
Upcoming Events
Exhibitions
Cris Gianakos: Works on Mylar 1983-1989
A two-part solo exhibition of mid- and large-format artworks on mylar from the mid-1980s by the renowned NYC-based artist Cris Gianakos (b. 1934). This is Gianakos’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. Online Artist Talk: Thursday, January 26, 7-8 PM EST Exhibition Tour with Artist: Saturday, February 25, 3-4 PM
Find out more »Exhibitions
Alfred Leslie
An exhibition that combines Alfred Leslie's Hoboken Ovals painting with his groundbreaking Pixel Scores. A legendary artist for seven decades, this is Leslie's fourth exhibition with the gallery. On view through March 11, 2023.
Find out more »Exhibitions
Winter Salon
In this exhibition, the gallery is presenting a selection of its favorite artworks from the gallery inventory. Featuring work from Jim Naughten, Max de Esteban, David Trautrimas, Doug Keyes, Katie Shapiro, Ken Rosenthal, Doug Fogelson, Tessa Bunny, and Leah Schretenthaler.
Find out more »Exhibitions
To Tire of Grace
To Tire of Grace is a site-specific performance/installation that explores motherwork. Artist Mandy Cano Villalobos sits alone in a tightly enclosed display case before a trough of domestic detritus. She meticulously sorts through discarded toys, underoos, kitchen utensils, clothing scraps, plastic jewelry, broken gadgets, and candy wrappers, threading each item onto long, thin cords. As she progresses in her labor, these cords accumulate an ornamental appeal that verges upon sacred beauty. At the same time, Villalobos’ Sisyphean toil contradicts the…
Find out more »Exhibitions
En La Lucha!
The Cuban Art Space will be presenting En La Lucha!, a group exhibition celebrating Cuban women artists and their work during International Women's Month. Participating artists include Jaquelín Brito, Yamilys Brito, Sandra Ceballos, Sandra Dooley, Regina Fernandez, Flora Fong, Aimee García, Karang (Karyna Alonso), Alicia Leal, Marucha (María Eugenia Haya), Elsa Mora, Marta Maria Pérez Bravo, Sandra Ramos, Zaida del Río, Ileana Sánchez-Hing and Julia Valdes. The gallery will also showcase textiles, vintage posters, and books from Cuba.
Find out more »Exhibitions
Some of my brothers are sisters, some of my sisters are mothers, and all of my mothers are fathers, too
A group exhibition by Sheila Pepe, featuring works selected by a strategy of Wittgenstein's "family resemblances".
Find out more »Exhibitions
Itziar Barrio: did not feel low, was sleeping
Smack Mellon presents did not feel low, was sleeping, premiering Itziar Barrio’s multidisciplinary trilogy Material (2016-2023) as a site specific installation in the main gallery space. The exhibition comprises film based projects A Demon that Slips into Your Telescope While You’re Dead Tired and Blocks the Light; ROBOTA MML; and Particle Matter alongside a new series of sculptures, some of which are robotic.
Find out more »Exhibitions
ann/drew gayle: just a moment
Smack Mellon is pleased to present multidisciplinary artist ann/drew gayle’s second solo exhibition in NYC. just a moment comprises gayle’s recent series of flat ceramic sculptures, formed using logics of simple mathematics and patterning techniques employed with Polymer clay. The artist draws from a wide array of inspiration including candy making, M.C. Escher, wallpaper and textile designs, and Conway’s Game of Life–an interactive game based on a mathematical equation that determines cellular automation and the potential for livelihood. The works’ candy-colored palettes…
Find out more »Exhibitions
Yuichi Idaka and László Moholy-Nagy: War Bonds
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) was a Hungarian artist and professor at the Bauhaus from 1923-1928. In 1939, Moholy-Nagy founded the Institute of Design in Chicago, today known as the Illinois Institute of Technology. Moholy-Nagy wrote several books including Painting, Photography, Film (1927) and Vision in Motion (1947). In 2003, the Moholy-Nagy Foundation was created to foster and share knowledge about the artist’s life and work. In 2016, he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New…
Find out more »Exhibitions
Susan Bee: Apocalypses, Fables, and Reveries: New Paintings
Apocalypses, Fables, and Reveries, an exhibition of new paintings by Susan Bee, is the artist’s tenth solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition centers on paintings depicting figures—particularly women—engaged in battle with demons, dragons, and other beasts, inspired by medieval mythology. Bee transmogrifies these icons of devotion into prescient myth: their stories presage the end-time fears and social injustices that plague our more secular times.
Find out more »Exhibitions
Amy Ritter: Welcome to Li’l Wolf
In Welcome to Li’l Wolf, 2022–2023 Fellow Amy Ritter turns her focus inside her childhood home for the first time, taking the visitor on a trip through the mobile home park where she grew up and where her parents continue to live. Through video, sculpture, and photography, Ritter offers the audience a glimpse into her father’s life by investigating the spaces he inhabits and explores her white working-class family’s connection to the American Dream.
