GOOD AND BAD GOVERNMENT
Photographs and Paintings by: Robert Birmelin, Stephen Petegorsky, Ram Rahman and Paul Smith.
On View April 23-May 22, 2021 (Hours 12-7 Wednesday through Sunday.)
Inspiration: Lorenzetti’s three frescos, painted in Siena in 1339, “The Allegory of Good and Bad Government”--and recent history. Robert Birmelin recently has been drawing and painting political demonstrations, subjectively seen by a participant, or observed from high windows, with an imaginative energy comparable to Goya’s. His work, widely exhibited for 6 decades, is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, The Whitney, and 38 other museums. Stephen Petegorsky shows lucid, beautiful photographs that document The Polus Center’s assistance to victims of conflict in Peru, Columbia, Nicaragua, Honduras, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Jordan, Ethiopia and Tajikistan. His photographs have won numerous awards, including from the World Health Organization, and have been widely exhibited and collected in institutions including The Nelson-Atkins, The Bibliotheque National, the New Britain Museum, and numerous university museums in Western Massachusetts, where he is based.
Ram Rahman’s “Sites of Conflict”, featured at the 2018 Gwangju Biennial, uses his documentary photography, graphics and text to explore architectures like Ayodhya and the World Trade Center that have become symbols of contention. He’s a co-founder of activist group SAHMAT, curator, lecturer and writer. His work has been exhibited and collected by The Pompidou, The Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, Bodhi Art at Rhabindra Bhavan, and Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi. The show’s organizer, Paul Smith shows curving photo-constructions and paintings of a Lower East Side bicyclist, hit by a car and lying in the street as police and emergency services arrive. Smith’s exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art was described by Arthur Lubow in The NY Times as “ghostly emanations, from a place and a culture that was about to be destroyed by AIDS and gentrification.” He’s received the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painter Award. A catalog with essay by P C Smith is available on request.
The Exhibition received crucial support from the MurthyNAYAK foundation, which also supports https://photosouthasia.org.
Location: Abrazo Interno Gallery at The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk St, NYC
The Clemente, at 107 Suffolk St, NYC 10002, is located between Rivington and Delancey, near the Delancey/Essex F M J Z subways. The non-profit Abrazo Interno Gallery, 2nd Fl, is open 12-7 Wednesday through Sunday. www.theclementecenter.org.
