Sophia Heymans: "Everything Dancing" at Shrine Gallery NYC

Sophia Heymans: "Everything Dancing" at Shrine Gallery, NYC

Heymans' show "Everything Dancing" transforms the blank walls of Shrine into a lush world dominated by nature. She emphasizes the interconnectedness of humanity and the natural world, and how one does exist without the other. 

"Everything Dancing" is arranged so that the viewer is surrounded by the bright greens, yellows and blues of the works in the same way that the human figures in her paintings are embraced by foliage and landscape. There is pure and organic interconnectedness in the way the figures interact with the natural elements around them, like a celebration of living things in all of their forms, human and non-human. In fact, it is only when the viewer stands closer to the painting that the lines of bodies and faces begin to distinguish themselves. According to Shrine, the artist even combines natural elements like moss and seeds into the oil paints she uses to immerse herself further into her work and strengthen the her art's connection to nature. 

Commentary on how the modern human attitude toward nature has changed can be derived from Heymans' exhibition, as many pre-modern societies were built upon the worship of natural elements, as can be seen from the Hall of Bulls at Lascaux to ancient Mayan temples. Only in the last few centuries has colonialism and urban expansion begun to control, delineate from and destroy nature because of the idea that we are above it. Through dynamic figures interwoven and swaying among vibrant landscapes, "Everything Dancing" encourages us to remember our roots and celebrate our one-ness with the world around us.

-Emma Szabo

Sophia Heymans's "Everything Dancing"

   

  On exhibition at Shrine, Sophia Heymans's "Everything Dancing" is a series of visionary landscapes centered around human's relationship to nature. Heymans's work is vibrant, and joyful.  In the work itself, Heymans combines paint with twigs, seeds, and grass, creating not just texture, but a direct connection to the plant biodiversity she paints in the pieces. Though her works range in size, they are all rectangles, creating an effect we are peering out of a window onto the natural spiritual world. 

In "Everything is Dancing", Heymans creates a narrative in every piece. In her mystical depictions of earth, she highlights human interdependence with the natural world. Her paintings encapsulate the feeling of an epiphany of beauty in feeling free in nature, and as her spiritual figures dance in the landscapes, they beckon us to do the same. 

 Through her combination of storytelling, vibrant green tones, and dancing figures, I deeply appreciated Heymans paintings From her joyful storytelling, Heymans encouraged me and other viewers to take time to truly indulge in the beauty of earth. 

-Rachel Genito*

Josh Kline: "Social Media" at the Lisson Gallery

Josh Kline’s “Social Media” explores the way bodies become fragmented by the precarity of the labor conditions in the digital age. His works are visceral reflections of the present moment in time. 

Life sized reproductions of human limbs are juxtaposed with office objects such as keyboards, computer chairs and cell phones, wrapped with the packaging of major e-commerce companies, images of bank statements, and credit cards. Hollowed out, the limbs bleed with social media apps and credit card statements. The fragmented body parts are adorned with workwear such as boots, denim and trucker hats – the typical attire of the e-commerce worker. 

 

Klein compares blue-collar workers to the identities of artists and creators. Presented in an objective and sterile way as static, utilitarian objects, the sculptures are carefully laid atop tables, in cubicle-like white rooms. The viewer is a witness to the figurative crime scene of dismemberment. Each work is separated by an enclosed wall, creating a feeling of anticipation as the viewer continues throughout the exhibit, not fully knowing what scene to expect next, such as a life-sized recreation of the artist’s body wrapped in plastic. “Social Media” reflects on how the ubiquity of monetary value affects the way workers perceive themselves, newly intertwined with the use of the body as a commodity in the digital sphere. 

- Ekaterina Maisheva #

Sara Cwynar's Baby Blue Benzo at 52 Walker

Sara Cwynar's Baby Blue Benzo

   Sara Cwynar’s exhibition Baby Blue Benzo, is a photography and installation based show that creates a unique gallery experience from the moment you walk in. The floors are covered with lush grey carpet, and many walls are filled with floor length photographs. These photographs are printed on tabloid sized papers and individually taped together with bright tape, highlighting the materiality. The outside perimeter of the show is a combination of these large scale images and more traditional gallery style hung work consisting of silkscreen and chromogenic prints of collages. The imagery is bright, consumeristic, and slightly retro, giving the show a technicolor and nostalgic feeling. This is further emphasized through the film running in the middle of the gallery. A wide screen projector is playing a 21 minute long video featuring the Blue Benzo along with Pamela Anderson and other models in the same bright and decorated atmosphere as the 2D components of the show. 

