Reframe is a monthly column in which contributor Sam Falb discusses timely openings to view in New York. Each edition offers commentary on the latest exhibitions, performances, and installations. Dynamic and ever-evolving, the content reflects the fluidity of the market it travels through.
Flora, fauna, historical figures both AD and CE, and a surprising amount of metalwork round out this year’s final edition of the column. While New York readies itself to decamp to *insert warm locale, family home, or downtown dining destination* a slower, but steady schedule of shows has arrived, with most stretching into the new year. In that vein, make any one of these the last (or first) show on your upcoming calendar. Tender photography, a new mythology of family portraiture, sculptures in wood and sandstone, as well as light beaming out of resin-on-fabric fixtures are just some of the diverse selection. They provide a fitting outlook on annual reflection—from intimate studies of the familiar to ambitious reinterpretations of form and medium, the offerings invite viewers to pause, reflect, and take in the quiet beauty that lingers in the details.
Elliot Templeton: Imagined Ancestors (December 15, 2024 –January 12, 2025)
A cast of characters with expressive eyes and a range of historial outfits (Victorian, colonial, and petticoats and expressive headwear) greet viewers at Hugo Guinness’s solo show. Presented by Elliot Templeton and John Derian Company (where the artist’s works are stocked), the “imagined ancestors” of the artist’s mind stare down from scenes flush with a combination of imagined landscapes and delicate pastel backdrops. Great Aunt Mildred sports a regal, curt bob against a violet-baby pink base. Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Cousin Tom, (that’s four Greats) stands sturdily in a black cap and red-buttoned top, petite pooch jumping loyally by his side. Estelle, Sister, is flush with rosy cheeks and skin that would almost melt into its background if not for her sparkling eyes, thick, black hair, and ruby lips. For Guinness, the family “emerged from his fascination with the ambiguous truths encoded into one’s family history,
laden with mystery, secrecy, and potential falsehoods.” Join the intriguing world of the fabricated Guinness dynasty and become the latest smartly-dressed character, a secret or two hidden behind the eyes.
PPOW: Promiscuous Rage (December 13, 2024-January 25, 2025)
In the (relatively recent) literary tradition of Reframe, queer-forward shows and artists have found their home here, with PPOW’s Promiscuous Rage being the latest. In this dual show by Hunter Reynolds and Dean Sameshima, the two put forth a sometimes kaleidoscopic (Imperial Point Hospital or Mary’s Lamp) sometimes suggestive (Anonymous Rent Boy) array of imagery. Additionally, a few milestones mark the showcase, it being the first exhibition of Reynolds’s work since his passing in 2022, as well as the New York debut of Sameshima’s Anonymous Portrait series. Reynold’s photo-weavings were inspired by the “wall of angels” patchwork quilt that his friend and kindred artist Jack Brusca produced. Originally an homage to the artist, Reynolds recontextualized that first quilt after Brusca fell ill with HIV in the early 90s, bringing it to him in the hospital. Sameshima’s series is front-and-center bold – SEX, Homosexual, Rent Boy, and more are depicted under the banner of “Anonymous”, allowing viewers to interpret the labels present in each piece. Pulling from a personal library of references as well as the first page of John Rechy’s 1977 novel The Sexual Outlaw, the works are deceptively simple upon a casual glance, but are deepened satisfyingly by their artist’s context and the partnership with Reynolds.
Don’t come to the Hill Art Foundation in a rush. Laying in wait? You’ll find an expansive survey of video, printed zines, paintings, and more curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, critic, and curator Hilton Als. A paired essay by the curator, The Poetics of Silence, features the ponderous poise only such a luminary can command, setting the stage for the presentation within the tall-ceilinged, airy space. Key themes include the relationship between communication and language, from silence, to writing, to erasure, or through transitory mediums including books or magazines. Samples include a large Cy Twombly, classical marks and all, standing opposite Vija Celmins’ whimsical Pink Pearl Eraser, while a wall of Ellen Gallagher’s works, DeLuxe, features a welcomely colorful use of photogravure (a technique that involves a metal plate transfer process) to create sixty bright, storytelling images in a grid. As Als says, “it’s a relief not to think in words sometimes, and to look at pictures, which do not so much deny verbalization but are without language, only the experience of here and now.” In this fashion, the show and the questions it raises becomes less about finding definitive answers, and more about sitting with the propositions, allowing the work to unfold slowly, thoughtfully—just as Als intends.
Alexander Berggruen: Group Show (December 11, 2024-January 15, 2025)
We lay our scene at the Artists Talk for the end-of-year show at Alexander Berggruen. Exhibitors Raul De Lara, Shanique Emelife, Tahnee Lonsdale, and the gallery’s director in the place of Sihan Guo (currently in Shanghai) gathered to reflect on their work. Highlights of the show include the “female tribes” of Lonsdale’s practice, as she termed the figures at the talk. Working in the realm of feminine lifeforms that veer into the angelic or ethereal (with the smallest of eyes), her ghostly representations are the result of layers of thin paint, washed onto canvases in progressive strokes to broker the creation of vibrant, veiled apparitions. Additional notice is warranted for De Lara, who closes a banner year with this show, a separate exhibition currently on view at The Hole’s Tribeca location, and the culmination of a studio residency awarded by Silver Art Projects. His unmistakable walnut sculptures are rendered in deep, earthy curves against the flashes of vibrant color on the wall’s paintings. De Lara, a DACA recipient from Mexico, explores how plants “bear witness to the ups and downs of life,” as show notes read, using this exploration into potted plants as kindred symbolism for his personal journey with mobility.
