Contents for August 10th, 2026
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Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
1. Jesus Benavente, FF Alumn, at DiverseWorks, Houston, TX, opening Aug. 13
2. Carlos Martiel, FF Alumn, at The 8th Floor, Manhattan, opening Sept. 17
3. Linda Montano, FF Alumn, at The Grove, Woodstock NY, Aug. 16
4. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, FF Alumn, online Aug. 12 & 15, and more
5. Helen Oji, Yoko Oji Kikuchi, FF Alumns, at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, CA, opening Aug. 8
6. Kimsooja, FF Alumn, now online at Hyperallergic.com
7. Theresa Hak Kyung Chang, FF Alumn, at Artists Space, Manhattan, opening Sept. 11
8. Frank Moore, FF Alumn, at the Internet Archive
9. J. Bouey, FF Alumn, named BAX Artist in Residence 2026-28
10. Ann Meredith, FF Alumn, in New Mexico, August, and more
11. Ana Mendieta, FF Alumn, online at NewYorker.com
12. Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Asia Stewart, FF Alumns, at Joyce Kilmer Park, The Bronx, August 12
13. Graciela Cassel, FF Alumn, now online at Hyperallergic.com and more
14. Ron Athey, Anita Contini, Sarah Peter, Xaviera Simmons, FF Alumns, at Performance Space New York, Manhattan, Nov. 2
15. R. Sikoryak, FF Alumn, live online Aug. 20, and more
16. Sheryl Oring, FF Alumn, new publication
17. Adele Ursone, FF Member, at Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME, Aug 12-Sept. 6 and more
18. Walter Krochmal, FF Alumn, at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Aug. 24
19. Peter d’Agostino, FF Alumn, August 2026 exhibitions
20. Ray Johnson, Elizabeth Murray, Cindy Sherman, FF Alumns, at Lehman College Art Gallery, The Bronx, opening Sept. 9, and more
21. Jeanette Andrews, FF Alumn, at Elmhurst Art Museum, IL, Aug. 23
22. Theodora Skipitares, FF Alumn, at Clemente Center, Manhattan, opening Aug. 12 (corrected date)
23. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Book Club Bar, Manhattan, Aug. 13
24. Virginia Maksymowicz & Blaise Tobia, Penny Arcade, Willie Cole, Suzanne Lacy, Fred Wilson, FF Alumns, at The Creative Philadelphia Art Gallery at City Hall, PA, thru Sept. 25
25. Alfredo Jaar, FF Alumn, at Galerie Lelong, Manhattan, opening Sept. 10
26. Dee Shapiro, FF Member, at Re Institute, Millerton, NY, opening Aug. 22
27. Pollinaria, FF Alumn, at Church of San Biagio, Loreto Aprutino, Italy, Aug. 12
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Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
Robin Schatell has spent over thirty years producing and curating performance in New York — as Managing Director of Performance Space 122, Executive Director of the River To River Festival, and director of public programs for the Van Alen Institute, Madison Square Park Conservancy, NYC’s Municipal Archives, and Riverside Park’s Summer on the Hudson festival. She came up in the downtown scene in the early 1990s in the years right after Franklin Furnace’s basement was closed by the Fire Department and the culture wars were peaking. Here’s what FF looked like to her:
“About 35 years ago, I came downtown and discovered all the downtown artists. I started working at PS 122, and Franklin Furnace — they were like the big kids. Martha Wilson and all the things I had been interested in my whole life and in the arts: incredible creativity. No holds barred. They opened me up to things I thought were never possible in the arts. As an arts administrator and producer, it was just so wonderfully delicious. I’ve been following them ever since. Fifty years — it’s incredible.”
Franklin Furnace has been the institution that other institutions looked to — for nerve, for taste, for the willingness to make room for what the rest of the field couldn’t yet name. Help FF stay that institution. Any gift, any size, keeps the nerve alive: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/franklin-furnace-archive-inc/first-fifty-campaign
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1. Jesus Benavente, FF Alumn, at DiverseWorks, Houston, TX, opening Aug. 13
DiverseWorks is excited to present NuestroWorld, a satirical solo installation by Brooklyn-based artist Jesus Benavente. Featuring newly commissioned works, NuestroWorld opens on Thursday, August 13, 2026, transforming 5601 B Navigation Blvd, Houston, TX 77011 into a fictional visitor center for NuestroWorld, encouraging guests to explore Houston beyond the gallery walls and experience the city as an amusement park. The installation will be on view through September 13, 2026, with a closing party on September 11. Gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6 pm. Admission is free.
