New Museum Presents John Akonfrah, Kameelah Janan Rasheed and others for Summer Exhibitions

John Akomfrah: Signs of Empire
June 20–September 2, 2018
Second Floor

John Akomfrah: Signs of Empire is the first American survey exhibition of the British artist and film director, presenting four works from across his celebrated career. Since the early 1980s, Akomfrah’s moving image works have offered some of the most rigorous and expansive reflections on black diasporic culture in the UK and around the world. Akomfrah initially came to prominence as part of Black Audio Film Collective, a group founded in response to the 1981 Brixton riots. The collective produced several films notable for their mix of archival and found footage and layered sound collages. Recently, Akomfrah’s multichannel video works have evolved into ambitious large-scale installations, with subjects ranging from the persistent legacy of colonialism to the roots of the contemporary in classical literature. The exhibition’s centerpiece will be Akomfrah’s celebrated three-screen video installation Vertigo Sea (2015), making its first New York appearance. The exhibition is curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Curator, and Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director.

Thomas Bayrle: Playtime
June 20–September 2, 2018
Third and Fourth Floors

Thomas Bayrle: Playtime is the first New York museum survey by the groundbreaking German artist. The exhibition will bring together works from the last fifty years, highlighting Bayrle’s experiments across media and his commentary on the relationships between consumerism, technology, propaganda, and desire. Long before the advent of current visual technologies, he foresaw our digital reality, employing photocopy machines and other midcentury tools to create analog visualizations of contemporary digital culture. The exhibition will present selections from Bayrle’s most iconic series, including several of his rarely exhibited “painted machines” from the 1960s, as well as a wide selection of his silkscreen prints, sculptures, drawings, wallpaper, early computer-based art, videos, and films. The exhibition is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director; Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Curator; and Helga Christoffersen, Associate Curator.

Hiwa K: Blind as the Mother Tongue
May 2–August 19, 2018
South Galleries

Drawing on vernacular forms and collaborative and performative actions, Iraqi-Kurdish artist Hiwa K makes work inspired by political events, chance encounters, oral histories, and his own experiences, including fleeing Iraq on foot in the late 1990s. Blind as the Mother Tongue, his first solo exhibition in the US, gathers a selection of works that address experiences of estrangement and alternative modes of seeing, learning, and remembering. The exhibition will include the video Pre-Image (Blind as the Mother Tongue) (2017), which debuted at documenta 14 in Athens and presents a powerful allegory for the experience of exile. The exhibition is curated by Natalie Bell, Associate Curator.

Anna Boghiguian: The Loom of History
May 2–August 19, 2018
South Galleries

The Loom of History marks the first US solo exhibition of Armenian-Egyptian artist Anna Boghiguian, whose raw and expressionistic works combine painting, drawing, writing, collage, and sculpture to contemplate the past and present through intersections of economics, philosophy, literature, and myth. Since the 1970s, Boghiguian has traveled continuously, and her work has charted her impressions of various societies, as well as her experiences of non-belonging. This exhibition brings together a selection of recent works addressing subjects that have long animated Boghiguian’s practice, including wars and revolutions, histories of materials and labor, and the ancient roots of modern imperialism. The exhibition is curated by Natalie Bell, Associate Curator.

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: The House at Kawinal
June 6–September 9, 2018
Lobby Gallery

Working in performance, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa creates dreamlike scenes that reference literature, folklore, magic, and childhood memories. Although the artist’s works often exude whimsy and playfulness, they also allude to traumatic events that have shaped the social and political climate of present-day Guatemala. The House at Kawinal, Ramírez-Figueroa’s first solo exhibition in the US, will present a recent performance for video, Life in His Mouth, Death Cradles Her Arm (2016), together with a new body of sculptures inspired in part by his research into the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam in Guatemala in the early 1980s and its lasting effects. The exhibition is curated by Natalie Bell, Associate Curator.

The Black School x Kameelah Janan Rasheed
May 23–September 16, 2018
Fifth Floor

For the New Museum’s annual summer art and social justice residency and exhibition, the Black School (Joseph Cuillier and Shani Peters) and Kameelah Janan Rasheed will explore the past and futures of critical black pedagogies. Looking to the United States’ examples of covert learning structures, as well as the Freedom Schools of 1964, the Oakland Community School, and early 20th century black literary societies, the artists will realize two projects and facilitate a newly developed curriculum for youth and adults throughout the residency. The Black School will reimagine a classroom space for art-making workshops rooted in creative activist tactics. Rasheed, drawing from the local histories of her hometown of East Palo Alto, will build an installation and library to consider black traditions of independent schools, publishing, and radical imagination. The exhibition is curated by Emily Mello, Associate Director of Education, and Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement.

Aaron Fowler: Bigger Than Me
May 2–August 19, 2018
Storefront Window

Aaron Fowler creates elaborate assemblage paintings from found objects and unconventional materials sourced from his surroundings. By layering castoff furniture, paint, and collaged elements including iridescent CDs, water bottles, LED lights, sneakers, and plastic bags, Fowler constructs hybrid tableaux infused with a sense of raw urgency. Each work illustrates a poignant subject or event that holds significance for the artist, from portraits of family members and friends to fantastical scenarios incorporating historical figures, role models, and public icons. Fowler will present a new installation in the window of the New Museum’s 231 Bowery building. This project is curated by Margot Norton, Curator.