Last chance, Friday, February 21: Janet Malcolm | Collages at Bookstein

Janet Malcolm: Collages is the first show of the acclaimed writer and artist's work since her death in 2021. As with her writing, the collages raise more questions than they answer. With formalist rigor -- juxtaposing images and words which are sometimes joined by transparent overlays -- these enigmatic works speak to Malcolm's overarching preoccupation: composition. Above: Janet Malcolm, Crater (from The Emily Dickinson Series), 2013. Collage on paper, 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches. Courtesy Bookstein Projects.

Bookstein Projects, 39 East 78^th Street, FL3, New York, NY Info

Thursday, February 19th, 2025, 7-8:30pm: transcender | artists talk at Equity

For most visual artists, the bulk of time they spend creating work is alone in the studio. A studio can be a sanctuary, a second home, a vessel of inspiration. But a studio practice can also be very isolating. How can an artist know if what they are creating is communicating what's intended? How does the work resonate with the viewer? Artists are charged with not only the difficult work of transforming inspiration into expression, but also providing context for that expression. It can be challenging for some artists to explain their practice.

transcender was created in 2017 in Bushwick to help artists fill this void. Feeling support from a community of like-minded creators have helped move a practice forward, inspire new thinking, and open doors to new methods of presentation. This week a group of five artists including Alëna Adamson, Sylvia Schwartz, Klay-James Enos, Carrie Scoczek, Chere Krakovsky, and Jessica Nissen, will each have 9 minutes to present up to 10 images. The presenter can decide what kind of feedback they'd like to receive from attendees. Space is limited, so arrive by 6:45 to find a seat. Above: Klay-James Enos, from the Algorithmic field series.

Equity Gallery, 245 Broome Street, New York, NY info

Extended through March 29: Nick Cave | Amalgams and Graphts at Shainman

Marking the inaugural presentation at Jack Shainman Gallery’s flagship Tribeca location, Nick Cave introduces two distinct series that push his singular style and vision to an epic realm, while maintaining an intimate and personal conversation with his audience. Anchoring the exhibition is a series of three large bronze sculptures, titled Amalgams. These contemporary monuments create a positive, inclusive and resilient alternative to the plethora of public art that has often misrepresented history, silenced diverse voices and commemorated war and conquest. 

The Amalgams are an evolution of Cave’s iconic Soundsuits, which were created in response to the brutal beating of Rodney King by police in 1991. They concealed race, gender and class to force the viewer to engage without preconceived judgment. In the new Amalgams Cave fuses casts from his own body with natural forms such as flowers, birds and trees with similar effect. At nearly twenty-six feet tall, Amalgam (Origin), above, grounds viewers with a connection to humanity but quickly lifts them to a place of awe or spirituality. Intricate and ornate designs cover and connect the figure to a place where we might expect to see a face. Instead, Cave has rendered a complex migration hub through a flourishing of branches and birds of all types, poetically gesturing to nature’s sense of evolution and possibility. 

Debuting alongside these bronze figures is Cave’s newest series, Graphts. These mixed media assemblages (above) situate needlepoint portraits of the artist amongst fields of florals and color constructed from vintage serving trays. While Cave has often used his own body within his artwork, this is the first time that he has revealed a recognizable self. 

Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, NY Info

Continuing:  Madalena Santos Reinbolt | A Head Full of Planets at Folk Art Museum

This is the first comprehensive survey of Santos Reinbolt’s art ever presented and marks the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the artist organized outside her native Brazil. Featuring 42 textile works and oil paintings, A Head Full of Planets explores the context in which Santos Reinbolt’s artistic practice crystallized in the early 1950s, after she became a live-in cook for the architect Lota de Macedo Soares and her partner, the American poet Elizabeth Bishop, at their home in Petrópolis, a mountain getaway favored by Brazilian high society.

