NUE Magazine - Spring 2019

SPRING 2019

Whitney Biennial

Couture Sculpture

New York Art Fair Preview Fashion by StreetLore

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alida anderson

“A Modern Woman in a Gallery of Past Icons” ©2018 Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 20x24 inches Florencio Lennox Campello (American, Born 1956 Santiago de Cuba, Cuba)

Available via Alida Anderson Art Projects Washington, DC

www.alidaanderson.com | info@alidaanderson.com

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE New Fashion Sculpture by Jesse Mathes While studying abroad in Scotland, I became fascinated with the extravagant apparel worn by Queen Elizabeth I of England. During her successful reign as monarch, Elizabeth I chose to adorn herself in clothing that made her the visual center of a crowd.

Her prodigious gowns and jewelry enlarged her presence physically and asserted her dominance over her subjects—including the many men who wished to usurp her power. As with most women, not all of my interactions with men in social situations have been positive. Although the majority of the men I have encountered throughout my life have been respectful, I have also met several that have been physically and verbally aggressive. Finding this behavior to be a common irritation for many women, I began to imagine ways a woman could establish personal boundaries.

In Territorial Defense, my work blends this psychology of adornment with my own need for personal safety. This series addresses the feelings of frustration and anger generated by gender power struggles as well as the violation, insecurity, and fear caused by disrespectful interactions.

All work by Jesse Mathes Asymmetrical Geometric: Two, Brass, 2019 Model: Casey Costa Large Oval Neckpiece, Copper, 2018 Model:Kayla Raine Armstrong

(clockwise from this page) Geometric Neckpiece: One, Copper, 2019 Model: Susaina Rangnekar Circle Neckpiece, Copper, 2018 Model: Michelle Holmes Asymmetrical Geometric: Two, Brass, 2019 Model: Casey Costa Japanese Basketweave Neckpiece: One, Copper, 2018 Model: Janelle Tejan Japanese Basketweave Neckpiece: Two, Copper, 2018 Model: Kaitlyn Cook

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Eva Petrič: InDayNightOut A fashion collection that does not sleep!

InDayNightOut collection is the continuation of my AngelHound@EvaPetric collection. This is not just a fashion collection, but an “art to wear” collection where each dress is a unique piece, which stems from my art installations. InDayNightOut differs in that it is a collaboration with NYC based fashion photographer Alain Simic. Art brought us together. I met Alain through my visual art at the Galerie Mourlot New York City where I also have my current solo show “SafetyKnot” on view till April 30th. At my previous show there, “An Echo, A Stain”, Alain created the gallery portrait of me against the backdrop of my black and white Shadow Choreography mural pieces. This wonderful encounter resulted in our collaboration and reinterpretation

of my up till now more European intended Art to Wear collection into a more NYC aimed one, into a collection which, like NYC, does not sleep!

InDayNightOut is a fashion collection that turns around the clock, not just in terms of our chronological clock, but also our biological clock. It is a dialog between black and white that turns around and around the clock, and not just in a clockwise direction, but also anti clockwise direction. It can be worn in any season, at any time of the day or night – day and night, both sides of the collection (InDay and NightOut) can be combined with each other and recombined with other collections as well. Utilizing old patterns of lace and

dollies that were collected by me from all over the world and combined to form, in this case, my Human Fish* lace assemblage, separate segments were extracted from them as DNA parts and hand printed on each piece of clothing separately.

I am especially excited to feature this collection exactly now at the time of the showing of my Collective Heart and Safety Blanket installations at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City on view till June 30th and a part of the group show “The Value Of Sanctuary” because the collection also expresses what these two lace installations echo - that our physical body is our sanctuary, that we need to cloth and protect with warmth and softness and meaning our one and only body that accompanies us through our lifetime.

InDayNightOut collection is soft with its wool basis and reminds of tradition and connection, giving a feeling of safety and transgenerational connection. With its recombining amongst the two different sides of it (InDay and NightOut - white with black prints and black with white prints), it is crossing borders of tradition and in this way looks to the future and reaffirms fashion as a vision and as a means of offering our bodies warmth, love, respect

and, last but not least, a voice for expression of visions and beliefs. InDayNightOut does not believe in “the right way” of wearing cloths. It goes beyond that, it crosses borders of gender, culture, time and belief system. Instead, it goes by what feels right. In this way it is giving a voice to our inner worlds of our collective unconsciousness where day and night are one and where white and black are both essential elements and reside happily and respectfully side by side, supporting one another - as do all the separate laces in my Human Fish image that is the blue print of my InDayNightOut collection. (Flying Fish lace assemblage, 2017, found, collected and bought laces from all over the world and sown together onto a transparent lace net to create the Human Fish lace assemblage.)

