Fall Preview – Save the Date!

The New York City AIDS Memorial  honors the lives lost to the AIDS epidemic through its educational and cultural programming.

Stevan Evans’s Songs for a Memorial is on view until September 6th. The installation consists of 12 text-based, polychromatic, LED sculptures designed to evoke neon signage and the dynamic energy of nightlife, creating vibrant layers of color throughout the Memorial.

Later this fall, NYCAM will host a series of artist-driven workshops for the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Currently on view at the Arizona State University Art Museum are exhibitions including A Country is Not a House: Ronald Rael + Virginia San Fratello, which fuses design with activism to question the implications and contradictions of the border wall that divides the United States from Mexico. Another exhibition, Luster and Light, reflects on the interpreted value of craft and craft-adjacent works in art museum settings and features works that relay cultural or social symbols, often to call attention to abuses of wealth and authority.

Coinciding with Art Basel in Miami Beach, the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places program will feature the third edition of No Vacancy, its largest to date, which features artists creating site-specific artworks in Miami Beach’s iconic hotels.

During Miami Art Week (December 1- December 4) the City will also acquire an artwork from Art Basel Miami Beach as part of its ongoing Legacy Purchase Program. The work will be added into the City’s public art collection and will go on permanent display in the Miami Beach Convention Center. The finalists will be announced on Tuesday, November 28.

Stay tuned for the announcement this fall of a new temporary art installation suspended above Española Way as part of the City’s Espanola Skyways program.

On view September 9 through October 29, Cristin Tierney Gallery will present Stagings/Escenarios, an exhibition of new paintings by Jorge Tacla, curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné. These works present the artists most substantial turn to figuration in recent memory, as he pivots from images of ruined buildings to vibrant, abstracted scenes of protestors.  Tacla will also be featured in a solo booth in the Focus section of The Armory Show, curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

In November, an interactive kinetic sculptural installation by artist duo Marman and Borins will be presented in the gallery space.

Fabric Workshop and Museum will present a site specific installation by rising artist Rose. B Simpson. On view starting October 7 and entitled Dream House, Simpson has applied FWM’s ethos of working in new materials and processes to envision a multi-room installation that explores the nature of a “dream” home and its relation to identity.

Jayson Musson’s His History of Art utilizes costuming, props, puppetry, and scenery created in collaboration with the FWM studio team, Musson has produced a new three-channel video installation described by the artist as “ an immersive video comedy on the history of art and everything that’s wrong with it.” Taking inspiration from the structure and tone of educational programs, Musson conducts a satirical survey on art history, its relationship to the general public and the ways in which popular art historical images impact our cultural consciousness.

Forman Arts Initiative (FAI) and Philadelphia Foundation will announce in the coming weeks the second-year grantees for Art Works — a $3 million grant program for Philadelphia’s community-based organizations and artists. FAI grants are specifically designed to support arts, culture and creativity working in partnership with Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and other under-served communities over the course of two years. This year, the expanded influence of the grants includes support for experimental workshops and professional consulting services for arts organizations. In recognition of the significant impact Art Works funding has provided for previous recipients in the first year, annual award amounts for individual artists will be increased in 2022 from $10,000 to $25,000, more than doubling previous grants.

Also on view until July 2023 is Theaster Gates’ Monument in Waiting, co-presented by Philadelphia Contemporary and Drexel University. Created during the turbulent summer of 2020 for the exhibition “Field of Dreams” at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York—Theaster Gates’ response to the removal of Confederate and colonialist monuments will be on view on Drexel University’s campus, with a series of corresponding programs to be announced in the fall. FAI was a partnering organization on this project.

As a cornerstone of its tenth anniversary, Four Freedoms Park and Conservancy will present Voices of Freedom, an immersive audio installation created in collaboration with the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. Opening September 15, the 15-minute installation features testimonies from displaced scholars from all over the world responding to the current state of FDR’s “Four Freedoms” enumerated in the address: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Visitors to the park will be invited to share their owns thoughts and reactions to the Four Freedoms in a pop-up recording booth. The installation will open on September 14 with a reception featuring some of the installation participants and creators.

