New York

May 26, 2021 • View in browser

In the latest museum news, workers at the Brooklyn Museum are moving to unionize. The union vote petition comes on the heels of allegations of “harm and daily mistreatment” from staff of color at the institution.

In Manhattan, contributors Billy Anania and Sinclair Spratley review exhibitions that have stuck with them lately: a winning critique of the old imperial smoke and mirrors act at Carriage Trade, and MoMA’s first exhibition dedicated to Blackness and architecture, respectively. Spratley calls the latter “dense, and rightfully so.”

In another exercise in unpacking, artist Robert Visani takes a clever (and recyclable) approach to paternalistic tropes of British anti-slavery campaigns.

— Dessane Lopez Cassell, Editor, Reviews

From Humble Materials...

Do-It-Yourself Sculptures That Probe the White Savior Narrative

Roberto Visani’s cardboard flat pack statues appropriate and reinterpret famous abolitionist symbols.

Valentina Di Liscia

Plywood Obelisks Reflect on a Year of Racial Justice Protests

Michael Zelehoski’s sculpture “Miguelito” is crafted with plywood used to board up businesses during last summer’s racial justice protests.

Hrag Vartanian

New York News

Workers at the Brooklyn Museum are moving to unionize.
Last Friday, Angela Davis, Fred Moten, and more than 250 artists, critics, and scholars signed an open letter condemning the Museum of Modern Art for its ties to violence against Palestinians.
Later that day, hundreds of demonstrators attended Strike MoMA’s seventh protest at the museum, which was held in solidarity with Palestinian civilians and other oppressed people around the world.

Latest Reviews

Revealing the Prickly Side of Imperial “Soft Power”

A collaboration between Carriage Trade and Rectangle, Hearts and Minds analyzes the deceptive repackaging of Western imperialism.

Billy Anania

Don Voisine’s Restless Shapes

Voisine’s paintings ask us to consider what we pay attention to and why.

John Yau

In "Reconstructions," Black Artists and Architects Move Beyond the Limitations of the Present

What would happen if Black people had or were currently given the time, space, energy, and funding to build alternative futures?

Sinclair Spratley

Lingering in the Crossroads Between the Human and the Divine

In her US debut, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro charts the boundless potential of the spiritual in-between.

Daniella Brito

Guy Goodwin’s Colorful Inelegance

With subjects and materials such as diner menus and discarded cardboard, Goodwin resists a view of history as progress in search of ultimate truths.

John Yau

Closing Soon

L. Brandon Krall, “Experior” (1989), oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches (courtesy Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects)

L. Brandon Krall: Sui Generis–alphabet paintings and other objects at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects through May 29
Goodnight House at Fort Makers through June 10
Deborah Remington: Five Decades at Bortolami through June 12
Maren Hassinger: We Are All Vessels at Susan Inglett Gallery through June 12
Nan Goldin: Memory Lost at Marian Goodman Gallery through June 12

On View in NY Museums

Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America at the New Museum through June 6
Disturbing the View outside the Whitney Museum (Fridays & Saturdays at 1pm) through June 12
Michael Rakowitz: Nimrud at the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College through June 18
Kenneth Tam: Silent Spikes at the Queens Museum through June 23
Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art through June 27
Lorraine O'Grady: Both/And at the Brooklyn Museum through July 18
Alice Neel: People Come First at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through August 1
Julie Mehretu at the Whitney Museum through August 8
Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life at MoMA PS1 through September 6
Estamos Bien — La Trienal 20/21 at El Museo del Barrio through September 26
Off the Record at the Guggenheim Museum through September 27
Kusama: Cosmic Nature at the New York Botanical Gardens through October 31
Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days at City Hall Park through November 28

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