2026
Frog Magazine
Issue 24
Every time I go to an exhibition I make sure to take a copy of the press release that is left out in a stack somewhere. It has become habit to crumple these documents away in my bag or pocket, an important measure to prevent eventually forgetting all aspects of the situation. I think new, subjective versions of the exhibition can be created by using these documents to reflect long after the opening. The choice to include these press releases in a show carries an attitude that desires to be understood, one that yearns to be indexed and sorted away neatly by the powers that stand tested. The choice to not include a press release says a lot about a situation and an artist; I do not discount any exhibition without one and often prefer those that don’t. However no exhibition nor artist can escape the politics of the press release.
I have a stack of these American press releases here next to me on my desk that I’ve collected over the past year or so—and just the memory of some that were not documented in this way. I will go through them and choose ones to write about—whatever naturally comes to mind as briefly as possible to get straight to the heart of the matter. I hope this text can create a subjective state of affairs for art in New York last year.
(Venue, Artist, Exhibition, Date Attended)
O’Flaherty’s, Alex Katz & Matthew Barney, December 2024
Best show I’ve ever seen. In an old restaurant venue on Allen St. First time I saw either of their work in person, this fever dream duo, and now I supposedly have the wrong idea about their work.
Artists Space, Michael Asher, January 2025
Academia personified through a formless sculpture. Free catalog was incredible but somehow outshined by Asher’s series of fictitious exhibition advertisements in various real art magazines.
Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Marc Kokopelli, January 2025
Fabulous metal TV structures with rocks or bricks on the inside and a holographic screen playing old television containing them. Reminded me of a particular scene in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Mike Teavee.
Gladstone Gallery, Joan Jonas, March 1, 2025
This was the first Joan Jonas show I’d ever seen and it was not what I had imagined her was was… Loved it all the same.
Park Avenue Armory, Anne Imhof, Doom: House of Hope, March 3, 2025
The amount of resource and space that went into this tragic disservice to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was a public disservice.
Paula Cooper, Claes Oldenburg & Peter Moore, April 2025
Reminded me of pictures I take now on the street but if I were stuck in a 1960s purgatory.
Gladstone, Robert Rauschenberg, May 1, 2025
Incredible to see some of his painting in person for the first time. As well as his strange sculptures made of junk in the most stereotypical 60s connotation of the word.
Incubator, Atticus Wakefield, After the Allegory, May 7, 2025
Something about this made me feel ostracized… I really didn’t get it.
Artists Space, Group Exhibition, September 2025
One of the young artists had enclosed themselves in a metal coffin and was being monitored by interns most likely being paid reasonable wages.
Gagosian, Richard Serra, September 2025
The scale was ridiculous. I witnessed them removing these works at the show’s conclusion which took the lid off the whole thing in the best way possible. Like being a kid and seeing behind the scenes photos of a fantasy film.
Gladstone, Lawrence Weiner, AS OFTEN AS NOT, September 12, 2025
Stark, cold, and to the point. Somehow both a rejection of the new and the old simultaneously. How exactly does that work?
Martos Gallery, Michel Auder, ghostwriter, September 2025
How can such an old man make such good films still? His more recent work is exactly what I was wanting to make but he has done it much better!
Amant Arts, Women’s History Museum, Grisette à l’enfer, September 2025
Incredible installation of an idealist New York and its inhabitants, using fashion, fake trash, and mannequins to make a kind of mise en scène.
Martos Gallery, Keith Haring, FDR Drive Mural, November 13, 2025
Long live FDR Drive, my favorite highway, and long live Keith Haring.
Market Gallery, Rachel Simon: You and me, November 2025
Very good and crude paintings of Spiderman having sex with people.
Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Nicolas Ceccaldi, Cartoons, November 16 2025
Someone recreated French and Dutch paintings from the distant past in oil pastel and made them feel futuristic and alien in the best way possible.
Mnuchin Gallery, Julian Schnabel, November 2025
Enormous plate paintings from the beginning to the end all surrounding a sushi bar. Quite something to behold!
Gladstone Gallery, Alex Katz & Matthew Barney, December 2025
The same amazing show I saw a year prior soaked in some unknown liquid to preserve it. It was like running into a dear old friend who has gone into a new line of work but has fundamentally remained the same. I remembered what I had liked but it was still quite the surprise.
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