Closing January 11: Ayiti Toma II: Faith, Family, and Resistance at Luhring Augustine

“Ayiti Toma II: Faith, Family, and Resistance” a is an intergenerational show organized by Haitian-born artist Tomm El-Saieh in partnership with El-Saieh Gallery of Port-au-Prince (founded by the artist’s grandfather, musician-composer Issa El-Saieh), and Central Fine gallery of Miami Beach, Fla., where he is also one of the principals. The title translates as “land of the high mountains/From now onward, this land is our land.” Ayiti in the Taíno language means “land of the high mountains” and was the Taíno name for Hispaniola, which was chosen by the Haitian people upon their independence from France. In Haitian history, resistance can be traced as action against imperialism, a desire for national, religious, and cultural sovereignty, and as a passing-down of traditions. 

Faith and family are interwoven throughout the works of the modern masters of Haitian art. Reflecting the profound spiritual and cultural essence of Vodou, the paintings of André Pierre and the grand maître, Hector Hyppolite are rich in their references to the natural world and the frequent depictions of Lwa, spirits who serve as intermediaries between humans and the divine. The symbolism evident in the metal sculptures of Georges Liautaud, and his student Murat Brierre, reference a deep connection to the earth and respect for ancestorism, which are central principles of Vodou. The Obin Family School of Painting, which includes Philomé and Sénèque Obin, emphasize the quotidian with depictions of everyday street life and images of resistance. Turning inward to the setting of the home, Luce Turnier’s portraits of family and neighbors capture a familiarity of both her sitters and of the distinct Caribbean aesthetic of the environment.

The works of the living artists in this exhibition blend the forms of their predecessors with contemporary concerns. Frantz Zéphirin’s paintings portray the natural and spiritual realms with a controlled chaos; a nephew of Antoine Obin, his work uniquely reinvents the tradition of The Obin School of Painting and recalls the works of Pierre and Hyppolite. Inspired by colloquial language and expressions, the symbolism and figuration in Jean Hérard Celeur’s sculptures recall those of Liautaud and Brierre before him. The drapo of Myrlande Constant (above) span the subjects of Vodou cosmology, history, and popular culture. Constant’s works are intricately beaded in her studio by her and her family, whereby artmaking and storytelling are ensured to be kept alive for future generations, as it has for the Obin family. 

Luhring Augustine, 17 White Street, New York, NY Info

January 9, 7pm: Kafkaesque | Creative Responses to Kafka at the Morgan

A century after his death, Franz Kafka’s literary legacy continues to influence contemporary creative works. This program will highlight three individuals—a writer, an artist, and a playwright—who have found inspiration in Kafka’s personal narrative and his writings: Joshua Cohen’s short story Return to the Museum (2024), Maira Kalman’s illustrations and stories from Still Life With Remorse (2024), and Josh Luxenberg’s theatrical adaptation of A Hunger Artist. Join the creators for a lively program featuring the back-stories of these works, as well as discussion and performance. Tickets

The Morgan Library & Museum, 235 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Info

January 10, 6-8 pm: Rajkamal Kahlon | Are My Hands Clean? at P•P•O•W,

Kahlon addresses the studied and objectified body from within her archive of Western colonial images of objectified women. Beauty, joy, and rebellious humor are yielded simultaneously as disruptive and healing strategies to violence inherent to western hegemony. In Are My Hands Clean? Kahlon brings together three bodies of work that incorporate pages from torn out of controversial early 20th century German anthropological and scientific books.

Overlaying enlarged photographs of anonymous women from these books, Kahlon hand-colors her surfaces in fields of vibrant hues, then adorning her subjects in garments and accessories inspired by histories of fashion, radical feminists, and Third World armed revolutionaries. Through this process of material and historical layering, Kahlon recuperates humanity for these unnamed women and, in doing so, “talks back”— to the archive and its contributors.

P•P•O•W, 390 Broadway, New York, NY Info

Tuesday, January 14, 6pm: Celebrating Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney at NYSS

Join Village Preservation to help mark the 150th anniversary of Whitney’s birth with a tour of the very place she created, the original Whitney Museum of American Art (now the New York Studio school), which contains many of her incredible artworks 2024 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the New York Studio School in 1964 by Mercedes Matter and her students. Since its inception, the New York Studio School has been an innovator in arts education, prioritizing daily continuity of study for artists through work in the studio. 

In 1967, the school moved into what had been the original Whitney Museum of American Art on West 8th Street, where it continues today to offer its signature programming: MFA and certificate programs, Evening Lecture Series, exhibitions, and internationally recognized marathons. The tour will discuss the storied art career and patronage of Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum who was also a prominent sculptor in her time. Participants will walk through the historic spaces that have played a significant role in the history of American art for over a century, including the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Studio, decorated by Robert Winthrop Chanler.

This tour will be guided by Lauren Allshouse (she/her), the librarian at the New York Studio School. She received an Master of Library Science degree from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from the University of Minnesota. Tickets Info

New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, 8 West 8^th Street, New York NY Info 

Thursday, January 16, 6-8pm: Giorgio Morandi | Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation at Zwirner

This exhibition of works by Morandi (1890–1964), featuring over fifty works from across the revered artist’s six-decade long career, as assembled in close collaboration with Morandi over more than twenty years by the musicologist, art historian, and collector Luigi Magnani (1906–1984), who, after meeting Morandi for the first time in fall of 1940, became one of the notoriously reclusive artist’s closest friends. As Ensabella notes, “The friendship [Magnani] built with Morandi was unique.

The group of 50 works by the artist in his collection illustrates the profound esteem in which Magnani held Morandi’s art and soul. This selection  of works tells the story of a collection, but also of a long-lasting friendship. The well-known discretion of Morandi, and the exclusive character of his circle, confirm the exceptional nature of this relationship.... Magnani aimed for perfection in creating his collection. The nucleus of works he acquired by Morandi ... also had to constitute a perfect whole, and it does in fact represent a cross-section of the artist’s output, covering every subject, technique and period.”1 

As both a survey of Morandi’s vast and unrivaled oeuvre, and as a testament to one of his most important friendships, Giorgio Morandi: Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation offers New York audiences a truly unique understanding of one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential artists. 

David Zwirner, 537 West 20^th Street, New York, NY Info

Extended through January 25: Jeff Wall at Gagosian

Gagosian, 541 West 24^th Street, New York, NY