DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash by Duke Riley (Brooklyn Museum)

Duke Riley’s DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash, on display in the Brooklyn Museum, is the culmination of years of collecting, researching, and creating. The exhibition consists of a collection of scrimshaws, sailor’s valentines, fishing lures, and more. Each of these “maritime crafts” are reinterpreted by Riley, where he uses marine waste he has collected from Northeastern beaches, to show the devastating effects of large industry and corporations on the environment, and specifically our oceans. The scrimshaw is now plastic bottles and other waste, instead of bones. The sailor’s valentines are now made out of found plastics instead of shells.

The display of this show is pretty near perfect. It does nothing to distract from the work he is displaying, only adds to it. They used the existing seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Jan Martense Schenck and Nicholas Schenck Houses, and displayed pieces of his artistic process and final pieces alongside the museum's existing collection of scrimshaw. This display excellently shows the difference between then and now, and the environmental injustices happening in the world. 

This, to me, is one of the most successful uses of waste in art to actually show the extent of the issue being discussed. Because of the way that Riley uses traditional crafts and methods of making, but with different found materials, he is able to successfully show the change in the contents of our oceans because of this. We are no longer only finding shells and bones, but trash.

- Stella

May 25, 2020 By Esteban Jefferson at 303 Gallery

Esteban Jefferson’s exhibition at 303 Gallery is a powerful depiction of the aftermath of the protests against police brutality and racial injustice in reaction to the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Jefferson’s work is a series of oil and graphite paintings that portray colonialist monuments as ghostly figures altered by eye-catching, realistic, and highly rendered protest graffiti and flags, allowing these symbols of protest to replace the monuments. The paintings are also accompanied by a series of photographs depicting a New York Police Department van from various angles at night and a 13 minute long video on a small television playing a New York Landmarks Preservation Committee Zoom meeting and the sound from this video echoes throughout the gallery.

The motifs in his paintings memorialize important acts of protest that will be remembered forever. There is a somewhat unfinished quality to the work as the scenery is depicted only with a subtle trace of graphite and a soft almost watercolor-like wash of oil paint. This quality further pushes the idea of the environment being unstable and obscure as many Black and Indigenous people of color may feel this way about living in an environment that privileges white people. The quality of the background being incomplete in the paintings could also represent the fact that we are not finished fighting for racial equality and that the United States is still a work in progress in this regard.

- Ella Mackinson (Revised 3/24/23)

Vassilis H. Must Love Dogs at THE HOLE

 Vassilis H. 's artwork, The Kiss, in his exhibition Must Love Dogs at The Hole’s Bowery Gallery is part of his paintings depicting groups of men and women indulging in scenes of lust and aggression. The painting shows a blonde woman embracing her partner, a dark-haired man. The man is holding a white dog in his arms. The dog and the man french kiss as the woman looks on in disapproval and shock. The three subjects are set against a green, gradient background. The kiss, shows the cognizance of the woman, man and dog being perceived by the viewer much like the rest of the subjects in the other paintings. Vassili’s aims are to exhibit the “pathos and nuance in human relationships,” and to try and explore “how we imagine ourselves in relation to others, and who we become when we pose.” He plays with the idea of being “consumed by our subject-hood.” The paintings are stylized in a way that makes the subjects look inhumane–distorted, exaggerated facial expressions. The absurd poses, actions and interactions between the subjects contribute to the narrative of our obsessions to people-watch, observe and consume each other. Despite there being numerous displays of affection and intimacy, the paintings seem to lack genuine passion as the subjects perform and pose for us. The paintings successfully convey the falsehood and inability to live any present moment without letting the perception of others and the value we give to being perceived become disproportionate.

-Andrea S

Tom of Finland - David Kordansky Gallery

    Tom of Finland’s exhibition Highway Patrol, Greasy Rider, and Other Selected Works at David Kordansky Gallery in Chelsea presented several different collections of graphite and ink drawings as well as collages that explore masculinity, sexuality, and freedom in the form of idealist and euphoric pornographic imagery. Finland used stereotypically masculine characters like police officers, cowboys, sailors, and bikers engaged in a variety of explicit homoerotic acts to subvert traditional ideas of masculinity and heteronormativity. His work seems to both romanticize and sexualize his characters by emphasizing and exaggerating the male figure, more specifically their muscles and genitalia, to the verge of being unrealistic. The repetition of these figures was used to create visual narratives and highlighted Finland’s focus on anatomy and pose, which can also be seen in the collage studies of beautiful muscly men.

    The smaller scale of the pieces and similar sizing, staying close to letter sized with slight variations, allows for the work to be intimate. The inarguably explicit drawings displayed quite simply in the large gallery space with thin frames and larger borders between the frame and art make the work more approachable. The provocative work feels tender by being able to see the edge of the paper within the frames and the use of scale. The work does not feel vulgar or offensive but rather unabashed and a bit cheeky. 

-Gabrielle

White Columns/Jin Kim

White Columns

Looking Back / The 13th White Columns Annual - Selected by Olivia Shao

I held my breath when I entered the White Columns gallery. The interior of the gallery was quiet and

filled with works of subdued color. I enjoy works of art that are make strong impressions and agitate

my mind, but here, these works calmed me down like a meditation. A small wooden spoon with spikes

placed between large paintings brought me one step closer to the work. I had to concentrate to hear the

sound coming out of the speakers at the back of the radiator piece. Also, drawings with thin and blurry

lines unless I pay close attention. I had to feel the work using various senses.