Through satire and spectacle, NuestroWorld examines how cities construct identity through tourism, branding, memory, and myth, inviting audiences to reconsider Houston’s past and present. The exhibition draws inspiration from pivotal moments in Houston and Texas history, including the opening of the Astrodome and Astroworld in the late 1960s, Selena’s iconic Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo performances in the 1990s, and the folklore surrounding Santa Anna’s capture following the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, highlighting the city’s recurring cycles of ambition, folly, and heartbreak. The title plays on “Astroworld” and uses Spanglish to create the phrase “The World Is Ours,” reframing Houston’s cultural mythology through humor, nostalgia, and critical reflection.
Thrill seekers are invited to start by exploring the NuestroWorld Visitor Center to discover the totality of Houston’s newest amusement destination. Imagined as part visitor center, part gift shop, and part theme-park attraction, the immersive installation features towering banners, Tejano music paired with a custom neon video sculpture inspired by the iconic Selena performance, and a 13-foot blimp roaming through the gallery. Visitors can also pick up a free NuestroWorld Amusement Guide and purchase limited-edition merchandise, including custom screen-printed t-shirts, mugs, and stickers.
The NuestroWorld Amusement Guide highlights 13 “amusement” sites located throughout the greater Houston area, including a drive along Cloud City (also known as Highway 225), a visit to a Plant Type Monument in the Heights, and a stop to listen to the sounds under the Main Street Bridge near Allen’s Landing, the officially recognized birthplace of Houston. Extending the exhibition into the city itself, the guide invites visitors to experience Houston as an immersive attraction where history, folklore, and popular culture converge to create a world uniquely its own.
For more information about NuestroWorld, including related public events, visit www.diverseworks.org.
GALLERY HOURS
Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6 pm
Or by appointment / please contact info@diverseworks.org.
ADMISSION
Free
LOCATION
Diverseworks @ 5601 B Navigation Blvd
5601B Navigation Blvd, Houston, TX 77011
PARKING
Free parking is available in the dedicated parking lot directly across the street at the corner of Navigation and Portwood, with limited street parking and spots in front of the building.
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2. Carlos Martiel, FF Alumn, at The 8th Floor, Manhattan, opening Sept. 17
Announcing
Carlos Martiel: Dark Age
The 8th Floor, NYC
September 17, 2026 – January 30, 2027
Curated by Anjuli Nanda Diamond and George Bolster
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation is delighted to present Dark Age, a solo exhibition by Cuban performance artist Carlos Martiel, opening on September 17, 2026 at The 8th Floor and on view through January 30, 2027. The artist will score three new performances for this experimental exhibition: Dark Age (September 19), Mano de Hierro (Iron hand) (October 8), and Fear of Them (December 10). In addition to these presentations, the exhibition will stage documentation and ephemera related to key works, as well as a new series of drawings.
Dark Age grapples with the temporality of performance and the possibility of making this art form structural, enabling a longevity for how the viewers experience these fleeting moments. The subsequent documentation and staging of Dark Age, Mano de Hierro (Iron hand), and Fear of Them will become artworks in their own right, resulting in an archival presence as they are produced. Building on seminal works from recent years that show the development and shift from solely using his body in pieces such as Lazos de Sangre (Bloodline), 2010, to the participation of family members in Vaciamiento (Emptiness), 2024, his brother will take part in the new piece Dark Age, 2026. The artist will also foreground a lesser-known element of his practice: a new suite of drawings titled Metafísica del poder (Metaphysics of power), a body of work distinct from his performance drawings.
For almost twenty years Carlos Martiel has dedicated himself to performance art, exhibiting works all over the world. Martiel’s practice often takes his own pain threshold and bodily duration to its highest possible exponent, confronting and destabilizing the viewer. As the artist states in an interview with Coco Fusco commissioned for the exhibition: “My body is an archive of my performances; the scars I have drawn on it reveal the battlefield that my soul has had to traverse in its journey through this world. These scars reveal continuous and systematic stories of oppression that need to be re-examined and are ‘symbolically’ visible to all who wish to observe them candidly, in broad daylight.” This embodiment of pain encompasses the experiences of the Black male body, queerness, anti-Blackness, Cuban/Jamaican identity, migration, and the moral predicaments of being human in the 21st century. Throughout his practice, Martiel proposes a simple but eternal question about humanity: does everything come down to violence?
