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New York’s Socrates Sculpture Park opens first part of MONUMENTS NOW exhibition

In Brief

New York’s Socrates Sculpture Park opens first part of MONUMENTS NOW exhibition

Rendering of Jeffrey Gibson’s Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House, now on view at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City (Courtesy the Artist; Socrates Sculpture Park; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; Kavi Gupta, Chicago; Roberts Projects, Los Angeles/Scott Lynch)

New York’s Socrates Sculpture Park has opened a portion of the first part of its MONUMENTS NOW exhibition. Artist Jeffrey Gibson’s kaleidoscopic ziggurat, titled Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, is now on view.

MONUMENTS NOW is divided into three components. In the first, opening this summer, artists Jeffrey Gibson, Paul Ramírez Jonas, and Xaviera Simmons are creating new works of art that rethink the forms and roles of contemporary monuments. Gibson’s artwork is the only one currently completed. In October, the ten winners of an open call competition will present their work as part of the show’s second part, MONUMENTS NOW: Call and Response. The third part, also opening in October, titled MONUMENTS NOW: The Next Generation, will showcase the work of high school students participating in the park’s Socrateens program.

Sketch of Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Eternal Flame
Sketch of Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Eternal Flame (Courtesy the Artist, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Galeria Nara Roesler)

A press release from Socrates Sculpture Park said that the exhibition seeks to address the role of monuments in American society…and presents artist-envisioned monuments highlighting underrepresented histories including queer, Indigenous, and diasporic narratives.

Rendering of Xaviera Simmons’s The structure the labor the foundation the escape the pause
Rendering of Xaviera Simmons’s The structure the labor the foundation the escape the pause (Courtesy the Artist, Socrates Sculpture Park, and David Castillo, Miami)

According to the park, Gibson’s work references a variety of Indigenous, queer, and activist traditions and will include performances from Indigenous artists. Ramírez Jonas’s Eternal Flame will create a monumental grill that encourages visitors to rethink the significance of public communal eating, and Simmons’s text-heavy work will offer insight into governmental policies that continue to shape the racial caste system we live within presently.

All three portions of the show will be up through March 2021.


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