    Because of the compelling film and ceiling high images, the more typical work, although matching the same aesthetic, falls a little short and is simply overpowered. They try to compensate for this by getting creative with the placement of the photographs, however, that is not strong enough to balance the works and leaves you a little dissatisfied.

-Alexa Toews #

Jordan Casteel's "Field of View"

        On View at the Hill Art Foundation, Jordan Casteel’s “Field of View” is a combined body of work from the ten most recent years of the artist’s career. The conversation between paintings creates a concise vision that works well with her vibrant color palette to depict scenes of friends, family, and neighbors in New York City. The symmetrically halved compositions found in pieces like Traveling Mercies, 2019, suggest intentional planning and make for pleasant viewing.

 

Traveling Mercies by Casteel, 2019, Oil on Canvas

    As “Field of View” implies, photography is relevant to the artist’s methods. Casteel is known for taking photographs of her subjects before beginning her paintings. I would normally find this method sanitizing as it tricks artists into painting simply what is seen in the photograph, leaving the works flat and lifeless. However, in this case, the intimate scenes of candid humanity highlight Casteel’s presence in capturing the image both behind the camera and in front of the canvas.

        Additionally, “Field of View” encourages us to reflect on sites within sites, as the works depict scenes from throughout New York. I think Casteel is the perfect artist to facilitate this, but I also think it to be dissonant. “Field of View” is up in Chelsea, once a neighborhood that was affordable and accessible to marginalized groups; as I pondered sites within sites, it became hard to ignore that we were perusing work about the working class and people of color while in a neighborhood that has transformed into a beacon of their own displacement.

- Alex Lopez-Martinson*

Pieter Schoolwerth, “Supporting Actor” — 3rd update

Pieter Schoolwerth’s Supporting Actor at Petzel Gallery features works of painting, sculpture, and film, combined in complex installations. The space is organized as a loop, providing two ways of approach. Choosing the left path brings you to a cubicle that represents a smaller version of the gallery. Inside are smaller-sized paintings, electrical equipment next to a small dummy, and a red tunnel closed at the other end. On the outside of the cubicle are works of plastic composite reliefs that form abstract silhouettes of fluid figures and landscapes. Rounding the corner, the space opens to large canvases coated in thick smears of paint that blend hues and tones into space-age computer-generated realities. Onepainting, Behind the World, appears to depict a psychedelic disco scene taking place on a spiraled green and black floor. Tiny dancers populate the foreground while giants boogie in the background. On the opposite wall is a life-sized model of a bathroom flipped on its side. The bathroom’s mirror opens back up to the red tunnel which leads back to the miniature version of the gallery. Finally, the gallery wraps around to a large black box room where a mind-bending CGI-animated film plays several scenes accompanied by a disorienting soundtrack by musical artist Aaron Dilloway. In one sequence, an animated version of Dilloway is seen standing in a bizarre club with liquid alien creatures; think Star Wars cantina but stranger. 

Schoolwerth’s work brings attention to the sensitive boundary that divides painting from technology, as well as the boundary between reality and the unreal. The visual intensity of Schoolwerth’s paintings, achieved in giant swirls of smeared pigment on large canvases, stretches the viewer’s image-processing power to its very limit. The result, while certainly overstimulating, is undeniably spectacular and refreshing.

Wendy Clarke: Love Tapes

Wendy Clarke’s Love Tapes explores what love means to the people of New York City in 1980. Using video, Clarke becomes a collector of stories, engaging in a process that captures individual experience. She invites strangers to sit alone in front of a camera and speak for 3 minutes about the love in their lives. Though brief, the videos provide an intimate glimpse into the feelings and histories of participants.

Each tape presents a unique perspective on love, reflecting the depth and intricacy of the word. A woman speaks softly about a man she lost, describing an attachment that endures beyond death. A young man rambles about how he longs for the fulfillment of romantic love and, by the end of his segment, gazes directly into the eye of the camera, declaring that “love is eternal.” A sense of fluidity is felt as viewers move seamlessly from one video to the next, immersing themselves in these varied interpretations. 

As I watched the piece, I thought about my own definitions of love. Being loved is to be seen and acknowledged, and Clarke’s Love Tapes does exactly that. It recognizes the rare feeling of connection and voices it earnestly through the art of filmmaking. By sharing these personal anecdotes, Clarke not only shows the complexity of love but also invites us to consider our understanding of the emotion.

