In the Heart of Winter
21 Reed Street, 12051
February 15 – March 30, 2025
Featuring works by: Ann Agee, Sarah Butler, Owen Carter, Erika de Vries, Lauren Drescher, Emma Fujiko, Valerie Hammond, Luc Hammond Thomas, Jared Handelsman, Adelle Lutz, Portia Munson, Lothar Osterberg, India Sachi, Kiki Smith, and Tomas Vu.
Is a Calendar Decorative?
Originally written to accompany works in “In the Heart of Winter,” this text reflects on labor, art, and care during ongoing global and personal upheaval.
I think this work is about work. So it’s a work about artwork. And a fundamental tension, because fine art emerges only in contexts of leisure—the absence of work.
I see my role as an artist now as that of a laborer. As we continue to survive this climate-COVID-cancer Trifecta, my work returns me to a sort of monastic practice—removing dust.
It’s a good thing. This kind of work can fulfill the need for external validation that is missing in a lack of contextual validation that can occur, say, in situations of violent change—where our everyday becomes unrecognizable, the familiar turns foreign.
I am at the same time skipping rocks on the lake where I am from, thinking.
Why do children collect small stones, sticks, rocks—objects of beauty—for their friends and caregivers if not to reconnect us to our ground? To show that, ultimately, these things belong to no one. And in that, they belong to everyone.
My most recent works are essays regarding how to emerge from existentialism.
Please contact info@subtler.studio with inquiries.