The art world is a fantastical realm of imagination bound by the realities of surviving within it. One path through the labyrinth is the curatorial program at the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College. The latest round of CCS graduates recently marked the culmination of two years of work by organizing 15 at the Hessel Museum of Art, which includes the titular number of individual shows exploring the possibilities of art-as-everything.
The scene at Bard College is as good as it gets when it comes to the cross-pollination of coolness between New York City and Upstate New York, and the lively chaos of the opening was a sensory wallop. The younger crowd jetted about while seasoned hipsters lingered at every turn, and an upbeat vibe infused the teeming galleries with an ambiance of stylish excitement. As with any event overflowing with art — in this case, work by nearly 50 artists in various curated sections — there is always the wonderfully irritating sense that we’ll miss something. That feeling aside, this curatorial beast of an exhibition made a strong impression.
Some of the highlights included a live performance by Julie Tolentino, “The Sky Remains the Same: Tolentino Archives Lovett/Codagnone’s ‘Closer,’” for which the artist acted out a series of slightly kinky recorded commands as part of Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves: Lovett/Codagnone, curated by Andrew Suggs. This show also features two partitioned walls robust with miscellaneous gay culture ephemera and a blinking red neon sign that reads “Party with Us” (2006–25) on an adjacent wall, a work that aptly captures the joyousness of 15.
On the more serious side, Mutable Cycles, curated by Ariana Kalliga, considers the dismantling of public infrastructures. It features Joyce Joumaa’s “Mutable Cycles II” (2024), a six-channel video installation offering a candid look at protests and riots in Lebanon. Madeline Gins: Infinite Systems, curated by Charlotte Youkilis, brings together 25 works by the late artist and self-described “puzzle creature,” as indicated in the wall text, including “WORD RAIN (Or a Discursive Introduction to the Philosophical Investigation of G, R, E, T, A, G, A, R, B, O, It Says)” (1969), which addresses the physical and psychological experience of reading, a skill that feels increasingly compromised today.
Among the most memorable pieces is Audie Murray’s site-specific installation “To Make Smoke” (2024), included in a clear veil curated by Cicely Haggerty. The artist filled an entire wall with muddy smudge remnants with water sourced from Saw Kill Creek, a soft gesture that carries with it an assertion of presence and power. Meanwhile, The Edge of Belongings, curated by Jungmin Cho, considers pervasive consumer products trapped in an endless cycle of production and consumption. It includes Bruno Zhu’s “Joy” (2019), featuring a series of objects that assist in self-beautification, such as cosmetic accessories and soap, placed in a long counter-like installation on the floor.
Amid the adventure of the opening extravaganza, I chatted briefly with Omar Farah, curator of dearmuthafuckindreams, who explained that he leverages his curatorial work to preserve a legacy: “In this moment,” he said, “Black queerness needs a lineage.” Just as I was leaving his show, I caught a clip from the video “Frankie and Jocie” (1994) by Jaguar Mary X, featuring a Black lesbian woman talking to the camera, captioned “wake the fuck up.” In this context, I felt that she spoke not just to the viewer but in an intergenerational conversation, where said “dreams” are past, present, and future at once.
The website for 15 acknowledges that the exhibitions “will be on view for 51 days, open for 340 hours.” That countdown began a few weeks ago. The 15 shows-within-a-show are a lot to see — and even more to process — but all I can think about is going back to see more in the hours that remain.
15, curated by Zuhra Amini, Jungmin Cho, Hayoung Chung, Đỗ Tường Linh, Omar Jason Farah, Matthew Lawson Garrett, Cicely Haggerty, Lekha Jandhyala, Ariana Kalliga, Audrey Min, Sibia Sarangan, Andrew Suggs, Javier Villanueva, Micaela Vindman, and Charlotte Youkilis, continues at the Hessel Museum of Art (33 Garden Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York) through May 25.