New York Life Gallery: Scrap (December 6, 2024-January 25, 2025)
A decidedly calm and slightly sinister air of painterly abstraction by James Pantone now greets guests at 167 Canal Street. The eyes (as well as the rest of the bodies peering off of the steel plates) are pulled from catalogs of display mannequins – an exercise in exploring humanity’s notion of the ideal and how it can become convoluted along its transformation. Headless mannequins kneel dutifully in UMO3 & UMO4, perhaps a representation of the “decapitation” of humanity that can take hold when striving for one’s idealized physical form. References include the mannequin as a Modernist symbol – a mirror on the state of the human condition or the counterfeit thereof. Foucaldian discourse is also explored via the concept of the “entrepreneur of the self” wherein sociopolitical persuasions force us to market ourselves to meet the cultural moment. Each plate, with painted and transferred forms in dark, melancholy hues, blurs the line between object and subject, forcing the viewer to grapple with the uncanny space where idealized perfection collapses into eerie detachment.
James Cherry, Montessori Panel Chandelier, 2024. Photo courtesy of the gallery and artist.
TIWA: FROM POLLEN (December 11, 2024-January 18, 2025)
Expect an array of warmth and fae-centric lighting fixtures at James Cherry’s solo exhibition on view at TIWA Select. The artist – a veteran of the Salmon Creek Arts program now living in New York during the show – has constructed his lamps using the environments he has variably found himself in. These include the “aha moment” of finding packages of thrown-out stockings that educated the first silhouette of a bulbous, tear-drop design, to wood found on his residency’s grounds in northern California. When the artist made his way to New York, sticks found in Central Park and piano wire, which moreso reflect the built environment of the city entered the work. In conversation amidst the lights at Alex Tiwa’s live-work gallery space, Cherry recounted inspirations ranging from the midwest of his youth (where a yearning for wildness in beaches and mountains may have originated) to ancient forests and mythical greenspaces. Referencing Salmon Creek in notes, he shared how, “The work I created for FROM POLLEN was born from that moment—standing in a lush garden, watching bees pollinate. For a brief time, it felt as though my life mirrored that abundance because of this rare kind of heaven I found myself being a part of.” On the day of our preview, the artist’s mother arrived for a supportive visit, framed by the warm light and winter chill outside—a fitting sealant atop the snug, inviting world of Cherry’s glowing lights.
The Hancock: DELIRIA (December 6-8)
During the bleary first weekend of December, the hallowed, Georgian (if you know, you know) halls of The Hancock held a variety of works by a slew of talents including photographer Marcus Maddox, Ha Neul On, Kabir Dugal, Taran Dugal, Yehoshua Senior, and Lily Burgess. “DELIRIA” screamed a closely-circulated poster featuring the roster. The Hancock, a historic Brooklyn home, has played host to many things – private, seated dinners by lev.nyc, a now-storied concert by Bar Italia, and a bevy of other blink-and-you-miss-it New York moments. Worthy of particular note during this show’s run are the black-and-white works by Marcus Maddox, who recently enjoyed a viewing of his short film Hey Lover at The Roxy Cinema’s annual Downtown Festival. The work at The Hancock – and in Maddox’s catalog at-large – is urgently human, from the gentlest touch of a woman’s braid to an elegant dancer mid-gyration, eyes delicately drawn downward under a shower of the thickest, false eyelashes. Following along with the evolution of his output will deliver a satisfactory glimpse of the quintessentially New York, intimacy-meets-grandeur nature of his methodology, from The Hancock and beyond.
Kapoor Galleries: Wild Horizons (December 5, 2024-January 31st, 2025)
Geographically nestled between the powers of David Zwirner’s uptown location (a delightful townhouse not to be missed) and the Park Avenue Armory, expect the deep maroon walls and thousand-year-old storytelling of the more specialized Kapoor Galleries. In their winter show, the family operation has chosen an array of ancient Indian and Himalayan sculptures, as well as more modern paintings which speak to the abundance of the region’s biomes and lush culture – naturally, spiritually, and in all the cracks in between. Deities are central to the show and rendered across watercolors and sculpture (bronze, sandstone, and more), while a Tibetan painted saddle features ornate, floral markings across its breadth. Devotional craftsmanship is a strong theme of exploration, whether intentional or otherwise: i.e. works delivered so beautifully and ornately, that they seem to communicate their piety just as strongly as their artisanal expertise. Storytelling jumps off of the works at Kapoor, and is a worthwhile stop (or See Saw bookmark) to any uptown gallery jaunt.
Written by Sam Falb
