The Bronx Museum – Futura 2000: Breaking Out

     The exhibition Futura 2000: Breaking Out presents an impressive range of works, from collaborations with major fashion brands to individual pieces of fine art. The initial display features partnerships with brands like Nike, Off-White, and Murakami, emphasizing the artist's strong presence in commercial art. However, as the exhibition unfolds, it shows a deeper and more personal aspect.

    A striking element of the exhibition is the way Futura integrates street art techniques into fine art, exploring different mediums while challenging traditional boundaries. This effort reflects a conscious move to break away from the limitations and stigma often associated with graffiti, creating work that resonates on multiple levels.

    For example, the piece Under Metropolis (1983) demonstrates a unique use of aerosol spray directly on unprimed canvas, allowing the surface to absorb the paint and develop a distinctive texture. Another standout, Invasion From Blue City, features intricate linework and layered techniques. Through the deliberate removal of paint layers to reveal the black undercoat, the artwork achieves a depth and complexity that feels both tactile and dynamic. He allows forms to float freely across the surface, suggesting the expansiveness of outer space. 

    One particularly fascinating aspect of the exhibition is the inclusion of Futura’s FL-001 Pointman. The display features both a painting, Untitled CIRCA 2000s, and a sculpture of FL-001 Pointman crafted from aluminum. The painting appears as a conceptual draft of the signature Pointman figure, which evokes an otherworldly, alien presence. Additionally, the way the aluminum sculpture interacts with the surrounding white space adds an intriguing dimensionality, drawing attention to its form and presence within the exhibit.

    This exhibition not only highlights Futura2000's evolution as an artist but also showcases his ability to transcend genres, redefining the boundaries between street art and contemporary fine art.

Eleanor Ray at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

 

Installation view, Eleanor Ray, 2024

Photo Courtesy of Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

As one enters the large gallery space with miniature paintings confined to the gallery walls, one is irresistibly drawn to them. They immediately communicate - to consider them slowly. Eleanor Ray's paintings on view at Nicelle Beauchene gallery are deceptively expansive. The long discourse about size bias is radically challenged through Ray's small paintings. All the paintings are around 6 x 9 inches. Tight cropping is the cornerstone of the compositions. Ray's pedantic eye for cropping the paintings create for an expansive, brilliant experience while paradoxically being tiny pieces. Ray's process involves drawing and painting extensively plein-air and carrying the paintings back to her studio to work on them further, where they continue to evolve. 

Ray appears to be in the lineage of the much loved tonalist painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. The moody landscapes of Ray and Ryder seem to have a deeper quality rather than being only pictorial wonders, evoking sensorial realities. Both Ray and Ryder seem to share a poetic genius. 

Albert Pinkham Ryder, Gay Head, (not dated), 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches, oil on canvas

Photo Courtesy of The Phillips Collection

In Ray's ‘Afternoon, Hellnar,’ 2024, the viewer chances upon the vastness of a waterbody with a mountain range in far sight. The beautiful, cool blue hues of the water and the mountain range in the backdrop are in perfect harmony with the marshy greenscape on the banks of the waterbody. 'Cloud Forest door,’ 2024 is one of the few pieces in the show that situate the viewers in an indoor space. The painting depicts a door opening to a wide expanse of a greenscape and speculatively a mountain, portraying a yearning of the outside. The paintings are a journal of her trips to various places. In a way, these paintings can be thought of as memorabilia.

Eleanor Ray, Afternoon, Hellnar, 2024, 6 1/2 x 8 inches, oil on panel  

Photo courtesy of Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

Eleanor Ray, Cloud Forest door, 2024, 8 1/2 x 7 inches, Oil on panel 

Photo Courtesy of Nicelle Beauchene Gallery

- Priyanka Dey (#)

Aviary | Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon’s Aviary, exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is a powerful sonic exploration that immerses visitors in a world of bird calls. Transforming the skylit North Gallery into an expansive auditory environment, the installation fills the space with the layered sounds of various bird species. Upon entering, visitors are immediately enveloped by the soothing yet haunting calls, creating an atmosphere that both calms and unsettles. The exhibit invites guests to lie down on wedge-shaped platforms, designed to deepen their connection with the surrounding environment. This act of reclining allows participants to fully immerse themselves in the evolving soundscape, amplifying the meditative and introspective nature of the piece.

Aviary, 2024

Chacon’s work operates on multiple levels, combining both the familiar and the unknown. The bird calls are rich in symbolism, evoking themes of migration, home, and ecological awareness. The variety of species represented, from familiar to rare, invites reflection on the vastness of the natural world and the fragility of its ecosystems. By filling the gallery with these sounds, Chacon blurs the line between artificial and natural environments, offering a fresh perspective on how we perceive the spaces we occupy.

The installation’s interaction with the architecture enhances its emotional and intellectual impact. The sounds move through the space, mirroring the natural flight patterns of birds and turning the gallery into a living, breathing entity. Aviary stands as both a tribute to nature’s complexities and a call to reconsider our relationship with the world around us. It challenges visitors to engage with sound, space, and their own sense of place in a deeply personal and profound way.

Adam Salem (Group B)

Thomas Schutte: "Mein Grab (My Grave)"

 Thomas Schutte: Mein Grab (My Grave)

Tucked away in a corner of Thomas Schutte’s exhibition at the MOMA lies a small red house and a painting to match. It’s hard to miss, but what it represents may seem unclear until closer inspection. The installation, simply titled Mein Grab (My Grave), reads; “Thomas Schutte: 16.11.1954 - 25.3.1996.” As of December 2024, the artist is still alive. 