The artist’s body is a proxy for every abuse inflicted on other humans. Martiel’s performances distill concepts of colonialism, systemic violence, and genocide, forcing viewers to bear witness and confront their complicity. His durational stoicism obligates his audience to address their own engagement with politics, community, morality, and activism.
Paradoxically, the inwardly turned violence in Carlos Martiel’s work signals his belief that humans can evolve past violence; there is an optimism implying that we as people can change. He believes this is an important time to embrace the role of an artist as activist. Martiel states: “To raise one’s voice in the name of somebody who is unable to raise their own is a responsibility. I have traveled enough to learn that the whole world is my home, and that there is always something binding me to all those who share it with me, regardless of the degree of awareness we have of that fact.” As he also notes when discussing Metafísica del poder (Metaphysics of power), “a revolution of love is coming.”
Navigate here to learn more about the artist. Please direct media inquiries to katrina@bluemedium.com.
Thursday-Saturday, 11am-6pm
Email us for gallery and tour inquiries
Follow us on Instagram
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3. Linda Montano, FF Alumn, at The Grove, Woodstock NY, Aug. 16
Woodstock Festival of Awakening, Aug. 14-16, Woodstock NY
Linda Montano, Performance Artist, “Chicken Dance” with Anna Hafner
Sunday Aug. 16 at 1:30 pm, Awakening Art Project, The Grove, Bearsville Center, Woodstock, NY – tickets on sale now – WoodstockAwakening.org
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4. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, FF Alumn, online Aug. 12 & 15, and more
How Do We Move in Public? to broadcast on BronxNet Optimum CH67 + FiOS CH 2133 + YT + BronxNet.tv
Wednesday, 8/12 at 11am, and Saturday, 8/15 at 9pm
Also, YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/7-VFI5GEPU4?si=Pt3hcz-780v7jtYR
How Do We Move in Public? was the second program in Social Practice CUNY’s 2026 series How Do We ___________ in Public?: a cycle of four free experimental events responding to contemporary crises shaping the cultural field, including the defunding and targeting of public institutions and the erosion of shared civic space. This second program in the series partnered with BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance during the Boogie Down Dance Series.
Organized by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel and presented on June 13, How Do We Move in Public? event brought together these dancers/choreographers with connections to the Bronx to generate movement-based actions in public spaces in the South Bronx: Argelia Arreola (with support from Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative), Ana ‘Rokafella’ García, Paloma McGregor/Angela’s Pulse, and Alethea Pace.
This event was funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation.
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5. Helen Oji, Yoko Oji Kikuchi, FF Alumns, at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, CA, opening Aug. 8
Dear Friends,
I am delighted to share that this week my daughter, Yoko Oji Kikuchi, and I will be installing MOTHERSHIP: STELLAR NURSERY at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, California.
This spring, we collaborated with artist Kate Haug on this commissioned installation created for her exhibition, Kate Haug: Collaborative Practices. Although Yoko and I have collaborated on previous projects, this marks our first gallery exhibition as artistic collaborators, making it a deeply meaningful milestone for us.
MOTHERSHIP: STELLAR NURSERY grew from conversations with Kate inspired by her reflections on motherhood, birth, transformation, and the cosmic connections that link us across generations. Created entirely through digital painting and drawing, the work was developed across three cities—Yoko in Portland, Oregon; me in New York City; and Kate in Sebastopol, California. Through this long-distance collaboration, we brought together our individual artistic voices to create an illuminated, large-scale installation.
Printed on an 8-foot-tall translucent scrim and illuminated from behind, MOTHERSHIP: STELLAR NURSERY creates an immersive environment that reflects on birth, renewal, ancestry, and the profound bond between mother and child. The glowing surface transforms the work into a space of wonder and contemplation—an invitation to consider the connections that carry us through generations.
We are deeply grateful to Kate Haug for inviting us into her exhibition and for creating the space for this meaningful collaboration. It has been a joy to work together on a project that celebrates creativity, connection, and the enduring relationships that shape our lives.
If you find yourself in Northern California, we hope you will visit the exhibition.
