George Widener and Terence Koh at Andrew Edlin: Traces of Time

George Widener: Tip of the Iceberg
George Widener at Andrew Edlin

The riveting debut exhibition at Andrew Edlin showcases George Widener’s profound fascination with historical catastrophes, particularly the tragic sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The artworks on the wall, made of patched-together napkins and tea-stained scrolls, bear the marks of accidents, palimpsests, and esoteric knowledge, reminiscent of ancient manuscripts and enveloped in an aura of mystery. The elaborate numerical puzzles, complex wordplay, and prophetic visions informed by historical events become data landscapes that the viewer explores alongside the artist.

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Gallery Trails: Tribeca June 2023

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Louise Giovanelli. Photo courtesy @GRIMM

Embarking on a gallery-hopping adventure in Tribeca frequently leads to delightful experience for art aficionados and curious wanders alike. While not every artwork you encounter may make your heart skip a bit, or even resonate with your personal taste, Tribeca’s growing cluster of galleries promises an ever-increasing chance of stumbling upon captivating and thought-provoking artworks. In this article, join me on a curated journey through four compelling painting shows taking place throughout June.

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Jim Condron: Collected Things at Art Cake

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Installation view, Jim Condron: Collected Things at Art Cake, photo courtesy of Etty Yaniv

Collected Things, Jim Condron’s terrific solo exhibition at Art Cake in Brooklyn prompts us to question our relationship with the objects we interact with—objects that we use, discard, and transform through memory and art process. At the heart of this exhibition are Condron’s recent series of sculptures, which brings together everyday objects and ephemeral materials he has collected from artists, writers, and thinkers who participated in the project—these individuals include personal acquaintances like Graham Nickson, Lucy Sante, Rebecca Hoffberger, Carl E. Hazlewood and Cordy Ryman. Among them is the pioneering painter Grace Hartigan, who was Condron’s teacher and for whom he also worked as a graduate assistant in 2004, four years before her death. This body of work highlights how Condron’s process of collecting, editing, and adding other materials, activates the lineage and history of everyday objects, transforming them into playful art objects with renewed vitality and psychological presence. 

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I Make My Own Weather at the MAC

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Bonny Leibowitz “I Make My Own Weather”, “Raindrop installation”. photo courtesy Bonny Leibowitz

In her installation-based exhibition titled I Make My Own Weather at the MAC in Dallas, Bonny Leibowitz explores the validity of social constructs and the reliability of acquired or assumed perceptions, implying separateness, otherness and disconnection. Leibowitz’s work utilizes and expounds upon the landscape painting traditions of idealized histories, such as the Hudson River School, Romanticism, and Baroque. The installations act as deconstructed paintings, as though walking through fragments of represented landscapes—a tree root painted epoxy green, an Astro turf tarp in the shape of a pond, a peeling away of a blue sky.

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On the Waterfront: A View from the Coast (Line)

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On the Waterfront: A View from the Coast (Line)

From its founding in 2009 by Maddy Rosenberg, CENTRAL BOOKING has focused on the exploration between art and science with emphasis on aspects of the environment and social justice issues. In many collaborative projects with organizations such as the New York Academy of Medicine and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, artists researched their work in the collections, libraries and grounds of these institutions and exhibited the resulting work in several venues. Rosenberg says that after years of living along the Brooklyn waterfront of Buttermilk Channel and incorporating the imagery into her own work, she sensed it was time to take a deeper dive into the ecosystems of the Brooklyn waterfront and the last surviving section of functioning port within New York City’s boundaries. The life along the harbor integrates the wildlife, land and neighborhoods of human-made architectural elements seemed to her like “a perfect barometer for exploring climate change”. A collaboration with the New-York Historical Society was a natural step, as their collections preserve many of the earlier roots along the way to the transformations we live with today. Rosenberg says that in addition, by forging partnerships with other area organizations such as Kentler International Drawing Space, Pioneer Works and the RETI Center, the project became truly emblematic of the Brooklyn Waterfront.

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Sara Jimenez: the rain from dreams or from breaths at Rachel Uffner

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Installation view

Sara Jimenez’s new installation, “the rain from dreams or from breaths,” at Rachel Uffner Gallery is a thought-provoking and multi-sensory experience. Jimenez is known for examining the colonial history of the Philippines, an archipelago of over 7,000 islands in Southeast Asia that was colonized by the Spanish for almost 400 years and then by the United States for another 50 years until after World War 2.

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Paige Beeber – on Phantom Thread

In conversation

By Amanda Millet-Sorsa

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Paige Beeber. Photo credit: Sharon Kendrick

Prior to her exhibition, Phantom Thread at Freight+Volume, Paige Beeber spoke with Amanda Millet-Sorsa at the artist’s studio in Brooklyn. Nestled into a Cube Smart storage space building in Gowanus on the edge of Red Hook, the studio is part of TI Studios. Beeber’s long family roots in Brooklyn date back to the early 1900s, as she continues to live and work in this borough. Her new work evolved from experiences she had at residencies in 2022 (DNA Residency in Provincetown, SARP in Sicily, and recently completed her fellowship at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation). Her work exists between narration, figuration, and abstraction and largely uses the repurposing of her own past paintings that transform into new patterns, motifs, and imagery in new paintings. Ritual and community play an essential role in the stitching of new narratives.

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Just say YES to NADA!

Paul Wackers- First Time, Long Time. Jack Hanley Gallery

I’ve been to more art fairs than I can count, but the ones that I’ve had fun at I could count on two hands. Many are too big, dealers are either stressed out or bored, mundane work or work that is inaccessible or silly. The last show that I went to before the pandemic was The Armory Show at the westside piers. It was a few days before the world shut down and the fair was eerily empty. I wandered alone through a fair that typically had been jam packed with beautiful art lovers. And then everything went quiet for about a year and a half.

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Bob Seng: Cutting Corners at John Molloy Gallery

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John Molloy Gallery: installation view “Cutting Corners”

Bob Seng’s collages at John Molloy remake and reimagine the iconic EXIT sign. The artist says that he has chosen these ubiquitous signs for their attitude, a “go out” directive to an alternate space and time, and for their combative red and black elements. Initially he approached these signs as if they were archaeological excavations, selectively removing layers of the red and black paint to reveal what he imagined as “lost” civilizations buried underneath, “possibly a harbinger of our own in future time.”

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ArtYard & Paul Bowen: Drift

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Frenchtown in the Delaware river Valley NJ is home to a fantastic new arts center with cutting edge programming: take note art lovers, ArtYard has come to town. ArtYard is a not for profit, state-of-the-art facility with two floors of exhibition space, sculpture lawn, black box theater with chic little bar and a tiny store. It is spacious, light, and beautiful: everything about this place is “feel good” and functional. It overlooks the river where bikers and hikers pass on the Delaware Raritan Canal State Park Trail an old railway track. The facade is a sophisticated blend of metal overhang elements (think Chelsea Meatpacking) and smart graphics with a large welcoming entrance. The pitch perfect brick building, designed by architects Ed Robinson and William Welch, was inspired by 19C industrial factories. The new center weaves itself perfectly into the historic fabric of Frenchtown NJ.

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