(image by John Paul Evans, via Soho Photo Gallery / Facebook)
Photography After Stonewall Opening Tuesday, June 4 at Soho Photo Gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through June 29.
As I’m sure you’ve heard (and if you haven’t, you might want to broaden the types of media you consume), it’s the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots this year, and it’s Pride month. Events commemorating this historic milestone can be found pretty much everywhere you look, including at the Soho Photo Gallery, which will be showing creative photography works from 23 living artists making work about queerness today. The pieces on view include portraits, abstract works, documentations of romance and love, images that have more of an editorial flair, and more.
Ahmad Hammoud, Passport for the Stateless, 2016, Color-printed paper booklet, 4.9 × 3.5 in
Occupational Hazards Opening Wednesday, May 29 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through July 27.
The central concept of apexart’s latest exhibition is pieces of art that have been “lost, damaged, or destroyed when shipped through the Middle East,” a theme that seems so specific it might seem like it could only result in a meager showcase. As the show contains over a dozen artists from all over the world, particularly those with ties to places like Iran, Kuwait, and Palestine, it is apparent that art in international transit can meet this fate more frequently than one might surmise. This can encompass more mundane wear and tear from the everyday bumpiness of travel and the customs process, or it can have more complicated, insidious origins, such as the time artist Ahmad Hammound’s passport-esque creation got torn up and marked with red pen for daring to remotely resemble a travel document. More →
fish mystery in the shift horizon Opening Wednesday, May 22 at Rubber Factory, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through June 23.
The natural world is so vast and multifaceted it can seem like an impossible task to quantify it all. In fact, sometimes it is, and the scientific inability to identify a species’s baseline population size (known as “shifting baseline syndrome”) is one of the driving factors behind Catalina Ouyang’s latest show of sculptures and videos, which also draws from notions of diaspora and mistranslation. Huge, curious, jade-colored creatures populate the gallery space, looking simultaneously like cows, humans, fish, and some other fantastical creation entirely. They’re based off the Chinese paddlefish and baiji, creatures that are now extinct but once had a shifting baseline. The opening reception on Wednesday will not only feature Ouyang’s sculptures and videos, but also a durational performance among the aquatic creatures.
Broken Heaven Opening Tuesday, May 14 at 7 Franklin Place, 6 pm to 10 pm. One night only.
Art exhibitions featuring people who are formerly or currently incarcerated have been fairly common, but it would be unproductive to shoehorn them into a category. After all, no one goes about remarking about how there are too many art exhibitions featuring people who live in houses. If you’ve yet to go to an art show that draws from the profound and traumatic experience of incarceration on creators, or even if you have, head to Tribeca tonight for a show by the formerly incarcerated artist Pingo, who will be showing his work to the public for one night before a stint at this year’s Art Basel Miami. Pingo’s work is abstract and textural, recalling Jackson Pollock and utilizing shocks of colorful paint to convey a landscape of emotion. Not only that, but the exhibition will also include ice sculptures.
Shame is the First Betrayer Opening Thursday, May 9 at Victori + Mo, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through June 22.
Art gallery Victori + Mo, which previously occupied a space within Bushwick’s 56 Bogart, is moving to Chelsea. The first exhibition in their new space, opening Thursday, is by multidisciplinary artist Phoenix Lindsey-Hall. The show takes its inspiration from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, specifically sections of the archive’s collection containing people’s personal belongings. Typically, these items stay in an archival setting, accessible only for people who already had the idea to go hunting for them. In Lindsey-Hall’s work, they come alive, as the gallery will be filled with replicas and reproductions of specific items that lesbians and queer women throughout the past decades possessed, whether that be everyday objects or treasured possessions. More →
The Portrait is Political Opening Wednesday, April 24 at BRIC, 7 pm to 9 pm. On view through May 12.
Portraits have become one of the most ubiquitous forms of imagery in our society. While their origins lie in fine art, today’s portraits can take any form, but the most common is surely the selfie. Some might argue the vast proliferation of selfies and such has diluted the significance of this form, but I’m more inclined to believe it has opened up the opportunity to start thinking more purposefully about portraiture; one must, to cut through the churn. The Portrait is Political, a “suite” of exhibitions opening at BRIC this week, seeks to reassert the power of depicting people in art. Jaishri Abichandani immortalizes Brooklyn’s South Asian feminists in paint, Texas Isaiah creates collaborative works with his subjects, and Liz Collins curates a sprawling spread of portraits from over 35 queer artists. More →
thecatamites, Magic Wand, 2016, Video game, Dimensions variable (still) (image via apexart)
Dire Jank Opening Wednesday, March 20 at apexart, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through May 19.