Kate Haug: Collaborative Practices
August 8 – September 6, 2026
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
282 South High Street
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Opening Reception
Saturday, August 8, 2026
2–6 p.m.
With gratitude and joy,
Helen Oji
& Yoko Oji Kikuchi
Kate Haug’s reflection on the ideas behind MOTHERSHIP: STELLAR NURSERY
“Mothers are key figures in many religions representing mercy, compassion and a connection to the divine. The transmutable body of the mother connects to the cosmic and the spiritual as it is an organic, interstellar vessel of birth, of life and of death. Mothers are progenitors of recurring life, the sacred source of birth and rebirth, of life itself.
Biologically we all carry mitochondrial DNA from a woman known as Mitochondrial Eve. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down exclusively from mother to child never undergoing genetic recombination (mixing with paternal DNA) and thus creating an unbroken genetic thread tracing back through maternal lines. Our biological connections to our ancestral mothers tie us to women in our pasts and in our futures.”
— Kate Haug
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6. Kimsooja, FF Alumn, now online at Hyperallergic.com
Please visit this link:
https://hyperallergic.com/kimsooja-comes-full-circle/?ref=daily-newsletter
Thank you.
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7. Theresa Hak Kyung Chang, FF Alumn, at Artists Space, Manhattan, opening Sept. 11
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings
Opening Friday, September 11, 6–8pm
September 11 – November 21
My video and performance work are explorations of language structures inherent in written and spoken material, photographic and filmic images —the creation of new relationships and meanings in the simultaneity of these forms.
– Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Artists Space presents Multiple Offerings, the first retrospective in twenty-five years dedicated to the groundbreaking work of the artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. She produced an expansive range of works comprising performances for film and video, installation, photography, artist’s books (including her genre-defying book Dictée from 1982), and works on paper, which will fill Artists Space’s entire first floor. In her lifetime, Cha contributed to experimental art scenes in New York City, San Francisco, Paris, and beyond. Her work has had a quietly profound influence on subsequent generations of artists.
A series of accompanying public programs will be announced soon.
After emigrating from South Korea to the United States, Cha enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1969, where she studied art practice, comparative literature, and film. Keenly attuned to the active role that audiences play in the creation of meaning, she prioritized nonlinear narratives to allow for more open-ended forms of interpretation–what she termed a method of “Multiple Telling with Multiple Offering.” This retrospective adopts her framework to allow for a range of entry points into the work, guiding visitors through the themes–memory, displacement, and the mutability of language, among others—that recur in Cha’s oeuvre.
Cha moved to New York City in 1980, where she supported herself with several jobs while pursuing her artistic career. She worked as an administrative assistant in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taught video art at Elizabeth Seton College in Yonkers, and served as an editor at Tanam Press, a publishing imprint dedicated to artists’ books that was founded by her friend and collaborator Reese Williams.
On November 5, 1982, Cha’s short but prolific career came to an end when she was murdered just weeks before her planned exhibition at Artists Space. At the time of her death, Cha was producing a new photographic series inspired by her time working at the Met. Multiple Offerings presents that unfinished series of black-and-white prints alongside nearly one hundred artworks and archival materials from across her career, highlighting the inventive, playful, and meditative methods of Cha’s practice.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings is organized by BAMPFA and curated by Victoria Sung, Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator and Tausif Noor, Curatorial Associate. The presentation at Artists Space is organized by Danielle A. Jackson, Curator, and Nusheen Ghaemi, Administrative & Program Assistant. Multiple Offerings is drawn from Cha’s archives, which have been housed and cared for at BAMPFA since 1992 following a generous gift from the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation. Multiple Offerings is drawn from Cha’s archives, which have been housed and cared for at BAMPFA since 1992 following a generous gift from the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Memorial Foundation.
Biography
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (b. 1951, Busan, South Korea; d. 1982, New York City) emigrated to the United States in 1962, settling first in Hawaii and then moving to San Francisco in 1964. The Bay Area remained Cha’s home for most of her life. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she received four undergraduate and graduate degrees in comparative literature and art. In 1980, Cha moved to New York City, where she worked as an editor and writer for Tanam Press, producing two important works: Dictée, a book-form collage of poetry, found text, and images; and Apparatus, an anthology of writings on the film apparatus. In 1982, Cha was awarded an artist’s residence at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and was preparing for an upcoming exhibition at Artists Space, New York City. Cha’s work has been included in recent exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale: This Too, Is a Map (2023), Seoul Museum of Art; Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum, New York City; and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Audience Distant Relative, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2022). In 1990, BAMPFA organized the artist’s first solo exhibition as part of its MATRIX series of contemporary art, followed by her first retrospective in 2001 (Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Dream of the Audience). The exhibition traveled to seven venues, including University of California, Irvine; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington, Seattle; Ssamzie Space, Seoul; Generali Foundation, Vienna; and Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona. In 1992, Cha’s family donated the entirety of her artworks and archives to BAMPFA, where they form the cornerstone of the museum’s Conceptual Art Study Center and continue to be accessible to researchers today.
