The New York Academy of Art is taking up a five-month residency at the Southampton Arts Center, where it will present 2020 Vision, a spectacular exhibition featuring over 60 artists and writers. Co-curated by Academy President David Kratz and Stephanie Roach of the FLAG Art Foundation, and edited by Emma Gilbey Keller, 2020 Vision will be on display from Saturday, July 25 through Sunday, December 27.
“The pain, loss and uncertainty of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The awakening cry for social justice following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and many others. The unnerving possibility of global recession. 2020 has already experienced seismic events that are shifting values and shaping our choices as citizens and as creators,” Kratz and Roach noted. “Artists and writers are always the antennae of our society, all the more so at a time as challenging as this one. They have an opportunity—some might say, a duty—to interpret this moment and imagine the world not only as it is, but also as it could be.”
2020 Vision will encompass visual artworks from art students and rising stars to contemporary icons, as well as a myriad of texts, such as poetry and essays, and video diaries.
“This is the guiding challenge of the group exhibition, 2020 Vision. We asked artists, writers, and creative thinkers to consider three questions of critical importance: Our lives will never be the same, but what will change look like? What do we want to keep as we rebuild? And what must we guard against?” they said.
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Baltimore Funerals by Chris Wilson. (Courtesy Photo) |
There will be a number of local artists highlighted, including John Alexander, Mary Ellen Bartley, Eric Fischl, Audrey Flack, and Bastienne Schmidt. Additionally, works by Scott Avett, Amy Bennett, Tim Buckley, Tawny Chatmon, Kate Clark, Taha Clayton, Monica Cook, Shiqing Deng, Vincent Desiderio, Peter Drake, Richard Dupont, Natalie Frank, Elizabeth Glaessner, Ramiro Gomez, Andrae Green, Matthew Hansel, Candace Hill, Nir Hod, Rachel Lee Hovnanian, Rashid Johnson, Kurt Kauper, Cédric Klapisch, Adam Lupton, Steve Mumford, Tim Okamura, Clifford Owens, Adam Pendleton, Luján Pérez Hernández, Jean-Pierre Roy, Krista Louise Smith, Pamela Sztybel, Phillip Thomas, Justin Wadlington, Chris Wilson, Frank Wimberley, Alexi Worth, and Jiannan Wu will be showcased.
As for those sharing their insightful words, Curtis Bashaw, Thomas Dyja, idreamofcovid.com, Keionna Jackson, Julia Jordan, David Kamp, Emma Gilbey Keller, J. Kenji López-Alt, Bernard Lumpkin, Vivek Murthy, Wendy Olsoff, Paine the Poet, Sarah Paley, Steve Porcaro, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Stephen Roach, Brooke Shields, and Douglas Unis are among featured writers.
“We invited these creators to express what they saw, what they felt, and what they experienced during this time of pause and reassessment, upheaval and risk, and anxiety and uncertainty,” Kratz and Roach stated. “It is our hope that 2020 Vision marks one of many beginnings in the necessary process of ‘post- traumatic growth’ and positive change for our society and our world.”
SAC-goers must don masks and they will be expected to adhere to the established social distancing guidelines. There will be complimentary hand sanitizer located at the entrance and exits and the number of gallery visitors will be limited and monitored.
Southampton Arts Center is located at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton. For more information, visit southamptonartscenter.org.
