Thursday, March 14, 6-8 pm: Realism Today | Looking Forward and Back at IS-G 

This inaugural exhibition for the gallery’s new location, featuring recent works by Neil Jenney, Joseph Santore, Elisa Jensen, Victor Leger, Mercer Tullis, and Frank Webster, seeks to explore the ways in which contemporary realist artists borrow from illustrious examples from the past by such artists as Gustave Courbet, Jean-Francois Millet, and Edward Hopper, to name a few—in response great moments of social, political, or cultural change. Above: Frank Webster, Lake of the Moon, 2018

Recent years have been no exception to this artistic penchant, as there has been an increase in artists turning to themes intrinsic to Realism, and a recommitment to time-honored subjects, such as genre, landscape, and figurative work. Realism has always functioned primarily as a means to record our epoch and its dwellers, however in its present context, the paintings included possess both objectivity and expression. Above: Neil Jenny, Evening 2022; Below left: Elisa Jensen, Humboldt Street, Night, 2023

Through Jenney’s painted, sculptural skyscapes, to Jensen’s shadowed, yet vibrant, intimate interiors, to Santore’s dynamic and existential paintings reflecting the human condition, to Tullis’ meditative yet piercing graphite works, and finally to Webster and Leger’s serene topographical canvases, the organizers pose the question: What is Realism today? The exhibition is organized by Neil Jenny in collaboration with the gallery.

Isabel Sullivan Gallery, 39 Lispenard Street, New York, NY Info

Saturday-Sunday, March 16-17: MoCCA Arts Fest at Metropolitan Pavilion

MoCCA Fest is NYC’s largest independent comics and cartoon festival, drawing over 9,000 attendees each year. Founded in 2001, The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) presented its first annual small-press comic convention known as MoCCA Fest, in 2002. Above: Feature image for MoCCA 2024 by Natalie Andrewso (detail)

In 2012, MoCCA transferred its collection to Society of Illustrators. Since then, the SI MoCCA Arts Fest has continued to grow into one of the largest independent comic and cartoon festivals nationwide, with over 500 exhibiting artists displaying their work, award-winning honorees speaking about their careers and artistic processes and other featured artists conducting demos, lectures and panels. Info

Among the highlights of the public programming are Adriane Tomine discussing his new book; Viktor Koen, Orlon Martin and Linda Secondari on Professional Development/Financial Toolkit; and Maurice Vellekoop in conversation with Chip Kidd. Info

Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street New York, NY. Tickets   Info

In conjunction with the MoCCA Arts Festival, the Society of Illustrators is hosting MoCCA Week, presenting two comics-related exhibits on display at the Society’s Museum from Wednesday, March 20th through Saturday, March 23rd, 2024. Visitors to the Society’s Museum will receive free admission on these days. 

The Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY Info

Saturday, March 16, 1-5 pm: Public Statues of Women Tour with Ms. Muscle

To celebrate Women’s History Month, Ms. Muscle (aka Barbara Lubliner) will lead a walk to six monuments in Manhattan that depict women who’ve made a mark on history. She will start at the Golda Meir statue on 39th Street, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, at 1:00 pm (rain date March 23). 

New York City’s public art collection included only five statues of historical women until the 2020 addition of The Women's Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park, the third monument on Ms. Muscle walk. Ms. Muscle’s walk opens conversation about public art today and the experience of gender equality in today's world.

The schedule:

1:00 - 1:15     Golda Meir Statue 
1:25 - 1:35     Gertrude Stein Statue
2:15 - 2:30     Women's Rights Pioneers Monument
3:00 - 3:10     Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial
3:40 - 3:50     Joan of Arc Monument
4:45 - 5:00     Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial

For real time updates on the day of the walk check with 
https://www.instagram.com/artlivesherenyc/

https://www.instagram.com/themsmuscle/

March 20, 11am-6pm: Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within at Noguchi Museu

This is the first nationally touring show of this important American ceramist in 20 years. Organized by the Noguchi Museum, it  will feature more than 150 works from private and public collections around the country. The retrospective is co-curated by art historian Glenn Adamson, Noguchi Museum Curator Kate Wiener, and composer and sound artist Leilehua Lanzilotti. Glenn Adamson writes about the artist as follows:

"Born in Hawaii to a Japanese émigré family, Takaezu received her early training in ceramics in Honolulu, and then attended Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, when it was an epicenter for adventurous modernism. Already in this early phase in her career, she was able to see correspondences between Abstract Expressionism and the spiritually infused traditions of East Asia, such as calligraphy and tea ceremony. She combined these cross-cultural influences into a powerfully resolved synthesis.  Above: Toshiko Takaezu with Moons, 1979; photo by Hiro, copyright and courtesy of the Family of the artist

"Though made using traditional pottery techniques of wh; photo courtesy of the eel-throwing and glazing, the works for which she is best known – the closed forms – are best understood as sculptures, or perhaps as paintings-in-the-round. They are as individual as people are, varying greatly in scale and shape, color and texture, and in their internal tectonic rhythms. Some are vigorously painterly, with splashes and rivulets of color coursing down their sides. Others are more meditative, sheathed in overlapping veils of hue. They have a close affinity with the work of other postwar expressionist artists, such as Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, and Mark Rothko. Below: Homage to Devastation Forest (Tree Man Forest), 1982-1987; courtesy of the Goshiko Takaequ Foundation

"Last but by no means least, Takaezu was a profoundly influential teacher and mentor, who trained generations of younger artists at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Princeton University and other institutions. Her legacy lives on in these students and apprentices, and above all in her own work, which both exemplifies and transcends the ideals of modernist ceramic art."

The exhibition is accompanied by a new monograph co-published with Yale University Press, also titled Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within, the most ambitious monograph on an American ceramic artist to date.

Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33^rd Road, Long Island City, NY Info  Directions