Weekly Happenings: July 27–August 3, 2021
Installation view of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s The Infinity Engine at the New Museum. Photo by Dario Lasagni.
Each week, we create a list of exhibitions, screenings, events, and news featuring Creative Capital Awardees of all disciplines. This list can include shows that have recently opened, shows about to close, and noteworthy headlines and interviews that profile artists and their work.
We recommend reading about Cassils’s NFT project $HT Coin, seeing Pope.L’s first solo exhibition in London in a decade at Modern Art, and checking our Garrett Bradley’s docuseries on Naomi Osaka on Netflix.
Events, Exhibitions, & Screenings
Emily Johnson / CATALYST
Portals Into, Being Future Being
Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts
On-site performance
July 30–August 1
Emily Johnson presents a new site-specific dance performance around the experiences of movement, place, history, collective action, and the continuance of Indigenous cultural practices and perspectives. The soundscore is created by another Creative Capital Awardee, Raven Chacon.
Garrett Bradley
Naomi Osaka
Netflix
Three-part docuseries
Garrett Bradley directed this intimate docuseries following Naomi Osaka as she explores her cultural roots and navigates her multifaceted identity as a tennis champ and rising leader.
Guadalupe Maravilla
Guadalupe Maravilla & The Sound of Healing
Art21
Online film screening
July 28 at 12pm ET
Art21 premieres their moving short documentary film, which provides an intimate look into Guadalupe Maravilla’s process for and activation of his Planeta Abuelx solo exhibition currently on view at Socrates Sculpture Park.
“Hiding in Plain Sight”
Pace Gallery in New York City
In-person exhibition
July 14-August 20
This group exhibition brings together 18 international artists who use the language of Minimalism and abstraction to distill complex subjects into forms that reveal new frameworks of meaning, revelation, and resistance for the here and now. Creative Capital Awardee Jessica Vaughn and National Advisory Council Co-Chair Fred Wilson are among the artists with work on view.
Jillian Mayer
TIMESHARE
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC
In-person exhibition
July 15-September 26
In this exhibition, Jillian Mayer’s fiberglass sculptures, ceramic forms, and paintings explore how art can become functional during times of disaster or when the planet becomes uninhabitable.
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Twisted
New Museum in New York City
In-person exhibition
June 30–Oct 3, 2021
This exhibition brings together a selection of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work in drawing, sculpture, video, and photography, along with interactive and net-based works, focusing on themes of transmutation, identity construction, and the evolution of the cyborg.
Nick Cave
Forothermore
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
In-person exhibition
Through October 2, 2022
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the first career-spanning retrospective of the internationally renowned Chicagoan Nick Cave. The exhibition includes Cave’s immersive installations, textural sculptures, impeccably crafted fashion, and dynamic videos and performances.
“OMNISCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture”
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City
In-person exhibition
Through January, 2022
Creative Capital Director of Artist Initiatives Aliza Shvarts and Awardees Anna Sew Hoy and Carrie Moyer have work in this group exhibition looking at the history of queer iconographies in popular visual culture.
Pope.L
Notations, Holes and Humour
Modern Art in London
In-person exhibition
Through August 28
Modern Art presents Pope.L’s first solo show in London in more than a decade. The exhibition centers on his ongoing project, Skin Set, a constantly growing and shifting group of text-inflected works that consider the construction of language, identity, and stereotype as notation, hole, and absurdity and humor.
Raja Feather Kelly
The KILL ONE Race
Film
Through July 31, 2021
Filmed at Playwrights Horizons during the pandemic, and inspired by the 1963 dystopian novel Kill One, The KILL ONE Race is a reality competition game-play created by Raja Feather Kelly. Over the course of seven days, seven contestants compete in a social and ethical obstacle course to be proven the most ethical—and earn the singular prize of death.
Sharon Bridgforth
dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show
Twin Cities PBS
TV Broadcast and Digital Screening
Twin Cities PBS will broadcast Sharon Bridgforth’s Creative Capital Project, dat Black Mermaid Man Lady/The Show, filmed at Pillsbury House Theatre in 2018. Centered in African-American artistic and cultural traditions, the constantly evolving project supports the creation of spaces that activate communal wisdom and self-determination.
Theaster Gates
How to Sell Hardware
Gray Warehouse in Chicago
In-person exhibition
Through July 31
Theaster Gates’s practice is deeply invested in the material preservation of neglected social and cultural histories. In 2014, he acquired True Value hardware store in Chicago’s South Side and all of its merchandise. How to Sell Hardware tells the story of the store’s growth and prosperity and eventual downturn as the neighborhood changed.
Will Rawls
Everlasting Stranger
Henry Art Gallery in Seattle
In-person exhibition and performances
July 17-August 15
In this exhibition, Will Rawls activates relationships between language, dance, and image through the fragmentary medium of stop-motion animation. Performances will also take place on Saturdays from 12-3pm ET.
Xenobia Bailey
Mothership and Hallowed Be Their Names
Brookfield Place in New York City
In-person exhibition
Through September 17
Brookfield Place presents two commissioned hand-crochet works by Xenobia Bailey in their Winter Garden Gallery. Mothership, pays homage to the African American homemaker, caregiver, and domestic worker and Hallowed Be Their Names is an installation to celebrate and uplift communities affected by loss.