It was not until the mid-1960s, while working in another household, that she began to dedicate herself to embroidery and would begin creating many of the works for which she is best known today. The opening section explores the often-competing pluralities of her life as an artist, domestic worker, and Black woman, tracing her path from her younger life growing up on a small farm in rural Bahia, to her migration to the wealthier cities of the southeast seeking employment opportunities. Another section presents her body of work as a condensation of time, space, and racial dynamics, ranging from farm life to crowded city scenes, as she rendered festive celebrations, collective meals, and outdoor spaces—mountains, skies, fauna, flora—both native to Brazil and belonging to distant lands, real and imagined. The exhibition concludes with an exploration of the shared affinities of Santos Reinbolt’s embroideries with long-standing textile traditions practiced by women across Brazil, including contemporary Brazilian artists.

Save the date: Friday–Sunday, March 7–9, 2025 – A Dance For Madalena. Ana Pi Responds to the Exhibition Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets.

American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square/Broadway and 65^th Street, New York, NY Info

Tuesday, February 25, 5-8pm: Viktor Koen | Welcome to Pandemic Island at SVA

Initially conceived as a set of postcards, Greetings from Pandemic Island evolved into a pictorial bridge between the 1918–19 influenza that swept through Europe and the COVID-19 pandemics that spread across the globe. Spanning a turbulent century, the series documents the brutal realities of such crises by questioning issues of personal and collective responsibility, humanity, and gross indifference but also highlights an intricate web of long-existing layers of racial and socioeconomic disparities catalyzed by the epidemic.

Utilizing a wide range of archival photography, turn-of-the-century advertising, and public service propaganda, this visual essay functions as a vivid reminder of viral global experiences still unfolding through mass and social media on our devices. But mostly, about the obsessive urgency to simply make something and stay mentally afloat when everything around was sinking. Artist Viktor Koen is chair of BFA Illustration and BFA Comics. The exhibition is curated by Manolis Moresopoulos, artistic director of the Athens Photo Festival.

Save the date: March 13, 6-7:30pm: Artist talk with Viktor Koen Register

SVA Flatiron Project Space, 133 West 21^st Street, New York, NY Info

Continuing: Our Fragile Moment at Hudson Guild

The “fragile moment” we are now in has inspired a diverse group of artists to turn their intenetions  to the crisis. In a range of abstract, symbolic, realistic and surrealistic styles, these artists address vanishing wilderness, wildfires, pollution, both invasive and endangered species, melting glaciers, threatened corals and desertification. Some artists use text and graphs to highlight issues, including sea level rise. Others use recycled materials which underscore their concern for the environment. The combined voices of these artists allow beauty to blend with sadness, fear to be overlaid with hope and optimism, and apathy to be turned to action. Above: Lois Bender, Coral Sea Gardens (detail), 2021. Pochoir of Spray Dye on Stencils on Paper.

The roster includes: Rachel Aisenson, M. Annenberg, Lois Bender, Nicole Betancourt, Pam Brown, Pamela Casper, Nora Chavooshian, January Yoon Cho, Jesica Clark, Simona Clausnitzer, Nicole Cooper, Cailyn Dawson, Noreen Dean Dresser, Anke Frohlich, Nancy Gesimondo, Pearl Rosen Golden, Grace Graupe-Pillard, Deborah Kruger, Sally Linder, Christina Massey, Mars Miller, Eleni Mylonas, Beryl Perron-Feller, Jeffrey Allen Price, Kristin Reed, Yvonne Lamar Rogers, Ann R. Shapiro, Amrita Singh, Molly Tenzer, Tammy West, Jane Whitten, and Lucy Wilner.  The show is curated by Fran Beallor, an artist, arts educator and independent curator.

Save the dates: Sat 3/1 1:30 – 3:30PM Our Fragile Moment Curator’s Talk at Hudson Guild Gallery. Sat 3/22 1:30 – 3:30PM Our Fragile Moment Artists’ Talk at Hudson Guild Gallery.

Hudson Guild Gallery, 119 9^th Avenue, New York, NY Info