this week in art

JewCE!: THE JEWISH COMIC EXPERIENCE

THE FIRST ANNUAL JEWISH COMIC BOOK CONVENTION
Center for Jewish History
15 West Sixteenth St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Sunday, November 12, $40 (children eight and under free)
jewce.org
www.cjh.org

Jews played key roles in the development of the comic book industry in the United States, as artists, illustrators, editors, and publishers. In 2006-7, the Jewish Museum presented with the Newark Museum the outstanding exhibit “Masters of American Comics,” which explored the work of fourteen artists, several of whom were Jewish.

This weekend the Center for Jewish History is hosting “JewCE!: The Jewish Comic Experience,” being held in conjunction with the exhibit “The Museum and Laboratory of the Jewish Comics Experience,” consisting of original art, historical memorabilia, and interactive installations focusing on Jewish history, culture, and identity as depicted in comic books, on view through December 29.

Awards will be handed out Saturday night, in such categories as Career Contributions to Jewish Comics, Diverse Jewish Representation, Historical Narratives, Autobiographical Content, Contemporary Topics, and Combating Prejudice. The big day is Sunday, with a full slate of lectures, panel discussions, workshops, artist booths, and more. The guest of honor is Trina Robbins, the Brooklyn-born cartoonist and activist who is in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame and is one of the three characters in the Joni Mitchell song “Ladies of the Canyon” (“Trina takes her paints and her threads / And she weaves a pattern all her own”).

Among the events are “Jewish Roots of the Comic Industry,” “Queering Jewish Comics,” “Kids Comics for Mini Mensches,” “Jewish Female Narratives in the Graphic Arts,” and “Holy Graphic Novels!”; the lineup of participants includes Frank Miller, Stephanie Phillips, Neil Kleid, Koren Shadmi, Fabrice Sapolsky, Yehudi Mercado, Dean Haspiel, Chari Pere, Ken Krimstein, Danny Fingeroth, Barry Deutsch, Roy Schwartz, Amy Kurzweil, E. Lockhart, Ben Kahn, Emily Bowen Cohen, Jenny Caplan, Karen Green, Leela Corman, Paul Levitz, Tahneer Oksman, Terri Libenson, Simcha Weinstein, JT Waldman, Jessica Tamar Deutsch, and Stan Mack, as well as Source Point Press, Big Apple Comics, Jews in Doodles, Israeli Defense Comics, Jewish Arts Salon, Stand Up! Comics/Stand Up! Records, and Torah Comics. Below is the full schedule.

Exhibition continues at the Center for Jewish History through December 29

Jewish Roots of the Comic Industry, with Arie Kaplan, Roy Schwartz, and Simcha Weinstein, moderated by Danny Fingeroth, auditorium, 10:00

Jewish Folklore in Comics, with Dani Colman, Trian Robbins, Chanan Beizer, and Yehudi Mercado, moderated by Eddy Portnoy, Kovno Room, 10:00

Jump into Drawing Comics!, with Joshu Edelglass, for kids ages 8-12, Discovery Room, 10:00

From Strength to Strength: Jewish Superheroes through the Ages!, with Brian Michael Bendis, E. Lockhart, Dean Haspiel, and Frank Miller, moderated by Roy Schwartz, auditorium, 11:30

Queering Jewish Comics, with Ben Kahn, Shira Spector, Barry Deutsch, and Miriam Libicki, moderated by Tahneer Oksman, Kovno Room, 11:30

Jewish Comics Trivia Game: JewCE Edition, with Sholly Fisch and Jeremy Arcus-Goldberg, Discovery Room, 11:30

Breaking the Mainstream: Getting Past Ashkenormativity and Secularism in Comics, with Daniel Lobell, Emily Bowen Cohen, Joshua Sky, and Carol Isaacs, moderated by Arnon Shorr, auditorium, 1:00

Kids Comics for Mini Mensches, with Yehudi Mercado, Terri Libenson, Chari Pere, and Barry Deutsch, moderated by Jeremy Dauber, Kovno Room, 1:00

Torah Comic Workshop, with Andrew Galitzer, for kids ages 6-12, Discovery Room, 1:00

Canons Are Made to Blow Up! Retconning, Rebooting, Jossing, and Other Paradigm Shifts, with Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Azzarello, Joshua Sky, and Barbara Slate, moderated by Jenny Caplan, auditorium, 2:30

Jewish Comics and Remembrance Culture, with Rafael Medoff, Ken Krimstein, Stan Mack, and Trina Robbins, moderated by Samantha Baskind, Kovno Room, 2:30

From Perek to Panel: Using Pictures to Explore Interpretation, with Ben Schachter, for teens and adults, Discovery Room, 2:30

Will Eisner: The First Poet Laureate of the Jewish Graphic Novel, with Paul Levitz and Jules Feiffer (via Zoom), auditorium, 4:00