The exhibition was curated by Olivia Sho, and, according to The New York Times’s Holland Cotter,

“White Columns Annuals are so valuable is that they often include artists … who are unlikely to find

their way into mainstream institutions.” Without such a platform, it would be difficult for those who

have not graduated from mainstream schools or artists who have not yet entered the art scene to receive

attention. Ironically, the art world always wants new talents, but it is not easy unless it is included in the

mainstream. For me, who is still a student, this exhibition was inspirational because it shows the work

of art that has the power to allow people to view the work when they use their senses and concentration.

Also, I was impressed by the curator's plan. They are all different artists, but somehow connected to

each other. Lyrical, poetic, emotional. When I entered the gallery without prior knowledge, I thought

they were all made by one artist. The exhibition was consistent and unified.  

Alfaith's "Day in the Life" at The Swiss Institute

In the basement of the Swiss Institute, a cartoon baby silently works in a colorless mid-century modernist house, this is Alfaith’s “Day in the Life”. The baby’s day is narrated with timestamps that follow an abbreviated 24 hours, but it is otherwise alone in the tastefully decorated space. We observe through a one-way mirror a space that resembles a cell, and the large windows in the baby’s home. The baby completes tasks like working on a laptop, cooking, taking a bath, and watering a tree in the garden. There are layers of disconnection between us and the baby, and the baby and the imagined world outside its space. A rainstorm outside acts at times as a soothing white noise, and at other moments water seeps into the baby’s life. The rain comes into the kitchen and puddles on the floor. Despite the rain the baby waters the tree, in an act of dedication or disconnection. The cutesy design of the baby is at first endearing and lighthearted as viewers observe it through the mirror, but as one spends more time with the baby, the sense of detachment and loneliness becomes more prominent. One wants to be reassured that the baby is content, or even wanting to care for it and relieve it from its responsibilities.

Kris Thomas

Xiyadie's "Queer Cut Utopias" at the Drawing Center

Xiyadie Queer Cut Utopias

Xiadie’s Queer Cut Utopias are works of colorful paper cutout overlayed on either black or white backgrounds. They are brilliant: delicate and abstract at a glance, until your eyes fall upon a recognizable phallus or sex-act that beckons a second look. These works are saturated in water based dye and chinese pigments, pinks greens and yellows, and absorbed by the xuan paper which is cut out in a continuous line style. This continuous cutout makes the works seem delicate and shows the artist's care, who is cutting through the most intimate love-making scenes, where the space to cut out is so small that it seems impossible the paper didn’t rip. The paper-rip tension supplies another layer to the intimacy of these works.  

Queer Cut Utopias is now at the Drawing Center, and comprises works both small and large, framed in black, and lining the walls of the lower floor. The experience of seeing these works is like seeing a fruit bowl from afar, or a garden within a house, and then as you get closer this impression dissolves and the piece transforms into a human ouroboros: a love fest. Naked figures chasing themselves, and others, in the pursuit of love and pleasure.

Ariel Rich

New Draft: 

Xiadie’s Queer Cut Utopias are made of colorful paper cutouts overlayed on either black or white backgrounds. They are brilliant: delicate and abstract at a glance, until your eyes fall upon a recognizable phallus or sex-act that invites a second look. These works are saturated in water-based dye and Chinese pigments, pinks greens and yellows, absorbed by the Xuan paper that is cut in continuous lines. This continuous cutout makes the works seem delicate and demonstrates the artist's care, cutting through the most intimate love-making scenes, where the space to cut out is so small that it seems impossible not to rip the paper. The paper-rip tension  from this delicate act supplies another layer of intimacy in this work.  

“Queer Cut Utopias” comprises works both small and large, framed in black, and lining the walls of the lower floor. The experience of seeing these works is like seeing a fruit bowl from afar, or a garden within a house, colors but not able to make out what is happening and then as you get closer this impression dissolves and the piece transforms into recognizable human limbs. Humans on top of each other, surrounding each other: a love fest. 

 MARTHA EDELHEIT: NAKED CITY, PAINTINGS FROM 1965–80 : Eric Firestone Gallery

Martha Edelheit’s “Naked City” sees the new yorkers of the 70s in an idealistic nude fantasy. The stylized figures sit in an exaggeratedly lush city where plants and nude figures take center stage. The city is the central theme looming in the background, or sometimes simply alluded to in the edges of the painting. Most figures don’t know they are being looked at and the ones that do seem disinterested, these paintings have an apathy to being observed making the figures just another prop in the paintingThere are some paintings that stray from the city part of the show and are more abstract and some works see figures placed in a Southwest environment or on silk blankets. All the figures have a strangeness in the way they occupy space but the nude Eden-New York juxtaposition feels considered while the rest seem collaged and out of place. The figures are the strongest part of this work. The use of the nude in non-narrative fashion is reminiscent of Philip Pearlstein’s work. Sylvia Sleigh or Alice Neel’s work is another reference point of an artist dealing with similar themes. Edelheit’s work is exploratory, not sticking to one setting, and the figures carry much of the visual interest, the works focusing on the city hold the most interest. 

Aidan Lapp