Contents for July 27th, 2026
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Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
1. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib, FF Alumn, at University of California Santa Cruz, CA, Aug. 9
2. Jenny Holzer, Coreen Simpson, FF Alumns, now online at Wallpaper.com
3. Cassils, FF Alumn, in new publication
4. Candace Hill Montgomery, David Hammons, Pope.L, Luke Roberts, FF Alumns, now online at NewLeftReview.org
5. Julie Harrison, FF Alumn, at Garrison Art Center, NY, opening Aug. 15 and more
6. Benoît Maubrey, FF Alumn, now online at StirWorld.com
7. Will Atkins, FF Member, at Brooklyn Art Haus, Aug. 8
8. Mel Watkin, FF Alumn, new publication now available
9. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, at 2026 Accordion Seminars, live online, July 31-Aug. 2
10. Britta B. Wheeler, FF Alumn, at The Studio at Hunter Hill, Parksville, NY, Aug. 7-16
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Weekly Spotlight: **FIRST FIFTY VOICES**
Jim Costanzo is the founding director of the Aaron Burr Society and its Free Money Movement, which uses performance, public intervention, and pamphleteering to critique Wall Street, neoliberalism, and economic injustice. The Free Money Movement is represented in MoMA NY’s collection, and Costanzo has worked with Occupy Wall Street, Strike Debt, GULF Labor, and REPOhistory. A longtime friend of the Furnace, here’s how Jim describes what FF has meant to him:
]”Franklin Furnace has been this incredible group of people — an organization, a place to show artwork, a place to publish artwork, and a place to meet fellow artists and friends and people that have an idea of how the arts can interact with social activity and social justice.”
For fifty years, FF has been at the intersection of art, fellowship, and social justice. Help us keep supporting artists whose practice doesn’t separate the studio from the street. Any sized gift counts:
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/franklin-furnace-archive-inc/first-fifty-campaign
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1. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib, FF Alumn, at University of California Santa Cruz, CA, Aug. 9
Where Are We Going?
August 9, 2026 @ 10:00 am – 3:30 pm, UC Santa Cruz
For more information: https://thi.ucsc.edu/event/81941/
To RSVP, go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zC74vsT7JQc0Tw5Hm16lda1mrGzzKaR50YTwVVgM4o0/viewform?edit_requested=true&pli=1
Join us for a day-long retreat and reflection with artists Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib and Gina Athena Ulysse. The morning walk, starting at the UC Santa Cruz Quarry, will be a chance to reflect on individual and collective futures together as we move between the nodes of Gina Athena Ulysse’s exhibition Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins and Disentanglements. After a light lunch, Nicolás and Gina will then be in conversation together at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences galleries (100 Panetta Avenue). This event is co-sponsored by The Humanities Institute.
10am-1pm Where Are We Going?
A 6-mile pilgrimage traversing the four locations of Redwoods Rasanblaj from the UCSC Quarry to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences via Variance and the Museum of Art and History. Please bring water and sturdy shoes and meet at the UCSC Quarry at 10am. Participants are also welcome to join at the Museum of Art and History at approximately 11:30am.
1pm-2pm Lunch
A light lunch will be provided for people who plan to join for both the walk and the conversation. RSVP below.
2pm-3:30pm It Was Never Meant To Be Secular
A conversation at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences galleries between Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel and Gina Athena Ulysse.
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel Atrib treads an elusive path that manifests itself through creative experiences that he helps unfold within the quotidian. He has exhibited or performed at Madrid Abierto/ARCO, The IX Havana Biennial, PERFORMA 05/07/21, IDENSITAT, Prague Quadrennial, Pontevedra Biennial, Queens Museum, MoMA, Printed Matter, P.S. 122, Sculpture Center, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance BAAD!, Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, City as Living Laboratory, Princeton University, The Bee Friendly Trust, Anthology Film Archives, El Museo del Barrio, Center for Book Arts, Longwood Art Gallery/BCA, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Franklin Furnace, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. Nicolás has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field.
Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, CEC ArtsLink, The Performance Project, Soaring Gardens, Jentel, Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center, Center for Book Arts, Lower East Side Printshop, Artists Alliance Inc., Yaddo, and MacDowell. Nicolás has curated exhibitions or programs for El Museo del Barrio; Leslie Lohman Museum of Art; Bronx River Art Center (BRAC); Franklin Furnace; Elizabeth Foundation Project Space; Artists Alliance Inc; Art in Odd Places; Korea Art Forum; Social Practice CUNY; BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; and The Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; as well as for the Filmoteca de Andalucía in Córdoba, Spain.
