June 11 – August 17, 2019
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, June 11, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

NEW YORK — The Ford Foundation Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Radical Love on Tuesday, June 11, with an opening event from 6:00 – 8:00 pm that evening. The newly opened gallery space at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice is dedicated to presenting multidisciplinary art, performance, and public programming by artists committed to exploring issues of justice and injustice. The gallery is open to the public and admission is free. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm.

Radical Love is the second in a trilogy of exhibitions curated by Jaishri Abichandani and Natasha Becker. Through the theme of Utopian Imagination, the three exhibitions in the gallery’s inaugural year create a trajectory toward a more just future. The first exhibition, Perilous Bodies (March 4 – May 11, 2019), examined injustice through the intersecting lens of violence, race, gender, ethnicity, and class. Radical Love responds to the first show by offering love as the answer to a world in peril.

Love, in the context of this exhibition, is defined by a commitment to the spiritual growth and interconnectedness of the individual, their community, and stewardship of the planet. Guided by the powerful words of bell hooks, “Were we all seeing more images of loving human interaction, it would undoubtedly have a positive impact on our lives.”

The works in Radical Love are grounded in ideas of devotion, abundance, and beauty; here, otherness and marginality is celebrated, adorned, and revered. Featured artists offer work that is deeply rooted in their love for their own communities and of humanity: Visitors will encounter Faith Ringgold’s soft sculptures from the 1970s, depicting everyday black folks; and can explore Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt’s glitzy installation of the complex intersections of sexuality, class, and religion; artists Lina Iris Viktor, La Vaughn Belle and Jeannette Ehlers, Omar Victor Diop, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry make visible ordinary and extraordinary acts of human agency. Employing everything in their arsenal, they create enchanting works that transform disabled, black, brown, indigenous, and queer subjects into protagonists of new narratives of love and redemption.

“The artists of Radical Love have transformed the gallery into a space of visual lushness and opulence, one that envelopes the viewer in a sense of love, protection, power, and unity,” says Lisa Kim, the gallery’s director. “Their work seeks to bring to life images of love, joy, pain, grace, and glory — experiences we’ve all felt at times in our own lives.”

Throughout the exhibition, artists demonstrate that when the world deems your existence unworthy, casting yourself as a subject is an act of radical love. Understanding the regenerative impact of this love, their work is an antidote to our collective pain.

Exhibiting artists:
Sue Austin (England), La Vaughn Belle (Tobago/US Virgin Island) & Jeannette Ehlers (Denmark), Maria Berrio (Colombia/United States), Raúl de Nieves (Mexico/United States), Omar Victor Diop (Senegal), Vanessa German (United States), Jah Grey (Canada), Baseera Khan (United States), Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (United States), McCallum & Tarry: Bradley McCallum (United States) & Jacqueline Tarry (United States), Rashaad Newsome (United States), Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica/United States), Jody Paulsen (South Africa), Thania Petersen (South Africa), Lina Puerta (Colombia/United States), Faith Ringgold (United States), Athi-Patra Ruga (South Africa), Nep Sidhu (England/Canada), Rose B. Simpson (United States), Imani Uzuri (United States), Lina Iris Viktor (United States/England)

About the curators

Jaishri Abichandani is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator. She received her MFA from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and founded the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective in New York and London. Abichandani served as the founding director of public events and projects at the Queens Museum. More recently, she engineered a collaboration between the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Asia Society, and the Queens Museum to organize a national convening and the exhibition “Lucid Dreams and Distant Visions.”

Natasha Becker is an independent researcher, writer, and curator of contemporary African and African American art and the co-founder of Assembly Room, a new platform for independent women curators in New York City. She was formerly senior curator at the Goodman Gallery in South Africa and before that, the assistant director of academic programs at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Born in South Africa, Becker has spent the past sixteen years living and working between Africa and America.

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ABOUT THE FORD FOUNDATION GALLERY

Opened in March 2019 at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City, the Ford Foundation Gallery aims to shine a light on artwork that wrestles with difficult questions, calls out injustice, and points the way toward a fair and just future. Our hope is for this to be a responsive and adaptive space, one that serves the public in its openness to experimentation, contemplation, and conversation. Located near the United Nations, the space is situated to draw visitors from around the world—and address questions that cross borders and speak to the universal struggle for human dignity.

The gallery is located inside the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice and is accessible to the public through an entrance on 42nd Street, east of Second Avenue. The gallery is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm.

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For information about the Ford Foundation Gallery and its exhibitions, please contact:
Amani Olu
Olu & Company
[email protected]
1 (646) 330-1039

For information about the Ford Foundation, please contact:
Nicole Okai
Ford Foundation Press Office
[email protected]
1 (212) 573-5128

Ford Foundation Gallery
320 East 43rd Street
New York, NY 10017
Monday – Saturday 11AM – 6PM