Young women artists have been surprisingly silent about issues like misogyny and racism in post- Trumpian times. In the art world nexus that is New York, nearly everyone is outraged by the rulings of 45’s Supreme Court and judicial nominees, and by the ubiquitous Fox News-driven, anti-woke, right wing rhetoric, but where’s the art? Sure, established artists such as Barbara Kruger have been at it with text works since the 1980s and Andrea Bowers has had a notable activist practice for decades, but what of the next generation? And what do artists who are immigrants have to say? At long last, in galleries and a major museum in New York this spring, artists are addressing important issues head on, with great sensitivity and an emphasis on beauty.
While there have laudably been many gallery shows by noteworthy Asian and Asian American artists in this past year, Eunnam Hong’s first solo show at Lubov on the Lower East Side is a standout. Here, she explores feminism in an early Cindy Sherman-esque cinematic manner, always painting her own blonde-wigged, elegantly dressed avatar - who often appears multiple times on the same canvas - in different outfits and poses. Originally from South Korea, Hong moved to the US in 2006 for a break from her successful career in graphic art for major fashion companies. Once here, motherhood subsumed her; while studying painting at Pratt, she met an American, married him and took on the new role as the primary caregiver for her children. But she never stopped painting, and it shows. It’s the interiority of these subjects who never meet our gaze (and the just-so cinched waists and perfectly rendered toes in the latest stiletto sandal, as well as her exceptional ability to paint drapery, light, shade and reflections) that draws you in. But back to the blond wig: Does her disguise stem from lack of security in her new identity as a painter, a profession her parents had once discouraged? Or is it simply practical? (It was certainly easier to be her own model while she painted at home). More chillingly, can we ignore the darker reading of an Asian woman in New York donning a white-passing disguise in a time of increasing incidences of anti-Asian hate crimes? Working in a long lineage of women who created meaningful works while homebound – Imogen Cunningham and Marisa Merz come to mind – Hong creates cryptic and exquisite works that speak uniquely to 21st century anxieties.
Azita Moradkhani is another recent immigrant artist who plays with textiles - both beautifully drafted in colored pencil on paper or printed on fabric - in her more overtly political works on view at her first solo at Jane Lombard. Born and raised in Teheran, the artist moved to New York in the 2010s. Moradkhani embeds images from peaceful feminist protests worldwide in sensually rendered, lacy lingerie. Drawn in by the implied female body, the viewer is confronted with sign-bearing crowds of people expressing outrage against exploitation. Referencing the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement that resulted from the murder of teenager Mahsa Jina Amini by the Iranian police, 1970s protest in Iran, and more recent marches in her adopted country following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Moradkhani universalizes the struggle of women for gender empowerment and equality.
Perhaps the most exciting project by a young artist on view in New York now is in the least expected venue: the trying-hard-to-be-a-little-less-staid Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lauren Halsey, a Los Angeles-based Black queer artist, pays homage to the museum’s collection in a rooftop installation where she recreates a form similar to the Egyptian Temple of Dendur that is permanently installed below. Hieroglyphs on the walls are transformed into text – often expressing Black power, but sometimes mimicking signage from Black owned businesses – and Afrofuturist motifs. Sphinxes with faces of her family members and life partner stand guard. The structure is solid and powerful, an impressive feat by a visionary young woman.
It bears reiterating that these women can really, really paint, draw and fabricate art. In the case, of Hong and Moradhkhani, their hyperrealistically rendered forms - as much as their messages - draw you in and make you want to linger in their respective worlds. And happily, Halsey’s world will live on; the installation will be moved to her South Central Los Angeles neighborhood to serve as a community gathering place after it’s Met run.