Accessibility
Artists Space is fully accessible via a wheelchair lift and automated door in front of the entrance on 80 White Street. The cellar gallery can be accessed via the ground floor elevator. Artists Space welcomes assistance dogs, and has wheelchair accessible non-gender-segregated toilet facilities. If you have any further questions about access please email info@artistsspace.org.
Supporters
Lead exhibition support at Artists Space is provided by Teiger Foundation.
The exhibition is made possible through lead support from Teiger Foundation. Major support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Korea Foundation, the Shah Garg Women Artists Research Fund, and the R.J. Bertero Family Fund. Additional support is provided by E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Jay DeFeo Foundation, Alexandra Bowes, Stephen Cheng, Miyoung Lee, and Robin Wright.
Support for Artists Space exhibitions and programs is provided by Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, The Keith Haring Foundation, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Milton and Sally Avery Foundation, The David Rockefeller Fund, and the Friends of Artists Space.
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8. Frank Moore, FF Alumn, at the Internet Archive
LUVeR Collection ships off to the Internet Archive
On August 5th, Fedex picked up the entire LUVeR Collection which is now on its way to the Internet Archive warehouse in Richmond, California. Last night we moved all 26 boxes full of audio cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs and MP3s down into our garage for the pick-up.
We are so thrilled that they want to keep this collection of material together as an important archive of the early internet!
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9. J. Bouey, FF Alumn, named BAX Artist in Residence 2026-28
BAX Artists in Residence: 2026 – 2028
Established in 1993, the AIR (Artist in Residence) program has supported over 70 dance, theater, and multidisciplinary performance artists across three decades. The program is designed as a process-oriented incubator, supporting artists who share BAX’s commitment to racial and cultural justice, whose work is still in development, and who are eager to deepen their artistic practice within a collaborative, cohort-based structure.
IG: @j_bouey | JBouey.com
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10. Ann Meredith, FF Alumn, in New Mexico, August, and more
SPECIAL is an award winning Project about healing from sexual harassement,rape and sexual assault by acclaimed artist Ann Meredith
Presentations in New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE August 22nd 100-400pm, Main Branch Public Library
Auditorium, 501 Copper Ave NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
SANTA FE, August 24th100-400pm, Main Branch Public Library
Community Room, 145 Washington Avenue SW, Santa Fe, NM 87501
LAS CRUCES, August 29th 315-530pm, Thomas Branigan Memorial Library Road Runner Room, 200 E Picacho Ave, Las Cruces, NM 88001
SILVER CITY, Avalon Books & Music, 405 N Bullard Street, Silver City NM 88061 Monday August 31st 2026, 530-730PM
Having lost her home due to the White House de-funding 700,000 housing vouchers for disabled people Ann’s Go Fund Me campaign is https://gofund.me/e62315d58
Thank you.
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11. Ana Mendieta, FF Alumn, online at NewYorker.com
Please visit this link:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/07/20/ana-mendieta-the-body-artist
Thank you.
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12. Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Asia Stewart, FF Alumns, at Joyce Kilmer Park, The Bronx, August 12
Please visit this link for full details on Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow and Asia Stewart performances with the Bronx Museum at Joyce Kilmer Park, August 12th:
https://bronxmuseum.org/event/park-stewart-lyn-kee-chow/
Thank you.
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13. Graciela Cassel, FF Alumn, now online at Hyperallergic.com and more
Please visit this link:
https://hyperallergic.com/15-outdoor-art-shows-to-see-in-nyc-this-summer
Thank you.
and
Dear Friends:
I have exciting news!
Saturday August 15,2026! 2-3 pm
Join us! We will create it together!
