The holiday season is a time for relaxation and retrospect. No matter your tradition, we at Hyperallergic hope you find some time to recharge and appreciate the things that matter most. If you’re looking for something to see, New York is still full of activities in the borough’s museums and galleries. Our highlights for December include art created during the first stock market crash, tributes to fallen friends, and the 10-year anniversary of an important public art initiative. See you in 2023!
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Shandken Projects: 10th Anniversary Benefit Exhibition
The Shandken Projects were originally created as an artist’s defense against art-market difficulties and rapid gentrification. Since 2012, they have worked to create sustainable studio spaces and implement free public programs including billboard initiatives, printmaking workshops, and residencies at the Storm King Art Center. Their 10-year anniversary show is therefore a cause for celebration, with all proceeds going towards next year’s programming. More than 140 mixed-media works by alumni of all ages are on display, charting the trajectory of a young institution with a bright future.
Shandaken Projects (shandakenprojects.org)
Building 9, Governors Island
By December 14th
Marjolijan de Wit: Sorry for the loss
Paying close attention to the art-world’s fossil fuel investments, Marjolijan de Wit’s latest series should be both aesthetic and depressing. Sorry for the loss Bringing together symbols of opulence and beautiful nature scenes, Elite turns the apologetic inside out. Butterflies, diamonds, and plated dinners flutter and float in a heavily forested environment—all of which was accomplished through the juxtaposition of advertising and editorial photography. National Graphic Magazine Here, De Witt exposes the true value we create, and how much we suffer for it.
Asia Geisberg Gallery (asyageisberggallery.com)
537 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Until December 17th
Tom Utach: Headwinds on Windigostiguan
Instead of claiming the wilderness as his own, 80-year-old painter Tom Utek presents it as it is. Uttech captured the “quiet joy” of the Ojibwe lands in what he now knows as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada. But while ownership was forcibly changed, many of its custodians remain—the rolling night sky, lonely bears, and flowing rivers. Presented in handmade wood-grain frames, Uttech brings out the subtle colors of the region he knows best, and encourages us to consider the meaning of home.
Alexander Gallery (alexandregallery.com)
291 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Until December 22
Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo: Earth & Iron: Archival Visions of Land and Struggle
Sophia-Yemisi Adeyemo presents colonized memory as a fractional space, using a cut-up method to elevate differences. Based on 20th-century photography from West Africa and the Caribbean, Adeyemo’s sparse paintings and sculptures depict scenes of subjugation in guerilla fugitive pieces. Machetes and assault rifles are hidden by flora and fauna, punctuated by images of black and indigenous families looking directly at the viewer. Against the sterile white walls, Adeyemo presents a salon of rebellion that meets the colonial gaze head-on.
BRIC (bricartsmedia.org)
647 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Until December 23rd
Even a cat can see the queen
Cats have never been known to follow orders. Rather, the lack of discipline is part of their mystery. Accordingly, a new group performance at Ms. draws from a long tradition of trying and failing to impose our will on poor disobedience. Statues of black cats hearken back to ancient Egyptian representations of the god Bastet, while paintings of litter and furniture are numerous (a lot of) household sacrifices we perform for them. 39 artists presented together Even a cat can see the queen Show that total control is an illusion — a valuable lesson for us all.
Mrs (mrsgallery.com)
60-40 56th Drive, Maspeth, Queens
By January 7, 2023
Close enough: New perspectives from 12 of Magnum’s female photographers
ICP’s latest group exhibition surveys the contributions of women to magnum photographs worldwide, highlighting 12 contemporaries across three generations. Sabiha Chimen’s playful portraits of her Muslim parents appear alongside Alessandra Sanguinetti’s documentation of the aging process in rural Argentina. Meanwhile, Susan Meiselas’s photographs of abused British women reveal the violence created within a patriarchal society. As Magnum undertakes a significant reassessment of its archives, close enough A step forward in revising historical oversight.
International Center of Photography (icp.org)
79 Essex Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Until January 9, 2023
Grace Nkem: What we do
Grace Nakam’s vibrant works present a culture in flux. Ancient artifacts and human remains are depicted inside European cloisters, suggesting a repatriation. Meanwhile, a white man displayed an image of a black woman as a “trophy,” signifying the legacies of colonialism at the time of the High Country’s return. Yet the ghosts and skeletons that appear everywhere stand as dutiful watchmen from beyond the grave. Presented at Flatbush Townhouse, The images will do the talking Admirably redirects Surrealism to its roots in the Global South.
Gallery Particulier (galleryparticulier.org)
281 Maple Street, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
December 7, 2022–January 23, 2023
Just above midtown: Changing places
In the 1970s and 80s, Just Above Midtown (JAM) was the place to find experimental art in the neighborhood where MoMA stands today. As such, this new retrospective disrupts the Manhattan gallery’s history. Founded by filmmaker Linda Goode Bryant, JAM became a foundation for people of color working across generations and disciplines — and often featured emerging alongside established artists. Collecting posters and photographs, along with works by Howardena Pindell, David Hammons, and Lorraine O’Grady. Just above midtown Honors the thriving social scene that produced many of today’s beloved artists.
Museum of Modern Art (moma.org)
11 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
Until February 18, 2023
Marina Bilk: Care
Marina Bilek’s art reflects the pervasive nature of Alzheimer’s, from its effects on the patient to the pain it causes loved ones. Bilk’s latest exhibition, Care, is dedicated to her late mother-in-law, Dorothy, and her experience as a young parent. Frescoes of facial features hint at how illness fades from our memories, while plaster sculptures of Dorothy assembled with her own fabrics and furniture recreate the domestic spaces she once occupied. . On display inside a Jewish retirement community, Bilk’s exhibition takes us on a journey from grief to healing, and shows how art helps us cross that threshold.
Derfner Judaica Museum (riverspringliving.org)
5901 Palisade Ave., North Riverdale, Bronx
Until 19 February 2023
Fortune and Folly in 1720
The dangers of market volatility have long motivated con artists to cheat the capitalist class in myriad ways. For this reason, the New York Public Library takes us back to December 1720, when the first investment bubble burst. Colorful paintings, drawings, graphic designs, and printed ephemera allude to the sheer panic on public display—and Khushi artists satirized it all. Lethargic shareholders float needlessly on a boat captained by the devil. An embodiment of greed seeks to “outrun or outrun” fate, embodying a dominant market temptation. Through it all, ordinary working people are shown drowning in the epidemic. For our age of NFTs and other crypto scams, Luck and folly It shows how history can both rhyme And repeat
New York Public Library (nypl.org)
476 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
By 19 February 2023