Telling Other People’s Stories, with Tracy White, Stephanie Phillips, Koren Shadmi, and Neil Kleid, moderated by Julian Voloj, Kovno Room, 4:00

Jewish Comics Trivia Game: JewCE Edition, with Sholly Fisch and Jeremy Arcus-Goldberg, Discovery Room, 4:00

Jewish Female Narratives in the Graphic Arts, with Leela Corman, Amy Kurzweil, Alisa Whitney, and Miriam Libicki, moderated by Karen Green, auditorium, 5:30

Holy Graphic Novels!, with JT Waldman, moderated by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Kovno Room, 5:30

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LAURA ORTMAN & RAVEN CHACON LIVE IN BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK

Raven Chacon and Laura Ortman will perform a free show in Brooklyn Bridge Park on November 5

Who: Laura Ortman & Raven Chacon
What: Live concert presented by Public Art Fund
Where: Empire Fulton Ferry Lawn, Brooklyn Bridge Park
When: Sunday, November 5, free (advance RSVP recommended), 4:00
Why: Following an earlier rainout, Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) and Raven Chacon (Navajo) will activate Nicholas Galanin’s Brooklyn Bridge Park sculpture, In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra, with a free concert on November 5 at 5:00. Chacon is a Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, performer, and installation artist based in Red Hook and Albuquerque, while Ortman is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has collaborated with Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Nanobah Becker, Okkyung Lee, Martin Bisi, Jeffrey Gibson, Caroline Monnet, New Red Order, and many others.

Discussing the large-scale immersive piece, Galanin, who is based in Sitka, Alaska, said in a promotional video, “Creative sovereignty and creating work is a form of reclamation of our ideas, our knowledge, our language, our place, while including other perspectives and other ideas and other people’s experiences to be accessed through that work too.”

Ortman and Chacon have worked together previously, including at Ende Tymes X in Brooklyn, the American Academy in Berlin, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, and other locations. In Brooklyn Bridge Park, they will present an improvisational site-specific performance incorporating local field recordings and a mix of instruments. Admission is free, though advance registration is recommended, and attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket to sit on.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

JUDY CHICAGO IN CONVERSATION

Judy Chicago and Massimiliano Gioni will discuss artist’s career survey at New Museum on October 12 (photos by Donald Woodman; Christine Rivera)

Who: Judy Chicago, Massimiliano Gioni
What: Livestreamed talk
Where: New Museum YouTube page
When: Thursday, October 12, free with advance RSVP, 6:30
Why: “Art history is a patriarchal paradigm, and my work challenges that entire paradigm,” Judy Chicago proclaims in a promotional video for her latest show, “Judy Chicago: Herstory.” On view October 12 through January 14 at the New Museum, this first career museum survey of the artist born Judith Sylvia Cohen in Chicago on July 20, 1939, features painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, textiles, photography, stained glass, needlework, and printmaking spread across three floors, one of which is dedicated to materials from more than eighty women artists (“City of Ladies”). To kick off the show, Chicago will be in conversation with New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni on October 12 at 6:30; the in-person event is at capacity, but the talk will be livestreamed for free on YouTube.

“Working with Massimiliano Gioni has been both a challenge and an absolute joy!” Chicago recently declared on Instagram. “He is one of the best curators I have ever worked with and I am looking forward to the first exhibition of my work that will provide an appropriate context, one that challenges the idea that art history is universal because it leaves out or marginalizes all the women artists upon whose shoulders we stand.”

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

PEPÓN OSORIO IN CONVERSATION

Pepón Osorio, Lonely Soul, 2009 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Pepón Osorio, Bernardo Mosqueira, Margot Norton
What: Artist conversation
Where: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 235 Bowery at Prince St.
When: Thursday, September 14, $10, 6:30 (exhibition continues through September 17)
Why: “I’ve always been interested in people’s stories, always interested in somehow transforming my life through the lens of people’s experiences,” Puerto Rican artist Pepón Osorio says in a New Museum video about his stunning exhibition, “Pepón Osorio: My Beating Heart/ Mi corazón latiente,” which continues through September 17.

When he moved from San Juan to what he refers to as the Republic of the South Bronx in 1975 at the age of twenty, Osorio learned English and about American culture. He worked for the Department of Social Services, visiting some four thousand homes, finding trouble, safety, and spirituality.

“What I was doing was collecting stories, collecting experiences, collecting the memory of what it was to be with all those families, and then translating them into an installation,” he says. “And I also saw myself not bearing the responsibility of a caseworker but that of an artist, trying to figure out a way to allow myself and the people that I work with to step back and look at the situation.”

