‘General Conditions’ at The School, ‘A Familiar Type of Magic’ at Bill Arning Exhibitions, and Robert Grosvenor at The Archive Gallery, ‘T’ Space.
‘GENERAL CONDITIONS’ May 17-November 29, ‘25 at The School, Kinderhook, N.Y.
Alisa Tenser, Sleeved Meander, 2023, at The School. Ph: David Ebony.
This season’s sprawling group show at The School centers on an exploration of the rather cryptic notion of “general conditions.” In a press statement, one of the featured artists in the exhibition, Alina Tenser, whose works are among the show’s highlights, says that the idea of “general conditions” resonates on multiple registers that are sinister and vague, and “holds power precisely because of its evasiveness.” She cites the current structural changes in federal policy where “language and bureaucracy are weaponized to obscure, justify and enable horrific systemic shifts.” For the purposes of the exhibition, the deliberately ambiguous title allows for an open-ended discourse and strong interconnections among the disparate works on view with a wide range of formal concerns and thematic content. Issues of migration, identity and the environment intersect throughout the exhibition of 129 works by two dozen artists working in a variety of mediums.
Hayv Kahraman, Look Me in the Eyes No. 3, 2023, at The School.
Many of the artists here are part of the Jack Shainman Gallery stable, and represented by exemplary works, including El Anatsui, Shimon Attie, Becky Suss, Carlos Vega, Geoffrey Chadsey and Rose B. Simpson. Among other gallery artists, Richard Mosse presents a number of stunning, panoramic “heat map” photos of Syrian refugee shelters in Greece and elsewhere, using a military-grade telephoto camera that can detect thermal radiation, including body heat, from a great distance. Also dealing with themes of migration are mixed-media constructions by Cuban artist Yoan Capote that are particularly outstanding, as are the dreamlike paintings of faces by Iraq-born Los Angeles-based artist Hayv Kahraman, who was recently forced to vacate her home and studio due to the wildfires that ravaged the city. Not part of the gallery roster, Tenser creates rigorously abstract sculptures that are only obliquely related to the show’s theme. Her spare and elegant sculptures made of steel and concrete geometric forms, encased in translucent vinyl sheaths or sleeves with zippers, address the traditions of Minimalist sculpture but with a sense of play that upends the cool reserve of the genre. —David Ebony
‘A FAMILIAR TYPE OF MAGIC’ at May 24-July 6, ‘25 at Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY.
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, Assuming the Ecosexual Position, 2015, at Bill Arning Exhibitions.
In his seminal 1901 book Egyptian Magic, English Egyptologist E.A. Wallis Bunge notes in the preface that “The belief in magic, the word being used in its best sense, is older in Egypt than the belief in God. . . A very large number of the religious ceremonies, which were performed in later times, had their origin in superstitious customs which date from a period when God, under any name or in any form, was unconceived in the minds of the Egyptians.” The artists in this show—Daniella Dooling, Matthew Gilbert, Phil Knoll, Gabriel Martinez, Susan Ottaviano, Raphael Santiago, and Anne Sprinkle & Beth Stephens—do not exactly conjure the primordial sources of magic for their works. Their approach is more nonchalant, and nondidactic; but with wit and humor explore its transcendent possibilities—especially regarding a communion with nature—that are still relevant today.
Gabriel Martinez, Go West 94, 2022, at Bill Arning Exhibitions.
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens’s collaborative photo, Assuming the Ecosexual Position, from their 2015 series, The Ecosexuals, for example, shows a female couple engaged in a garden ritual, with one lying on the ground (Annie) having her genitals sprinkled by her standing partner wielding a watering can—a novel “rite of spring,” indeed. Daniella Dooling’s haunting sculptures are made with real animals’ skulls meticulously covered with graphite and adorned with long strands of glittering slate-gray monofilaments. One can only imagine the ritualistic process involved in making these apparently venerable cult objects. At once seductive and uncanny, Gabriel Martinez’s ethereal photographic palimpsests evoke a mythological realm that is unmistakably contemporary. His Go West 94 (2022), for instance, shows the nature god Pan shirtless and buff, as if having just stepped out of a gym, and blowing his mystical, magical pipes. We can all use a little bit of magic these days, and the artists in this exhibition provide just the right dosage. —David Ebony
‘ROBERT GROSVENOR’ June 1-August 24, ’25 at The Archive Gallery, ‘T’ Space, Rhinebeck, N.Y.
Robert Grosvenor, Untitled, 2023, at The Archive Gallery, "T" Space. Ph: David Ebony.
Robert Grosvenor is widely regarded as one of the pioneering Minimalists. Since the mid-1960s, he has been lauded for the spare forms and quirky geometry of his monumental sculptures. In recent decades, his sculptures and installations have evolved from austere architectonic structures to increasingly eccentric and idiosyncratic objects, divergent from Minimalism, or any other esthetic trend other than his own. His works sometimes suggest elaborate narratives, albeit without figures. Human presence, however, is vividly implied in the most recent efforts that focus on a theme of movement through time and space in the form of antique and altered motor vehicles.
Grosvenor tweaks these found objects in a way that elevates them or at least pushes them into a new metaphorical realm. At the 2022 Venice Biennale, for instance, he showed an old red motor scooter ensconced in a freight container whose walls were painted glittery gold. The scooter thereby becomes a precious artifact primed for some futuristic archaeological discovery, like the chariot in King Tut’s tomb was for the 20th century. A work recently featured at New York City galleries Paula Cooper and Karma is a purple-painted 1930s Willys sedan with hubcaps and headlights painted black. It is an uncanny object, at once sinister and inviting.
Similarly enthralling, the highlight of the current exhibition is an Untitled work (2023) that resembles a derelict turquoise and white fiberglass motorboat in drydock, without a motor, but with outsized fins like those of a 1960s Cadillac. The work elicits a powerful feeling of nostalgia, loneliness and isolation rather than any kind of aquatic adventure. But there is, nevertheless, a great deal of beauty in its abject countenance. Also on view is an altered 1961 Valmobile scooter without handlebars or a front wheel. Thus rendered immobile, the work nevertheless has a key on a rabbit’s foot keychain stuck in the ignition, as if the rider has just stepped away. Rounding out this show are three of the artist’s photos of a lifesaver buoy washed on shore, and a small text piece featuring the words “usual” and “snarl” in cursive lettering. The exhibition, organized by ‘T’ Space director Susan Wides in tandem with architect Steven Holl, is modest in scale and scope compared with other recent New York City Grosvenor shows I have seen. This upstate presentation, however, is important because it could introduce Grosvenor’s work to new viewers and lead to further exploration of this fascinating artist’s oeuvre. —David Ebony