Kaitlyn Eoff *

Suneil Sanzgiri, Golden Jubilee at Arts Center at Governors Island

Part of Sanzgiri’s 2021 “Barobar Jagtana” trilogy, Golden Jubilee is a video installation focused on colonialism in India. Filled with an array of media such as digital renderings, filmed video, and text, the film encapsulates the culture of Goa and its history as a colonial port turned vacation hub. 

Sanzgiri focuses on anticolonialism. His family hails from Goa, India, but he now lives in the US. He uses the unique tool of 3D renderings in the software Rhino. Not only does he show the finished renderings, but the footage from using the software itself before the final version is rendered, ultimately including the process in his final work.

The film is heavy with imagery of post-colonial Goa depicting aspects like slow, undulating shots of India’s natural landscape interspersed with short poems about Indian anti-colonialism sentiments along with 3D renderings of Sanzgiri’s family home. The renderings show close-ups and wide shots of the home, but the most eye-catching are the translucent shots. One scene, lasting a few minutes, slowly walks through Sanzgiri’s home. A darkness lingers in the background; all the shots are layered, transparent, and dreamlike, as if they were sheer layers of fabric atop one another. The renderings resemble decay, a suggestion of the fall of India’s colonial system. This piece is a reclamation of ownership, and a step towards India's decolonized future.

Paul Howell*

Sir Issac Julien's: Lessons of the Hour

     Ten screens, simultaneously play different scenes and images, framed in a red room. Voices and sounds dance around the room in time with the scenes bouncing across the screens. The viewer's eye is forced to flicker through the room in hopes of keeping up, only for the ensemble of images and sound to still by the single crack of a whip. 

    British artist and filmmaker Sir Issac Julien’s Lesson of the Hour (2019) at the MoMA entices the viewers from the moment they enter the exhibition. Based on the life of the American abolitionist Fredrick Douglas, the exhibition opens with a small room filled with photographs of and writings by Douglas. The walls are covered in newspapers and posters depicting Douglas. This grounds the viewer in the real history of Douglas’s life, allowing for the more experimental and unorthodox documentary Julien explores. 

    The main space of the exhibition is a masterclass in gallery design. The ten screens, the all-red walls, and the use of powerful speakers present an unconventional environment separate from the traditional film-watching experience of a single screen in a black room. The viewers watch Douglas’s life from different angles and times simultaneously. Then when it is least expected, the images and audio align to a cotton field with the lone sound of the whip cracking. A chill courses down as the unity is off-putting in the chaos. This makes the moment that much more horrific and impactful, once again a cruel reminder of the real events Douglas and millions of other men and children had to suffer through.

Installation view of Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour, 

Emile Askey.

Installation view of Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour, Evie Glidden

Kate Meissner and Regina Parra’s Tableaux Rosa at Lyles & King

Female liberation, a theme explored in ancient mythology, color, and form in this two person show at Lyles & King. The paintings on the wall are not separated by painter, instead they alternate one by Meissner and one by Parra. As the audience walks around the gallery, the constant change of subject matter offers a contrast of ideas, a bowl of fleshy fruit submerged in milk and the next a headless, nude woman. These ideas are the choice to present one’s own sexual identity as they please. The room is large, featuring bright, white walls that make the vivid colors stand out even further.

Additionally, the works feature an array of bright pinks and greens as well as muted reds. Meissner focuses on the nude, female body and abstracts the surroundings, while Parra finds inspiration through feminine Greek and Latin deities which causes her to paint fruits submerged in milk. Both artists explore the idea of eroticism and its ability to liberate women through this subject matter.

Finally, as the title of the show suggests, the tableaux (an array of motionless bodies representing a scene from a story) is meant to portray a narrative, this being how a pose or a chosen still life can represent choice. Fleshy fruits that are culturally associated with sex relate to the subject of ancient deities and the headless bodies of the women represent anonymity of self-expression and choice. The anonymity of the figures represents all women and the eroticism of the fruit represents desire. This show is greatly successful in representing the importance of choice and how it interacts with liberation. WC 267

Eva Goldstock Vazquez * Final

Caressing the Circle | Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Caressing the Circle" by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, currently on view at bitforms gallery, delves into the intimate relationship between human presence and technological systems, highlighting how our movements, identities, and perceptions are mirrored, distorted, or manipulated through digital interfaces. By using technologies like computer sensors, AI, infrared detection, and pixel-addressable glass, Lozano-Hemmer creates immersive experiences that invite viewers to actively engage with the works. 

Upon entering the gallery, Shadow Tuner (2023)—a captivating digital sphere displaying a globe—instantly drew my attention due to its interactivity. Cameras along its base record viewers' movements in real time, projecting them onto its surface. This process makes participants a part of the work, allowing it to change in response to different viewers movements. 

