“Striving After Wind” Exhibition

Chapter NY

[Image: Dalton Gata "A Banana, A Coffee, And Then We Die" (2021) acrylic on canvas, 30 × 38 in.]

This event has ended.

Chapter NY presents Striving After Wind, a group exhibition featuring works by Robert Bittenbender, Patty Chang, Troy Lamarr Chew II, Milano Chow, Srijon Chowdhury, Gina Fischli, Dalton Gata, Margaret Harrison, Jeanette Mundt, Larissa De Jesús Negron, Brandon Ndife, and Farah Al Qasimi.

Striving After Wind derives inspiration from the art historical genre of still life painting known as Vanitas, which became widely recognized in Northern Europe in the 17th century. Typical Vanitas paintings portrayed symbolic objects—such as, fruit, flowers, skulls, extinguished candles, and time pieces, among many others—that relayed narrative meaning. They were intended to convey moralistic messages and warn against overindulgence, reminding viewers of the transience of worldly pleasures and the inevitability of death.

In our current world molded by capitalist excess and environmental degradation, such works feel particularly prescient. Striving After Wind presents a selection of contemporary works that revive and expand this art historical style to reflect upon our current times. Ranging from traditional still life paintings, to sculptural assemblages, they explore notions of the icon, tropes of femininity, the banality of the everyday, fleeting memories, the passage of time, the temptations of our desires, and more. At times darkly humorous and eerily seductive, this exhibition reminds us that nothing lasts forever.