson, NY, for 15 years. She recently completed a two-year Master’s program in science-informed trauma healing. Chermayeff is represented by BCB Gallery in Hudson, NY.

Bruce Gagnier’s clay sculptures are made using anatomical pieces recalled from mental fragments of figures in painting, sculptures, and drawings, as well as from his experiences working from the live model or simply walking down the street. He received his BA from Williams College, studied at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and received his MFA at Columbia. His honors include awards from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the Institute of Arts and Letters, election to membership in the National Academy of Design, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has had solo exhibitions at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, NY; John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY; and Thomas Park Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, and New York. Gagnier, a mentor of Bowdish, has taught at NYSS since 1986.

Ernie Sandidge was born in Memphis, TN. He began his studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design while still a high school student at the Minneapolis Children’s Theater. He studied at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes while living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he met Bowdish. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his Graduate Certificate from NYSS. Sandidge is a founder of the Governor’s Island Art Fair in New York and is a scenic artist for film, television, and theater.

In addition to studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Lisa Steiner received a BA from American University and an MFA from the University of Oregon. Steiner finds inspiration from observing the world around her. Her work aims to examine volume, form, and scale within the confines of two-dimensional painting. She has exhibited internationally in New York, Chicago, Oregon, Wyoming, and Villa de Leyva near Bogota, Colombia. She has been awarded residencies at the Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland, and El Hayuelo, Colombia. Steiner, a longtime friend of Bowdish, currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.