Mostafa Heddaya talks with Peter Selz about art, politics, and the paintings of Yisrael K. Feldsott on view in the exhibition Cries, Chants, Shouts and Whispers: Songs of the Forgotten at Studio Vendome, New York, through November 23, 2013.

Selz comments that he appreciates Feldsott's "combination of rawness. And the subjects he chooses are raw and brutal. So he has this raw brutality, which he then executes with the expertise of a really excellent painter. You know, he’s been painting for 40 years. So it’s this combination of his primitive rawness, in a way, and his consummate skill. So it comes across as powerful work. I would say it’s an engagement of politics and a commitment to art… The art world has become the world of acceptance, it’s become part of the larger consumer society. I dont see very many places that really question authority at this point. And when I see an artist like this [Feldsott], he certainly does, he does engage this."