Current SVA faculty and alumni exhibitions in New York City explore everything from nostalgia and childhood to structural design and the concept of “Woman as Witch.”
Bestselling author and MFA Design faculty member Maira Kalman presents “Girls Stand on Lawns and Other Projects,” based on a collection of vernacular photographs donated to the Museum of Modern Art, many from her own personal collection. Kalman’s gauche works are reflections on family, childhood, home and nostalgia. Published as a monograph by the same name with New York Times writer Daniel Handler providing the text, Kalman’s colorful meditations articulate the wonder of youth and playfulness in womanhood. The exhibition also includes an assortment of paintings from Robert Walser: Microscript, a text illustrated by Kalman. Both books are available for purchase in conjunction with the show. On view at Julie Saul Gallery, 535 West 22 Street, through June 14.
For his first solo museum exhibition, Gavin Kenyon (MFA 2006 Fine Arts) presents “Reliquary Void,” a new series of textile-based works and sculptures made of cast-concrete that are both architectural and experimental in nature. With sculptures made in the likeness of columns and arches, Kenyon’s freestanding forms maintain a biomorphic feel and his use of warm pigments, fur, concrete units and quilting techniques combine to give shape and dimension to the objects’ structural design. On view at MOMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, through September 14.
Jamie Sneider’s (MFA 2013 Fine Arts) first New York solo exhibition explores themes of female domesticity and the concept of “Woman as Witch,” drawing from the history of her native New England. Using food dye, squid ink and bleach, Snieder’s process-based abstract paintings consider the relationship between engendered ritual and outcome. Sculpture works, Witch and Puritan, recall a time when womanhood and the occult commingled, such as during the Salem witch trials. Between the sculptures lies a “witch-hunt memorabilia collection” of sorts, with items such as a taxidermy crow, kitchen tools from the 1700s and a cast iron cauldron. On view at Thierry-Goldberg Gallery, 103 Norfolk Street, through June 8.
Image: Maira Kalman, Girl with Dogs, 2013, gouache on paper, 9 3/4″ x 7 3/4″.