The artist statement takes on some big questions along the lines of Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Frontier, mutated since beyond recognition in the social media world.
'Nature has long been a political and ideological medium in the construction of identity: of who and what belongs, what is native or invasive, and who and what is deemed natural or deviant in the violent grammar and hierarchies of social and political life. Since the early 2000’s, Handelman’s practice has explored the entanglements of politics and nature in the vestiges of the dissolved genre of American Landscape. Discovery of a Flower / Contours of a Pond continues to examine these themes during a period in which language, imagery, and tropes of ecological thinking are increasingly appropriated and warped by white nationalists, alt-right ecology, and eco-fascism. Within them are proposals of ethno-states, visions of biological “stewardship” of racial purity, the naturalization of heteronormativity, and the weaponized rhetoric against immigrants, foreigners, and racial others.
In 2020, a propaganda print from a white supremacist hate group was posted in Handelman’s neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. This 5”X4'' print contained an appropriation of an 1855 romantic survey expedition landscape painting by John Mix Stanley captioned by the phrase from the U.S. constitution: “TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY.” These prints were part of a broader national propaganda campaign by the same organization drawing on the ideology of Manifest Destiny. They include a poster mapping the Louisiana Purchase, the re-annexation of Texas, and the Pacific Northwest among the expanded territories of the U.S., stamped with the phrase “NOT STOLEN, CONQUERED.”'
I read the artist as an historical anthropologist with a refined graphic art sensibility. It will be interesting to see how miscible those ingredients are in the work.
At at SE Cooper Contemprary https://www.secoopercontemporary.com/ 6901 SE 110th 2PM-5 Free
Fore x four is a dual to the previous show, The Quick by Brackens and Williams, at the Lumber Room. It is abstractly themed on the image of the strength of a table supported by four legs.
This group show is drawn from the Miller Meigs collection including Etel Adnan, Leonor Antunes, Christo, Nona Faustine, Lonnie Holley, Roni Horn, Luchita Hurtado, Simone Leigh, Dave McKenzie, Ana Mendieta, K.R.M. Mooney, Frida Orupabo, Gordon Parks, Deborah Roberts, Pipilotti Rist, and Bill Traylor. Wow.
Tonight the gallery brings Laraaji, an ambient musician from Philadelphia in the sound healing vein for a live performance. See tomorrow for a master class with Laraaji. Strongly recommended.
At The Lumber Room http://www.lumberroom.com/exhibitions/2022/fore-x-four 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map Masks required 5PM-7 Free
Christian Rogers and Shohei Takasaki bring paintings Curly Hair / Hot Metal. They are bright in a good way. There is a more eloquent explanation of the show and the artists on the Nationale website. Curly Hair / Hot Metal https://www.nationale.us/christian-rogers-shohei-takasaki-2022 at
Artists are, always be selling, and galleries too. So why not make it fun? Well Well Projects hosts an artist talk by Andrea Alonge on her current show Ain’t No Dark ‘Til Something Shines. There will be much socializing, and there will be bingo! The prizes are artworks by Ben Buswell, Jeremy Le Grand, Hyun Jung Jung, Sarah Mirk, Nathanael Moss, Alyson Provax, Harper Quinn, Anthony Roberto, Morgan Rosskopf, Katherine Spinella, Jessie Rose Vala, Kelda Van Patten, John Whitten and more. At Well Well Projects www.wellwellprojects.com in the Disjecta building 8371 N. Interstate#1 Map 5PM starts, 5:30 artist talk, 6:30-9 bingo-pay to play, otherwise Free