The exhibition features large-scale environments that Osorio calls “the social architecture of communities.” No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop (En la barbería no se llora) is a barbershop filled with videos, hubcaps, a pool table, photos of Latino men, and a tableaux with a saint; the piece questions masculinity and faith within a dazzling space. (The piece was originally presented in a storefront, with people getting actual haircuts.) Badge of Honor pairs a boy’s bedroom, stuffed to the gills with baseball cards, sports posters, sneakers, and other items, next to a jail cell with only a toilet, a mattress, and one pair of sneakers; the boy and his imprisoned father, Nelson Gonzalez, communicate in poignant video projections.

Osorio worked with a real detective when putting together Scene of the Crime (Whose Crime?), the inside of an elaborately detailed home where a murder has taken place, evoking how Latinos are portrayed in Hollywood films, particularly Fort Apache, the Bronx. Osorio re-creates the shuttered Fairhill Elementary in Philadelphia in ReForm, complete with videos of students’ reactions to the closure.

Inspired by Osorio’s own cancer treatment, Convalescence indicts the American health-care system; next to it, in the corner, is My Beating Heart (Mi corazón latiente), an oversized piñata-like heart that emits the sound of the artist’s own pumping organ. Osorio honors Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in 2002, in Lonely Soul, a shaved-ice cart held up by crutches, with religious elements and other key objects inside.

Pepón Osorio, My Beating Heart (Mi corazón latiente), 2000 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On September 14 at 6:30, Osorio will be at the New Museum for a conversation with exhibition curators Margot Norton of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and Bernardo Mosqueira of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art; judging from their discussion in the catalog, it should be an enlightening event.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LAST CHANCE — SARAH SZE: TIMELAPSE / GEGO: MEASURING INFINITY

Sarah Sze, Timekeeper, detail, mixed media, 2016 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SARAH SZE: TIMELAPSE / GEGO: MEASURING INFINITY
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Through September 10, $19-$30
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org
sarah sze: timelapse online slideshow

A pair of wonderful exhibits that contemplate time and space through striking, fragile visuals come to a close this weekend; be sure to make time to see them.

“Gego: Measuring Infinity” is a career retrospective of Hamburg-born Venezuelan artist Gertrud Goldschmidt, known as Gego. Nearly two hundred works are on view, arranged chronologically and thematically, dating from the early 1950s to the early 1990s; Gego died in 1994 at the age of eighty-two, leaving behind a plethora of sculptures, textiles, drawings, prints, sketches, watercolors, letters, artist’s books, and more. “To visualize a solution is what matters: to make visible that which still does not exist outside of me,” she said.

An architect and engineer who fled the Nazis, Gego used such materials as bronze, steel, aluminum, iron, nylon, copper, plastic, and lead to create three-dimensional structures that are like line drawings in space — she even calls some Drawing without Paper — appearing so delicate that you might think you can blow them apart (but please don’t try). On the floor, on tables, and hanging from the ceiling, the works evoke scientific helixes and nets, with titles that often explain what they are: Cube in Sphere, 12 Concentric Circles, Four Red Planes, Eight Squares. Gego’s ink-on-paper pieces play with grids and offer optical illusions that delight the eye.

“Gego: Measuring Infinity” is brilliantly paired with “Sarah Sze: Timelapse,” in which the Boston-born, New York City–based Sze incorporates elements of the Guggenheim’s spiraling Frank Lloyd Wright building — both outside and inside — into complex, spirited installations that explore time and space while revealing much of her creative process. Combining cutting-edge digital technology with tireless handwork and large-scale paintings, Sze invites visitors to marvel at the nearly impossibly detailed works, which feature plants, a pendulum hovering over water, tools, clothespins, thread, ladders, writing implements, coffee cups, tape, lamps, salt, string, wood, cords, mirrors, fans, remote controls, books, dice, and live video feeds and projections. “I often use found objects because they are scaled to me, like a compass for my own body,” Sze says. Be careful where you step; it appears that the constructions can fall apart with one tiny misstep.

Sze’s imagination extends to the titles; works have such names as The Moon’s Gravity Causes the Oceans’ Tides, Travelers Among Streams and Cascades, Images that Images Beget, The Night Sky Is Dark Despite the Vast Number of Stars in the Universe, and Things Caused to Happen (Oculus). As Sze explains, her installations consider “how we mark and measure time — constructing our own personal timelines of memory through images and fragments of experiences that are constantly evolving.” Evoking Gego, Sze also notes, “There is fragility in drawing a line through space; with this one simple powerful gesture, you can occupy an entire space.”

The show concludes at the top tower with 2016’s Timekeeper, a multimedia marvel that gets its own room. Myriad objects and projections are on and surround a desk, offering a look inside the mind of this wildly talented artist, who calls the exhibition “a contemplation on how we mark time and how time marks us.” She adds, “Every exhibition is a timekeeper. Art is a way to have a conversation over time. The show becomes almost like a forensic site for an installation or an archaeology site for a series of works, so you see the process of making, the evidence of that process left over, live in the space.” Happy digging!

