On Taking Care of Each Other
Strikes averted at four NYC museums, the devastating loss of Francis Lee Rogers, the city doubles artist grants, and The Met’s breathtaking Krasner-Pollock show.
I’m ashamed to admit that it took a death in the building for me to get to know the names and faces of my neighbors after four-ish years in the same place. I knew I lived around nice people with kind faces who would hold the door open for me when I had my hands full or reflexively tell me to “be safe out there,” but that was the extent of it until last week.
The person who passed was beloved by everyone — the stalwart of our street, known for a big heart that shone beneath a flimsy mask of stern words and a gruff attitude. That heart we all benefited from and took for granted is what ultimately betrayed him. What is the world without its twisted coincidences and indiscriminate punition?
As untimely and unfair as this loss is, it made us all look at each other and understand that it’s on us to take care of each other.
We also mourn the loss of Francis Lee Rogers, a 67-year-old artist and unhoused resident of Central Park who was reportedly killed last week. Rogers is remembered for her stunning paintings of the park’s ecosystem, and for using what little she had to keep the Ramble’s birdfeeders full throughout the winter.
It’s on us to take care of each other.
A new publication on the Studio Museum in Harlem’s history testifies to the importance of the work done to create the institution, and the work that needs to be done to ensure that no more historically Black arts institutions are lost to history or relegated to the shadows again.
It’s on us to take care of each other.
It seems to be working for UAW Local 2110 — unionized staff at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, and the Guggenheim have won their contracts after threatening to strike. It’s also shining through in the New Jersey Monuments to Migration and Labor, a statewide public art initiative celebrating immigrant communities and their organizing work in the labor sector during a time of state-sanctioned brutality and criminalization.
In her inaugural contribution to Hyperallergic, critic and novelist Lucy Ives reviews Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at The Met, confidently stating, “I’ve never seen an upending quite like this.” And just four miles south, in Mala Iqbal’s solo exhibition Among Us at JJ Murphy Gallery, Hyperallergic’s co-founder and Editor-at-Large, Hrag Vartanian, is reminded that “the world is a room we share with strangers, most of whom are looking elsewhere.”
And lastly, the city’s largest-ever arts and culture budget appears to be moving the needle: After nearly 20 years of $5,000 allocations for individual, city-funded artists' grants, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs announced that the figure has doubled in a call for applications.
Is this what it feels like when someone finally cares for us?
Artists Honor Immigrants in Monuments Across New Jersey
New public commissions by artists Michelle Angela Ortiz, Chat Travieso, and Immanuel Oni are part of the New Jersey Monuments to Migration and Labor initiative. | Rhea Nayyar
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Quilt Along: Sit and Sew at the National Museum of the American Indian
Meet artist Margaret Wood (Diné/Seminole), one of five contemporary Indigenous artists featured in the museum’s first-ever Quilt Along program. The artists designed patterns inspired by different eras of United States history, as seen through a Native lens.
Learn more and join us Saturday, October 17, 1–3 PM.
From Our Critics
Lucy Ives
Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
"We want to stare at somebody else’s marriage. Even more than this, we want to know how she did it. How did Lee Krasner make these intricate and small and big and brash paintings? How did she survive being married to a man who was briefly the most famous artist in America, and who died while driving under the influence? How did she ... make it out alive, and, moreover, what did it mean for her art?"
Stephanie Wambugu
Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony at the New Museum
"Arthur Jafa’s survey ... is full of the artist’s characteristic gallows humor that ironizes even the most morbid images and brings to the surface the solemnity of low culture."
Hrag Vartanian
Mala Iqbal: Among Us at JJ Murphy
" I can find myself in these paintings, but in parts, not whole, the way a glimpse on the street lingers to become something precious and beautiful in its ephemerality."
Madeleine Seidel
Johanna Hedva: Gravity, My / Favorite Enemy at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances
"Hedva’s interdisciplinary exploration into the inescapable, constant march may ask us to consider one of life’s greatest mysteries, but the work itself does little to support such a vast inquiry."
John Yau
This Heat: Brenda Goodman, Steve DiBenedetto, and Bendix Harms at New York Studio School
"Many of DiBenedetto’s paintings strike as a weird combination of the grotesque and comic, like an armless creature trying to apply lipstick with its nose."
FIT Exhibition Explores the Cultural Dialogue Between Dolls and Fashion
Featuring more than 170 objects, “Doll Dressing” examines the influence of dolls on fashion from the 18th century to today.
Pocket Reviews
A Vision of Rebirth, Raw and Sumptuous
Derriann Pharr, an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum, draws from girlhood and womanhood in works that metamorphose before our eyes. | Valentina Di Liscia
Read MoreRebecca Ness Stakes Her Claim to Art History
Reinterpreting canonical works is nothing new, but her work shines when it’s most personal. | Rebecca Schiffman
Read MoreManuel Álvarez Bravo’s Solitary Gaze
The Mexican photographer’s most recognizable work echoes a dreamy vision of solitude. | Julia Curl
Read More
A Hyperallergic Halloween
Join us on October 28 in Brooklyn, NY for an evening of spooky cocktails, devilish delights, an art-themed costume contest, and more.
Features
Rana Begum Sees What You Don’t
“Art became a tool to communicate, at first,” she told Hyperallergic. “Then it became an obsession.” | Aruna D’Souza
Read MoreNew Book Chronicles Studio Museum in Harlem’s 58-Year History
Contributors include artists such as Dawoud Bey, who wrote that the venerated institution has “changed the shape of my life.” | Anna Lee
Read MoreNews
- Following contract ratifications at the Brooklyn Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, and the Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum of American Art and its union came to an 11th-hour agreement on the eve of a scheduled strike.
- NYC artists can now receive up to $10,000 in city-funded grants, double the amount of previous appropriations, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs announce.
- Francis Lee Rogers, a 63-year-old artist whose neighbors and subjects were the birds of Central Park, was found dead in Central Park.
What Else Is Happening?
- During Banned Books Week, Hyperallergic's Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian is moderating a conversation between artists, publishers, and filmmakers for a discussion on artistic freedom and the need for new ways to support free expression in the arts. (Tues Oct 6) [bklynlibrary.org]
- Attend Organizing Amid Displacement — an update on activism and mutual aid in refugee camps of the northern West Bank at The People's Forum. (Tues Oct 6) [peoplesforum.org]
- New York City Transit will once again hold a Memorabilia and Collectibles Pop-Up Shop. You can purchase perfectly imperfect items — subway signs, grabholds, retired fleet memorabilia, and more — in person. (Thurs Oct 8 and Fri Oct 9) [mta.info]
- At its Open Studios, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts welcomes the public to explore 85 artist studios, along with a host of arts programming and exhibitions. (Fri Oct 9 and Sat Oct 10) [studios-efa.org]
- Join MoMA for screenings on short films about the roots of the New York City underground. (Thurs Oct 7) [moma.org]
- Watch Southland Tales (2006) at the Museum of the Moving Image. (Sun Oct 11) [movingimage.org]
