Past Exhibition

  • Nina Chanel Abney
  • Rita Ackermann
  • Alex Bag
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat
  • Katherine Bernhardt
  • Joe Bradley
  • Sarah Braman
  • Bread and Puppet Theater
  • Lizzi Bougatsos
  • William N. Copley
  • Thornton Dial
  • Jason Fox
  • Keith Haring
  • Wally Hedrick
  • Lonnie Holley
  • Sadie Laska
  • Chris Martin
  • Jeanette Mundt
  • Laura Owens
  • A.R. Penck
  • Joyce Pensato
  • Carol Rama
  • Tyson Reeder
  • Bill Saylor
  • Peter Saul
  • Kenny Scharf
  • Julian Schnabel
  • Josh Smith
  • Agathe Snow
  • Spencer Sweeney
  • Henry Taylor
  • Don Van Vliet
  • Sue Williams

Animal Farm

Greenwich May 14th to October 1st, 2017

  • Sadie Laska
  • Animal Farm
  • Nina Chanel Abney

Additional elements of the exhibition include a curated selection of puppets and theatrical banners in the foundation’s Library space, exhibited in collaboration with Bread and Puppet Theater. The Honey Badgers—a musical group consisting of artists Jack Hanley, Phil Grauer, Tyson Reeder, and Michael Mahalchick—will activate Sarah Braman’s large-scale sculpture with a musical performance.  The opening reception will also feature live musical performances by Lonnie Holley and LOBOTOMAXXX.

Participating Artists

Nina Chanel Abney, Rita Ackermann, Alex Bag, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Katherine Bernhardt, Lizzi Bougatsos, Joe Bradley, Sarah Braman, Bread and Puppet Theater, William N. Copley, Thronton Dial, Jason Fox, Keith Haring, Wally Hedrick, Lonnie Holley, Sadie Laska, Chris Martin, Jeanette Mundt, Laura Owens, A.R. Penck, Joyce Pensato, Carol Rama, Tyson Reeder, Peter Saul, Bill Saylor, Kenny Scharf, Julian Schnabel, Josh Smith, Agathe Snow, Spencer Sweeney, Henry Taylor, Don Van Vliet and Sue Williams.

About Sadie Laska

Sadie Laska is a visual artist and musician living in Queens, New York. She received her MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts in 2014. Laska’s work has been shown internationally, with solo shows at CANADA, New York; Office Baroque, Brussels; KS Art, New York; and Galerie Bernard Ceysson, in Paris, Luxembourg and Geneva. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, White Columns, Marlborough Gallery, Zürcher Gallery and Harper’s Books. Laska’s band, I.U.D., has performed at international venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, The Brant Foundation, The Kitchen, ISSUE Project Room, Astrup Fearnley and the Kunsthalle Zürich.

Programs and Events:

Animal Farm Exhibition Announcement

Free Arts Day Inspired by Animal Farm

Animal Farm Opening Party Page

Animal Farm Sunday Hours

Selected Resources Inspired by Animal Farm

School of Art and Design Students Visit Animal Farm

Animal Farm – Open House Thursdays

Disclaimer

This exhibition contains subject matter that may be considered inappropriate for children. Please review the images on this page if you plan on attending an Open Tour with a young child. Artworks will not be censored for Open Tours, however child-friendly tours may be scheduled by contacting Sabrina Marsalisi at sabrina.marsalisi@brantfoundation.org.

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Animal Farm

Installation view
(Left to right: Don Van Vliet, Spencer Sweeney)
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Don Van Vliet

Don Van Vliet

The Drazy Hoops, No 1, 1997
oil on canvas
45 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.
Courtesy Michael Werner Gallery, New York and London

Fusing naturalistic imagery with lush, painterly passages of vivid abstraction, the paintings of Don Van Vliet defy simple categorization. As his fellow artist and long-time admirer A.R. Penck once observed: Deep from the sphere of subconsciousness appear images of the demonic animality of man. They oscillate between classic seriousness and a detached ironic view of the ego’s dependence upon instincts. The works employ broad gestures, bold and uncommon colors and an imaginative subjectivity reminiscent of mid-century New York School abstract painting and the CoBrA group of artists. Don Van Vliet injects those legacies with his own unique vision, a kind of homespun surrealism born of the lore of the American desert and the artist’s own inspired visions, alternately whimsical and nightmarish.

Courtesy of Michael Werner Gallery

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Animal Farm
  • Animal Farm
  • Animal Farm

  • Alex Bag
  • Jeanette Mundt
  • Jeanette Mundt

Animal Farm

Installation view
(Left to right: Tyson Reeder, Sadie Laska, Sue Williams)
Photography: Laura Wilson

  • Sue Williams
  • Sadie Laska
  • Tyson Reeder

Animal Farm

Installation view
William N. Copley
Photography: Laura Wilson

  • Misty & Mother, 1982
  • McQueen, 1974
  • William N. Copley
  • William N. Copley
Copley's Hancock, 1975
  • William N. Copley
  • Wililam N. Copley

William N. Copley

Untitled, 1979
charcoal on paper
28 3/4 x 22 3/4 inches (framed)
Image © William N. Copley Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Claire Copley and Alan Eisenberg
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Animal Farm

Installation view
(Left to right: Peter Saul, Henry Taylor)
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

My paintings are what I see around me…they are my landscape paintings.

