30 artists from 17 different countries show their work in Harlem, New York City, in an old raw building rented for the occasion by the London based Factory Art Gallery. The artists were selected by an international jury and I’m lucky and proud to be the only one to represent Denmark and flew in for the opening on Thursday, May 8th. Here are some snapshots I took at the event. The exhibition will be open until May 23rd – see location and opening hours info here.
A 124-page exhibition catalogue was still in print on opening night, but a complete online version is available here.
Installation view, from left to right: Paintings by Oshrat Helen Bentor Halevi, Israel, Mari Pihlajakoski, Finland, and my two collages to the right.
Wim Van Genechten (BE): “Waiting for the Flood 1 and 2”, 2012. Embroidery on stinted rags, each 40 x 40 cm. – Wim Van Genechten’s work depicts people who come to find a place of calm near the river Scheldt in Antwerp. “I draw the figures first in pencil, then transfer them as embroidery to washing rags I have smeared with paint to make them look old,” he explains.
Installation view. The sculpture to the left is by Roger Chamieh (US): “Anoxia”, 2012. Multi media, 183 x 112 x 244 cm. – About his work, Chamieh says, “I intend to examine the concepts of mortality, aging and fear through the use of visual metaphors. The work explores the dynamics of fragility, tension and contradictions through the dependence of forces both seen and unseen.”
Roger Chamieh (US): “Anoxia”, 2012 (detail).
Here’s my work! – and two of them: “Trix”, 2009 and “Este Domingo Sera”, 2010, both collage on paper, 28 x 23 cm. They even go well with the rustic, worn walls of the exhibition building.
Stephan Muis (NL): “Free Me”, 2013. Mixed media, 61 x 61 cm. – “My work is conceptual. Most of the time I need the help of professionals to create my work. That’s why I call my work “cooperative art”. Major themes in my work are our loss of innocence and our fear of death,” says Muis.
Tuan Cao (US): “GAM”, 2010. Film capture/Gelatine Silver Prints. – About his work, Tuan Cao says: “These images are, a visual document for conversations I have had with different people who like me are gay, Asian, and male. Some of them are friends. Some are strangers who answered an ad. The images explore to what extent the ideal of the silky-skinned, submissive, and soft-spoken gay Asian male has shaped and influenced our own sexual identity.”
The New York Now! exhibition is located in a charming old red-brick building on 133rd Street in West Harlem, over the Morningstar Pentecostal Chapel. Look for the yellow banner!
