Oskar Landi was born and raised in Italy. In 1998, he moved to New York to pursue art, arriving with two tools: a saxophone and a camera. Over time, the camera became the better instrument for making a living. With several years of experience as a photo assistant in Europe, he adapted to New York’s photography industry, building a basic commercial and editorial client base that allowed him to sustain himself while continuing to explore the medium’s possibilities.
First thing that pulled me into Shiva Ahmadi’s Tangle exhibition were the pressure cookers. It took me a moment to recognize them: from a distance, they appeared as intricate decorative objects and archaeological relics simultaneously. While the vintage pressure cookers evoked associations of domestic warmth and memories of my grandma’s kitchen, their surfaces etched with Arabic calligraphy and floral ornamentation recall artifacts from a Persian or Arabic cultural heritage museum. The patience and meticulous craft of such engraving parallels the labor of generations of women who spent countless hours in the kitchen crafting their family’s meals.
Eva Zanardi, the guest curator of the group show—In and Out of Lineage:Tracing Artistic Heritage Through SUNY New Paltz Faculty—observes that many times in her life, art has raised her awareness and consequently even made her reconsider her point of view on important issues. Zanardi says that the prerogative that should belong to most art is to be thought-provoking; as the educator and activist Cezar A. Cruz says, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Eva Zanardi shared some of her curatorial process and gave us here a brief guide through the show.
CHANNEL by Scope Collective at Biobat Art Space. Photo courtesy of gallery.
The three exhibitions Digital Being: Radio Row, Water Stories, and GUI/GOOEY explore memory, technology, and sustainability across time. In Digital Being: Radio Row, Taezoo Park breathes new life into obsolete machines, reimagining New York’s Radio Row as a digital hub of the past and future. Water Stories at BioBAT Art Space celebrates water’s ecological and cultural roles through multisensory art, urging conservation for future generations. GUI/GOOEY at Plexus Projects blurs boundaries between digital and organic realms, examining how interfaces reshape our perception of the body and nature through digital media.
Hugh Hayden: Home Work at Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA.
In the aftermath of the Presidential election, I feel inspired to visit galleries and museums more than ever. Not only am I feeling a conviction to support these now-endangered organizations, but I am finding respite in their halls and holdings. Regardless of your political leanings, this is a tender time for artists and art institutions, as well as for the curators and Directors who organize exhibitions. Obviously, what’s on view this month was curated before Election Day, but now that we’re in a new world, all of it seems singed by the results and potently relevant for the time. Hugh Hayden’s exploration of public education reminds us that the Department of Education may be gutted, and J Rowen O’Dwyer’s portraits of Trans people show us a vulnerable population that’s now even more susceptible to the threats of an angry and fearful nation. It’s a sobering time, but one that calls for art and artists to persevere.
3RD SPACE installation image. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
We visited SPRING/BREAK Art Show in its new location in lower Manhattan on Varick St. We went independently, and then got together afterward to discuss our impressions of the fair, and the highlights we came away with. We have ruminated on possible trends and strong impressions that stayed with us long after the fair. Even though it has been almost a month past Spring Break Art Fair, the highlights resonated with us.
Dali: Disruption and Devotion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
September in Boston is all about “back-to-school,” and this year, the art scene offers its own rich set of lessons. Along with some beloved galleries closing, a number of outstanding exhibitions are on view around the city. At the Museum of Fine Arts, a small but captivating Dalí exhibition pairs his works with those of Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco. The Harvard Art Museums are unveiling an exhibition dedicated to German identity, exploring the country’s complex cultural narrative through a variety of artistic expressions. Beyond the museums, Boston’s galleries showcase an exciting range of shows, from many different artists exhibiting a wide range of work. Here’s a look at some of the standout shows happening now.
Dario Mohr’s Don’t Forget to Check. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
Themes of searching and connection to ancestors through practice, ritual, and persistence are intertwined through work that depicts aspects of migration, objecthood, and the complexities of humanity itself. The winds moving across the island dictate the mood as we bow and sway through graceful installations in deeply resonant forms at LMCC Art Center and Artcrawl Harlem.
Nancy Baker Cahill, Substrate Part #1: Universum, video still, project artists Shereen Moustafa, Mark Sosa, Casper Torres, and Miguel Zavala-Lopez, Central Library Video Wall, Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles. On view through December 2024. Video still selected by the author.
Three Downtown Lost Angeles exhibitions use data, disaster, and a shared history to explore community connections. They tap into the past, present, and imagined future to speak about class, labor, and inequity through the use of storage systems, pride of place, and what happens when things fall apart. At Gallery Luisotti’s El Cuerpo: The (Performing) Body and the Photographic Stage Chicano/a artists use themselves as subject to connect through a shared history, at the Los Angeles Central Library Nancy Baker Cahill: Substrate Part #1: Universum uses civic institutions, cultural resources, and data storage systems to forge a connection of community driven by data and at The Museum of Contemporary Art MOCA Grand exhibition Josh Kline: Climate Change community members connect to survive the aftermath of the climate crisis.
The Woodmere Annual: 82nd Juried Exhibition, partial installation view at the Woodmere Art Museum, photograph courtesy of the gallery
This August in Philly, there are some unexpected gems in what is a typically quieter art season. If you want to experience artwork that recasts the familiar in fantastical ways, spend time at Paradigm Gallery + Studio in Old City with Megan Rea’s reimaginings of Italian frescos. North of the city, at the Woodmere Art Museum, the 82nd Annual Juried Exhibition showcases exceptional Philadelphia artists meditating on what it means to “belong.” Finally, the Institute of Contemporary Art in University City presents an emotionally intense video and photography installation by Polish artist Joanna Piotrowska.