Eva Petrič, www.evapetric.com, eva_petric_angel_houd is a multimedia visual artist, living and working in Vienna, New York City, and Ljubljana, interweaves and utilizes photography, video, sound/voice, installations, performance and literature as her means of artistic expression. She exhibits all over the world. Her aim is to surpass barriers of art that separate it from everyday life. This motivated her to bring art from galleries to the streets, resulting in her art to wear.

alida anderson

“Suddenly, She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer (The Rampant Lilith)” ©2018 Watercolor on Paper, 36x36 inches (detail) Florencio Lennox Campello (American, Born 1956 Santiago de Cuba, Cuba)

Available via Alida Anderson Art Projects Washington, DC

www.alidaanderson.com | info@alidaanderson.com

HARDCORE

Ira Sherman: Couture Sculptor Interview by Brenda LaBier As I park and approach an unassuming duplex, I sense what lies inside will challenge me and help me gain insights on this world-renowned sculptor and his artwork. Ira Sherman invites me in and I sit at a small table near the entry to his studio. He appears to be a man with something important to say.

Ira’s career expanded from jewelry making to wearable sculptures that go deep, and expose pain and vulnerability. Ira says, “Most of my college studies focused on art and biology. I took a jewelry making class as an art elective and immediately fell in love with the media. I dropped out of college and began to study every aspect of jewelry design and fabrication. These studies led to exploring blacksmithing technique and industrial metal fabrication technologies. I soon realized it was possible to meld these interests and build kinetic fantasy objects. In the early 70s, I opened a custom jewelry business because jewelry making was the only skill I had to earn income. The jewelry business eventually expanded into a successful custom wedding ring business allowing me to continue exploring my real love for making mechanized metal sculpture. I also designed hundreds of small sculptural jewelry pieces and use many of these designs as maquettes for some of the form in my current work.”

We tour Ira’s home and as we move through the spaces, he reveals elements about what he does, how he accomplishes it and its challenges. “I am a sculptor/metalsmith who uses my many skills and resources to design artworks that attempt to define a technologically perplexed world dazzled by modern day scientific advances. From my background as a jewelry designer, a large percentage of the art and sculpture I have created over the past 40 years fits on or attaches to the human body. Objects that touch the body take on a very powerful personal connection, an amulet, a wedding ring, a ritual object. I am an artist who uses mechanical technology and biomorphic aesthetic to invent devices that blur the definition of useful achievement; making social justice daydreams into plausible realities.”

He reflects about the creativity, determination and perseverance in his work.

“I’m inspired by the work of Gaudi, da Vinci, Albert Paley and H.R. Giger. I also believe I am organically gifted to look at the world with constant curiosity seeking aesthetic relationships. I question aesthetic, social and religious relationships. Much of my designs and projects begin with just playing and relaxing my brain to allow ideas to mush together and see if any new images

or relationships begin to take form. If that happens, I immediately sketch out the idea and archive it for future ideas. I never suffer artist block. If I did, it would take me many lifetimes to build the designs I have archived.”

Sherman explains the rewards and challenges, “When I complete a sculpture and the completed work is much better than I had imagined. Forming steel, bronze and precious metals over the human form are certainly a challenge, especially when I need to be very aware of how these forms will fit comfortably and become a mechanized sculpture when displayed on and off the human body.”

I discover what inspires and compels Sherman as we progress through his house. Ira not only lives amongst his creations, but they are deeply rooted in his upbringing and family history. “My father was severely injured fighting the Nazi’s in WWII. I was raised in a Jewish neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. I remember watching my father trying to adapt to his injuries by practicing walking with mechanical artificial limbs. While some individuals were extremely bitter from the experience, other more observant Jewish survivors seemed to cherish life, often attributing their survival as witness to Hitler’s failed attempt to destroy the Jewish people. I could not understand this feeling and sided with the fearful bitter in-