It’s usually considered good and impressive for something digitally created to look flawless, almost like it wasn’t created by humans to begin with. Usually this process is time-consuming; it almost always involves some sort of expensive software, or equipment, or graduate degrees. Dire Jank, an exhibition of games, videos, and digital art curated by Porpentine Charity Heartscape, celebrates pretty much everything that isn’t that. Pixelated images, old Photo Booth filters, outdated Flash games, glitches, and more are put on a pedestal here, valued more than the glossy, hyper-realistic creations that modern technology can create.More →
Fire Opening Wednesday, March 6 at Baby Company, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through April 14.
Oh, Fire Island. Even if you’ve never been (I haven’t), you’ve probably come across it in one way or another, even if it’s just on your Instagram feed or that time you overheard a group of partygoers dishing about their weekend outing. You have another chance to soak in this getaway through the eyes of another at group exhibition Fire, opening Wednesday at Allen Street’s Baby Company (an offshoot of the nearby Company Gallery). The show, organized by photographer Ryan McNamara, features familiar queer art names like Raúl de Nieves, Kia Labeija, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Nicole Eisenman, all revealing snapshots of what Fire Island (and by extension, spaces known for being queer sanctuaries) means to them.
Patrick Martinez, Chocolate Cake for the Black Panther Party, 2018, Heavy body acrylic, acrylic, airbrush, and ceramic cake roses on panel with gold mirror plex, 20 x 26 x 3 inches (image via Fort Gansevoort)
That Which We Do Not See Opening Thursday, March 7 at Fort Gansevoort, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through April 20.
Artist Patrick Martinez brings something simultaneously sweet and politically-charged to the Meatpacking District gallery Fort Gansevoort this week when he opens his solo show of paintings, multimedia pieces, and neon works. The show, which takes its title from a Martin Luther King quote, is peppered with notable figures from modern history, from author Rebecca Solnit to Malcolm X and James Baldwin. These faces, along with other iconography like the Black Panther Party’s panther image, are emblazoned on cakes in remarkable mixed media paintings that truly look edible—their decadence hints at portrait painting’s history of elevating those who could afford to commission one. In addition to the cakes, a selection of paintings of Los Angeles’s changing landscape and text-based neon sculptures will also be on view.
(image via Sonder Exhibition)
Sonder iii Opening Friday, March 8 at 198 Allen Street, 6 pm to 10 pm. On view through March 10.
In many instances, going to see art means going to see the work of older people, whether that be artists who made work decades or centuries ago or contemporary greats who have been in the art world for years. But exhibition series Sonder, returning to the Lower East Side for a third year, only shows work by young people. No, not people who are in their mid/late twenties. It’s curated by teenagers, and features work by teenagers who create in multiple genres, who are both local to NYC and based around the globe. When I think about what I was doing when I was a teen, it definitely wasn’t showing art in a New York City gallery, so this is your chance to get a peek at those paving the way for the future of art. I can only wonder if, in light of all the news, there’ll be some Momo-themed art…
Food For Thought Opening Thursday, February 28 at Louis K. Meisel Gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through March 30.
It’s a shame you can’t consume paintings with more than just your eyes, as the works on view at Food For Thought, opening Thursday at Soho gallery Louis K. Meisel, certainly look good enough to eat. That’s not a metaphor: they’re artistic renderings of food, from sugary, cellophane-wrapped confections to simple still lives of walnuts or onions. The edible item isn’t always front and center in this stuffed show—some pieces are intricate retro renderings of the signs outside of diners, bars, or burger joints; others are painted nudes where the subject just happens to be holding an apple. Either way, the food is there. Sometimes you have to look for it, sometimes it’s so prominent you’ll start feeling peckish.More →
Fake Smears and Facial Food Fiascos Opening Thursday, January 31 at Contra Gallery, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through February 15.
While playing with your food has long been understood as a childish act one grows out of, not everyone stops meddling in their munchies. Sometimes this is actually for the best; in the case of artist David Henry Nobody Jr., it’s resulted in some compelling (and sometimes stomach-turning) sculptural works featuring the artist’s head and corn, cabbage, tomatoes, lunch meat, and even a bag of corn flakes stuck around his head that then gets steadily filled with milk. That’s just a smattering of what Nobody Jr. has to offer in his new show Fake Smears and Facial Food Fiascos (say that fives times fast). Opening at Chelsea’s Contra Gallery on Thursday, it explores the absurdity of both humanity and the waste we leave behind. More →
