‘Forward Ground’ Opening This Week at Fridman Gallery NYC

Bowery, Fridman Gallery

 

 


Avital Burg, Shavuot Flowers, 2021, Oil on linen, 12h x 12w in

Forward Ground is a multidisciplinary exhibition highlighting the work of fourteen contemporary artists. They take the inability to relive the past as a point of departure, turning friction into textures, creating new forms through inventive use of familiar materials, moving their (back)ground forward.

Daniel Giordano, Study For Brother as Merlin’s Beard, 2019-2022, Aluminum, acrylic polymer emulsion, bald eagle excrement, candied fruit, cattails, ceramic, cicada wing, cow tooth, deep-fried batter, duct tape residue, epoxy, flint corn, glass drinking horn, hematite hosiery, malachite, Maraschino cherries, MOSSS’ hair, my hair, nail polish, paint can lid, pigment, pomade, shellac, silicone, silicone rubber, silver, soot, steel, stones, thread, thread spools, toilet paper, water caltrop, wood, wool, 27h x 24w x 9d in

When a cat is surrounded from all sides, he tries to look scary. We are on the brink and the only large weapon we have left is spreading fear. The fear our government spreads is both propagandistic and terroristic, with civilian casualties exceeding 1,000 this month alone. Thus, we suffer from self-perpetuating PTSD on a colossal scale. The collective trauma of supremacist violence blocks our ability to empathize with other peoples, prevents us from seeing the killing of foreign civilians by our armed forces for what it plainly is – murder.

We wrote these words five years ago in a catalog for a different exhibition, when Trump’s “Muslim ban” and U.S.-led bombings of Iraq and Syria ran rampant. Sadly, they resonate again today, with Russian cruise missiles destroying Ukrainian cities, another dying empire making a futile attempt to force a changing world into an old mold, unable to break with nostalgia for its inglorious past.

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Adjani Okpu-Egbe, After the Proposal, 2018, Mixed media on canvas, 60h x 48w in

Participating artists include ~ Yevgeniya Baras ~ Avital Burg ~ Youmna Chlala ~ Heather Dewey-Hagborg ~ Rahima Gambo ~ Daniel Giordano ~ Yvette Janine-Jackson ~ Lesia Khomenko ~ Oan Kim ~ Mollie McKinley ~ Levani (Levan Mindiashvili) ~ Daniel Neumann with Alarm Will Sound ~ Adjani Okpu-Egbe ~ Claudia Peña Salinas

Mollie McKinley, Salt Veil, 2021, Charred salt, blown glass, sheet glass, New York-mined rock salt, 22 x 24 x 24 in

Forward Ground will be on view from March 30 to May 8, 2022 at Fridman Gallery, 169 Bowery, NYC. Opening Reception to be held on Wednesday, March 30th from 6-8pm.

Related events include: Screening ~ ‘The Man Who Paints Water Drops‘ (2021); 79 min., directed by Oan Kim ~ Wednesday, April 13th at 7pm; Performances ~ Joy Guidry (bassoon, theremin, voice, electronics) Morivivi (spoken word) ~ Wednesday, May 4 at 8pm.