2nd draft

 Exhibition Review: Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos at the Americas Society

Earth and Cosmos at the Americas Society brings together the works of Beatriz Cortez and rafa esparza, exploring \themes of migration,memory, and the movement of ancient knowledge across space and time.The exhibition merges ancient traditions with contemporary artistic practices, focusing on the transference ofcultural artifacts and their impact on modern identities.

One of the key pieces, esparza’s Hyperspace: -100km + (2025), is a sculpture made from basalt and adobe,referencing the Olmec colossal heads and the journey of magma from the Earth’s crust to the surface in itsuse of basalt. The combination of raw materials and esparza’s family's connections to adobe-makinginfuses the piece with a deep connection to his ancestral land of Durango, Mexico.

Cortez’s Cabeza de Jaguar (Monumento #47) (2022) and Gift of the Artist to the Ancient Object Labeledas Human Head Emerging from Monster Jaws (2023) stand in contrast to Esparza’s earthy,grounded sculpture through their use of sharp, industrial steel. The jagged forms show the violence andfragmentation caused by colonial looting and displacement of Indigenous artifacts. 

While the exhibition succeeds in its use of materials and grounding abstract themes in tangible forms, itoccasionally falls short in offering new insights about displacement and cultural preservation. The thematicfocus on migration, memory, and colonial legacies, although important, feels somewhat familiar and expectedgiven how frequently these subjects appear in contemporary art. For example, the use of 3-D printed replicasof artifacts, while visually compelling, does not offer a fresh perspective on cultural heritage or its complexities.

Danka Latorre, Current Season 472-02

REVISED. Cy Twombly’s Landscape Abstractions and the Fragility of Nature

Cy Twombly’s Landscape Abstractions and the Fragility of Nature

Gagosian Gallery

Cy Twombly’s Untitled paintings from 1981–1986, created in Bassano in Teverina, Italy, mark a profound shift in his engagement with nature and abstraction. Rendered in lush greens and layered with fluid gestures, these works evoke the sensory immediacy of earth, air, and water—an elemental trinity at the heart of both nature’s rhythms and human experience.

The sense of light, speed, and moisture shifts between the drawings, creating a dynamic atmosphere. People often seek a connection with nature, projecting their own experiences onto the landscape, while the painter uses the landscape not just as subject matter, but as a medium to explore perception and emotion. The abstract drawings invite curiosity; as the viewer moves around the works, the quatrefoil-shaped frames act like portals, subtly changing the viewer’s perspective with each step. The spatial arrangement of the four paintings reflects a journey through the same landscape, each canvas offering a different atmospheric condition—like varying degrees of fog. This progression is not linear but fluid, echoing the ever-changing nature of both the environment and human perception.

The broader cultural significance of these works lies in their subtle commentary on humanity’s growing disconnection from the natural world. Though abstract, the paintings suggest a quiet plea for reconnection—where the liquidity of paint mirrors the ebb and flow of the natural forces that sustain life. In this way, Twombly transforms abstraction into a poetic form of environmental reflection, inviting viewers not only to see the landscape, but to feel its diminishing presence in contemporary life. The works resonate with a collective awareness shaped by modern society—a shared sense that nature, once central to human experience, is now increasingly distant or overlooked.

Marshmallow Laser Feast: “Entwined” (Revised)

Exhibited by Bitforms Gallery, “Entwined” is Marshmallow Laser Feast’s first solo US show. Displaying digital natural landscapes, the works show the artist’s vision of the connection between humans and the natural environments around us. At the entrance of the gallery space, mounted is Breath Cycles. Depicting a pair of lungs inhaling and exhaling, the shape fluctuates between human lungs and the twisting organic branches. 

Entering through a heavy curtain, we are brought into a cyber-forest. Each of the digital works feature visuals of forests, trees, and vegetation, pulsing visually and audibly to a beat. The tree trunks, large and filling the screen, are a captivating sight. Made from tiny dots of color, the digital rainforests and branches are in a constant state of minuscule movement, keeping the digital format from feeling stagnant and sterile. Screen sizes ranging from an entire wall to a foot diameter circle, the effect is captivating. Each piece of work is a portal to another world.

The exhibit explores the connections and similarities to functions of the human cardiovascular system to those of plants, and how our inner workings are very similar interlocked. Using the simple action of breath, the lightly pulsating and rhythmic qualities of the digital art pieces guides the viewer to breathe along with the beat, evoking the unconscious connection between human life and the vegetation around us. 

- Sarit Luftman

REVISED: Alexis Trice; "Deep Sea Swallow Me"

 Alexis Trice’s Deep Sea, Swallow Me, currently on view at Long Story Short Gallery, takes viewers on an emotional journey into the heart of the ocean. Through her powerful use of color and texture, Trice explores the way water mirrors our emotions in her paintings—how it holds both beauty and danger, light and shadow. The pieces evoke a sense of constant change, like the shifting tides or the layers of memory that accumulate over time. It’s a stunning exploration of how our feelings evolve, much like water - flowing, transforming, and sometimes, sinking deep below the surface.