Creating a Healing Mandala @ Governors Island
403 Colonel’s Road
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14. Ron Athey, Anita Contini, Sarah Peter, Xaviera Simmons, FF Alumns, at Performance Space New York, Manhattan, Nov. 2
Please visit this link:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/aubinpictures/2260717
Thank you.
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15. R. Sikoryak, FF Alumn, live online Aug. 20, and more
Comics events this month and next:
Online:
Thu, Aug 20 (4 pm EST) PRINT Book Club featuring R. Sikoryak
Discussion of my new book Declaration/Emancipation Illustrated:
In-person shows:
Three Carousels: Aug 16 at Escape Pod Comics (Huntington NY), Sept 12 at the Small Press Expo (Maryland), and Sept 21 at the Brooklyn Book Festival (NYC)
Details below:
Thu, Aug 20, 2026 4:00 PM EDT
PRINT Book Club featuring R. Sikoryak
Organized by PRINT Magazine
Reimagining the Declaration of Independence through 100+ iconic comic and cartoon styles
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, acclaimed cartoonist R. Sikoryak—creator of Masterpiece Comics, The Unquotable Trump, and Constitution Illustrated—transforms the unabridged text of the Declaration of Independence into an extraordinary showcase of graphic storytelling. Presented alongside the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address in a double-sided volume, Declaration/Emancipation Illustrated reinterprets these historic texts through the instantly recognizable visual languages of more than 100 American comics, cartoons, and graphic novels spanning over a century.
For designers, illustrators, and comics enthusiasts, the book is both a masterclass in style and an exploration of how visual form shapes meaning. Sikoryak seamlessly inhabits the aesthetics of legendary cartoonists and beloved pop culture icons, demonstrating a command of line, composition, color, lettering, and character design. Every page becomes an homage to a different artistic voice while remaining unmistakably his own.
Part visual encyclopedia, part history lesson, and part tour de force of illustration, Declaration/Emancipation Illustratedreveals how style itself can become a storytelling tool. It’s an inspiring volume for anyone interested in comics, graphic design, illustration, typography, and the evolution of American visual culture.
Buy the book:
Plus: More Carousels!
Sunday, August 16: Carousel at Escape Pod Comics in Huntington NY
With Gabrielle Bell Tom Daly Yuko Shimizu Kriota Willberg
Saturday, September 12: Carousel at Small Press Expo in Maryland
With Rumi Hara Lola Lorente Frederick Noland Noah Van Sciver Whit Taylor Coco Fox
Details to come: https://www.smallpressexpo.com/program-panels/
Monday, September 21: Carousel with Brooklyn Book Festival at Dixon Place
With Morgan Boecher Makee Maria Hoey and more!
Details to come: https://brooklynbookfestival.org/event_type/bookend-events/
Hope to see you somewhere!
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16. Sheryl Oring, FF Alumn, new publication
Sheryl Oring It’s official! This new book, edited by Corey Dzenko, will be published by Intellect Books / University of Chicago Press in February 2027.
The book chronicles the evolution of my ongoing “I Wish to Say” project, which began in 2004 and continues to this day. It records how analog communication fosters civic engagement in a digital age and highlights the intersection of art, democracy, and activism while participation in democracy is imperative.
In addition to reflections from me and Corey, it also includes contributions by Johanna E. Foster, Jason C. Fitzgerald, Suzanna Urminska, Quinn Alexandria Hunter, Chloë Bass, Elizabeth Larison, and dozens of photographers who have documented my work across the decades.
Huge thanks to everyone involved!
More info at: https://www.intellectbooks.com/secretary-to-the-people
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17. Adele Ursone, FF Member, at Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME, Aug 12-Sept. 6 and more
Please visit Turtlegallery.com for all details. Open House August 16, 2-5 pm, artists’ talk at 3 pm.
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18. Walter Krochmal, FF Alumn, at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Aug. 24
[ARTHOUSE FILM IN MANHATTAN]: Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Hosts Sneak Preview of Films from Bronx World Film’s “Roving Cinémathèque”
DATE & TIME: Monday August 24, 2026 @ 5-9 pm
VENUE: 509 W 38th St, New York, NY (Manhattan Neighborhood Network)
To our trusted community of colleagues, film professionals, friends and supporters, please join us for a special art house film event at Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) on Monday, August 24th curated by Bronx World Film. The marathon evening, divided into three screening slots with a brief interlude for Q & A or music in between, boasts a marquee of sixteen films from eleven countries, most in their US or New York City premieres, strong on young and emerging filmmakers and on animation, comedy, documentary, drama and experimental forms.