Publications include Pleased to Meet You, Life as Material for Art and Vice Versa (editor), One Person at a Time (editor), Induced Labor, and For Art’s Sake, among others. Nicolás holds an M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, where he studied with Coco Fusco, and an M.A. from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He was a Senior Lecturer and Social Practice Artist in Residence in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Texas at Austin; and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. Nicolás was recently a Teaching Scholar in Residence at Social Practice CUNY (SPCUNY). Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, he was baptized as a Bronxite in 2011. He is the Founding Director of The Interior Beauty Salon www.interiorbeautysalon.com
Gina Athena Ulysse (b 1966) Haiti/United States is an artist-scholar, Professor of Humanities and Founding Director of the Rasanblaj Praxis Project Lab (RPPL) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Concerned with the visceral in the structural, her questions engage geopolitics, historical representations, aesthetics and the spiritual in the dailiness of Black diasporic conditions. In the last two decades, her rasanblaj approach (the gathering of ideas, things, people, and spirits) to her multidisciplinary art and writing practice entails ongoing crossings and dialogues in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. She has performed at The British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Cabaret Voltaire, Gorki Theatre, House of World Cultures, LaMaMa, Marcus Garvey Liberty Hall, MoMA Salon, among other venues. She has held residencies at the University of Buffalo, Oregon State, University of Zurich, as well as the Bogliasco Foundation Study Center in Italy. In 2020, she was an invited artist to the Biennale of Sydney. In 2024, she was invited to participate in the Biennale de Dakar. She is a 2025 MacDowell fellow. Her major publications include the forthcoming A Year and A Day. Leonore Mau and Haiti (Oct 2025, editor with Dora Imhoff and U5), a polyphonic inquiry into the photographs Leonore Mau (1916-2013) took in Haiti during the 1970s; Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle (2015); Because When God is Too Busy: Haiti, me & THE WORLD (2017) – long-listed for the 2017 PEN Open Book Award and recipient of the 2018 Best Poetry Connecticut Center for the Book Award – and A Call to Rasanblaj: Black Feminist Futures and Ethnographic Aesthetics (2023). She was the invited editor of e-misferica’s Caribbean Rasanblaj (2015), the Hemispheric Institute’s Journal for Performance and Politics. Her visual art has appeared on the covers of Feminist Formations, Feminist Studies, Frontiers, and Meridians Journals.
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2. Jenny Holzer, Coreen Simpson, FF Alumns, now online at Wallpaper.com
Please visit this link:
https://www.wallpaper.com/design-interiors/wallpaper-us400-2026
Thank you.
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3. Cassils, FF Alumn, in new publication
Honored to be included- some of my greatest heroes are on this list
Repost from Åsa Johannesson: “here for the Fast Forward: Women In Photography takeover. My book ‘Queer Methodology for Photography’ (Routledge, 2024) Routledge Art is a book of artistic strategies in queer photography. It sets out to diversify the queer photographic genre with chapters that explore different perspectives on image making and image writing.
I wrote a book that I felt was missing from literature on queer photography – almost all books that I had come across as a student, artist and researcher focused on representation only. My book embraces representation (chapter 2) as well as foregrounding queer vocabularies articulated through technique, aesthetics, poetic writing and cross disciplinary approaches to image making. One methodological approach per chapter. 25 artists are included”
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4. Candace Hill Montgomery, David Hammons, Pope.L, Luke Roberts, FF Alumns, now online at NewLeftReview.org
Please visit this link:
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/warm-ghosts
Thank you.
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5. Julie Harrison, FF Alumn, at Garrison Art Center, NY, opening Aug. 15 and more
Hello Dear Friends,
I’m basking in lots of art activity this summer: a solo exhibition in Garrison NY, a talk in Great Barrington MA, a group show in Denver CO, a group show in Minneapolis MN, and a 2-month residency in the Liguria region of Italy! I hope to see you in person at one or more of these events, details below, and I’ll post updates on instagram.