Find out more »Exhibitions
Anoushé Shojae-Chaghorvand: innocence is cheap, but ten dollars lasts forever
2022–2023 Fellow Anoushé Shojae-Chaghorvand deploys the figure of the coyote—a resilient, displaced pack mammal—as her skeletal muse in innocence is cheap, but ten dollars lasts forever, an exhibition of sculptures. Panning away from the victors, Shojae-Chaghorvand centers the frame instead on the subjects we vilify: she depicts and dissects an anthropomorphized animal’s endless, cartoonish hunger and suffering—the tethers that jerk around desire and pain.
Find out more »Talk, Tour
Artist-Led Tours
Join Smack Mellon for a walkthrough of their current exhibitions, Itziar Barrio, did not feel low, was sleeping, and ann/drew gayle, just a moment, led by the exhibiting artists. In this intimate discussion, the artists will discuss the materials, as well as their underlying research and processes that contribute to the bodies of work on view.
Find out more »Special Event, Talk
NWL March General Meeting — Learning from the Fight for the Morning After Pill
Join NWL-NYC for a special public talk organized in partnership with A.I.R. Gallery to celebrate Women's History Month, and learn about NWL's campaign to get the Morning After Pill (MAP) available over the counter. At the meeting, an NWL activist and plaintiff in the case against the FDA (Tummino v. Hamburg) will discuss the tactics ultimately won the fight to make emergency contraception available to all without a prescription (hint, it wasn't just a court case). The group will discuss…
Find out more »Exhibitions
Sujean Park: Movement in the Colors
Loop of the Loom is excited to announce that they will be featuring the weaving of former Advanced Class student Sujean Park, in ‘Movement in the Colors’. Through weaving on long warps continuously, she underwent a spiritual journey in the process of SAORI weaving, which began with many experiments and explorations. Here we will be able to share what she has discovered through her weaving for years. If you want to know what makes SAORI weaving is different from other…
Find out more »Opening Reception
Opening Reception: Movement in the Colors
Loop of the Loom is excited to announce that they will be featuring the weaving of former Advanced Class student Sujean Park, in the art show ‘Movement in the Colors’. Through weaving on long warps continuously, she underwent a spiritual journey in the process of SAORI weaving, which began with many experiments and explorations. Here we will be able to share what she has discovered through her weaving for years. If you want to know what makes SAORI weaving is…
Find out more »Closing Reception, Performance
Closing Reception + Performance: Some of my brothers are sisters, some of my sisters are mothers, and all of my mothers are fathers, too
A group of works curated by Sheila Pepe, selected by a strategy of Wittgenstein's "family resemblances". There will be a brief performance by Zachary Fabri at 6:45 followed by a closing reception.
Find out more »Performance
Itziar Barrio and Seth Cluett: Particle Matter
Particle Matter is an audiovisual work created in collaboration with composer and sound designer Seth Cluett that Smack Mellon will present as a live performance activation in conjunction with Itziar Barrio’s solo exhibition, did not feel low, was sleeping. A materialist investigation into matter and multitudinous manifestations of the micro, Particle Matter approaches its subject in a rhizomatic fashion, utilizing the language of the montage–the dialectical technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of moving images and sounds–to explore the forces catalyzing…
Find out more »Exhibitions
Asia Stewart: dreamgurl
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce dreamgurl, an exhibition by 2022–23 Fellow Asia Stewart. dreamgurl features a series of self-portraits that explore the production and reproduction of sexually explicit images. This is Stewart’s first solo exhibition in New York City. In dreamgurl, Stewart offers up abstracted flesh for consumption. She invites audiences to be unashamed about their voyeurism as they move through the gallery and delight in eyeing (and occasionally fingering or trying on) the collaged pieces. Yet, in this…
Find out more »Exhibitions
Elvira Clayton: Ritual Cloths
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce Ritual Cloths, an exhibition by 2022–2023 Fellow Elvira Clayton. The exhibition will include a group of textile-based works, a small installation, a sound piece, and a performance by Clayton on the exhibition’s opening night. This is Clayton’s first solo show in New York City. Ritual Cloths is a textile-based series and part of Clayton’s ongoing project Cotton and Rice. The project explores the largest recorded slave auction in U.S. history by paying homage to…
Find out more »Special Event
DUMBO Open Studios 2023
DUMBO Open Studios 2023 will take place on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23. Visitors will see work from artists who have worked in DUMBO for decades, as well as those participating in artists residency programs. Neighborhood cultural powerhouses will also host open houses, extended hours, and special events. Save the date: RSVP on Eventbrite below!
Find out more »Performance
the body shows itself
In conjunction with her solo show dreamgurl, Asia Stewart will perform a durational work at A.I.R. Gallery on Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th from 2:00pm to 6:00pm. Titled the body shows itself, Stewart’s performance offers audiences that very thing: access to her body. Stewart will grant gallery visitors the opportunity to photograph any part of her body with an instant film camera in a one-on-one setting. Stewart has devised the following rules to govern the performance: Visitors cannot…
Find out more »