The Beloved Leader Shares the Struggle of the Heroic Engineers, 2022
601Artspace, NYC
The Beloved Leader Shares the Struggle of the Heroic Engineers, 2022
601Artspace, NYC
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, 2023
Skylight Culver City, LA
Several paintings from The Beloved Leader Series on view at SPRING/BREAK Art Show Los Angeles, curated by Jac Lahav, February 15-19, 2023.
I told them once, I told them twice, 2022
Art at Ivory Silo Farm, Westport, MA
The latest in the Kim Jong Un exploration, at the inaugural edition of Art at Ivory Silo, an exhibition, mostly outdoors, of artists related to Ivory Silo Farm in Westport, Massachusetts, August 13 &14, 2022.
Tent Column, 2022
Ivory Silo Farm, Westport, MA
Tent Column (2022), also a part of Art at Ivory Silo, was suspended from a branch of a tall locust tree, where it engaged in a dialogue with the wind.
Concrete Cathedral (Prototype #1), 2022
601Artspace, NYC
Concrete Cathedral is the first in a series of sculptures inspired by an anecdote Howe heard from Edi Rama, an artist who is also the Prime Minister of Albania. At a talk hosted at the Marion Goodman gallery in 2016, Rama talked about growing up under an extreme communist government that outlawed religion and actively persecuted practitioners. He described churches that were covered in concrete and turned into movie theaters and basketball courts. Howe turns this borrowed recollection into a meditation on physical erasure and architectural repurposing, two long-standing gestures of authoritarian rule. Borrowing from the structural paradigm of the Fabergé egg, a concrete box is cranked open to reveal a cathedral which in turn opens to reveal a pristine basketball court.
Merry Christmas! Love, Kim Jong Un, 2022
601Artspace, NYC
A North Korean living room. Dominating the center is a lighted Christmas tree, with ball ornaments, each of which is a head of Kim Jong Un. The top ornament is a soaring North Korean missile. Around the base of the tree is a model of Kim Jong Un’s personal armored train. Next to it is a nutcracker in the form of a goose-stepping North Korean soldier. On the wall are portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. In a pot on the floor is a large begonia, representing “Kimjongilia”, named after Kim Jong Il and bred to bloom on his birthday. A North Korean TV set shows video of Kim’s black Mercedes 600 limousine hurtling through outer space. On the front fenders are North Korean flags. Kim stands waving in a spacesuit.
Kim Jong Un becomes a roly-poly pop figure, simultaneously cheerful and menacing, powerful and ingratiating. Spirits of religion and consumerism, neither of which are allowed to exist in North Korea, float in the air.
Book of Dread, 2020
The Book of Dread is a continuation of the Security Blanket project begun in 2015. Each blanket image is presented across the fold of a 67 x 45 inch stainless steel ‘book.’ The viewer flips the pages, encountering simultaneously the comforting softness of the blankets and their disturbing depictions.
Tent Field: Contested Territory, 2019
42 Social Club, Lyme, CT
Tent Field: Contested Territory, 2019, is an installation designed specifically for the 42 Social Club location in Lyme, Connecticut. On this site embedded with the histories of the Pequot tribal people and the arrival of the English colonists, the tents populate the woods and act as mute interrogators of the invisible histories of the land. The ground becomes content.
The Tent Field project began as an effort to conjure a physical artwork from a descriptive passage found in Albert Camus’ The Plague. The project now numbers over 100 red rip-stop nylon tents, varying in scale but all considerably less than life-size. River stones placed inside secure them, while careful observation reveals that they are fully enclosed, without entrances or exits.
Install/Deinstall, 2019
601Artspace, NYC
Install/Deinstall was a 3-hour long group exhibition on the theme 'Self Portrait', that condensed the three main events in the life cycle of every show: the installation of the work, opening night, and deinstallation of the exhibition. Artists included in the show brought their self portraits with them to the opening and installed them upon arrival. When they were ready to leave, they deinstalled and took their work with them.
SPRING/BREAK Art Show, 2019
866 UN Plaza, NYC
The Security Blankets collaboration with Anita Cruz-Eberhard was included in SPRING/BREAK Art Show during Armory week for it’s eighth year. Entitled "Security Blankets US" as part of the show’s 2019 theme Fact and Fiction, ten 60×80 inch and seven 30×40 inch blankets were exhibited as a labyrinth in a 10×10 mylar-walled space.
Peers, 2018
Trestle Projects, NYC
This exhibition included work by six artists who examine the accessibility of surveillance in our current culture and reflect on our ambivalent relationship with cameras. The works opened up a philosophical dialogue about security, privacy, and recreational entertainment. The Security Blankets reflect on the increased societal dependency on images to represent truth or facts.
12x12x12, 2015
Black Ball Projects, NYC
The Security Blankets collaboration with Anita Cruz-Eberhard was part of a group show at Black Ball Projects, entitled 12x12x12.
The Show Me State, 2015
Auxiliary Projects, NYC
The Security Blankets collaboration with Anita Cruz-Eberhard was part of a group show at Auxiliary Projects, entitled The Show Me State.
Noorderlicht Photo Festival, 2015
Groningen, Netherlands
The Security Blanket project was prominently displayed at Noorderlicht Photo Festival in Groningen, Netherlands. As part of the festival’s main theme exhibition, Data Rush, 16 blankets were hung near the center of the hall for visitors to see and touch.