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

MOLLY GOCHMAN: GATHERING

Molly Gochman’s participatory Gathering will have special activations Sundays through October 1 on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

GATHERING
Nolan Park, Governors Island
Sunday, September 10, 17, 24, and October 1, free, 1:00 – 3:00
Installation open Friday-Sunday through October 1, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
mollygochman.com
online slide show

As part of House Fest 2023 on Labor Day weekend on Governors Island, San Antonio–born, New York City–based artist Molly Gochman began installing the site-specific Gathering, a twisting, snakelike series of two hundred white and gray rolled-up waxed canvas tarps. “Stitched” together with rope, they create a thirteen-thousand-square-foot outline of the original shape of the island. Winding around trees on the grass at the center of Nolan Park, the work invites visitors to sit on it; to grab a tarp, spread it out, and have a picnic; to contemplate how the island has changed over the last hundred years through excavation and dredging; or to relax on a tarp and take it home, with Gochman’s blessing, her work spreading like gentle tentacles from the peaceful nature of Nolan Park to the endless hustle and bustle of New York City. Gochman, a friendly and enthusiastic woman, loves to engage with passersby, talking about the piece and helping them choose a tarp to use and perhaps keep. Eventually, Gathering will erode like the land itself, leaving no trace of what once was but living on through those who have engaged with it.

“I believe we live in a world where thoughtful participation — with our environment, with our objects, with our community, with ourselves, and with our fellow human beings — is the greatest good we can do. This involvement, on every level, creates a world where empathy and freedom are our primary values,” Gochman explains in her artist statement. “I hope that the person who experiences my work feels welcomed to go from the work into his or her own contemplation of what the work inspires in them or just offers them an opportunity to pause and be in that moment. In a sense, the works are only half-done when I complete my work on them. They are invitations to experience, and it’s up to each person who comes into contact with them to decide how — or if — to accept that invitation.”

Every Sunday at 1:00 through October 1, Gathering will be activated, and visitors are invited to bring a picnic and be part of the experience; all events are free. On September 10, community leaders and organizers from Black Women’s Blueprint and Black Joy Farm will come together to make unique use of the space; on September 17, Ani Weinstein will lead a guided meditation; on September 24, artist, dancer, and amulet maker Annmaria Mazzini will host a moving meditation around the work, joined by vocalist and musician Paula Jeanine Bennett and others; and on October 1, dancer and actress Christine Elmo will perform a new work created in response to Gathering to wish it a fond farewell.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

MAUM MARKET / HANGAWI KOREAN FESTIVAL

MAUM MARKET / HANGAWI KOREAN FESTIVAL
Market: Saturday, September 9, Denizen Bushwick, 123 Melrose St., free with advance RSVP, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Festival: Sunday, September 10, Samsung 837, 837 Washington St., free with advance RSVP, 1:00 – 7:00
www.koreanculture.org

In celebration of Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving and harvest festival that honors the ancestors, and the seventieth anniversary of the ROK-US Alliance, the Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) is presenting the Hangawi Korean Festival on September 10 at Samsung 837 in the Meatpacking District. From 1:00 to 7:00, there will be talks, panel discussions, arts and crafts, food tastings, fashion, workshops, and more. The day before, on Friday, September 9, the MAUM Market will make its New York debut as a one-day-only pop-up in Denizen Bushwick at 123 Melrose St. Maum, which means “heart and mind,” will feature fifty AAPI artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs participating in maker and business spotlights, including Grace Nyugen, Hwa Joong Kim, Hannah Lee, Alice Jun, Hana Jun, Ryan Kim, and Sungmee Cho. Below is the full schedule for the Hangawi main stage; be sure to wish everyone 추석 잘 보내세요 (chuseok jal bonaeseyo).

Kickoff Panel, with Kevin D. Kim, NYC Department of Small Business Services, and Michael Cheonsoo Kim, executive director of KCCNY, 1:00

Cookbook Authors, with Hooni Kim (My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes). Sohui Kim (Korean Home Cooking), James Park (Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings), and Jennifer Ban (Rice Blossoms: Modernized Korean Desserts), moderated by Irene Yoo, 2:00

Beauty & Fashion, with Wonny Lee, Erica Choi, and Grace Chi Nguyen, moderated by Terrence Kim, 3:00

Food & Drink, with Ryan Kim, Hannah Bae, and John Limb, moderated by Madeline Park, 4:00

Gallery Artists, with Ho Jae Kim, Jane Yang-D’Haene, and Yoona Hur, moderated by Diana Lee, 5:00

Restaurants, with Wesley Sohm, Jae Lee, Ahris Kim, and Esther Choi, moderated by Matt Rodbard, 6:00

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]