Retrospective: November 2024
my month in cultural activities, from art fairs to museum exhibits
I’ve been intermittently posting about art and culture since 2020, and the reason I keep coming back to the deep dark hole that is social media is to (try to) do my part in making art and culture more accessible. And because I like having my own little corner of the universe where I can yap incessantly.
Today, I’m coming at you with a new format: a roundup of all the art exhibits and cultural events I attended this month. There are a few reasons why I decided to start doing this:
If you’re NYC-based or planning a trip here soon, I hope you’ll find some interesting recommendations
While I love looking at art and attending cultural events, I struggle to write about them. Putting these experiences into writing is hard and I hope this new format will help me become a better “art critic” - I’m treating this as a writing exercise, so to speak
Art is fun and there’s something for everyone! I hope reading about my musings convinces you of that
During the month of November, I went to:
An exhibition centered around the theme of the body at the MoMa
A conference on Palladian architecture at the Italian Cultural Institute
A small two-room exhibit at the NYPL
A very small art fair at the Hotel Chelsea
Some I liked, some I didn’t. It’s ok! My opinion means nothing.
Let’s get into it,
Ginevra
Vital Signs: Artists and the Body at The Museum of Modern Art (NYC)
Through February 22, 2025
Some days I just want to get out of the house without succumbing to decision paralysis. For this, I have my go-to’s: a walk in the park (weather permitting), browsing the thrift stores around my neighborhood (bank account permitting), or the MoMa, for when both the weather and my wallet fail me. I was gifted a membership to the museum for my birthday and I think it’s the greatest luxury. I love being able to walk in without a plan and check out what’s on. There’s no pressure to see everything or justify the visit. I just get to put on my noise cancelling headphones and hang out. On a particularly gray afternoon, freshly lightened of my monthly rent, I wandered into Vital Signs: Artists and the Body.
The exhibition includes works by artists across generations, styles, and gender expressions. It explores what it means to inhabit, transform, and (I’d add) transcend our bodies. It examines how social, economic, industrial, and political changes influence our understanding of corporeal existence. What is our place in the world? What is the role of the self in society? These are the questions being asked.
I was excited to see the work of artists I admire, but I also enjoyed discovering new ones along the way. For example, I knew Ana Mendieta primarily for her land art, and I enjoyed seeing that the exhibition highlighted a series of self-portraits rather than her more widely recognized works. Louise Bourgeois, renowned for her sculpture, had both a sculpture and a drawing on display: Torso, Self Portrait and, in another room, her drawing, Femme Maison.
I particularly loved how, despite focusing on something as tangible as the body, the exhibition quickly moved into abstraction. It proved that bodies are vessels that carry us through life, and that selfhood is constructed and renegotiated in ways that don’t need to be representational. I’m still working on articulating more of my thoughts on this exhibit: more on that soon.
Venice and America: the Landscape of the Republics at the Italian Cultural Institute (NYC)
November 12, 2024
A friend forwarded me the invite1 to a conference at the Italian Cultural Institute (ICI) on Venetian Palladian Villas, designed by Andrea Palladio, and Monticello, the plantation house built by Thomas Jefferson, which was inspired by Palladio's neoclassical style.
While it had all the prerequisites to be an interesting event, I think it fell short on both style and content. The conference was two hours of uninterrupted lecturing, with a line up of professional, well-read, and intelligent speakers who unfortunately read from their papers the entire time. This presentation modality did not make for a particularly engaging session, and as an audience member it was sometimes hard to follow what they were saying: reading aloud is different than presenting.
At the same time, it would be unfair to ascribe this conference’s shortcomings solely to the zeal of its speakers. The content itself was lacking depth. It comprised of a series of historical facts, mentioned one after the other, leaving no room for curiosity or further discussion. There were mentions of hydrophilia and of the love 18th century American upper class had for hanging out by rivers, which led to the edification of villas around fluvial environments - I thought that was interesting. At large, though, entire pieces of important context were left out entirely. No exploration of how the villas influenced urban landscapes, no mention of the different societal differences between the US and Venice during the time of Palladio and Jefferson, and - most glaringly - no acknowledgment of slavery or colonialism, despite Jefferson’s history and the context of the 1700s America. I was told a string of facts, but the important questions were left unanswered: why do we care? why is this important?
In Italy we have a saying: “né carne né pesce” which literally translates to “neither meat nor fish” and refers to something that doesn’t fully commit to one thing or the other. It’s neither here nor there.
As an Italian, I am familiar with my country’s rhetoric around culture. It caters to a very narrow group of intellectuals instead of involving a wider public. It favors soliloquies instead of an exchange of ideas. What a missed opportunity. This city is filled with so many students, scholars, artists, etc. who would not only enthusiastically engage in meaningful conversations around Italian arts and culture, but could also bring in fresh viewpoints - why not involve them?
Becoming Bohemia: Greenwich Village, 1912-1923 at The New York Public Library (NYC)
Through February 1, 2025
This one was short and sweet. Tucked away in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the exhibit spans just two rooms but is filled with interesting information. My favorite room focused on the trailblazers of Greenwich village bohemia in the 1920’s - art collectors, suffragettes, artists, doctors, public figures. I appreciated the books and independent publications on display from that era. It was really cool to see all the ways progressives were organizing and the work they were doing at the time.
I also learned that the Whitney Museum was founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who, after the Met declined the gift of her personal art collection, decided to create her own institution instead2.
The Chelsea Art Fair at Hotel Chelsea (NYC)
November 23, 2024
The Chelsea Art Fair was a one-day event held at the beautiful Hotel Chelsea. I knew it wouldn’t be one of those massive commercial art fairs, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as small as it was either. I was hoping to stroll around taking in the art, the well-dressed people, the pretentious socialites, and the well-dressed pretentious socialites. The queue to go in was huge - though, it moved quickly. As we stood there, at least three people emerged from the fair and warned us: “Don’t bother, it’s not worth it!”. And honestly, they were not entirely wrong.
After queuing for 15 minutes, we walked in, checked in (since I had RSVP’d online) got a little hand stamp, and made our way across the first room. Except, the first room was also the only room. The whole thing took maybe five minutes to see. Again, I knew it wouldn’t be huge, only a handful of galleries were involved (56 Henry, CASTLE, Lomex, Matthew Brown & Ramiken) - but I didn’t expect it to be that small. And yes, the galleries were represented, but by a tiny booth with maybe three or four artworks each and the room was so overcrowded that we barely had a chance to look at the art.
I’m also painfully aware that I am not the target audience for this fair - I don’t collect art, I’m not an artist, and I don’t work for the art market. While I was there for leisure, I realize others were there for business. I get it! I’m not complaining. I got to see some really well-dressed people, the hotel lobby was beautiful, and my friend and I ended up going for a drink at a bar (see? leisure).
Shows I’d like to see before they close:
Meghan Stephenson: Swan Dive at Half Gallery
Ai Wei Wei: What You See is What You See at Fauroschou
Lillie P. Bliss: The Birth of the Modern at MoMa
Enchanting Imagination at The NY Historical Society
Barbie: A Cultural Icon at the Museum of Art and Design
Events at the ICI are open to all, btw.
She was an Aquarius, do with that information what you will.