The event, curated by Bronx World Film, offers a sneak preview of works that will screen as part of Bronx World Film Cycle, Summer ’26, the Bronx’s first “roving cinémathèque” now in its ninth summer of taking art house to neighborhoods, parks and venues borough-wide and running from August 26th through September 6th. A few of the films will only screen at this event, however they will return for our Winter Cycle.
Manhattan Neighborhood Network is Manhattan’s public access channel. We encourage our film-making and production community to join MNN and explore the endless possibilities for independent creators offered by this great institution, serving Manhattan communities since 1992. We look forward to sharing a great evening!
Admission Free. Please RSVP as seating is limited.
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19. Peter d’Agostino, FF Alumn, August 2026 exhibitions
Please visit this link:
peterdagostino.com/exhibitions.html
Coming & Going: San Francisco (BART), Collecting a Moment, Gallery of California Art
Oakland Museum of California, August, 2026-2027
World-Wide-Walks / SFBAY, Transmission Gallery, Oakland, CA, Aug-Sep 2026
Six Drawings in Search of a Solstice ( re: Pirandello) SFAA, Group exhibition, TRYST, Torrance, CA, Aug 2026
Peter d’Agostino is an artist and professor emeritus of film and media arts, Temple University, Philadelphia.
His video works are distributed by EAI, New York. https://www.eai.org/artists/peter-d-agostino/titles
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20. Ray Johnson, Elizabeth Murray, Cindy Sherman, FF Alumns, at Lehman College Art Gallery, The Bronx, opening Sept. 9, and more
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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21. Jeanette Andrews, FF Alumn, at Elmhurst Art Museum, IL, Aug. 23
Jeanette Andrews Exhibition Tour
Sunday, Aug 23rd, 2026
2:00 PM–5:00 PM
Jeanette Andrews will be at the Museum on the closing day of her Solo Exhibition On Wonder Mind & Magic to lead an artist tour of the exhibition with an informal Q&A.
Visitors are welcome to join the tour or meet with Jeanette informally afterward.
1:00 – 2:00 pm Exhibition tour and Q&A 2:00 – 4:00 pm Informal conversation and visit with Jeanette
Included with museum admission. Members are free.
https://elmhurstartmuseum.org/events/Jeanette%20Andrews%20Exhibition%20tour
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22. Theodora Skipitares, FF Alumn, at Clemente Center, Manhattan, opening Aug. 12 (corrected date)
Please visit this link:
https://www.theclementecenter.org/exhibitions-2021-1/puppetsofnewyork
Thank you.
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23. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Book Club Bar, Manhattan, Aug. 13
Galinsky presents Poetry in New York, 5 Minute Features, 10 poets, 5 minutes each. FREE EVENT – Come have a tea, coffee, cocktail or glass of wine and browse great books and great POETRY IN NEW YORK now in its fifth year at the acclaimed NYC venue BOOK CLUB BAR. This is NOT an open mic, all artists are curated and book ahead of time.A terrific line up of NY poets! 1st artist hits the mic at 8pm!10 Curated POETS perform 5 Minutes Each – this month features: Patricia Carragon, Maria Coyle, Andew Einhorn, Guneet Singh, Madison Dorsey, Nick Monfort, Christian Morant, Robin Selfridge, and live painting Dig Ferreira, and Ian McFarland live music!The show is PAY WHAT YOU CAN / FREE and all donations, here on Eventbrite and live at the venue, are accepted – your generosity at any level is valued. The show starts at 8pm and the Book Club cafe is a fine place to relax before and after the show.Full bar and light snacks are available throughout the night, come early, stay late! Book Club Bar 197 East 3rd Street NYC
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24. Virginia Maksymowicz & Blaise Tobia, Penny Arcade, Willie Cole, Suzanne Lacy, Fred Wilson, FF Alumns, at The Creative Philadelphia Art Gallery at City Hall, PA, thru Sept. 25
Blaise Tobia and Virginia Maksymowicz, exhibition curators for “A Federal Job in the Arts: CETA and Philadelphia in the 1970s,” The Creative Philadelphia Art Gallery at City Hall, through September 25, 2026. Blaise and Virginia were both CETA artists in NYC, working for the Cultural Council Foundation Artists Project, 1978-79. There are a good number of other FF Alumns who were on the Cultural Council Foundation’s CETA Artists Project, as well as others who had different CETA positions including Willie Cole, Penny Arcade, Suzanne Lacy and Fred Wilson.