This November, Howl! Happening is will present A History of Graffiti, an exhibition curated by Al Díaz that examines graffiti’s origins in the late 1960s through today in New York City.  A History of Graffiti will expand the narrative of how graffiti emerged as an art form and introduces the under-recognized artists who pushed the medium forward. Al Díaz – who worked under the name Bomb One, before partnering with Jean-Michel Basquiat to create the SAMO tag – is the central curator, with additional curatorial input from more than a dozen graffiti artists and scholars.

Art advisor Megan Fox Kelly will present a new season of her podcast Reading the Art World, a live interview and podcast series containing interviews between Megan Fox Kelly and authors of recently released or upcoming art-centric books. Fox Kelly explores timely subjects in the art world, based on artists and market trends along with published art historical writing. Upcoming episodes include interviews with author and art dealer Michael Findlay (Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art, Prestel 2017), Gareth Harris of the Financial Times (Censored Art Today: Hot Topics in the Art World, Lund Humphries 2022) and New York magazine art critic and art commentator Jerry Saltz.

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano is the first comprehensive examination of American artmaking, tourism, and art collecting in Venice, bringing to life the Venetian glass revival of the late 19th century as well as the artistic experimentation the city inspired for visiting artists. On view at the Mystic Seaport Museum from October 15 through February 27, 2023, the exhibition was organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Mystic presentation considers the work through the lens of another vibrant port city — Mystic, Connecticut, as well as greater New England — which saw a heyday during the period covered by the collection.

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation will exhibit El Corazón Aúlla (Heart Howls): Latin American Feminist Performance in Revolt at its space The 8th Floor opening on September 29 and running until January 21, 2023. Alexis Heller and Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes, the recipients of the Foundation’s first-ever curatorial open call, are the sole curators. The exhibition will look at gender-based violence in Latin America, through the eyes of artists and activists who bear its daily burden. Working from Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, the female and nonbinary artists included in this exhibition harness their practices for rebellion.

On October 13, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation will also host a panel discussion at the New Museum moderated by its curator, Vivian Crockett.

Opening September 24 at the Woodmere Art Museum is George Biddle: The Art of American Social Conscience. The exhibit will explore the work of artist George Biddle and his creative engagement with the full spectrum of social change he witnessed throughout his lifetime, including both world wars, the Russian Revolution, the executions of anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Beginning November 1, Woodmerre will present a career retrospective of printmaker and Brandywine Workshop founder Allan Edmunds.

Dartmouth Strategic Campus Framework: Looking ahead to the next 250 years, Beyer Blinder Belle worked with over 2,500 stakeholders to develop Planning for Possibilities: A Strategic Campus Framework for Dartmouth College. The resulting framework and catalog of options is a new model for campus planning to inform short- and long-term decision-making while enabling flexibility for changing and evolving needs. The process and the plan guided the reframing of the campus from a single destination to a connected network of campus centers. A short video about the plan and process can be viewed here.

The Brook: Construction has officially begun on another new residential skyscraper in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and located at 589 Fulton Street, The Brook is a 600-foot-tall luxury rental with 591 apartments and 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities. It brings more high-end retail and new residences to the evolving streetscape of Downtown Brooklyn.

Friedman Benda’s upcoming exhibitions include Oki Sato: Nendo Sees Kyoto (September 8-October 15), Faye Toogood Assemblage 7: Lost and Found (October 7- November 12), and Raphael Navot: On the Same Subject (October 27-December 10).

Initially presented across historic, World Cultural Heritage sites in Kyoto, Japan, Nendo sees Kyoto, saw the design practice Nendo, led by Oki Sato, collaborate for the first time with six local master artisans, each steeped in ancient Japanese craft methodologies. The resultant far-reaching body of work sees traditional Japanese materials, techniques and cultural objects recast through Nendo’s pioneering lens.

