LOVE 2018: Purple hearts

Opening reception: Thursday, January 19, 5-7pm
January 16 - February 14, Monday - Friday 9am-5pm
Columbia University, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, 2960 Broadway, New York
More information about the exhibition here and press with Howl NY

In Drake’s song Sneakin’, the line "And she texting purple hearts, Cause she know that we at war” resonates so dramatically with this moment of collective and complex heartbreak. The lyric oscillates between the personal and the cultural, the poetic and the practical, the physical and the digital, the delight and the pitfall of LOVE. Drake’s war over his art, his girl, his reputation becomes manifest as a text, and emoji, which in the same instance images the history of political and violent war. It would not be possible for me to here list all of the heartbreaks that weigh heavily on us—the collective us—right now. We are mired in image and realities of the contemporary resignification of lynchings, witch hunts of the worst kind, and the shameless pursuit of control or chaos (the distinction between the two becoming ever less clear.) It is this idea of the Purple Heart that this exhibition will pursue. Featuring returning artists and new additions the exhibition will examine how ‘LOVE is a battlefield’ how ‘LOVE hurts’ and why (or if?) ‘LOVE is worth fighting for.’ That is to say, I will ask my artists to produce the image of their Purple Heart.

Alex Bradly Cohen, Alexandra Forsyth Martínez, Amanda Granieri, Baseera Khan, Benjamin Peterson, Ben Sanders, Brooke Holloway, Bryan Jabs, Cameron Welch, Candice Breitz, Charlap Hyman & Herrero, Chase Middleton, Chloe Coover, Chris Jones, Chuka Chukuma, Claudia Bitran, Dana Buhl, Dana Sherwood, David Wojnarowicz, Deb Willis, Devan Shimoyama, Duy Hoàng, Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Emile Askey, Hector Rene, James Bidgood, Jessica Martinez, Joseph Kaplan, Kai McBride, Ke Peng, Kuldeep Singh, Lacey Lennon, Leonard Suryajaya, Lily Wong, Mark Dion, Mary Ellen Mark, Matt Grubb, Matthew Leifheit, Michael Bühler Rose, Michael Stablein Jr., Natasha Ochshorn, Nora MacLeod, Pablo Montealegre, Paul Legault, Peter Clough, Peter Hujar, Rona Yefman, Rory Mulligan, Samantha Nye, Sharon Madanes, Sheila Pepe, Shelly Silver, Shona McAndrew, Stephen Williams, Susan Metrican, Tom Kalin, Yoshie Sakai.