Nikita Gale's Thank God You're Here @ 56 Henry In New York

“Thank God you’re here” is an exclamation of relief at the presence of another person. This presence offers a sense of safety or comfort—delivery from whatever was occurring before they arrived. The phrase is also a simple instruction: thank God—a body that is both present and absent, a body whose presence is contingent on social agreements that are substantiated through ritual and repetition—that you are here.

The differences in meaning are less important than the situation that is implied: an experience of the presence of others. Each of the works presented in this exhibition is a meditation on the indeterminate boundary between presence and absence, and, in particular, how presence is read in the absence of bodies.

Like lungs, caves are hollow spaces within solid forms. They delineate—and facilitate exchanges—between inside and outside, whether by providing people with shelters or forums for sharing information. Caves are the ancestral homes of homo sapiens. In caves, we began to tell stories to one another with sounds and images—around fires, surrounded by walls inscribed with records of our experiences. (In a cave in Indonesia, archaeologists recently discovered a life-size painting of a wild pig that was made 45,500 years ago, making it the oldest known cave drawing.) Just as caves were spaces in which domestic, social, and theatrical life coalesced, COLLAPSE I–IV, a series of collages, compresses images of caves onto those of coliseums, arenas, and other types of performance venues. The formal gesture of collapsing these images into a single plane allows the prehistoric to haunt the present. The erasure of the distinctions between the contemporary categories of domestic, social, and theatrical throws into relief the discursive relationship between them.

Thank God You’re Here is on view through March 22 at 56 Henry Street New York

Clayton Schiff's Small World @ 56 Henry in New York

Et quid amabo nisi quod ænigma est?[*] 
[What shall I love if not the enigma?] 
-Giorgio de Chirico 

Clayton Schiff’s paintings seem like representations of dreams. The  artist gathers impressions of an unconscious that distorts, displaces, enlarges, and compresses experiences accumulated while awake. His haunting iconography recalls the symbolism of Arnold Böcklin, the alienation and anxiety of Edvard Munch, and Leonora Carrington’s fairylands. Yet Schiff’s fantastical creatures and strange landscapes also have a subtlety and lightness that is playful and even humorous recalling Dr. Seuss. 

Schiff’s first solo exhibition with 56 Henry speaks of isolation and disaffection, and champions the irrational and poetic, the enigmatic and arcane. The color palette is muted; soft tones prevail, adding to the work’s otherworldly quality. The paintings often feel empty and sparse, inviting comparisons to Giorgio de Chirico’s dystopian, alienating land and cityscapes.

Small World is on view through January 17 @ 56 Henry Street New York, NY 10002


Al Freeman's Cubicle @ 56 Henry NY

Cubicle, an exhibition of new work by Al Freeman, presented at 56 Henry NY. On view in the gallery is a series of wall-hung soft sculptures that represent objects associated with the material culture of corporate offices. Chosen in part for the ubiquity of their presence, the sculptures variously depict a standing water cooler, a yellow internal mail envelope, and a desktop computer monitor, among other objects. Made of stitched pleather forms loosely stuffed with polyester fill, the works enlarge the scale of their referents, replacing rigid structures with sagging forms.

The sculptures also consider the office as a site where oppression, repetition, bad taste, and humor coalesce. A miniature basketball hoop attached to a garbage can suggests an aging fraternity brother advertising his glory days to the chagrin of his coworkers. A computer monitor features the recognizable layout of the Pornhub website, and the shattered screen of a rose gold iPhone supports four lines of cocaine, suggesting the presence of illicit activities in a shared public space. Highlighting the continuities between fraternity culture and corporate politics, the exhibition mines the genre of office pranks—not dissimilar from fraternity hazing rituals—and features one of these practical jokes, which can be viewed upon request.

Cubicles is on view through Dec 22, 2019 at 56 Henry 56 Henry St. NY. photographs courtesy of 56 Henry

Hanna Liden "No Weather Data Available" @ 56 Henry Gallery In New York

In the main gallery Liden presents three cast-concrete sculptures, all molded from crook-handle umbrellas. Rendered in battleship grey, deep charcoal, and cautionary orange, the umbrella sculptures are suspended at inconsistent heights from the gallery ceiling. Two umbrellas dangle from welded industrial chain, and a third hangs from a noose looped around its handle. Strung up by their necks, the casts begin to resemble bodies hanged from an executioner’s scaffold. Hanna Liden "No Weather Data Available" will be on view until May 1, 2016 at 56 Henry Gallery in New York. photographs by Adam Lehrer