Faye Toogood will present Assemblage 7: Lost and Found, the designer’s third solo exhibition with Friedman Benda. Burrowing into Britain’s material history and its important role in defining national culture, Assemblage 7 sees Toogood engage with oak and Purbeck Marble – native materials with deep, historic roots to create final forms that allude to that which may have been hidden by time.

Friedman Benda is also pleased to present On the Same Subject, Raphael Navot’s first solo gallery exhibition. One of the rising form-givers in the field, Navot communicates through a collective language harnessing the power of universal symbolic archetypes. An homage to the natural world, this series features a dialogue between handcraft and the natural landscape—referring to the very origins of furniture: a pile of rounded rocks that invites sitting, a supported sliced pebble that becomes a usable surface.

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN (PROVIDENCE, RI)

RISD inaugurates President Crystal Williams the weekend of October 7-8.  Prior to coming to RISD, Williams was Boston University’s vice president and associate for community & inclusion. She brings 20+ years of higher education experience to RISD and is a natural leader and community builder.  Inauguration weekend is an opportunity to step into a new future and explore and challenge the concept of “space” in art, design, history, pedagogy, social justice, and community.

Sanshan Hillside Park: Recently completed by SWA Group, Sanshan Hillside Park in China, located in the center of Sanshan New Town, is a fast-rising urban development in Foshan City’s Nanhai District in China. The park is made up of 3 hills (known as Big Pine Forest, Central Hill and Liangangwei Hill). At approximately 88-hectares, the park is thought to become an urban forest park with different programs and an overarching goal to achieve unity among environmental, social and economic benefits and also to create entertainment and leisure for residents.

Support By Design: SWA Group is still supporting its effort to help and hire Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war. US-based companies have hired Ukrainian designers to work remotely, providing them with much-needed income, and also some agency over their lives during this difficult time.  SWA Group has taken a lead in this Support By Design initiative, researching and contacting landscape architects and urban designers either located in Ukraine or displaced by the war. SWA’s Houston studio has engaged seven Ukrainian designers as “contract” employees.

Ameswell Mountain View: Ameswell Mountain View is a new, mixed-use workplace campus located in Silicon Valley recently completed by WRNS Studio.  The office building is fully leased by Google. The building itself connects to Stevens Creek trail which is utilized by the public for recreation and bike commuting; it also supports the needs of businesses, travelers and local residents. The office building has a roof deck and outdoor courtyard carefully designed to be desirable to tech companies, while the five-story hotel provides guests with significant views and amenities.

Atherton Civic Center: WRNS Studio has recently completed the Atherton Library and Civic Center in Atherton, California. This new structure is a central hub that brings together both administrative services and public programming, but aids an engaged community and is a reflection of the natural environment surrounding it. The Town of Atherton hired WRNS Studio to design the new library and civic center as an all-electric campus, one of few in the country. The structures are Net Zero Energy ready and are aligned with the Town’s effort to reduce its carbon footprint.

Image Captions
1. Celeste Godoy, Courtesy of the New York City AIDS Memorial
2. Jazmín Ra, Falo x Falo – El Estado de Chile nos viola y nos mata, 2019. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.
3. John Singer Sargent, Leaving Church, Campo San Canciano, Venice, 1882. Oil on canvas.
4. Jayson Musson, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Installation view of His History of Art, 2022. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.
5. Jorge Tacla. Injury Report 16 -2022, 2022. Oil and cold wax on canvas. Courtesy of Cristin Tierney Gallery
6. Jose Ortiz-Pagan, Ceremonial Vinculo Suit, 2020.
7. Courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle
8. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and nendo; Photography by Hiroshi Iwasaki
9. Photography by Jo Sittenfeld
10. Photography by Chill Shine
11. Photography by Matthew Millman