Current:
Crossing Borders
Dec 12th, 2025 - Jan 12th, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, December 12th, 2025, 6 - 8 pm
Marc Bell, The New Schnauzers Dept circa 2012-2023-2025 (POST 1995), Ink and Watercolour on Paper, 27.5" x 39.3", 2025
VAN DER PLAS GALLERY PRESENTS
Crossing Borders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Van Der Plas Gallery is pleased to present Crossing Borders, a group exhibition of sixteen artists whose works challenge the boundaries of perception, politics, and play. Grotesque yet colorful, childlike yet profound, the exhibition creates an immersive landscape where viewers are invited to step beyond the familiar and encounter new ways of seeing, feeling, and imagining the world around them.
Presenting for the first time at the gallery, Canadian friend and artist Marc Bell unveils his watercolor drawing with the elaborate title “The New Schnauzers Dept circa 2012-2023-2025 (POST 1995).” This particular work encapsulates Bell’s fascination with capitalism, poetry, and even exuberance, embodying the exhibition’s playful crossing of boundaries between high and low, culture, humor, and critique, image and text. Bell’s signature ultra-dense compositions dissolve the lines between comics and fine art by merging text and imagery into ornate encrustations of the subconscious. Emerging from Canada’s collaborative ’zine scene of the 1990s, Bell has long fostered underground creativity, and in this drawing, he invites viewers into his richly layered, imaginative world.
Bell’s structured, deliberate mark-making finds its counterbalance in the improvisational energy of Jason McLean, a longtime friend and collaborator. The two artists co-founded the absurdist All Star Schnauzer Band in the mid-1990s, a Dada-inspired project that played with character invention and pop-culture parody. Where Bell’s compositions accumulate into intricate encrustations, McLean’s embrace spontaneity, chance, and the immediacy of gesture.
Jason McLean is recognized for his idiosyncratic, autobiographical mixed-media drawings and paintings. His improvisational gestures result in a unique visual language of symbols, often described as “mind maps.” Edgy yet meticulously composed, McLean’s work has established him as a distinctive voice in contemporary art, with exhibitions and collections spanning internationally.
He is presenting his newest work, “Thoughts of a Dreamer”, a large, portrait-like drawing made with layers of aquamarine over yellows and greens, accented by a red crown and halo, combined with his distinctive lines to create pathways tracing a personal journey from Canada to New York and down to the Gulf of Mexico. McLean’s art, brilliant and colorful, draws you skillfully into the poetic chaos that shapes both the inner and outside world.
Al Díaz’s artwork traverses the boundaries between language and image, public and private space, restrictions and imagination. Internationally recognized for his collaborations and text-driven street art, Díaz is admired for transforming everyday signage, as seen in his WET PAINT series, into poetic, thought-provoking interventions blending humor, wordplay, and social critique.
In this exhibition, Díaz reflects upon the shifting attitudes toward immigrants with his pieces “Liberty” and “Divide Et Impera” (Divide and Conquer”). The latter depicts the golden silhouette of the continental United States set against soft, pastel oceans. Clusters of national flags rise from the painting's surface, highlighting the nation’s diverse and multicultural origins, reminding viewers that, aside from Native Americans, the vast majority of Americans trace their roots to immigrant ancestors. “Liberty,” made from discarded wood, depicts skulls, bones, and a turquoise wooden crown that mimics copper patina. The message “We are no longer welcomed here” speaks to the hostility, violence, and racism that undocumented people are now facing in a supposedly free world.
Exhibiting for the first time, Elizabeth Sweetheart, the renowned Green Lady of Brooklyn, is featured with her charming and delicate watercolor beach scenes from the East Coast of Canada and Florida—a body of work she began in the mid-90s. Her light, pastel blues and greens remind us of the possibilities of a peaceful world. After hitchhiking to NYC from Canada in 1964, arriving at an unemployment agency with just her sketchbook and pillow, the Green Lady found work in the garment district, which later blossomed into her own SweetPea Design Studio, which she ran for 15 years. She became a New York treasure, being recognized as the Green Lady from around 2000. Since then, she has embraced a green identity in every aspect of her life and spirit. She is most often seen in her signature green overalls, with one of her early green overalls being featured in the exhibition, alongside her watercolors. Most recently, Sweetheart had a cameo in Chappell Roan’s song The Subway.
Additional Crossing Borders Artists: Alejandro Caiazza, Antony Zito, Christine Randolph, Devon Marinac, Doug Groupp (Clown Soldier), Kevin Wendall (FA-Q), Juan Carlos Pinto, Konstantin Bokov, Lee Ranaldo, Sonni, Susan Day, and Noah Becker.