dividuals. If you were a Jew, the Germans, or for that matter the world, wanted to kill you. This persistent fear ruined my childhood and severed my connection from Judaism. As a young adult, I replaced my Jewish identity with that of an artist willing to explore darker and more disturbing emotional content with my artwork. My work all at once began to express beauty, anger, violence and redemption. I chose to compartmentalize my metalsmithing skills to simultaneously create stunning precious jewelry and institutional Judaica. My grandfather, a Russian immigrant, escaping the dangers of the Russian pogroms, started the family’s used machinery business located in a downtown Chicago industrial area. I spent many childhood hours examining the powerful metal fabrication equipment, absorbing the function and mechanical aesthetic of each type of machine. The grimy public transportation trip from my Chicago’s north side four flat to my father’s business was grim and almost void of any pleasant aesthetic. At an early age, I found myself wanting to manipulate mechanical architectural lines into lyrical, beautiful forms, at first as drawings and sketches, and later as found object sculpture. The almost universal acceptance of impressionistic and abstract art in post war America gave me the freedom to let my mind explore any direction, concept or morality in my art and design. This artistic exploration started at a very young age, but really did not appear in any of my art objects until the early 70s when I was introduced to formal metalsmithing techniques that allowed me to master metal as an expressive media. The anything goes attitude of the 60s further challenged me to take on concepts and techniques that are rarely melded into physical art objects. The concepts used in my work are inspired by social and historical injustices. The natural beauty of living organisms also inspires me. I meld lyrical art nouveau line with a mechanized machine aesthetic to build biomorphic, wearable metal sculpture.“ We linger near a large stainless steel sculpture and I ask how his work comments on current social or political issues? “I use humor

and irony to define and present “plausible” solutions to unsolvable social issues. A great is my current collection of Chastity Couture.

They are a recent example of how a social issue inspired a new body of work. The collection of Chastity Couture began from a conversation I had with a good friend who had been sexually assaulted. She was very familiar with the style and materials of my past work and suggested I use my skills to design a collection of art works around the topic of rape culture. After that conversation, I ran the idea past some friends and acquaintances and soon discovered that many people I knew had been sexually assaulted or abused but never discussed the topic until I mentioned it. Our society has a difficult time with any dialogue dealing with sexual violence. My work is designed to force individuals to talk about this disturbing topic and at the same time enjoy the beauty and craftsmanship of the objects inspired by sexual assault; an “entertaining provocation.” I create art that paradoxically melds elegant sexuality with the ugliest aspects of sexual control and violence.”

In the backyard stands a two-car garage, Sherman’s metal work studio, which houses his tools and works-in-progress for an upcoming fashion show in Aspen. I’m always intrigued to understand how an artist approaches and masters their work.

Ira is well versed on how he cuts, shapes, fits, joins, molds, or otherwise processes the materials by using hand tools, power tools, and machinery. “You may notice that each structural or mechanized component in my sculptures is actually just large JEWELRY pieces. I take the same care to design the steel structure of the sculpture as I would design a wedding ring or neckpiece for a jewelry client. The actual mechanical function is tested to scale with cardboard maquette for structure, strings for steel cable and straight pins as bearings. Once I am assured the kinetic function is correct I begin to design the mechanical aesthetic for the actual design.

These metal working techniques include, lathe turning, milling, internal mandrel tube bending, hot and cold steel forging, Tig, Mig and Gas welding, plasma cutting, hydraulic forming, grinding, polishing and texturing. A typical project begins with cutting shapes from plate steel or steel pipe using a metal band saw. These shapes are usually hot forged into design elements using a blacksmith forge, hammers and stakes. Once I achieve a collection of successful forms I may weld, bolt or rivet the parts together around an ana-

tomically correct mannequin. As the sculpture forms come together I may dissemble and reassemble components adding mechanical features that allow the sculpture to do mechanical functions. Most of the mechanical components are made using a milling machine and a metal lathe. Finally, I spend a lot of time finishing the surface of the metal design elements using hammed textures, chemical patinas, or burnishing and polishing techniques. Often I take apart electronic toys and hack into the circuits to create the “brains” that define an artistic concept and control some of the pneumatic systems that are incorporated into the design. When a designed sculptural kinetic system is activated by human movement and this interaction makes a person see the world in just a slightly new perspective, then I feel I have succeeded with my art.”

As Ira’s interests broadened throughout his career he utilizes new technology and industrial processes such as laser and water-jet cutting, internal tube bending technologies, and CAD, Sherman’s designs stand out in this industry.

He describes what he calls the “prosthetic aesthetic.”

He says, “My challenge is to create an elegant, graceful and lyrical design to fit onto and with the human body. Some people label this style as “biomorphic.” I do not enjoy the bulky mechanical look often seen in Robo-Cop or Transformer Movies. This squared edge aesthetic is the antithesis of what I am trying to accomplish. I am an artist who invents devices that blur the definition of useful achievement; making daydreams into plausible realities.”

