Thomas Hunter Project Space
930 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
October 7 – October 25
Opening Reception: October 14, 6-8pm
“Where do you come from?”
“From the South.”
“How is Practice there these days?”
“There is extensive discussion.”
“How does that compare to me here planting the fields?”
“What can you do about the world?”
“What do you call the world?”
– from Shōyō-roku (Book of Equanimity)
Thomas Hunter Projects is pleased to present an exhibition by 2015 MFA Alumnus Christopher Lin. In What do you call the world, Lin presents an installation addressing a koan from Shōyō-roku (Book of Equanimity) posing the paradoxical question as its namesake. In the parable, two teachers briefly discuss their practices upon meeting. One, who favors discussion, poses the question, “What can you do about the world?” In response, the other posits, “What do you call the world?”
In the isolation of a small, underground room, Lin has illustrated this paradox. Gravity has been flipped creating a surreal sensation. Bathed in the magenta glow of modern grow lamps, Spathiphyllum, or peace lilies, grow downwards despite the lack of natural light. A clock runs in reverse.
Visitors will need to get a “guest pass” from the main entrance at Hunter College on the corner of 68th St. and Lexington Ave. You may then use any entrance to reach the Thomas Hunter Project Space, located in the basement of the Thomas Hunter Building (930 Lexington Ave.)
Hunter MFA Studios, Flex Space
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
October 3, 7pm
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
2180 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
October 3, 6-8pm
Join Thomas Allen Harris in conversation with artist, filmmaker, educator, community activist, and Hunter College IMA MFA Alumna Betty Yu.
This event is sponsored by Crossway Foundation.
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
2180 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
September 29, 1:30-7pm
Join the student artists from Hunter College’s IMA MFA Program for a day full of speakers, poetry, and artist visits around the subjects of identity, neighborhood murals, archiving family histories, spiritual practices and much more!
part of Stephen Mueller: Orchidaceous
205 Hudson Gallery
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
September 25, 7pm
With Margaret Liu Clinton (Koenig & Clinton), Michael Findlay (Acquavella Galleries), and Fredericka Hunter (Texas Gallery and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation).
Moderated by Carrie Moyer
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
2180 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
September 27, 5-8pm
Attendees are invited to share photos and the stories/memories based on Thomas Allen Harris’ Digital Diaspora Family Reunion methodology in dialogue with Image Theater methodology in a workshop with specialist Gail Burton.
Student artist Chris J Gauthier will perform inside his installation at HEHG.
Reception to follow event!
205 Hudson Gallery
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
September 13 – October 28
Opening Reception: September 13, 6-8pm
Stephen Mueller: Orchidaceous presents a rare look into the late painter’s oeuvre during a period of rigorous creative transformation. The exhibition traces Mueller’s formal and conceptual evolution from his high-octane, impetuous gestural work from the late 1980s to the spatial complexity, exquisite color and sensuous facture of his late paintings. With over 40 paintings and works on paper, this will be the artist’s most comprehensive exhibition to date.
Stephen Mueller (1947–2011) was part of a loose-knit group of New York-based artists—including Mary Heilmann, Jonathan Lasker, Elizabeth Murray, Thomas Nozkowski, David Reed, Pat Steir, Gary Stephan and others—who transformed and reenergized American abstract painting during the late 1970s and 1980s. Building on the tenets of Color Field painting, Mueller’s subtle, luminous images anticipate many of the concerns of contemporary painting. The work overflows with visual puns and associations through sophisticated re-combinations of Asian iconography, cartoons, encyclopedic decorative traditions, new-age sensibility, and electric, synthetic color. Through his endlessly innovative use of acrylic paint, his canvases become portals into radiant space. The trajectory of Mueller’s work reveals an artist deeply committed to inventing his own articulation of the spiritual—an impulse that has particular appeal and resonance for painters working today.
