As its title suggests, ARMS ACTED AVID AEON: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: Fierce Pussy Amplified: Chapter Eight is two things at the same time: a group exhibition featuring long -standing employees and an exploration of the art collective fierce pussy.
Structurally, it is more the first. With one exception, works represent the individual practices of the main collective members. The Overlier is a fierce pussy poster that visitors are welcomed to take, printed with the line “I have all my sisters with me” from the 1979 Sister Hymn “We Are Family”. The only didactic work in an otherwise dense conceptual spectacle is a nod to the history and activism of the group: they formed in 1991 to take the lesbian identity in the streets with interventions such as wheat posters around New York materials, to rename the streets after lesbian icons and to distribute materials, including greeting cards and self -adhesive.
The exhibition was designed by the conservative Jo-Ey Tang to put the solo practices of artists in dialogue. A document identifies the works, but there are no wall labels, so that viewers can wander in the show without always knowing who did what (like me, deliberately). Consequently, something curious happens: a fierce cat East Amplified, not as a group of activists but as a friend, creative partners and collaborators.
The show is made up of pieces that resonate with each other visually and textural: the mainly beige textiles which form “withdrawn: 5 skins” by Joy Episalla (2001/2018/2024/2025) could first resemble remains of remains on the concrete floor, but the sculptural leaf of the Carrie Yamaoka Nearby “Uravelle” (2024) folds at Carrie Yamaoka nearby “surlay” (2024). Variations, and vice versa. Likewise, Yamaka's mixed abstract work “14 by 11 (Flake.swell)” (2024) draws attention to the official qualities of Zoe Leonard photography “Tree + Fence, Out My Back Window” (1998), while the latter Amadbe potential figurative readings in the first. A similar dynamic takes place between “Stump 3” by Yamaoka (2024), a digital print of a tree strain on a draped fabric on a wooden panel, and the “fleece of episalla (chromo white / blue, winter 40 'x 50”) “(2025), which reminded me of a frozen giant and metallic packaging.
Hypnotic optical paintings of a cheese -type pattern by the late Brody (to whom the spectacle is dedicated) are referring to the mutability of perception in the show. The shared title – “GLORY HOLE, (VIBGYOR)” – ARTICULE Queerness in the presence in the two pieces: “Vibgyor” is a mnemonic device to memorize the optical spectrum or the colors of the rainbow. The presence echoes throughout the show in the way some works can distort, or queer, superficial readings of others.
This does not mean that works act as keys to each other. badly greedy weapons Aeon I have been the subject of a recent program that Yamaka organized, Exposure at Ultterior Gallery. In her Hyperalgic goodbyeAlexis Clements noted that “artists are not obliged to deposit a food audience, but it is a choice to present a work that goes to itself.” This spectacle certainly does not nourish its audience, but it creates a coherent sensitivity which is all the more significant because of the human relations which underlie its formal relationships. Praised together by the poster of the collective, the show presents a fierce cat not in the streets, but in a more private field communicating with each other, like the family.
ARMS ACTED AVID AEON: Nancy Brooks Brody / Joy Episalla / Zoe Leonard / Carrie Yamaoka: Fierce Pussy Amplified: Chapter Eight Continue to participant Inc (116 Elizabeth Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan) until May 11. The exhibition was organized by Jo-Ey Tang.