Ira cares about how his work makes people feel.

“My work affects people on many levels. I could not predict many of the reactions I have seen from people viewing sculpture. My recent collection of Chastity Couture defines the horror of sexual assault and abuse through elegant beauty and some wit. This paradox is a reoccurring theme in my work.”

Ira hopes to keep working, “I am almost 70 years old and if I stay healthy and continue working, I would like to see how my current work will evolve in relation to my age. I would like to seek larger exhibition venues for my work to get more people to experience the sculpture.”

Ira Sherman’s solo sculpture exhibition, Hardcore Chastity Couture, will be on view at Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO, beginning July 19. See more: irasherman.com / bitfactory.net

VILONA

JAMES

SCULPTURE

I love that I get to be innovative with my artwork; everyday being able to create my visions. Making art is a privilege and I am forever grateful for working with my hands. The dialogue between materials is encouraging for me; the varying metals in my studio offer different opportunities. Learning about how to use a specific metal for a piece of art has opened my mind to better engage it to its fullest potential.

My goal is to appreciate the metal while working with it to develop my art. I admire and acknowledge the roughness of forging steel, the delicateness of bending it, including the harshness of the heat it takes to make it all happen. It is a constant push and pull with the use of metal. What I have learned to do with metal in my studio will forever be involved in my art as I learn more about the materials. While creating manmade tension, I am allowing the raw form to act as a catalyst to create both positive and negative spaces.

James Vilona is currently represented by these galleries: Dolce Denver, CO Telluride, CO Breckenridge Jewelers Breckenridge, CO Ramey Fine Art Gallery Palm Desert, CA www.jamesvilona.com

Glenn and Glenn at Nue Magazine’s Fashion and Deisgn Soiree at the ART, a hotel in Denver

MONIKER & FRIEZE PREVIEW A London-based art fair makes its New York debut alongside a veteran competitor

by F. Lennox Campello

Installation by WK Interact (Moniker)

There’s a new fair making its Manhattan debut this May, although this “new” art fair is only new to Manhattan, as the Moniker Art Fair has been staged in London for the last decade or so, and in nearby Brooklyn last year, where it was presented in the gigantic industrial space of the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse, and attracted good crowds and substantial press coverage.

“We’ve been careful to avoid the trappings of ‘elite art fair traditions and ensure that Moniker welcomes everyone equally. Inclusivity and a sense of global collaborative effort are right at the heart of our art movement. The values that are important to the art we celebrate are equally important to the fair as a whole,” noted fair director Tina Ziegler last year during the Brooklyn debut.

Moniker, which describes itself as “hyper curated”, will be staged from 1-5 May at 718 Broadway in NoHo, just three blocks from Washington Square Park. If past iterations of the fair are examples of what we’ll see in Manhattan, expect a superbly curated fair – almost a modern 21st century salon.

At NoHo you’ll see 28 exhibitors and four Special Projects, coming to NYC from 13 countries around the planet and also across the river from New Jersey. The fair’s theme will be “Cause & Effect”, which is described as the examinations of “our shared roles and commitments in addressing the

current state of political, social and ecological injustices.”

New exhibitors to Moniker for its Manhattan debut include Parlor Gallery from New Jersey, Mazel Galerie from Brussels, Perseus Gallery from New York and 11.12 Gallery from Moscow. You’ll also see Vinyl On Vinyl from the Philippines, and eight open studios including Txemy & Amaia Arrazola, locals from New York, and Ganzeer from Egypt.

Moniker also puts the spotlight on individual artists: Portugal’s Nuno Viegas, and the well-known street artist Christian Böehmer from Germany are two of them.

Barcelona’s Fousion Gallery will be showcasing contemporary surrealist Bruno Pontirolli, and I suspect that his gorgeous paintings will be one of the highlights of the fair. Also be on the lookout for what Dominican-born and now Miami-based artist EVOCA1 will bring to the fair. This is a superbly talented and technically gifted artist who is equally at home with hyper realistic paintings to “altered” photo-realism murals. The art world gods have been playing and toying for years with splashy, “candy for the eyes” artwork, but in the end, nothing trumps talent married to technical facility, and EVOCA1 has plenty of both.

Christian Böhmer, who is also known as “Mr. Trash”, is a rather well-known German graffiti urban artist from Cologne.

Between EVOCA1 and Böhmer, I wouldn’t be surprised if some “building enhancement” doesn’t occur while the fair takes place.

