New York University’s Kimmel Galleries | Stovall is pleased to host “Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the 2016 US Presidential Election” curated by Washington Heights artist Andrea Arroyo.
This is the first physical iteration of Unnatural Election, an art project in response to anxiety and stress felt by artist/curator Andrea Arroyo in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Featuring artwork from around the world, this exhibition questions the election’s impact on social justice, race/gender issues, human rights, economic justice, and international relations.
Unnatural Election will remain on display through the Spring semester on the 8th floor galleries of the NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, NYC. [Subways A,C,E,B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 to Astor Place; R to 8th Street]. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
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Photo credit: photo by Erin Hughes
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Photo credit: photo by Erin Hughes
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Photo credit: photo by Erin Hughes
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Photo credit: photo by Erin Hughes
“The concept on Unnatural Election is simple,” says Arroyo. “Artists are invited to submit a digital image of their artwork, and these works are then hosted on the project’s website. With this project, we hope to keep asking the ever-relevant questions: How do we face the impending challenges of the new presidency? How do we recover, regroup, resist and rebuild?”
“We at Kimmel Galleries extend Ms. Arroyo’s invitation to our NYU students; during the course of the exhibition, works may be submitted to kimmel.galleries@nyu.edu,” said Kimmel Galleries’ curator Pamela Jean Tinnen. “Works will be produced and added to this ongoing exhibit through the course of the Spring Semester. Through art-making and display, we seek to provide a safe and visible space for expression, and by extension, hope to cultivate community for those at the University would seek to make the make their voices heard, and their artistic expression seen.”
Presidential inauguration-eve, Arroyo unveiled a complex response to Trump’s election. “Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the 2016 Presidential Election,” is a broad reaction to election of the 45th President of the United States.
In early November, just days after the U.S. election, Arroyo asked other artists for an artistic response to the result. The world-wide response was immediate and overwhelming. Drawings, sketches and images of fully conceived ideas poured in from all over the world, mostly from people Arroyo had never met.
So far, she’s received more than 250 works, from about 200 artists. “I’m getting more work every day,” she said.
Each submission is printed in color on 8-1/2 by 11 white paper, giving the responses an eerie uniformity. The works, on view at NYU’s Kimmel Galleries, range in emotional complexity from rage to sad resignation. There are humorous pieces, too. But it is clear that most of artists who submitted their work don’t appreciate the new president’s form of populism.
Arroyo eventually wants the show to travel to other cities, where local artists will likely add to the collection. The hope is that the show and the art will continue to evolve over time.
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About the Kimmel Galleries: Established in 2003, Kimmel Galleries are dedicated to providing visually dynamic and thought provoking exhibitions. They are free and open to the public. For more information on tours, the artists or price inquiries, please contact the Curator, Pamela Jean Tinnen, at 212 298 4950, or pamela.jean.tinnen@nyu.edu.
Past exhibitions include: Patterns of Interest: photography by Stephen Mallon; HOUSE: HOME; Field Season: records, wandering perspectives, side notes, a selection of photographs from Abydos, by Greg Maka, Amanda Kirkpatrick and Gus Gusciora; Preconceived Notions; and Perspectives: A photography exhibit about traveling and living in our world; DITTO: WORKS IN BLUE, Shira Toren, among others.