Highlights of Work:
Installation Shots:
Artist Bios:
Al Díaz (b. 1959), a Puerto Rican native of New York City, is a pioneering first-generation subway graffiti artist who gained recognition in the early 1970s under the name “BOMB-1.” He is best known for co-creating the influential SAMO© graffiti project with Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1978–1980, whose sharp, witty text became a downtown cultural marker. After the SAMO© era, Díaz pursued percussion, recording on Basquiat’s seminal 1983 hip-hop album Beat Bop. Now based in Brooklyn, Díaz is widely celebrated for his WET PAINT series, in which he reworks NYC subway signage into surreal, clever anagrams installed throughout the MTA system. He revived SAMO© in 2016 and remains active across exhibitions, films, publications, and panel discussions, maintaining his legacy as a vital force in New York’s street-art history.
Alejandro Caiazza (b. 1972) is an Argentinian-born, Venezuelan-raised mixed-media artist whose global background shapes his emotionally charged visual language. Educated in Caracas with a BFA from José María Vargas University, he later moved to Paris in 2000, studying at L’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts under mentor Ouanes Amor. Now based in New York City, Caiazza has developed a distinctive neo-expressionist and brut style, blending figures, signs, thin lines, and layered color to explore anguish, childhood memory, and the tension between whimsy and darkness. Working in acrylic, bar oil, charcoal, and spray paint on canvas, cardboard, and wood, his influences include Dubuffet, Meese, Baselitz, de Kooning, Basquiat, and A.R. Penck. Caiazza has exhibited internationally for over two decades, and his work appears in major private and public collections worldwide, including institutions in Italy, Japan, Venezuela, and the United States.
Antony Zito is a painter, portrait artist, and muralist celebrated for his expressive, character-driven portraits. A longtime figure in New York’s Lower East Side, he ran the influential Zito Studio Gallery and co-founded 4heads, which launched the Governors Island Art Fair to showcase emerging artists. Now based in Connecticut, Zito continues to create portraits and murals that explore memory, community, and urban life. His work has been exhibited internationally and appears in private collections, films, and public art projects.
Christine Randolph is an artist whose work explores mental health and the unconscious, often drawing inspiration from her background in art therapy. Influenced by Jung and Abstract Expressionism, she favors intuitive, process-driven creation. Her art includes works produced with her non-dominant hand, tapping into deeper emotional currents, and has been exhibited at the Hopper House. Christine’s practice intersects with writing through DovetailArts.org, where she leads workshops encouraging experimental approaches to art as a channel for self-exploration and insight.
Devon Marinac (b. 1988, North Vancouver) is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. His practice spans drawing, collage, painting, assemblage, sculpture, and bookmaking, often combining mediums to create highly detailed, graphic, and figurative works. Marinac’s imagery, while fantastical, is rooted in everyday observations and autobiography. His self-published books, featuring recurring gesturing characters and inventive text, are collected across North America and Europe. Drawing on Funk Art, COBRA, genre fiction, and contemporary Canadian drawing, his work blends humor, poignancy, and visual poetry, and has been exhibited in Canada and New York, with features in The Comics Journal and BOMB Magazine.
Doug Groupp, known as Clown Soldier (b. 1970, Queens, NY), is a versatile mixed‑media artist whose practice spans painting, collage, screenprinting, frottage, murals, and street art. A graduate of SUNY Purchase (BFA, early 1990s), Groupp began pasting his now‑iconic “clown in a revolutionary‑era soldier’s uniform” wheat‑paste on New York streets under the Clown Soldier moniker in 2009 — a playful yet provocative act that recontextualizes history, humor, and public space. His studio and street works explore absurdity, chance, and layered meaning, transforming everyday materials into dynamic, surreal compositions. Exhibited in prominent New York galleries and worldwide, his work bridges street art’s spontaneity with polished mixed‑media sophistication.
Jason McLean (b. 1971, London, Ontario) is a Canadian-born mixed‑media artist now based in Brooklyn. A graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (1997), his multidisciplinary practice includes drawing, collage, sculpture, zines, installations and found‑object work. McLean is best known for his frenetic, diary‑like drawings — often described as “mental maps” — that weave together personal memory, daily life and social history in richly annotated, surreal compositions. His work oscillates between humor and raw emotion, tackling themes such as displacement, loss, economic instability, and mental health. Collected by major institutions including the National Gallery of Canada and Museum of Modern Art (New York), McLean’s art has been exhibited internationally across Canada, Europe, and the United States.
Juan Carlos Pinto (b. 1968) is a Guatemalan-born artist and art historian based in New York City. After more than 12 years in Brooklyn, he has created numerous public artworks using found materials like discarded glass, plastic, and pottery. Migration is a recurring theme in his art, often depicted through bird motifs inspired by the birds near his home in Prospect Park. Pinto’s work features portraits of celebrities and animals—primarily birds and fish—crafted in collages made from recycled MTA MetroCards and other media like tile and painting. His mosaic collages respond to societal tensions around migration and reflect both playfulness and a commitment to civic engagement.
