Closing this week

Poignant moments of reflection burst from the seams in this week’s roundup of not-to-miss exhibitions across Manhattan. Exuberance, symmetry, and swathes of color bathe viewers in myriad ways through these must-see shows across New York City.
Textures of Feminist Perseverance at James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center On view through June 7, 2024
Curated by Dina Weiss and Katherine Carl, with work by Sarah Ahmad, Mimi Biyao Bai, Sonya Blesofsky, Langdon Graves, Sara Jimenez, Martine Kaczynski, Rhea Karam, Amy Khoshbin, Fay Ku, Ani Liu, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Jen Mazza, Deborah Mesa-Pelly, Ashley Minner Jones, Natalie Moore, Ellie Murphy and Dina Weiss.
Dina Weiss and Katherine Carl present an extraordinary show that centers storytelling through organic modes, titled Textures of Perseverance. The exhibition thoughtfully reflects on site-specificity, textiles, sculpture, photography, drawing, and installation as cornerstones that amplify the histories of each artist and the space that their works inhabit. The labor-intensive processes transfix, transpire, and transport gallery-goers, mystifying, and endearing visitors through the vibrant colors, gestural sweeps of tactile satisfaction, and whispers of generations upon which these tales sprout roots.



Jamie Martinez at GHOSTMACHINE: The Shadow of Colonialism On view May 10-June 15, 2024 (the show was extended from June 8th to June 15th)
Jamie Martinez at GHOSTMACHINE: The Shadow of Colonialism not only examines but literally excels in deflating colonialism in a most delightful and gleeful manner through the eternal deflating of an oversized blow-up doll in the form of one Christopher Columbus. Martinez savvily empowers viewers through the dismantling of horrific histories as a way to pave a path forward to a more equitable present. Books that whitewashed the truth are reconceptualized to elevate and retell with a reckoning for Cortés, de Leon, and Columbus.



Marta Minujin Making a Presence at Kurimanzutto On view through June 8, 2024
Marta Minujin’s vast, supple swaths of muted colors take form in rectilinear shapes that are demonstrably begging to be freed from the constraints of their hard-edged frames. One sees the shift as they round the corner, encountering large chromacolor delights: rainbow-striped soft sculptures (some imbued with neon) that ignite the gallery in all directions. As the curation of the outer gallery holds more earthy, rusty tones that push and pull at one’s emotions, the dynamic currents running between the rooms read almost as a delightful battle of wills. Full of colors-muted and rainbow, somber and joyful, plush and forlorn, Minujin once again brings humanness to the man-made through glorious crests of wit and grit.



The Apex Is Nothing, curated by Ken Weathersby and John O’Connor at Pratt Manhattan Gallery. On view April 5-June 8, 2024
This exhibition, featuring works by Mel Bochner, Becky Brown, Mike Cloud, Charles Gaines, Xylor Jane, Steffani Jemison, Alfred Jensen, Ellen Lesperance, Chris Martin, John O’Connor, Bruce Pearson, Leslie Roberts, Jorinde Voigt, Melvin Way, and George Widner focuses on abstraction through the mechanisms and machinations of matrices, codes, statistics, data, equations, language, and patterns. Inspired by Jensen’s large and prescient painting, The Pythagorean Theorem, with delicious textures of paint that border on sculptural, the show moves through fluid gradients of rhyme and reason, translating various datasets as seamlessly as a seasoned translator might move from one mother tongue to the next. Indeed, it is this smooth navigation that solidifies the thoughtful curation of the show. With colorful works in nearly every media inhabiting the gallery, it holds you there, marveling at the presentation and then giving pause to take in the particular computations and equations at work within each piece. The desire to make order out of chaos is palpable.
Pattern is a cornerstone of the exhibition, with specific sensitivity to materials through textiles, mixed media, drawing, alternative media like Mylar sculpture, plates, area codes, fake flowers, graphic arts, drawing. And of course painting. Through a range of scales, textures, and applications of stasis and movement, numerous systems and journeys are simultaneously at play in a majestic dance of epic proportions.



Recurring motifs throughout the shows include references or utilization in the form of needlework, desires for meaningful communication, codified language, research, and rumination. Each of the exhibitions in this roundup converges at the intersections of many points: adhering to numerical formulas via weaving, diagrams, rational, stasis, repetition, alternating currents, layers of information and ultimately, searching for reason in a chaotic world.
About the writer: Yasmeen Abdallah examines history, contemporary culture, materiality, reuse, memory, and space. She has been a visiting artist at institutions including Columbia University Teaching College, Children’s Museum of NYC; El Barrio Artspace; Fairleigh Dickinson; Parsons; Pratt Institute; Residency Unlimited; Sarah Lawrenc; and University of Massachusetts. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Studio Art with honors, with a Minor in Women’s & Gender 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; Nars Foundation; Open Source; Pratt Institute; PS122 Gallery; Spring Break; University of Massachusetts; and Westbeth. Publications include Anthropology of Consciousness;; Bust Magazine; Emergency Index; Hyperallergic; Papergirl Brooklyn; Free City Radio; Radio Alhara; Tussle Magazine and Transborder Art. Her work is in public, private, and traveling collections in the U.S. and abroad. Instagram: @86cherrycherry