HIGHLIGHTS
This month’s Manhattan highlights focus on artists tapping into the natural world, where these practices converge with the man-made in a clash of stunning reinvention and compelling engagement. These exhibitions channel the experimental through exploratory processes that harness our attention and hold us in their spell.
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Holding Water: Mary Mattingly at The James Gallery
@jamesgallerygc @marymattingly
On view through: June 13, 2025
Curated by: James Gallery Curator/Head Katherine Carl, Ph.D.
Featuring: Mary Mattingly
Mary Mattingly’s Holding Water at The James Gallery is a wondrous experience that offers space and an atmospheric charm that invites viewers to contemplate the order of things in today’s world. Waterways, ecosystems, and sculpture dredged from the depths of the oceanic floor with diligence and purpose bring to the realm exciting and deeply introspective reckonings with human activity. Thoughtfully curated with literature, videos, and objects, a library of lived ephemera is bathed in the warm glow of light and tastefully surrounded by videos, artworks, and audio that make for a meditative and transcendent state. In addition to the exhibition, public programming in the gallery included the invitation of artists Chloe Smolarski and Tasha Darbes to share their project, When Home Leaves You: Archiving Living Memories of Climate Change.
With a focus on the concerns around climate change, the ecosystem, waterways, and the landscape, Mattingly makes what could feel distant an immediate presence. Moving from videos and audio that create prescient soundscapes, the physical is embodied through gritty, earthly sculptures that incorporate woven, watery, and corroding aspects that are chillingly visceral. To blend the beauty of the earth with the immediacy of crisis imposed by capitalism and colonialism allows us to feel the urgency of all that is at stake in a fluid, moving way. The gallery also holds a precious trove of objects and accompanying sounds in a cubby library that feels homey and draws you back to early childhood memories when the world was simple. If we can find respite there, if but for a moment, perhaps that is enough to recharge and push through against the tides of imperialism.
A Rose Is, Flag Foundation, 23 Monroe Street, NY, NY
On view through: June 21, 2025
Featuring: Farah Al Qasimi, Polly Apfelbaum, Arakawa, Genesis Belanger, Louise Bourgeois, Joe Brainard, James Lee Byars, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Ann Craven, Sara Cwynar, Alex Da Corte, Jay DeFeo, Ethyl Eichelberger, Awol Erizku, Cerith Wyn Evans, Tony Feher, Allison Janae Hamilton, Gabriella Hirst, Peter Hujar, John Jarboe, Anna Jermolaewa, Sarah Jones, Anselm Kiefer, Lee Krasner, Dr. Lakra, Linder, George Platt Lynes, Robert Mapplethorpe, Katie Paterson, Nicolas Party, Kay Rosen, James Rosenquist, Taryn Simon, Charles Sheeler, Kiki Smith, Haim Steinbach, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, among others.
A blockbuster lineup that could easily rest on the laurels of this esteemed collection of heavyweights, A Rose Is instead nobley opts for diligence and earning the accolades of its viewers in the stellar presentation of heartfelt works that challenges notions, generates tenderness, and moves across canons, areas of concern, and prompts deep conversation within this expansive, two-floored exhibition. With variations on the concepts of what a rose can symbolize, a deeply researched presentation is brought forth that speaks to various activist practices and actions.
A rose is poetry, it is melancholy, it is love, celebration, and grief. Roses are red, roses are neon, roses are alive, dying, decaying, de-petaled, and deconstructed. A rose is planted, pruned, plucked, and pressed. A rose is dried, it may bloom, it may be gifted, it fights wars, and heals hearts. A rose is a subject of inspiration for countless artists, and it never gets depicted the same way twice. A rose is precious, it is unique, it is beautiful. It is thorny, stormy, brooding, and wilting. It is stoic, bold, bucolic, and elegant. A rose is fragrant, strong, and definitive. No two roses are the same, and the originality of the exhibition tells us as such.
It demonstrates with spectacular clarity that the rose is the muse with no shortage of inspiration. To walk through the two floors of this show is to experience a rose anew, fresh, and for the first time in each work. The strength of the show is a testament to the innovative curation of each of these sensitive works. Spanning every medium, the surprises are vast and rewarding. When one can learn so much from a single rose, imagine what we can learn from an entire gallery filled with them. In summation, A Rose Is…absolutely everything.
Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at Museum of Modern Art
@themuseumofmodernart
On view through: September 13, 2025
Organized by: Esther Adler, Curator, with Emily Olek, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawing and Prints, and Paul Galloway, Collection Specialist, Department of Architecture and Design
Featuring: Igshaan Adams, Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Polly Apfelbaum, Ruth Asawa, Diedrick Brackens, Liz Collins, Olga de Amaral, Sonia Delaunay, Lillian Elliott, Martha Erps, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Jeffrey Gibson, Dorothy Gill Barnes, Shan Gorshon, Gary (GRIZ) Graham, Eileen Gray, Ann Hamilton, Harmony Hammond, Richard Herre, Eva Hesse, Pat Hickman, Sheila Hicks, Hannah Hoch, Institute 4 Labor Generosity Workers & Uniforms, Valerie Jaudon, Paul Klee, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Teresa Lanceta, Yayoi Kusama, Zoe Leonard, Ellen Lesperance, Carole Frances Lung, Agnes Martin, Marisa Merz, Laura Huertas Millan, Ulrike Muller, Nagakura Ken’ichi, Senga Nengudi, Paulina Olowska, Lisa Oppenheim, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Liubov Popova, Martin Puryear, Sascha Reichstein, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Ed Rossbach, Francois Rouan, Analia Saban, Marilou Schultz, Kay Sekimachi, Alan Shields, Gunta Stolzl, Varvara Stepanova, Tanabe Yota, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Leonore Tawney, Rosemarie Trockel, Katherine Westphal, Jack Whitten, Andrea Zittel
Walking into Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction is like walking into a wonderland. Unsure of what is unfolding at first glance, it slowly reveals gems aplenty that will hold you in suspense and cause you to take numerous laps to see the works from every angle imaginable. This superbly curated exhibition melds the traditions of painting and drawing with a satisfying range of textiles that include basketry, felting, weaving, knitting, crochet, beading, and more. Artists from different generations and backgrounds are included in this large show, demonstrating how much variety there is between the concepts, techniques, and outcomes they each navigate. In sum, the result is rich, enthralling, and significant in the discussions around textiles. With each work so dynamic, among the many standouts are works by Igshaan Adams, Jeffrey Gibson, Olga de Amaral, and Marilou Schultz. At a time when the world feels as though it is on the decline, shards of hope shine through the recesses between warp and weft. The resilience of the discipline of these craft-based practices reminds us that there is strength in knowledge, and it is up to us to continue to push forward with every breath we possess.
All photos are by the writer.
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About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator. Her work examines historical and contemporary culture through materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting/teaching artist and lecturer 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. Abdallah earned 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. She also holds an MFA in Fine Arts, with distinction, from Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include Art in Odd Places; the Boiler; Bronx Art Space; Bullet Space; Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center; Cornell University; Ed Varie; Elizabeth Foundation; Emily Harvey Foundation; Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space; NARS Foundation; Open Source; Pratt Institute; Painting Space 122 Gallery; Spring Break Art Show; University of Massachusetts; and Westbeth. Select press and 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