Kevin Wendall (1956–2011), known as FA‑Q, was a pioneering figure in New York’s underground art scene and a key member of the Rivington School collective. He gained recognition for transforming city walls, abandoned buildings, and billboards into provocative, anti-establishment street art, often scraping or reworking letters into bold, striking compositions. In his studio practice, FA‑Q developed a raw neo-expressionist style, producing haunting, psychologically charged portraits and abstracted faces. Influenced by COBRA, post-war expressionism, and underground comics, his work merges chaotic line, vivid color, and emotional intensity. FA‑Q’s pieces are held in major collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artist Book Collection, the Enrico Baj Collection, and the Karel Appel Collection, cementing his legacy as a vital voice in street-born expressionism.
Konstantin Bokov (b. 1940, Shostka, Ukraine) is a Brooklyn-based painter, sculptor, and assemblage artist known for transforming found objects and everyday materials into vibrant, whimsical works. Trained in music and painting at the Art Academy of Leningrad, Bokov immigrated to New York in 1974 and became associated with The Rivington School, creating DIY public installations and street interventions. He has exhibited alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and at galleries including Monique Goldstrom, Grant, Morin Miller, and Emerging Collectors, as well as the Outsider Art Fair in New York and Vienna. Bokov is the subject of the award-winning documentary FREE, highlighting his process of turning raw trash into public art.
Musician, visual artist, and writer, Lee Ranaldo co-founded Sonic Youth in 1981, and has been active both in New York’s downtown community and internationally since then as composer, performer, and producer. Most recent visual art exhibitions have focused on 2 series: Lost Highway road drawings and Black Noise vinyl drypoint prints. Has published several books of journals, poetry, and writings on music. Recent live performances with partner Leah Singer, Contre Jour, have been large scale, multi- projection sound and light events with suspended electric guitar phenomena that challenge the usual performer/audience relationship. Recent music projects include In Virus Times, a solo acoustic composition released in November 2021 on Mute Records, and Sonic Youth’s Walls Have Ears in February 2024 on Goofin’ Records. Lives and works in New York City. Most recent visual exhibition was Again) Across the River at Nodenaysteen Gallery, Gent, Belgium.
Marc Bell (b. 1971, Toronto, Canada) is a visual artist, illustrator, and musician known for his inventive, energetic work blending drawing, collage, and comic-inspired imagery. His bold, graphic style merges humor, pop culture references, and surrealist sensibilities, creating compositions that are both chaotic and highly structured. Bell has exhibited internationally and is recognized for his contributions to contemporary illustration and underground art, with works appearing in galleries, publications, and collaborative projects across North America and Europe. His practice reflects a keen engagement with narrative, line, and the absurd.
Noah Becker is an American and Canadian artist and jazz saxophonist who has been based in New York City for the past twenty years. His paintings have been exhibited at art institutions worldwide, including the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada. Aside from his visual art production, Becker publishes Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, an art journal featuring writings by art critics, such as Donald Kuspit, Anthony Haden-Guest and Phoebe Hoban. The writings of Becker have also appeared in Art in America, Interview Magazine, Canadian Art, Huffington Post and Artvoices.Sonni (b. 1982) is a contemporary visual artist and muralist whose vibrant, large-scale works combine figurative painting with geometric abstraction. Known for his bold use of color, dynamic compositions, and layering techniques, Sonni explores themes of urban culture, identity, and memory. His murals and installations have been commissioned internationally, appearing in public spaces across North America, Europe, and Asia. Sonni’s work bridges street art, fine art, and design, garnering recognition for its immersive, visually striking impact and engagement with contemporary visual culture.
Susan Day is a self-taught visual artist living in London, Ontario whose work is predominantly constructed of ceramic. She has an extensive exhibition history and her work has successfully straddled the worlds of contemporary craft and fine art. Susan’s works have been included in various important national and international exhibits including the Body and Society at the Embassy Cultural House in 1988; Revisited at the DIA Art Foundation in New York City, the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana; the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta; and La Chambre Blanche in Quebec City. Susan received her early art education at Beal Art in London, Ontario. Following that she studied at Sheridan College School of Craft and Design in Lorne Park, Ontario, ARTsake in Toronto, Ontario, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax, Nova Scotia as well as a residency at the Banff Centre.
Elizabeth Sweetheart (b. 1943), better known as the Green Lady of Brooklyn, is a Canadian-American artist and former textile designer celebrated for her vibrant, immersive approach to life and art. Trained at Mount Allison University, she created hand-painted fabric prints for major fashion houses before relocating to Brooklyn, where she became a local icon by living entirely in shades of green — from wardrobe to home décor and garden. Her artistic practice includes watercolor paintings and textile-inspired works, reflecting a whimsical, color-driven sensibility. Through her unique lifestyle and art, she transforms everyday spaces into joyful, visually striking environments, making her both a beloved community figure and a notable presence in contemporary urban art culture.
