HIGHLIGHTS
Spatial dynamics and human hybridity are central to this month’s roundup of highlights in New York. From monumental sculpture to works intimately interspersed within the home, all things great and small commune and offer reflection upon their relationships to the environments in which they currently reside. The hierarchy between the natural and the manmade is in conversation within this selection of shows through shifting currents of tenuous and harmonious moments.
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Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts at Jack Shainman
Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts
On view through: March 29, 2025
Featuring: Nick Cave
The new location of Jack Shainman gallery (which previously housed the New York Life Insurance Company headquarters) is a marvel of marble columns, vaulted ceilings and elegant archways. This sprawling venue sets the stage for the grand beauty of this exhibition. Nick Cave’s prescient assemblage works within the gallery are well served within this massive realm of aesthetic richness. In this exhibition, we encounter reflective motifs that invite viewers to unravel our associations, through the 2D Graphts and the 3D Amalgam forms.
Residing somewhere between the ecospheres of sculpture, photography, collage and textiles, Cave’s intricate works awaken the primal need of searching for sanctuary and meaning. Through forces driven by human/ hybrids, one must question their role in the evolutionary blueprint, and furthermore, if we are predator, prey, or both. A mix of emotions sweep through Cave’s works; elements of sadness, loss, nostalgia, hope, and desire are layered, stitched and grafted as seamlessly as the Grapht works themselves. Seamless blending of needlepoint portraiture, metal serving dishes, and variations of flora serve as means of memorialization in this pastiche that simmers with the thump of a beating heart.
At the center of the exhibition stands a towering monument in the likeness of the artist, functioning as a beacon through its defiance of human scale and architectural design. Commanding in presence, it stymies many an ego and delivers a message that rings loudly and clearly within the sweeping halls like a leader speaking to its public. This figure appears to behold superpowers that echo through the chambers with elegant authority, compassionately calling to disciples with open arms.
To visit this installation is a pilgrimage of sorts, and what is revealed within the works is an awakening as much as it is an affirmation. Cave continues to peel back the layers of humankind to get to the sometimes icky, and often uncomfortable bits in the quest to uncover the deeper truths that lie between the surface, which is necessary to allow for healing and justice to occur.
Internal Spore at Field of Play
On view through: March 9, 2025
Curated by: Anita Trombetta
Featuring: Judy Hoffman, David McDonough and Shivani Patel
Growth is a central concept of this exhibition, which expounds upon the gift of discovery and self-awareness. Through an array of media, the works on view speak to one another not unlike how roots communicate in the wild. David McDonough’s paintings hint at the small and mighty elements within nature, like mycelium, bacteria, and mold, that thrive with or without us. Judy Hoffman’s ceramic works further this concept through the anthropomorphic sculptures that convey sentience. Shivani Patel’s sculptures include found fibers from walks around the city and take the form of looming orbs suspended in motion, occupying airspace as a satisfying juxtaposition to the different plateaus of the more rectilinear works. The conversations between them reverberate like an interspecies dialogue, unlocking the secrets of the universe. This vision is fantastically dreamed up by curator Anita Trombetta, who pulls from myriad realms to address the collective malaise experienced at the local and global levels. In a coming together of serendipitous forces, a beautifully ripe moment of relief is a welcome healing balm in a tenuous and heavy world.
In Tandem at l’appartement 49c
On view: March 9 – March 22, 2025
Curated by: OST Collective (Steffie Chau, Olivia Lasa, and Tessa Carlin)
Featuring: Mallory Concetta Smith & Rachel Lee, Samantha Jensen & Dylan Gilbert, Daniel Leibovic & Faye Pamintuan, Kaden Bard Dawson & Marin, Jody Servon & Lorene Delany-Ullman, Quentin Fromont & Corentin Darré, Parker L & Jared Dominique, Eden Chinn, Ciaran Short & Paula Romeu, and Angelika Pavlovna & anonymous individuals.
I am always interested in how artists approach the dynamic of the live/work space; but what of the live/view space? In Tandem takes place within the comforts and confines of the home. The third iteration and second group show by l’appartement 49c, this experience blends collaborations and partnerships that reside within the domestic sphere, with some of the work inspired by the poems of Dylan Gilbert. This engaging journey is a thoughtful approach to the self-surrender of personal authorship. Previous exhibitions allowed for curious interactions within the home and extended the ordinary into a heightened and satisfying experience. The anticipation of what shape these forms will take is high, and I look forward to parsing through the various dynamics that have been simmering in this process at play. With approximately twenty-eight artworks on view, there is a multitude of conversations happening simultaneously within the space. The exhibition is located inside an apartment in Koreatown in Manhattan, and registration is required to access the address. The opening is on March 9th from 12-4 pm, with a panel event from 5-8 pm. To visit, register via Partiful or email: info@apt49c.com
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About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator and educator examining historical and contemporary culture through materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting artist, lecturer and panelist at institutions including the New Museum; Pratt Institute; Sarah Lawrence College; Residency Unlimited; BRIC; Kean University; Parsons the New School for Design; Columbia University; Children’s Museum of NYC; Interference Archive; El Barrio Artspace; Brooklyn Arts Council; Fairleigh Dickinson University; and University of Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology (focus in Historical Archaeology) and in Studio Art with honors, with a Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from University of Massachusetts; and received an MFA in Fine Arts, with distinction, from Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include Art in Odd Places; the Boiler; Bronx Art Space; Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center; Cornell University; Ed Varie; Elizabeth Foundation; Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space; NARS Foundation; Open Source; el Museo de Los Sures; Pratt Institute; Painting Space 122 Gallery; Spring Break Art Show; University of Massachusetts; Whitebox and Westbeth gallery. Publications include Anthropology of Consciousness; Ante Art; Art Observed; Bust Magazine; Emergency Index; Hyperallergic; Papergirl Brooklyn; Free City Radio; Radio Alhara; Tussle Magazine; the Urban Activist; and Transborder Art. Her work is in public, private, and traveling collections in the U.S. and abroad. @86cherrycherry