OPENING THIS WEEK: THE PICTURES GENERATION: FROM HALLWALLS TO THE KITCHEN AND BEYOND

Presented with SARA'S curated by Vera Dika, at 64 Fulton Street. October 3, 6-8PM

PICTURES GENERATION:
FROM HALLWALLS TO THE KITCHEN, AND BEYOND

OPENING RECEPTION
OCT 03, 2024, 6-8PM


64 FULTON ST
NEW YORK, NY

GRETCHEN BENDER
CHARLIE CLOUGH
NANCY DWYER
JACK GOLDSTEIN
ROBERT LONGO
CINDY SHERMAN
MICHAEL ZWACK

CURATED BY
VERA DIKA

SARA’S and Dunkunsthalle are pleased to present The Pictures Generation: From Hallwalls to the Kitchen, and Beyond, curated by Vera Dika, at 64 Fulton Street, from October 3 to November 2, 2024. Continuing our multi-part focus on the early days of the Pictures Generation, the show opens in tandem with a screening series at the Roxy Cinema. The exhibition features early Pictures art works, films, sound recordings, drawings, photos and ephemera by Robert Longo, Charlie Clough, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Dwyer, Jack Goldstein, Gretchen Bender and Michael Zwack, a group of artists who lived and worked for a pivotal time in the surrounding area of the Financial District— working across mediums, and across boundaries of high art and popular culture.

Of the group, Robert Longo, Charlie Clough, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Dwyer and Michael Zwack began their careers at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, New York. They met the West Coast artist Jack Goldstein, first at Hallwalls, and then again in New York City. In the summer of 1977, Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman moved to 85 South Street in New York, a stone's throw from the gallery location at 64 Fulton. Here is where Cindy Sherman created many of her early Untitled Film Stills, and where Robert Longo’s Men in the Cities series were photographed on the roof, and subsequently drawn. Sherman soon moved to 64 Fulton with Nancy Dwyer, furthering the historical prominence of the block and surrounding neighborhood as an artistic hub. In 1981, Gretchen Bender arrived in New York City and settled into the South Street loft, joining the artists of this group as a friend and peer. 

The selection of objects and moving images on view in this exhibition captures a snapshot of ideas and memories from the generation who shaped the cultural discourse beginning in the late 70's and into the 80s, when media began to subsume the commercial landscape and, later, daily life. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Hallwalls in Buffalo, this exhibition highlights the beginning of that practice. With consideration to the many mediated forms of creating and existing in today's world, this exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how we arrived here, and to consider what lies ahead. 

Thank you to Ryan Muller