Artists Katya Granova and Billy Biondi Share Studio Insights in Hyperallergic's 332nd 'A View From the Easel'

The 332nd edition of Hyperallergic's 'A View From the Easel' series features artists Katya Granova and Billy Biondi discussing their creative environments. Katya Granova works from a studio in Leipzig's Spinnerei, a former East German yarn factory converted into an arts complex with galleries, studios, and a Boesner art supply shop. She moved there in May 2025, working primarily with oil, oil sticks, watercolor ink, and oil pastels, and describes her large-scale painting process as akin to dance. Her studio's daylight and high ceilings enable her largest works to date, which she conceptualizes as portals into historical photographs. Granova notes the Spinnerei's history through the Third Reich, German division and reunification, and 1990s economic troubles, and mentions the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig. Billy Biondi has worked for eleven months in a public-facing studio in Corvallis, Oregon, where he creates what he calls 'visual music' and sometimes dances while working. He is a member of the Willamette Abstract Group (WAG) and participates in the monthly Corvallis Arts Walk. Biondi prefers oil crayon, stating it feels alive, and cites the Portland Museum of Art as his favorite local museum. Both artists responded to Hyperallergic's open call for studio submissions.