Now through August 30, 81 Leonard Gallery, an artist-run exhibition space in Tribeca named after its address, is presenting “Artists on Antisemitism,” a group show that focuses on “Jewish artists’ responses to the current global surge of antisemitism,” according to an official press release.
Among the works on display is “Yitler” by Marina Heintze, a mixed-media piece that layers photos of Adolf Hitler and Kanye West, and Mike Wirth’s “Silent Remembrance,” which portrays Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum on a smartphone screen.
There’s more: photos taken at the Auschwitz concentration camp by Susan May-Tell and “Emergency Golem” by Maxwell Bauman, a golem built with Legos.
In total, the 38 works on display by 21 different artists range in form and execution, but not in function: they all speak to the Jewish experience and the current state of affairs in the world at large.
“Remembrance is a Jewish value and tying thread across the exhibition, though the artists go about memorializing in various ways,” reads the press release. “Among artists of varying nationalities, familial histories, and levels of religiosity, a duality emerges between cautiously reflecting on traumatic narratives and driving forward with courage and optimism.”
The show is presented in collaboration with Jewish Art Salon, a global network of Jewish artists founded by one Yona Verwer, who also has a work on display at the exhibit.
Speaking to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Verwer remembers putting out a call for artwork submissions about antisemitism to the network and receiving an “overwhelming” response.
“What you see is a small selection of what came in—there were so many people dying to participate in this,” Verwer said to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It’s a Jewish group and we’re here to support each other and create community—that’s what people want.”