Shadow Tuner, 2023

Further works engage viewer bodies and perceptions. For example, Polar (2018) distorts viewers into a central point on a circular screen. Initially, seeing yourself like that prompts laughter. However, as the interaction unfolds, it evokes a sense of coldness and disconnection, creating an unnatural blur between digital and physical landscapes The exhibition also features works that require viewers to move around them in unconventional ways, such as Cardinal Directions (2010), where you must actively follow a rotating screen to read a poem as it unfolds.

Ultimately, Caressing the Circle fosters a profound dialogue between viewers and the works, emphasizing the role of physical presence in changing digital landscapes.

Adam Salem (Group B) (Revised & edited)

William Schwedler: Against The Grain

(Photo by: Adam Reich)

William Schwedler’s work, now on view at Susan Inglett Gallery, is truly captivating, challenging traditional norms of form and scale pertaining to linear perspective. The works come alive in the exhibition space with a soft yet emphatic presence. Schwedler’s Untitled, 1964 is predominantly a blue painting with architectural forms spanning across the canvas. The work denies any continuity and follows its own self-created rules as lines and columns break free and create skewed perspectives. Schwedler’s adroit choices to contort and toy with linear perspective and isometry is perplexing. Most of the works on display are large format canvases which allow the viewer to step into these distorted, alien scenes. While these imaginative planes have an other-worldly feel, they do engulf the viewer with a serenity that is comforting and familiar. Concurrently though, the paintings evoke feelings of displacement. Grids and repetitions are at the forefront of the artist’s formalist explorations, for example, in A Perfect Stranger, 1971. A foreshortened phallic structure with a moire pattern, is tethered to and seemingly radiates into a fence-like structure. The heft of this structure is concealed because of the smooth ombre background. Curtain Wall, 1967, showcases the experiments Schwedler conducted with dimensionality. This intriguing work is an interplay between painting and sculpture. The dichotomies of tranquility & industry, painting & sculpture, welcome & displacement create a world of their own that heightens and emphasizes self awareness. These landscapes, devoid of identifiable forms, leave viewers perplexed, intrigued, wanting more.

- Priyanka Dey # (edited)

MOMA, Lyles & King

    At MoMA, LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Monuments of Solidarity exhibition profoundly impacted me. It showcased a compelling exploration of themes like systemic racism and industrial pollution, particularly as they intersect with workers' rights. The exhibit delved into issues beyond inadequate wages, highlighting broader inequities in working conditions often characterized by racial and environmental injustices. Examples of these unfair treatments included mass layoffs and toxic exposure—as captured by Frazier's imagery. One striking photograph depicted a family surrounded by a chemical-filled environment, illustrating the serious, long-term health problems that affect generations. This work emphasized the profound impact on communities, urging viewers to confront the harsh realities that marginalized workers face every day. Through Frazier’s work, the exhibition became more than an artistic statement; it was a call to awareness, empathy, and action.

    At Lyles & King's Between the Lines exhibition, Stephanie Temma Hier’s large painting of a ceramic lobster, a chef, and a ship stood out to me. The split image of nude figures standing in front of the ship added depth and complexity to the composition by juxtaposing vulnerability with industry. Hier’s work successfully combines painted and sculpted elements, blurring the line between flat and three-dimensional art.

    I also loved Kate Meissner’s work in this exhibition. Her vibrant use of color and expert rendering of light and shadow made the surfaces appear almost lifelike, as if they could be touched. The blend of surreal elements with realistic forms created a unique experience, making me feel like I was observing detailed display models from a third-person perspective.

    While both Stephanie Temma Hier and Kate Meissner excel in creating captivating imagery, their approaches to human figures reflect their distinct artistic voices. Hier's human figures are always depicted with realistic colors and textures but are placed in surreal environments, resulting in scenes that feel dreamlike and layered. In contrast, Meissner’s human figures, while equally vibrant, are more grounded in their depiction. Her precise use of bold colors and light manipulation brings an immediacy and vivid realism to the figures, anchoring them in a tangible world that feels close to the viewer.