The VIP Collectors Day (on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 from 3pm - 10pm) also adds the novel and incentive idea that the $75 entry ticket also includes $50 towards the first original artwork purchase! I hope all fair directors are eager to copy this idea!

Also, on that day Moniker has lined up a program of educational talks, panel discussions and networking sessions around collecting contemporary and urban art.

There are also some very cool guest speakers lined up, most notably Jonathan Levine, the director of Jonathan Levine Gallery (New York) and Evan Pricco, the Editor-inChief of Juxtapoz Magazine.

Opening a day after Moniker, running from May 2nd to 5th and on the opposite end of the art fair food chain world, is Frieze New York, once again being staged in Randall’s Island Park. This juxta positioning of Frieze and Moniker now offers the art collector the delicious opportunity to visit two fairs which together make up (and add to) different parts of the immensely diverse tapestry of contemporary art. If between Frieze and Moniker you cannot find artwork that appeals to your senses and finances, then please go back to the zombie lair! (Cough… cough…)

In Frieze one can usually find the world’s leading “blue chip” contemporary and modern galleries, and this year you will also find virtual reality (VR) art in a VR exhibition at the fair which will showcase VR artworks by Anish Kapoor, Koo

Vermibus, Until she is gone. Image courtesy of Mazel Galerie (Moniker)

Jeong A, and others. Be prepared to either be astounded by this part of the fair if you’ve never experienced VR before, or to be somewhat underwhelmed if you are a seasoned VR junkie but still struggling with the nuances of 21st century contemporary art. I’m really looking forward to seeing the “new” themed portion of the fair, which this year will feature solo presentations of work by Ana Mendieta, Marta Chilindron, Chemi Rosado-Seijo, and others. This section is titled “Diálogos: Celebrating Latinx and Latin Art in the Global Art World” (which is somewhat a misleading title, since Latinx, Latin American and plain ole “Latin” are three different ethnic descriptors and I really think that someone needs a semantics refresher as I suspect (from seeing the list of artists) that they meant “Latinx and Latin American”, unless I missed a French, Italian, Romanian, Maltese, Monaco, San Marino, or Portuguese artist in the list somewhere… as a Virgo I unfortunately live in a semantic hell when it comes to “who cares?” things like this… cough, cough. (I think that I forgot Andorra – but they’re tiny.)

What can one say when an art fair showcases the work of Ana Mendieta? Easy: do not miss this section! I met Mendieta at O’Hare Airport in the 1970s when I was in the Navy and traveling to start my college years at the University of Washington. I was in an open phone booth (remember those?) talking in Spanish to my parents in Hialeah, when she passed by, heard me talking, stopped and waited

(above) Icy & Sot, Untitled (right) Siris Hill, The Fallen Maiden (both at Moniker)

nearby. When I hung up, she approached me and almost yelled in delight: “You’re Cuban!”

Somewhat recently I’ve become also a huge fan of Argentinean sculptor Marta Chilindron, and I’ve always wondered if she knows (she must!) that her last name is a Cuban slang word for a delicious Cuban dish made out of savory goat meat – yum!

At this fair you’ll always find the art world superpowers, like Gagosian, David Kordansky (to whom I will be eternally grateful for rekindling the career and art life of my good friend Sam Gilliam), Marlborough, Hollis Taggart, David Zwirner and others.

For the talks and presentations at the fair, I highly recommend that you also do not miss (on Sunday, May 5 at 12.30pm), the talk by Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli in conversation with artist Terence Gower; prepare to be entertained and educated.

Also make sure that you visit Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects’ booth at the fair – this LA gallery consistently showcases my earlier noted favorite combination of talented plus technically-skilled artists!

ART NEW YORK PREVIEW

The highly anticipated fifth edition of the art fair returns to the Manhattan in May

Art New York will showcase noteworthy and fresh works by important artists from the contemporary, modern, post-war and pop eras, and will feature paintings, photography, prints, drawings, design and sculptures presented by nearly 300 artists represented by 70 international galleries across 50 cities in 18 countries. The fair also includes CONTEXT, a platform for a se-

lection of new and established contemporary galleries to showcase emerging, mid-career and cutting-edge talent.

