Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory
this is the first retrospective exhibition by the pioneering artist, curator, and theorist, Amalia Mesa-Bains. Born in 1943 to a Mexican immigrant family, Mesa-Bains has been a leading figure in Chicanx art for nearly half a century. Her practice explores intersectional feminist themes, environmentally centered spirituality, and cultural diversity to counter the racist and gendered erasures of colonial repression. On view at El Museo del Barrio, the exhibition features over 40 works including the artist’s large-scale “altar-installations,” as well as prints, artist books, and codices. Anchored by the multi-chapter “Venus Envy” series, “Archaeology of Memory” is a rare opportunity to view three decades of Mesa-Bains’s genre-defying artworks.
2. Yto Barrada Part-Time Abstractionist
Internationally acclaimed, multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada’s new solo exhibiton is on view at the Iinternational Center of Photography. “Part-Time Abstractionist” celebrates 10 years of Barrada's practice in abstraction, photography, and film, including new work exploring the space of the darkroom. These modes of working are consistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.
LAST CHANCE
On view until July 7
3. ALLISON GILDERSLEEVE: BREATHING UNDERWATER
Allison Gildersleeve has long pursued the representation of time and memory through abstract depictions of landscape and domestic interiors. Her compositional arrangements are essential to the way the works expand, contract, as memories often do. On view at the Arts Center at Duck Creek, these works, in the context of the John Little Barn, echo the landscape of Historic Duck Creek Farm, and the compressed layers of it’s many lives.
NEW
4. Alex Katz: Seasons
On view at the Museum of Modern Art are a selection of works from Alex Katz’s new series of landscape paintings. The exhibition features four monumental paintings—one for each season, ranging in size from ten to twenty feet long. These works belong to an extensive series of new works created in Katz’s New York studio between 2022 and 2024 that capture landscapes in New York and in Lincolnville, Maine, where Katz spends his summers.
5. Celestial Songs
On view at Venus Over Manhattan is a group exhibition curated by artist Adrianne Rubenstein. “Celestial Songs” comprises both historical and contemporary works by artists whose visual and thematic interests recall aspects of the Funk Art movement of the 1960s. The show comprises of 25 different artists, and includes drawings, collage, paintings, fiber works, sculptures, and various other mixed media.
”Celestial Songs” traces a vibrant journey through the enduring legacy of California funk. It details an expansive and autobiographical history rooted in the Bay Area in the 70s, whose influence reverberates back and forth across the country to this day. Funk art was defined as a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism, and instead prioritized free-spirited and humorous creativity. It championed all types of media, with a strong presence of ceramic and mixed-media work.
Featured artists include: Betty Bailey, Taussen Brewer, Joan Brown, Maija Peeples-Bright, Roy De Forest, Faith, Melvino Garretti, Nik Gelormino, Pam Glick, Gretta Johnson, Grant Levy-Lucero, Meg Lipke, Alice Mackler, Dan Mandelbaum, Walter Price, Erika Ranee, Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, Adrianne Rubenstein, Peter Saul, Sally Saul, Daisy Sheff, Emma Soucek, Marisa Takal, Carlos Villa, and Rachel Eulena Williams.
