Sites of Impermanence

The National Academy of Design exhibition Sites of Impermanence is an exhibition of art and architectural works by the recently elected 2023 National Academicians Alice Adams, Sanford Biggers, Willie Cole, Torkwase Dyson, Richard Gluckman, Carlos Jiménez, Mel Kendrick, and Sarah Oppenheimer.

Opening Reception
Thursday, February 8, 2024 | 6-8 PM
519 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor
Open to all, but RSVPs are requested. To RSVP, click here.

Although disparate in their approaches to material and subject matter, the artists and architects featured in Sites of Impermanence form a vivid cross-section of responses to urgent contemporary conditions and the underlying histories that have shaped them. From site-specific projects to sculpture, drawing, architecture, textile, and interactive installation, the selection of works in the exhibition reflects on a bounty of ideas (critical environmental challenges, the ongoing effects of slavery, the blurred lines between human and machine), to chart pathways towards transformation and liberation.

Exhibiting a broad range of art and architectural works, Sites of Impermanence engages and unpacks a host of temporal and spatial concerns, exploring ideas of impermanence from a thoroughgoing understanding of formal interventions and the mutability of place. Artists Willie Cole and Sanford Biggers employ materials, laden with historical references, culturally and spiritually repurposing the familiar schemas and objects that recur through both their practices. Architect Richard Gluckman expands the built environment by adapting existing structures to meet the wants of contemporary culture.

Alternatively, professor of architecture Carlos Jiménez and artist Torkwase Dyson navigate human, landscape, and urgent ecological concerns. Mel Kendrick’s sculptures invite critical observations on the nature of perceiving place and time, calling attention to how the natural world shapes our perception of place and how both nature and our perception of it change over time. Concerned with an emphasis on aspects of architecture and landscape, Alice Adams’ work deals in the layers of both architecture and the body, recognizing the “skin of architecture,” pointing to internal and external structures like mesh and webbing that undergird many architectural projects.

Sites of Impermanence calls for visitors to consider their impact within public spaces, blurring the boundaries between human, object, and architecture. Pivotal to this premise is Sarah Oppenheimer’s manipulations of architectural space, which are conceived to question our agency and the impacts of our presence in sites that are physical, architectural, and infrastructural.

Sites of Impermanence is co-curated by Sara Reisman, Chief Curator, and Natalia Viera Salgado, Associate Curator.
 

Sanford Biggers, The Cantor (2022). Pink Portuguese marble. Copyright: Sanford Biggers. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, Aspen and New York