Standout pieces included Salt of the Earth and I Had a Dream I Was Crying, which depict long-haired dogs crying pearly tears into seashells floating above oceanic bodies of water. There’s something incredibly moving about the imagery—those tears, both delicate and weighty, with their pearly sheen, are a hopeful symbol of how emotions, even the most painful ones, can crystallize into something enduring. It’s like watching grief or loss transform into something that stays with you, just like a memory. These works, along with the rest of the show, leave you thinking about the rhythms of time and how everything—emotions, memories, even the ocean—moves in cycles. Trice's exhibition isn’t just a visual experience but a transformative one, inviting you to dive into the depths of what lies beneath the surface.

John Zorn: Hermetic Cartography at The Drawing Center

Hermetic Cartography is a show at The Drawing Center showcasing seven decades of work by John Zorn. Known predominantly for his avant-garde music practice, the exhibition presents Zorn’s lesser-known visual art from across his expansive career. For those familiar with his audio work, the chaotic and expressive musicality is echoed in his striking colors, patterns, and hybridized visual language. Even to the uninitiated, the more recent abstract pieces present graphical landscapes that, through radiating dashed lines or smoky curves, evoke explosive or serene feelings.

The formality of the museum setting, accompanied by three concerts held as part of the show, marks a shift from Zorn’s typical place outside the mainstream. Yet a small room tucked behind a curtain recalls the underground atmosphere of his musical legacy. Devoted to his 1970s Theatre of Musical Optics project, the dark, intimate space gathers an array of manipulated objects used in silent performances. It acts as a core, binding the show’s energies to Zorn’s broader practice.

The overwhelming array of notebooks, scores, drawings, and objects defines a personal visual language of mark-making by an already groundbreaking artist. Stepping into the exhibition feels like stepping into one of Zorn’s scores - jumbled and frenetic, yet somehow intuitive and whole.

Tyler Ballon's "Flying High"

  Tyler Ballon's solo exhibition tackles issues of identity in painting of Black bodies and makes historical references to traditions of monumental painting traditionally done for presidents and kings, through pastiche mending them to classical figurative painting in order to reflect the past, present, and future of black youth in America today. Announcing the glory and struggle of Black youth in sports and music but also deeper ties of community ambition and the annals of history. The subject matter of the painting is black high school students on the football field in their marching band and football uniforms. A simple concept that is handled well, being clear right off the bat about what it is and wants to accomplish, as well as having the added depth of a homage to Manet and the choosing of the specific schools named after leaders of the community at large. The schools are Abraham Lincoln High School for the footballers and Malcolm X Shabazz High School for the marching band players. 

      "I realised there is an interesting dichotomy between sports being a tool for success and having Black bodies being used to advance America’s ambition," Ballon remarks in a statement accompanying the exhibition online.

    Bellow are the paintings The Execution of Emperor Maximillian (1867) with Ballon's work Bear Arms/Second Amendment (2024-25), Ballon chooses to show the young men in the marching band protecting cheerleaders rather than Manet's violent depiction of the death of the Habsburg royal via firing squad. Showing the desire for a change in perception of Black youth bearing arms. Ballon had this to say also on the press release:"perceptions of Black men bearing arms, reclaiming their image as patriots and protectors" This mending and correcting of a style of painting normally done to appease the royal and upper classes and making it serve the people is effective and easy to understand. Depicting everyday people and giving them the same respect as monarchs and a careful consideration and care which shines through in subject matter and the paintings lifelike touch and attention to detail.

 revised: GREY ART GALLERY: ANONYMOUS WAS A WOMAN

The Grey Art Museum's, Anonymous Was a Woman: The First 25 Years showcases works made by 41 women artists over the age of 40, each a recipient of the AWAW grant, which now consists of $50,000 awarded annually to 15 women. The exhibition features an array of media including sculpture, video, photography, and painting. A centerpiece in the second room of the show, Rona Pondicks Magenta Swimming in Yellow (2015-17), features a resin cast translucent magenta head, halfway submerged in a block of translucent yellow resin. This piece acts as a conceptual anchor for the exhibition as it evokes a feeling of being stuck, which goes hand in hand with the mission of the foundation Anonymous Was a Woman, as it allows women to emerge from this obscurity by providing a means for them to create work. Other works include Petah Coyne’s Untitled #1242 (Black Snowflake) (2007–12), a large black chandelier composed of materials such as wax, glass, steel, ribbons, tassels, and a taxidermy peacock, which was made in reference to the bombing of Hiroshima. Jennifer Wen Ma’s Paradise Interrupted: Disintegration (2014) consists of three large hanging mirrored acrylic panels, adorned with intricate black paper forms, the mirrored surfaces making viewers confront themselves as they view the artwork. While the exhibition successfully demonstrates diverse material range, the amount of work often overwhelms the space, diluting the power of individual pieces.