    

Jenny Kendler’s "Other of Pearl" at Fort Jay on Governer’s Island

Sperm Whale Instrument (Part I)
2024
Handblown Opaline Glass representing the spermaceti organ, junk, blowhole and phonic lips, patinated steel, New York seawater, antique whale oils

Kendler’s exhibition Other of Pearl proposes the adverse relationship humans have with underwater resources- highlighting whales and oysters. As a multimedia installation, it uses a conglomerate of materials such as fossilized whale ears, tears, and lab grown oysters. The architecture of Fort Jay invites viewers to walk from a tunnel into a main room with six side chambers. Fort Jay becomes the internal structure of the sea and of the whale itself. Standing inside of the space feels as if you are inside of both something living and something that is dead and gutted. The viewer can imagine the mystique of the creature through the space as much as through her artworks. 

In Humpback Instrument, Sperm Whale Instrument, and Whale Bells, Kendler invites the public to “sing back to the whales”. By speaking in the glass instrument the human voice is transformed into an imagined bellow of a whale. However, this does not translate into literal communication between humans and whales and therefore is not reciprocal as Kendler suggests. Instead, it works more as a space for imagining the communication that whales are capable of. Kendler offers us a renewed lens for how we can present and admire these underwater creatures. This idea would have been pushed further if it were more obvious that viewers could interact with the instruments, or if viewers could have rung the whale bells which were cordoned off. The restrictive etiquette of gallery spaces unintentionally emphasizes our single sided relationship with the natural world. 

Madison Dominguez Norris * edited version

Sikkema Jenkins & Co Gallery
Erin Shirreff, Sunset Palace

Dusk Form, 2024

Patinated and polished aluminum

144 x 201 x 148 inches

365.8 x 510.5 x 375.9 cm

(Photo By Sikkema Jenkins & Co)

"Sunset Palace" by Erin Shirreff is a solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. The gallery’s high ceilings and expansive, neutral-toned walls create a white, open environment that perfectly complements Shirreff’s exploration of perception, materiality, and form. The generous spacing between artworks establishes a sense of circulation, allowing visitors to navigate sculptures like “Dusk Form.”

For example, Dusk Form, made from black and polished aluminum, is the exhibition's focal point. It plays with the viewer's perspective. From one angle, it appears sculptural, yet as one moves around it, it flattens into black or polished aluminum planes, challenging the viewer's initial perception of its form. A table of smaller three-dimensional steel models further emphasizes the fragmented nature of Shirreff’s work, consisting of multiple planes and angular shapes. 

Paper sculpture

Dye sublimation prints on aluminum, latex paint

Framed dimensions: 74 3/8 x 102 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches (188.9 x 259.7 x 14.6 cm)

(Photo By Sikkema Jenkins & Co)

Her wall pieces also create layering and play on perspective. These framed pieces feature scans of materials, art, and vintage photography enlarged into textured patterns assembled into layered, abstract compositions. This can be seen in works like “Paper sculpture” which uses scanned material. Scans of stone, metal sheets, plaster, painted metal, and wood are printed on the aluminum sheets and then cut. The work creates layers through the material and allows for perception changes through cuts and layering, creating positive and negative space as the foregrounds and backgrounds intersect.

Shirreff’s various methods of cutting, scanning, and reimagining forms through a play on the viewer’s perspective is intriguing. Though some viewers might find the fragmented nature of the works challenging to understand, "Sunset Palace" offers a juncture between the medium of sculpture and photography, allowing viewers to contemplate perception.

Alvin You

Hannah Villiger's "Skulptural" at the Meredith Rosen Gallery

   

Hannah Villiger’s exhibition “Skulptural,” housed in a small, minimally furnished gallery, is an exploration of connection and visceral sentimentality presented through two photographs: Block (1997) and Work (1980). These works present an investigation of the body, vulnerability, and love. Viewers are prompted to relate with the works and explore the personal significance of the images in light of their own individual experiences. 

Block features a pair of hands holding each other against a black background, suggesting  care and connection. Opposite it, Work presents a tightly framed closeup of splayed limbs arranged in a fragmented, disjointed, four-tile composition, resulting in a visually confusing, yet compelling effect. By using corporeal imagery without the inclusion of faces, the element of identity is stripped away, allowing viewers to project their own experiences onto the works and inducing a sense of familiarity. 

The large scale of these photographs in the intimate gallery space creates a confrontational experience. This proximity demands an attentive interaction with Villiger’s work, warranting careful inspection and appreciation, and enhancing its overall impact.

The exhibition effectively cultivates an impression of emotional and physical closeness. The complementary nature of the works amplifies their impact, facilitating an exchange between intimacy and disarray. Villiger’s exploration of her own body is a representation of humanity’s shared vulnerabilities, resonating in an era where connection is both sought after and challenged.

    -Jessica Chadwick #                

"Block" 1997

                                                                                                                                                                                                  "Work" 1980