– Henry Taylor

  • Henry Taylor
  • Henry Taylor
  • Henry Taylor
  • Peter Saul

Peter Saul

True Crime, 1962
oil on canvas
51 x 59 in.
Hall Collection

“The way it looks to me now is things out of the American dream sort of thrown into a bathtub with Abstract Expressionist leanings. By 1962, this was not something most art viewers wanted to see, of course. It looks like the figuration was influenced by Dick Tracy comic strips. That house resembles the kind of thing that Dick Tracy might have been involved with. And it is true – I was very interested in those things. As I was growing up, I very much enjoyed Dick Tracy during World War II. All those weird people: Pruneface, Mole Man, Mole Man’s daughter, Moline. Oh, a whole bunch of people. I felt so grateful to Chester Gould that I actually sat down at a café and wrote him a letter.”

– Peter Saul, Courtesy of the Hall Art Foundation

Animal Farm

Installation view
Josh Smith
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Josh Smith

Josh Smith

 

Private Moment, 2017
oil on panel
19 3/4 x 14 7/8 x 1 1/4 inches
Frame: 20 13/16 x 15 7/16 x 2 inches

“The fish, as a subject, has a large margin for error.  You see fishes on people’s cars, especially in America, as it’s a Christian symbol.  It’s just two lines and a circle, but it’s still a fish.  Sometimes I paint skeletons, which are just bunches of lines.  I don’t want me work to be about rendering but, that being said, I don’t want it to be poorly painted either.  But all of my paintings have visual appeal…they are not closed doors.  I try to leave them open so that people can bring their own interpretations to the work.  I like the viewers to finish them.  But it’s fine to say that it’s not a good drawing, and you don’t need to explain why, you can simply accept it as not being right.”

– Josh Smith

  • Josh Smith
  • Josh Smith
  • Josh Smith

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Jason Fox
Jason Fox Jason Fox
Jason Fox Jason Fox
  • Jason Fox
  • Jason Fox

Jason Fox

11/9, 2016
oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas
42 x 36 in.
Collection of Katherine Bernhardt

Untitled, 2016
oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas
42 x 36 in.
Courtesy of the artist and CANADA, New York

Untitled, 2016
Oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas
42 x 36 in.
Courtesy of the artist and CANADA, New York

“I always think back to Smithson and his idea of history collapsing, extreme future and extreme past as materials to work with.  I still think that painting is a great way to work through those ideas.  Not having to rely on Photoshop or printing something, which is fine, but I enjoy picking up a pencil and getting my hands dirty.  I don’t think its primitive or stupid.  If it is, who cares?  It’s a good thing.  It’s a good kind of primitive and stupid.”

– Jason Fox

“Jason Fox”, CANADA, 2017

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Art, to me, is as important as any other thing that gives life, that you grow with. Take that paper bag and fold it up right. Paint it. Take that brick before you throw it away. Design it. Have a yard sale with all the bricks that you painted, and see if somebody done bought one of your bricks. That’s what I want to leave behind.

– Lonnie Holley

  • A.R. Penck
  • Lonnie Holley
  • Carol Rama

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Laura Owens
  • Thornton Dial
  • Rita Ackermann

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Animal Farm
  • Animal Farm
  • Animal Farm

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Katherine Bernhardt
  • Joyce Pensato
  • Joe Bradley

Nina Chanel Abney

Si, Mister, 2017
unique ultrachrome pigmented print, acrylic, spray paint
2 panels: 96 x 48 inches each
©Nina Chanel Abney. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

I’d like people to ask questions to themselves about race, gender, and identity. I hope my work provokes thoughts, raises awareness, and poses interrogations.

– Nina Chanel Abney

  • Animal Farm, Installation view
  • Animal Farm
  • Animal Farm

  • Keith Haring
  • Kenny Scharf
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Laura Wilson

Kenny Scharf

Barbara Simpson’s New Kitchen, 1978
Acrylic on canvas with wood frame
20 x 24 in.
Image © Kenny Scharf., Courtesy the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery.
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Animal Farm

Installation view
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

Lizzi Bougatsos

The King's Virgin, 2015
print on Matte paper
54 x 72 in.
© Lizzi Bougatsos
Photography: Christopher Burke Studio

  • Animal Farm
  • Installation view, Bread and Puppet Theater
  • Animal Farm

Keith Haring

Untitled (Pink Smiling Face), 1981
Baked enamel on metal
48 x 48 inches
Image © Keith Haring Foundation
Photography: Tom Powel Imaging, Inc.

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