In the News
“A Persian Garden For Manhattan—with Bahar Behbahani”
Fresh Art Intonational
June 23, 2021
Cathy Byrd of Fresh Art International talks to Behar Behbahani about her vision of designing a Persian garden in New York City as a venue for activism and healing based on a communal sense of hospitality, resistance, and resilience.
“Lynn Hershman Leeson: The Artist Is Prescient”
New York Times
July 8, 2021
The New York Times covers Lynn Hershman Leeson’s exhibition, “Twisted,” at the New Museum. “It’s a strong, smart survey that gives her overdue credit,” writes Jillian Steinhauer. “The show strikes me as akin to a greatest hits album: an excellent introduction for newcomers and a dose of reliable inspiration for those familiar with her work, but not deep enough once you’re tuned into her brilliance.”
“Naomi Osaka To Share Her Story In 3-Part Netflix Documentary Series”
Vibe
July 8, 2021
Garrett Bradley directs a new 3-part Netflix docuseries about Naomi Osaka. Set to debut on July 16, it follows the global tennis phenom as she experiences a historic two years in the sport and finds her voice both on and off the court.
“Cooking with Artists: Wafaa Bilal”
MoMA PS1
July 13, 2021
Wafaa Bilal shares his recipe for Najafi Qeema—Iraqi meat and chickpea stew—with MoMA PS1 chef Mina Stone for their series Cooking with Artists. In the video, Bilal talked about a range of subjects including eating in silence, to the practice of feeding a village, to reinventing ritual in a new place.
“How Garrett Bradley Got Inside Naomi Osaka’s Head”
Vanity Fair
July 15, 2021
Garrett Bradley talks to Vanity Fair about her new Netflix docuseries on tennis star Naomi Osaka. “I really wanted it to feel like we were journeying with her. “It wasn’t a recap of things that we’d already read in the press, or something that you could read in Wikipedia,” says Bradley. “But, how do we really understand Naomi? And how can I make sure that viewers walk away from this actually feeling a deep human connection?”
“Theaster Gates Finds Community in Labor”
Hyperallergic
July 17, 2021
Hyperallergic reviews Theaster Gates’s new exhibition at Chicago’s Gray Warehouse, How to Sell Hardware: “The show includes what appears to be the entire contents of the store, from its stock of nuts and bolts to its display racks and lighting fixtures… A fire extinguisher, collapsible conveyor belts for the unloading of delivery trucks, a phone, and a cash box are all reminders that this inventory wasn’t static, but was part of an active neighborhood economy.”
“‘I’m not Jeff Koons!’ – the endurance crawls, weird texts and guerrilla brilliance of Pope.L”
The Guardian
July 18, 2021
The Guardian interviews Pope.L and looks at his life and career as an artist. They even mention his Creative Capital Project, The Black Factory, in which the artist toured America, asking people to donate items that they associated with Blackness.
“White Male Artist Wants To Know If You’ll Buy His $HT NFTs.”
Forbes
July 19, 2021
“An exclusive interview with the anonymous figure known only as White Male Artist, behind one of the most provocative NFT art projects to date.” White Male Artist was later revealed to be Creative Capital Awardee Cassils.
“Meet the Anonymous Artist Who’s Auctioning Off Cans of Their Own Poop Based on the Diets of Major Market Stars at Phillips”
Artnet
July 22, 2021
Five tins containing excrement based on the diets of famous artists—such as Banksy, Jeff Koons, and Matthew Barney—will be going on sale at Phillips on 7/29, along with 3D renderings of the cans made into NFTs. The project, aptly known as $HT COIN, is the work (and excrement) of an artist going under the guise of “White Male Artist.” Artnet revealed them to be none other than Creative Capital Awardee Cassils.
“Meet the Anonymous Artist Who’s Auctioning Off Cans of Their Own Poop Based on the Diets of Major Market Stars at Phillips”
Artnet
July 22, 2021
The Architect’s Newspaper reviews Alan Ruiz’s exhibition, “Container and Contained” at The Kitchen in New York City: “By far the strongest work in Container and Contained is Transfer II (WS-B690-L40), a conceptual work wherein the artist leased The Kitchen’s 300 square feet of air rights at a rate of one dollar per month for a year… The lease has the potential to drastically depress the value of the building’s air rights, which could, in turn, affect the value of the luxury condos adjacent to The Kitchen.”
“A24 Lands Rights To Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable Of The Sower’, Setting ‘Time’ Director Garrett Bradley To Helm”
Deadline
July 26, 2021
Garrett Bradley is set to direct Octavia Butler’s science fiction odyssey Parable Of The Sower. “The project would mark Bradley’s first feature film at a major studio following a run of critically acclaimed documentaries including the Oscar-nominated Time from Amazon Studios.”
More Online Resources
Every month, Creative Capital compiles a list of residencies, grant, and award opportunities as part of our commitment to sharing resources and opportunities for artists working in all creative disciplines. These opportunities have deadlines in February and March 2025.