The current exhibition by Jenny Hankwitz and Amanda Church at Steven Harvey, running from February 8 to March 8, explores a subject central to painting since its inception. Independently, their work engages with abstraction and figuration, using color, surface, and shape as primary vehicles. When viewed in person, the exhibition demonstrates how each artist approaches their medium to address their own interest between abstraction and the figure. However, when this exhibition is viewed together in the digital realm, another issue emerges—one that was pivotal in art criticism during the 1980s and 1990s that deals with an issue that pre-occupied Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco: the topic of simulation and simulacra or simulacra and hyperreality.
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Hankwitz’s paintings feature fluid, curving shapes and lines of color that form dynamic compositions. Though originating from a digital medium, her work resists the rigidity often associated with digital art. Instead, it orchestrates rhythms and colors to create a visually rich and tactile experience. Despite their digital origins, Hankwitz’s shapes and weavings maintain an organic quality, subtly alluding to the human form without explicitly defining it. Her curves hint at figures in motion, though her palette often takes precedence over any recognizable figuration. Consequently, her paintings hover between abstraction and representation—both tangible and elusive.
In contrast, Church’s approach to painting begins with drawings and sketches, often in colored pencil or paint on paper. She develops her compositions iteratively, refining them through repeated sketches. Her use of hard-edged lines introduces a sharper, more structured tension compared to Hankwitz’s softer curves. Occasional flowing lines in Church’s work counterbalance her geometric forms, suggesting the human figure with color and shape. Like Hankwitz, Church creates images that are both tactile and ambiguous. This balance is evident in Untitled (Undressed), where minimal shapes and colors evoke the presence of a figure and garment—possibly a tuxedo. The composition and its elusive title suggest a moment of undressing while keeping the scene partially concealed.
Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and hyperreality provides an insightful framework for interpreting this exhibition, particularly in the context of digital consumption. In “Simulacra and Simulation,” Baudrillard argues that in the postmodern era, representations of reality can become more “real” than reality itself. In this case, when viewing the exhibition on a mobile device, one can believe they are “viewing” the works. When viewed on a phone, the distinctions between Hankwitz’s and Church’s works blur, making the exhibition appear as though it could be a solo show. Digital engagement with these paintings flattens them into images, stripping away their texture, scale, and the presence of the artist’s hand, thereby flattening the content. The scrolling and swiping of these images offer convenience but diminish the material depth of the works, reducing the viewing experience to a partial visual interaction.
This dual-mode engagement could be seen as a form of resistance to the flattening effects of digital media. By presenting the works in both realms, the exhibition creates a space where viewers can move between the hyperreal realm of their mobile devices and the embodied experience of the gallery. In doing so, the show highlights the difference between art as a simulation—one that can be seamlessly consumed, shared, and experienced on a screen—and art as a material object, one that demands engagement and presence.
Baudrillard might suggest that this shift back to physicality in the gallery space is a reclaiming of reality or at least an attempt to reassert the authenticity of the art object in the face of its increasingly mediated representations. In this sense, the exhibition itself becomes a commentary on the way digital technologies shape our perceptions of art, suggesting that while simulation can offer convenience and accessibility, it is the physical encounter that allows for a deeper, more meaningful engagement with the work.
The exhibition ultimately challenges the boundaries between abstraction and figuration. Hankwitz and Church invite us to reconsider our perception of color, form, and space, urging us to look carefully at each artist’s work and arrive at our own interpretation and conclusion. Their interplay between abstraction and figurative suggestion makes the show an experience best appreciated in person in a physical space, where the material and tactile qualities of the works can be fully analyzed.
Jenny Hankwitz and Amanda Church at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects Feb 8th – March 8th
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About the writer: Riad Miah was born in Trinidad and currently lives and works in New York City. His work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Contemporary Art, Sperone Westwater, White Box Gallery, Deluxe Projects, Rooster Contemporary Art, Simon Gallery, and Lesley Heller Workshop. He has received fellowships nationally and internationally. His works are included in private, university, and corporate collections. He contributes to Two Coats of Paint, the Brooklyn Rail, and Whitehot Magazine.