Curated by Carrie Moyer and Sarah Watson with Agnes Gund Curatorial Fellows Evan Bellatone and Sophia Ma and Hunter MA and MFA students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorial Certificate
Patricia Ayres, Rachelle Dang, Elizabeth Englander, Mathew Galindo, Jameson Green, Zac Hacmon, Kyoko Hamaguchi, Eleanor King, Jessica Mensch
205 Project Space
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
Through September 7
Closing Party: September 7, 6-9pm
LOOP-N-PATH highlights the sensory faculties of the body in relation to maps, tunnels, canals and passages – these various pathways and networks that are part of cities, industry, and the individual. This exhibit takes as its starting point the location of Hunter’s MFA building at the intersection of the Holland Tunnel, Canal Street, and the Hudson River – historic thoroughfares that have defined New York City. Eight of the nine artists in this exhibit have studied, worked, and produced artwork in this building over the last several years, and most are long-distance travelers who have taken diverse paths to arrive here: from Nova Scotia and Montreal; Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Long Island; Israel and Japan. Their work spans photography, video, installation, painting, and sculpture, with a strong emphasis on materiality and touch. These artists-travelers have overlapping concerns of perception, empathy, politics, and art production; they create visual experiences for the imperceptible and the underexplored.
Thomas Hunter Project Space
930 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
Through September 28
Reception: September 4, 6-9pm
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
2180 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
Through September 29
Mother, Bethel, Harlem, USA is an exhibition project by artist and filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris. Harris will work in collaboration with students from the Hunter College IMA MFA program to build an interactive exhibition at Hunter East Harlem Gallery. Drawing from found, generated, and reimagined archives, as seen in Harris’ project Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, students will remix and expand the archive within the gallery space using methodologies that Harris has been pioneering for the over 25 years in his socially engaged, participatory, and experimental creative practice. Since 2009, through his project Digital Diaspora, Harris has collected over 3,000 interviews and stories where the photograph is the central launchpad for personal narrative. The materials and documentation from Digital Diaspora are interwoven with Harris’ family archive, sourced largely from the Harlem-based church First AME Church: Bethel.
Investigations into historical visual materials like family albums, vintage photographs, archival film, and personal narratives become central to the development of Mother, Bethel, Harlem, USA. These archival materials illuminate the neighborhood’s stories, giving shape to a history sourced directly from its residents. The result is a dynamic exploration into themes of collective memory, transference, and renewal within movements and communities. Throughout July and August, gallery visitors and passersby are invited to add their voices to the ongoing performance of the archive inside the gallery. The final outcome is a collaborative exhibition inside the gallery during the month of September 2018.
Hunter MFA Studios, Flex Space
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
September 12, 7:30pm
Hunter MFA Studios, Flex Space
205 Hudson Street
New York, NY
August 29, 7pm
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
2180 3rd Avenue
New York, NY
Through September 27
Latino Youth is a portrait series by the Nicaraguan born artist Lola Sandino Stanton. The series depicts a personal reflection on young latinos, some of whom were former students of Stanton’s. The subjects are captured at the moment of discovering their own voice at a pivotal time in their lives. Each painting portrays a symbolic blackbird native to the artist’s home country of Nicaragua, known as a “Zanate”.
Traditionally a black bird represents a malevolent force although in Stanton’s work, the Zanate symbolizes the arrival of guidance, protection, and creativity in the lives of the youth. Stanton is aware of the challenges that most young latinos confront growing up, including immigration struggles, language barriers, and cultural norms that do not reflect their cultural upbringing or beliefs. For these reasons she chose to represent an empowered image of young latinos, unlocking their inner voice and bolstering them into a confident position.
For latinos, the current moment in the United States is one of the most hostile in history with new migratory reform and the zero tolerance policy at the Mexico border separating families and this makes the series “Latino Youth” all the more urgent. Lola Sandino Stanton brings an image of a strong latino youth community — one that is proud of their heritage and rising to have their voices heard.
