The Move
Your weekly NYC Art & Culture Guide from Jaz Arts — April 26–May 3
Hi Friends! Some great Latinx art on the docket this week, and some music too. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Julia Kwamya perform new songs on Thursday night. I’m also excited to announce the beginning of Jaz Arts Tours! First one up — Chinatown Get Down. Every weekend in May. More info below.
Here’s The Move Google Map for this week. See you out and about!
FINE ART
- DOWNTOWN
Building Radical Soil at The Latinx Project, 285 Mercer St (until May 5; Monday — Thursday, 10AM — 4PM)
The none Latinx artists in this exhibition address environmental disparities through the lens of ancestral and community knowledge. It’s the rare “academic” exhibition that doesn’t forget about aesthetics — color & texture abound.
Dominique Knowles: The Solemn and Dignified Burial Befitting My Beloved for All Seasons at Chapter NY, 60 Walker St. (until April 29; Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-6PM)
Ochre tones haze across large canvases that pay homage to the death of a beloved animal. These paintings feel mournful and never aloof. They have more in common with the cave paintings of Lascaux, than they do with the trending surrealist-formalist styles of the moment.
Kenny Scharf: WOODZ ‘N THINGZ at TOTAH, 183 Stanton St (Tuesday-Saturday, 11AM-6PM)
Legendary downtown artist Kenny Scharf presents a series of trippy new paintings appropriately described as “intuitive derangements”. His signature exuberant faces appear on mushrooms, insects, and tiny figures that happily populate fantastical, natural settings. Looks like somebody spent the pandemic on a cosmic journey.
Here’s the complete list of Kenny Scharf’s murals. Who wants to go on a scavenger hunt?
David Aipperspach: Prologue to A Garden Dark at Chart, 74 Franklin St (until April 30; Tuesday-Saturday 10AM-6PM)
Quietude pervades these paintings about evening. Greens, blues, and greys dominate both indoor and outdoor scenes. Rays of golden light sweep diagonally. The patterning of small color-field paintings between large canvases make reference to the myriad components of vision, synthesized by the human eye. This show closes on Saturday, so hurry on over.
- UPTOWN
Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, 615 W. 129 St. (until May 22; Wednesday-Sunday, 12PM-6PM. RSVP required)
You know I love an MFA show. This one includes students from both the Sound Art and Visual Arts MFA. The 33 artists on view share many of the themes of the moment: systemic inequality, environmental precarity, personal history, human & non-human relationships, and uncanny architecture. The Wallach gallery is pretty close to Riverside Park, which is oh so lovely.
- BROOKLYN
Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven at The Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn (until September 18; Wednesday-Saturday, 11AM-6PM)
Personal and national histories of forced migration come together in Guadalupe Maravilla’s beautiful exhibition. The title translates to “a young white ash/earth”, which references the artist’s flight from El Salvador during the Civil War (1979–92), as well as the 5th century volcanic eruption that displaced the region’s Mayan population. Ancient medicine, sound works, and tripa chuca drawings are especially moving in this show about healing and community.
PERFORMANCE AND EVENTS
Julia Kwamya at Groove, 125 MacDougal St. (Thursday April 28, 7PM)
Fantastic vocalist Julia Kwamya is performing a selection of songs from her new EP “Feel Good About Feeling Bad”, as well as some classics. Thursday nights are free at this downtown music mecca, so come through for tunes and a drink or two.
JAZ ARTS TOURS
Announcing the Jaz Arts Tours! I’ll be taking a lucky few (you just have to sign up) on a curated series of art & culture tours in our fair city (NYC). Each tour presents novel insights into contemporary creativity & culture in one of the city’s unique neighborhoods.
The first tour will be Chinatown Get Down, taking place every weekend of May from 3–5pm. We’ll explore Chinatown’s burgeoning gallery scene through the lens of art and politics, and enjoy refreshments along the way. More details in the attached flyer — feel free to share with your friends!
Email or call to book your spot: jazia@jaz. life / +1 (732) 347–6990
GOSSIP CORNER
The Venice Biennale is dominating the art world news cycle this week, and with good reason. Two black women, American Artist Simon Leigh and U.K. artist Sonia Boyce have won the festival’s highest prize — the golden lion. Both are the first black women to ever win golden lions, and the first black women to represent their national pavilions.
This event, arguably the most important global exhibition in the world, has been slow to embrace black artists, especially black women. Yet the situation appeared to evolve in 2015, when influential Nigerian-born Curator Okwui Enwezor included 35 black artists out of 136 in his powerhouse 56th edition, “All the World’s Futures”. Sadly, these numbers did not hold. In 2017, the 57th Biennale featured only five black artists out of 120 in its central exhibition, with only a one black woman (the extraordinary Senga Nengudi). Black artists fared slightly better in 2019’s 58th edition “May You Live in Interesting Times”, in which 13 out of 79 artists in the main exhibition were of African descent. Black American artists made a strong showing, with Martin Puryer representing the U.S. pavilion and Arthur Jafta taking home the top prize.
The inclusion of women artists in general has also wavered. Historically around 10%, the number has risen recently with 43% in 2009, 26% in 2013, 37% in 2015, 35% in 2015, and 53% in 2019. This year, for the first time, women artists outnumber men in the biennale’s main venues (the Giardini and Arsenale). The central exhibition, curated by Cecilia Alemani, includes 200 artists, 90% of whom are women. Speaking to The Guardian, Alemani said: “I think it’s puzzling that though the American pavilion was built in the 1930, and the British pavilion was built in 1912, it has taken until now for Black women to occupy them.” Amen.
That’s The Move for this week. See you out an about!
xoxo
Jazia Hammoudi
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Contact me: jazia@jaz.life
