Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Inbetweenness
Until 18 December at the Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, Manhattan
The exhibition of two works by the late artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, curated by Flavin Judd, the son of the late Minimalist master Donald Judd, explores how the artist “infused meaning into objects”, Judd says in a statement. “The exhibition allows for the viewer to see how these two works deal with space: neither of them are on the floor; you are in them, and to some extent not walking around them but walking along them.” The atmospheric works "Untitled" (Loverboy) (1989)—a sequence of sheer blue curtains installed in the building’s Soho-facing windows—and "Untitled" (1991–1993) respond to the architecture of the foundation, which usually hosts just two exhibitions per year in its New York outpost.
Installation view, Grada Kilomba: Heroines, Birds and Monsters at Amant. Photo: Shark Senesac. Courtesy Amant.
Grada Kilomba: Heroines, Birds and Monsters
Until 30 October at the Amant, 315 Maujer Street, Brooklyn
Amant’s inaugural exhibition is the first major US presentation of the Berlin-based Portuguese artist and theorist Grada Kilomba. The show comprises a series of conceptual works that explore themes related to memory and trauma, specifically the insidious markings of colonialism and enslavement in everyday life. The centrepiece of the exhibition, a trilogy titled A World of Illusions (2017-2019), immerses the viewer in a three-channel video in which the artist retells Greek myths through a critical modern lens. The emotive installation Table of Goods (2017)—a mound of soil, coffee beans, cocoa and dark chocolate surrounded with white candles—memorialises the materials that drove the Transatlantic slave trade and evokes ceremonial and burial structures prevalent in various African religions.
Shaun Leonardo, Between Four Freedoms (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Four Freedoms Park Conservancy.
Shaun Leonardo: Between Four Freedoms
Until 1 November at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, Roosevelt Island
The celebrated American artist Shaun Leonardo has conceived an installation that aims to uplift vulnerable and marginalised voices in New York City. The work began with a series of workshops facilitated by the artist with individuals who felt outcast due to gender, race or disabilities. The artist prompted participants to reinterpret the historic Four Freedoms address delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, which underscored freedom of speech, religion, and freedom from want and fear as inherent to the dignity of every person. The culminating work itself comprises a series of large-scale vinyl murals depicting various hand gestures that can be activated by scanning a QR code, leading to poignant testimonials of participants from the workshop. The piece was commissioned by the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy, a non-profit organisation focused on socially engaged public projects.