July 17 – August 8, 2026
“Living the Dream (a dissociative thing),” a group collaboration curated by Todd Edward Herman for Flipping Scripts II: Exhibition of Colorado Curators, organized by Dan Drossman at The Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive, Denver CO
August 15 – Sept 8, 2026
“Rising Tide,” a solo exhibition at Garrison Art Center, opening reception: Sat. August 15, 2026, 5–7pm ET, 23 Garrison’s Landing, Garrison, NY
August 29 – October 26, 2026
Artist-in-Residence at Arroscia Residency ThinkArt, Pieve di Teco, Italy
Aug 29 – Nov 29, 2026
“2026 MCBA Prize,” a group exhibition curated by Inge Bruggeman at Minnesota Center for Book Arts, opening reception, Sept 18, 2026, 6–8pm CT, 1011 S Washington Ave, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN
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6. Benoît Maubrey, FF Alumn, now online at StirWorld.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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7. Will Atkins, FF Member, at Brooklyn Art Haus, Aug. 8
Ash & Air, a butoh and body hook suspension performance art show, at Brooklyn Art Haus on August 8th at 7pm. I am one of the performers as well as Margherita Tisato.
Here is the link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/accabadora-presents-ash-and-air-tickets-1991420707945?aff=oddtdtcreator
Thank you!
Will Atkins
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8. Mel Watkin, FF Alumn, new publication now available
Mel Watkin: Notebook of Notes: An Artists’ Book, 2026 (www.etsy.com/shop/melwatkinartist)
A collection of individual drawings with accompanying texts. Thoughts, quotes, and sketches, primarily on environmental issues, women’s issues and personal experiences. Kept over many years from many sources: the news, readings, podcasts, documentaries, and conversations. Funded by an Illinois Arts Council’s Creative Projects Grant.
Book Details:
Soft textured cover, perfect bound
Full color, 143 pages
Book size: 9 x 7 x ½ inch
Spreads: 9 x 13.5 inches
Retail price: $25 plus $5.22 postage
Barcode: 979-8-9907974-1-3
LCCN: 2026915870
Introductory essay by Dana Turkovic, Curator, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis
Corey Tester Design, Carbondale, IL
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9. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, at 2026 Accordion Seminars, live online, July 31-Aug. 2
Friends and Neighbors, I am pleased to invite you to
THE 2026 ACCORDION SEMINARS:
EVOLUTION IN THE REALM OF PERMANENT TRANSITION
Dr William Schimmel, curator – Our 32nd year –
Friday July 31
Saturday August 1
Sunday August 2
Master Classes at 3 PM
Concerts at 4 PM.
details: https://www.facebook.com/share/17XtxBzuqK/
INFO AND RES – Accordionbill@gmail,com –
I will be premiering a new composition, “Incautious Midnight ” featuring Will Holshouser, Carl Riehl, Jeanne Velonis and myself (Concert 2: Saturday); and a related piece “Incautious Rhapsody (solo with commentary) (Concert 3: Sunday)
Performing in Jeanne Velonis’ “Turn Me Into Water” (Concert 1: Friday)
and presenting a repeat showing of “Don’t Mess with Dr S” (Master Class 3: Sunday).
Participating artists include
Bachtopus
Corn Mo
Brian Dewan
Peter Flint
Will Holshouser
Sari Kalin
Mary Spencer Knapp
William Komaiko
Dr. Denise Koncelik
The Main Squeeze Orchestra
Dr. Robert Young Mc Mahan
Carl Riehl
Paul Stein
Jeanne Velonis
and many more!
THE ACCORDION GLOBAL ASSOCIATION
presents
THE 2026 ACCORDION SEMINARS:
EVOLUTION IN THE REALM OF PERMANENT TRANSITION
Dr William Schimmel, curator – Our 32nd year –
Friday July 31
Saturday August 1
Sunday August 2
Master Classes at 3 PM
Concerts at 4 PM
$ 185. ENTIRE WEEKEND – PAYPAL
details: https://www.facebook.com/share/17XtxBzuqK/
INFO AND RES – Accordionbill@gmail.com –
917 498 6823 – 212 876 0827
Checks payable to WILLIAM SCHIMMEL – 345 E 85TH ST 4RE – NEW YORK, NY 10028
Thank you. Bob Goldberg
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10. Britta B. Wheeler, FF Alumn, at The Studio at Hunter Hill, Parksville, NY, Aug. 7-16
Britta B. Wheeler, FF Alumn, presents The Red Bird Came First, an exhibition of recent work at the Studio at Hunter Hill, Parksville, NY 12768, August 7-16. RSVP 646-221-9121
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Join Franklin Furnace today:
https://franklinfurnace.org/membership/
Goings On is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archive Intern
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