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25. Alfredo Jaar, FF Alumn, at Galerie Lelong, Manhattan, opening Sept. 10
Galerie Lelong, New York, is pleased to announce an upcoming solo exhibition by Alfredo Jaar opening on September 10, 2026. Titled A Logo for America, the exhibition examines the origins and enduring impact of Jaar’s foundational public-installation of the same name. Originally conceived in 1987 for the Public Art Fund as an animation for a billboard in New York’s Times Square, this work critiques the common usage of “America” to refer to the United States, highlighting the erasure of the rest of the continent. Nearly forty years on and amidst the United States’s Semiquincentennial, this timely presentation asks viewers to consider what it means to be “American.” The gallery presentation will also coincide with Jaar’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys curated by Koyo Kouoh.
Displayed at a grand scale in an enclosed, dimly lit space within the gallery is a newly digitized version of the original animation. Exhibited publicly for the first time, the original storyboard drawings for the animation offer a rare glimpse into Jaar’s creative process, expanding the history of the work. Throughout the gallery, the ensuing narrative of the work unfurls. Photographic suites, lightboxes, and videos document both the original iteration of the work and subsequent presentations, showing how Jaar has reimagined the animation for new forms of media and new contexts over the past four decades, including a barge off Miami Beach and modern television screens. Nearby, a selection of videos reveals how the concept and imagery of Jaar’s 1987 work have seeped into broader cultural and political consciousness. Together, the works on view offer a holistic view of A Logo for America and how it remains a poignant emblem for the ongoing reckoning with what constitutes American identity.
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26. Dee Shapiro, FF Member, at Re Institute, Millerton, NY, opening Aug. 22
I will have several works at the Re Institute, 1395 Boston Corners Road, Millerton, NY. Opening August 22-October 11, 2026 with Kathleen Vance, Claudia Renfro, Kate Hamilton, Sascha Mallon, Betsy Regan
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27. Pollinaria, FF Alumn, at Church of San Biagio, Loreto Aprutino, Italy, Aug. 12
AEQUUSOL MMXXVI – αἰθήρ
Adriana Gallo
Corresponding Weights
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 | 7:00 PM
Church of San Biagio
Via Monte Lauro 20, Loreto Aprutino (PE), Italy
Adriana Gallo inaugurates the seventh edition of AEQUUSOL, Pollinaria’s ongoing program that draws upon the microcosm of Abruzzo to explore emerging forms of ritual and myth. The artists participating in the 2026 edition focus their research on the theme of Ether.
This element shifts our attention toward the subtle vibrations and rhythmic pulsations that permeate all things, leading us into the realm of abstraction and immateriality. Drawing on ecosophical and anthroposophical perspectives, αἰθήρ celebrates symbolic thought, relational practices, and an unconventional approach to knowledge that extends beyond the boundaries of physics. The fifth element opens the gates to the empire of the mind.
Through speculative inquiry into reality and study of local ritual economies, artist Adriana Gallo embraces the guiding theme of AEQUUSOL MMXXVI to explore horizons that extend from disused mines, hermitages, oil presses, and agricultural fields toward a multimedia landscape capable of resisting, through the dialectic of “ritual exchange,” extractive conceptions of value.
Inside the Church of San Biagio, located in the historic center of Loreto Aprutino, Gallo presents two mysterious weights discovered in the Amorotti cellar, placing them in dialogue with an account of her survey of the derelict Campo Imperatore bitumen mine. A meal prepared by the artist adds an additional dimension to a ritual that reflects on deep geological time, agricultural cycles, and ever accelerating temporal scales of the marketplace.
In Corresponding Weights, ritual is understood as a speculative and predictive practice: devotion, contact, sacrifice, and pilgrimage enact alternative definitions of value, in which equivalence and correspondence cannot be reduced to currency or wage
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28. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/1215975847
I’m pleased to release a new music video – “Incautious Midnight (Still Dreaming of a Better World)”. featuring Will Holshouser, Denise Koncelik, Carl Riehl, and Jeanne Velonis (along with myself).
follow the link to see and hear!
Thank you.
Bob Goldberg
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archivist
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