Gallery Exhibition at 52 Walker Street
Our latest Feature follows Jeffrey Meris as he and NXTHVN Curatorial Fellow Claire Kim connect Meris’ ongoing routine of “self-care Saturday” and his studio practice. Started amidst the chaos and violence of last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, Meris’ practice involved setting aside time each week to pursue activities related to his own mental and physical well-being, whether that was cooking, exercising or caring for plants.
In our latest installment of Feature videos on the NXTHVN 2020-2021 fellows, we follow Esteban Ramón Pérez, an interdisciplinary artist from the Los Angeles area. Raised in his father's upholstery shop, Ramón Pérez incorporates materials from his youth, including leather and embroidery, to create monumental paintings such as Como La Flor (Toreado), 2021.
The final Feature on the 2020-2021 NXTHVN cohort follows artist Vincent Valdez as he discusses the creation of his monumental painting Just A Dream (In America), 2021. This grisaille painting, nearly eight feet tall, depicts an exhausted Chicano boxer sitting in the corner of a ring flanked by a coach and sponsor, both just out of view—a metaphor exposing the hierarchies of American society.
The newest Feature on the 2020-2021 NXTHVN Artist cohort follows Ilana Savdie, as she discusses her depictions of the human body in her work. Savdie describes the human body as "an inconvenience" in its failure to conform to culturally-imposed standards and restrictions. Savdie embraces this defiance, emphasizing the abjectness of the human body through texture and color, in an effort to transcend the constraints of physical form.