In 1981 at just 26 years of age, Schutte tested the fates by making the bold choice to predict the date of his own death and design his own gravestone, akin to what closely resembles a bright red cartoon dog house. The simple yet recognizable “house” shape and striking crimson hue of the work read as both juvenile and confrontational, serving as a clear memento mori to anyone who may take a closer look, regardless of the viewer’s age. In other words, the ground will one day be our home.

Schutte’s piece is notably both grim and comical, a macabre display of irony over the inevitable end we will all one day meet. Memento mori (reminder of death) has been a part of human fascination since antiquity, repeatedly resurging in popular culture from medieval times to the Victorian period. After a century ravaged by brutal wars, human mortality was once again called into question in the mid-1900s, which may have had an influence on Schutte’s grave model. However, Schutte’s take on death as something to be humored and even challenged through prediction provides unique commentary on a topic that is typically sensitive/taboo. Even after Thomas Schutte has passed, his playful wit will live on in the small red house - but the date may need an edit.

A Response to Wonder: Charles Jones, Karl Blossfeldt, and Edward Weston

A Response to Wonder at the Howard Greenberg Gallery surveys the nature-focused works of Charles Jones, Karl Blossfeldt, and Edward Weston. Through a series of photographs, this exhibition conveys how 3 different artists perceive and represent elements of the natural world. 

Charles Jones, though unrecognized as an artist in his lifetime, was celebrated for his agricultural skills as a gardener. His golden-toned silver gelatin prints capture his intimate perspective of the world. In one striking image, a flower is shown isolated from its surroundings against a plain background, capturing the detail of its delicate petals. 

Karl Blossfeldt’s images take a similar creative approach, as he documents botanical specimens through a close up technique. Using lenses he crafted himself, he magnified plants to reveal their structure. His portrait of a Soft Acanthus plant leaves little to the imagination, creating a scientific yet artistic view of the plant's symmetry and texture.

Edward Weston’s work approaches photography with focus, as he was a part of the f/64 art group, working alongside artists like Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. His image of a red cabbage sliced in half, exudes intensity through its careful focus and composure. Viewers can see every vein-like crevice of the living surface, just as the modernist group advocated. 

This exhibition surprisingly reveals that Jones's images predate the works of Blossfeldt and Weston by several years. Being able to experience the work together in one space feels increasingly significant with this information. Not only does A Response to Wonder captures the timelessness of the works but it also responds to my curiosity about the private lives of artists, as their contributions are continually reworked into photographic history. 

- Kaitlyn Eoff*

The 'Brooklyn Artists Exhibition' and the 'Salon des Refusés 2024-2'

     If you are looking to see an array of fresh work from artists living in your zip code, The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition is a great place to start. Located on the first floor of the Brooklyn Museum, the show features work from over 200 artists working in Brooklyn in a multitude of media, including painting, cut wood, ceramics, sculptures, video installation, and multimedia installation. The square space is divided into two parts, the outer perimeter and the inner square. There is so much to look at in either space and your curiosity is left free to roam in any direction as there is no true start and end. One giant painting of a typewriter by Sam Messer has paint globed on so thick it borders on being a sculpture. Another painting by Tabitha Whitley features two youths lounging in the grass on a blanket. The prosaic scene feels like it is pulled straight from one of Brooklyn’s parks, but the exaggerated use of a saturated red hue creates a peculiar tone that subverts the tradition of portraiture and genre painting.

    If the Brooklyn Museum is not enough for you, head over to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook for their Salon des Refusés 2024-2. This one-room exhibition, featuring artists who did not make it into the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, is every part as diverse as its parent show. One piece by Marlene Weisman titled, Super Deep: Portrait of The Artist is an icy blue holographic painting with nine shape-shifting images that tell an indecipherable story. The unconventional medium and the use of historic photographs engage with the history of portraits in both painting and photography, offering an entirely new take on the form. The combination of both these shows will leave you stunned at the breadth of talent and emotion that can be packed into one single borough.

Harrison Kutner

Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston

Trenton Doyle Hancock, The Former and the Ladder or Ascension and a Cinchin', 2012

    The Jewish Museum's latest exhibition, "Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston," offers a profound exploration of the works of two artists—20th-century Jewish painter Philip Guston and contemporary Black artist Trenton Doyle Hancock. Despite their temporal and cultural differences, the exhibition reveals their shared commitment to investigating the legacy of white supremacism in the United States through irony and humor.

    Guston’s iconic series of satirical Klansmen from the Ku Klux Klan serves as a focal point. In these works, Guston’s hooded figures, with their unsettlingly banal activities, encapsulate the absurdity and horror of racist ideology. Hancock, inspired by Guston, introduces his Black superhero, Torpedoboy, from the series "Epidemic! Presents: Step and Screw!" Through this character, Hancock directly engages with Guston’s hooded alter-ego, creating a dialogue that examines racism and white supremacy.

    One standout piece by Hancock, "The Former and the Ladder or Ascension and a Cinchin'," juxtaposes the heroic figure of Torpedoboy with grotesque, caricatured depictions of white supremacy. The work confronts the viewer with the ongoing struggle against racial injustice and highlights Hancock's unique visual language. Guston’s "The Studio," depicting a hooded figure painting a self-portrait, is another powerful piece. This self-reflective work delves into Guston’s introspection and complicity within systems of power, prompting viewers to question their roles in perpetuating these systems.

    By foregrounding works that depict the Klan, the exhibition effectively shows how both Guston and Hancock use their art to critique and satirize institutionalized power. This dialogical approach not only highlights their thematic similarities but also emphasizes their distinct artistic voices. "Draw Them In, Paint Them Out" is an inspiring exhibition, offering a nuanced perspective on the intersection of art, identity, and activism. Through the lens of these two artists, the Jewish Museum has created a space for reflection and dialogue on some of the most pressing issues of our time.

Polina Ostrovskaya