During the height of New York’s art and cultural season, Art New York provides a fresh alternative for new

(clockwise from top left) Rafa Macarrón, Inexpresivos 1, from Galeria Casa Cuadrada; Philip Buller, Brothers, from Quidley & Company; Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967, from Masterworks Fine Art; Eric Zener, Exit, 2019, from Gallery Henoch

and established collectors, curators, museum professionals and art world luminaries to discover and acquire a carefully-curated, content-rich presentation of investment quality artworks from both the primary and secondary markets including KAWS, RETNA, Pablo Atchugarry, Jean Michel Basquiat, Fernando Botero, George Condo, Salvador Dali, Jean Dubuffet, Willem De Kooning, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Francisco Masó, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Galleries at Art New York have previously exhibited at Art Miami, Art Basel, Design Miami, The Armory Show, Masterpiece, the Art Dealers Association of America's The Art Show and more.

ic partner and they will present an exhibition curated by Academy President David Kratz and Academy supporter Helena Christensen. The drawings, paintings and sculpture in this section have all been created by alumni of the Academy's MFA program.

Nick Korniloff, Director of Art New York sees the fair as “a worthy complement to the activities taking place during New York art week. We are proud to present a premium art fair that showcases an impressive selection of artworks from artists of the 20th and 21st centuries as well as work from the most significant emerging artists."

For Art New York’s Co-Director Julian Navarro, "Art New York presents a rejuvenated platform to present the finest selection of contemporary, modern, post-war and pop art alongside our CONTEXT platform with emerging, mid-career and cutting-edge talents. Following last season's redesign, our revitalized ambience and amenities will continue to present a fresh and inspired perspective that will provide our collectors with a premier experience."

The New York Academy of Art is Art New York's philanthrop-

Among the related special programs, Dutch photographer Isabelle Van Zeijl will be at Cynthia Corbett Gallery's booth to sign her mini-catalogues and discuss her new work, including a few pieces that are making their international debut. Taglialatella Galleries will present the Jerkface Interactive 360-Degree Photo Booth: An enclosed, immersive experience of art by Jerkface, which allows the viewer to step inside one of the artist's larger-than-life murals.

WHITNEY BIENNIAL PREVIEW The famed art exhibition returns with a selection weighted toward emerging artists

The Whitney Museum building; Biennial curators, Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta

In 1932, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art launched an exhibition to showcase key artists in America. Now in its 79th iteration, the Whitney Biennial continues in 2019 with 75 artists. The event is considered the country’s foremost survey of contemporary and was co-organized by curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley. It opens on May 17 and runs through September 22.

Emphasizing this year’s diversity, Panetta noted, “Ru and I especially focused on emerging artists and first time Biennial participants: approximately seventy-five percent of the artists in the show are under forty and only five have previously appeared in a Whitney Biennial. In part, this emphasis resulted from what we saw during our research across the U.S., as we were struck by the profound difficulties of our current moment and the ways in which so many artists we

encountered are struggling and facing fewer opportunities to present their work publicly.”

Hockley added, “Although intentionally broad in scope, the exhibition explores key themes, including the mining of history in order to reimagine the present or future, a profound and sustained consideration of questions of equity along financial, racial, and sexual lines, a concern with climate change, and explorations of the vulnerability of the body.

Artists in the exhibition are engaged with notions of what community means and can provide while using art to confront and cope with our current world.”

According to the museum’s director, Adam D. Weinberg, the Biennial takes “the pulse of American creativity and culture.” He continued, “The Biennial is an essential strand of the Museum’s DNA, a chance to reaffirm one of the Whit-

(clockwise from below) Nicole Eisenman, The General, 2018; Laura Ortman, My Soul Remainer, 2017; Las Nietas De Nonó, Ilustraciones de la Mecánica, 2016-18

ney’s deepest commitments: to support the work of living artists and to engage in a cultural dialogue about what contemporary art is and why it matters.”

The artists selected range from emerging to well-established individuals and collectives, are working in painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, film and video, photography, performance, and sound. Work will be presented throughout the Fifth and Sixth Floor exhibition galleries, as well as in numerous spaces both inside and outside the Museum. The curators traveled throughout the country and made more than 300 studio visits over the past year. “Our studio visits were an opportunity to meet new artists but also to see new work by many we already knew. These visits were a critical opportunity to get a general feel for what artists were doing and making across the United States in 2018-19. The art we encountered continues to put forth a deliberate sense of forward-looking optimism. We found something incredibly hopeful—and even productive—about the work we’ve selected for this exhibition,” noted the curators.

NUE’s Designer Jewelry Soirée in Charleston

Boysterous

JK Designs

Charleston Clay Jewelry

Dana Busch Designs

Llyn Strong

Trager Contemporary

February 28

Margerite & Motte

Mindy Popowski

Shani Thread

Sydney Strong