2 Art Gallery Shows to Explore From Home
Galleries and museums are getting creative about presenting work online during the coronavirus crisis. Here are some shows worth viewing virtually.
By Jillian Steinhauer and April 9, 2020
‘How Can We Think of Art at a Time Like This?’
Ongoing; artatatimelikethis.com.
The title of this online exhibition is a question I’ve been asking myself the last few weeks. A pandemic rages; people are dying — who cares about virtual viewing rooms?
And yet, culture is sustaining many of us as we stay home and try to ward off anxiety and dread. It offers comfort and distraction, and can help us feel less alone.
What I like about “How Can We Think of Art at a Time Like This?” is that it’s less of a definitive statement about this challenging time and more of an open-ended platform. Its curators, Barbara Pollack (who has written for The New York Times) and Anne Verhallen, have invited artists to submit images of relevant, though not necessarily new, work as well as an accompanying statement. A new entry has been posted every day since March 17. The process gives us a glimpse of how others respond creatively to crisis.
Amir H. Fallah and Denny Dimin Gallery
Highlights so far include Lynn Hershman Leeson’s hauntingly prescient video “Seduction of a Cyborg” (1996); Deborah Kass’s “Emergency” (2019), which marries Modernist monochromes and neon signage to sound the alarm; and Miao Ying’s “Hardcore Digital Detox” (2018), an interactive web collage that wryly comments on censorship and privacy. Amir H. Fallah’s paintings of cloaked figures in sumptuous interiors celebrate the possibilities of domesticity. Dread Scott and Jenny Polak shared a digital sketch that reads “Redistribute Health” alongside a list of principles and calls to action for surviving Covid-19. Art ranks 36th — necessary, they allow, but not the most important thing.
JILLIAN STEINHAUER