pipilotti rist @ the new museum.

Pipilotti Rist is a Swiss artist who primarily uses projections to display her video, film, and moving image work. Her work in the New Museum, titled Pixel Forest, is her first New York survey of the work.

The work takes up all three floors of the museum. It allows visitors to move through the exhibitions becoming highly interactive and fully encompassing them in a sea of textures, colors, and forms.

The exhibition is open through January 15th. To read more about Pipilotti’s ideas and background, check out the feature on the New Museum’s Exhibition page.

 

—

both images belong to the New Museum.

right to reflect.

Many female artists struggle to find a place where their opinions and voice can be heard. In a world dominated by straight white men, it can be difficult, discouraging, and feel unsafe. We’ve been looking into artists who are trying to start conversations that have been lacking elsewhere and we’ve found that the dialogue between these artists’ work is just as important.

images from Birthe Piontek’s series Lying Still

Birthe Piontek is a German artist who’s been located in Vancouver for the past ten years. She has her MFA in Photography and Communication Design. She describes her photography as “an exploration of the individual and is interested in the concept of Self.” She primarily creates portrait photographs but also works with installation and collage to investigate at to what degree identity can be visualized.

images from Grace Tyson’s book, Dedicated to Don T

The second photographer is Grace Tyson who graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2015. She’s created a few bodies of work that discuss the ideas of parental relationships vs. romantic ones and the sense of home. But most recently she’s strayed away from this with the release of her new book titled Dedicated to Don T. She says that your purchase of her book is “not only a peaceful protest against the racist, misogynistic and hateful example Trump sets for our country, but it also shows your support of young artists and their absolute right to reflect.”

left: From Her Body Sprang the Greatest Wealth, 2013; right: Over My Dead Body, 2013 by Nona Faustine

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Nona Faustine is a graduate of SVA and ICP. Her work focuses on history, identity, representation, and what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. The left image was taken at the site of a colonial slave market on Wall Street and the photo on the right was taken at the Tweed Courthouse which was built on an African burial ground.

images by Alix Pozniak

Alix Pozniak is a current student at SUNY Purchase studying Photography and Art History. She thinks a lot about the human body and it’s natural form, making both portraits and self-portraits. Most recently she’s been focusing on the relationship between men and women. Although primarily a photographer, she’s beginning to explore the way sculpture relates to photographs and wants to eventually start incorporating sculpture and installation work.

images from Scared Yoni by Elisa Garcia de la Huerta

Elisa Garcia de la Huerta is from Santiago, Chile and is an artist represented by The Untitled Space. She’s both a photographer and a performance artist and is the co-founder of a queer feminist collective called Go Push Pops. 

film stills by Skyler J Maggiore

Skyler J Maggiore is an artist that graduated from SUNY Purchase this past May. Her work hints on points of femininity and sexuality. In this dual-screened video, we see her shaving her head while audio of Donald Trump speaking about his past and present opinions on abortion plays behind the buzzing of the clippers.

film stills by Caroline Levy

Caroline Levy is a current student at SUNY Purchase. Her earlier photographic work discusses the body and explored the ideas of body parts having their own individual voice. But since then she’s moved to making video and performance work. This recent work talks about gender roles and the idea of femininity being forced. She thinks a lot about the idea of becoming something because you think it’s something you have to do.

 

gallery spotlight: the untitled space.

This week we came across a Manhattan gallery located in Tribeca–The Untitled Space. Founded by artist Indira Cesarine in 2014, The Untitled Space is a gallery that represents up-and-coming and established female artists working in almost every medium. They focus on artists who are pushing boundaries, exploring new ideas, and changing the way contemporary art is typically portrayed.

screenshot of untitled-space.com

The Untitled Space has just over 70 artists on their roster and has had over twenty exhibitions since their grand opening two years ago. Their most recent, that closed October 8th, was a group show titled “Self Reflection.” It included 21 artists and their idea of self-portraiture. The press release reads, “Through their own process, be it autobiographical, metaphorical or inspired by performance and impersonation, these artists present visual narratives that interrogate social, cultural and political dialogues.” Some of the artists included Sarah Maple, Rebecca Dylan, and Andrea Mary Marshall, as well as curators Indira Cesarine and Coco Dolle.

Indira Cesarine’s image featured in “Self Reflection”

The exhibition discussed the history of the self-portrait and compared it to purpose in today’s social media. Cesarine says, “Historically women have used self-portraiture as a means to address their own identity in relationship to contemporary society and social constructs. The artists featured in SELF REFLECTION, using their own body as catalyst, metaphorically regurgitate the stereotypes enforced upon women and address not only their own personal conflicts, but psychological and political conflicts of women at large, using their own likeness as a tool for enlightenment.” Dolle continues, “With today’s dissemination of the modern-day selfie, SELF REFLECTION ponders the legitimate essence of the female artist study as its own subject and muse awash in a pixelated sea of instantaneous gratification often misconstrued as self-advertisement.”

Sarah Maple’s image featured in “Self Reflection”

Although the exhibition is closed, all of the artists’ work can be seen on The Untitled Space website, along with all of their previous exhibitions.