WHY I MAKE ART

WHY I MAKE ART
Curated by Brian Alfred
28 JULY - 26 AUGUST 2022
DIANA AL-HADID, BRIAN ALFRED, TRUDY BENSON, INKA ESSENHIGH, ANDREW KUO, GEOFF MCFETRIDGE, LIZ NIELSEN, MARGAUX OGDEN, CARL OSTENDARP, JAMES SIENA, JASON STOPA, and ANNE VIEUX

MILES McENERY GALLERY is pleased to announce Why I Make Art, a group exhibition derived from Brooklyn-based artist, Brian Alfred’s, recent publication. Gathered from the archives of “Sound & Vision,” a podcast directed by Alfred, the book presents interviews with artists conducted between 2016 and 2020. Both the publication and the exhibition explore the practices and life stories of artists across multiple mediums. The exhibition opens on 28 July 2022 at 511 West 22nd Street and will remain on view through 26 August 2022
(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

(Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Why I Make Art" (curated by Brian Alfred), 28 July - 26 August 2022
DIANA AL-HADID

Untitled, 2022

Conte, charcoal, pastel, acrylic on mylar

18 x 24 inches

45.7 x 61 cm

"There are certain themes that recur for many of the artists I’ve spoken with in my time. For a lot of them, creativity entered their lives early. It often scratches an itch–boredom, loneliness, a desire to connect or entertain, to find validation or a feeling of worth–that children can have difficulty articulating with words. A lot of the time this instinct to create, visually, materially, is only understood in retrospect."

- Brian Alfred
- Trudy Benson
  Rose World, 2022
  Acrylic and oil on canvas
  64 x 58 inches
  162.6 x 147.3 cm
- Brian Alfred
  Sill, 2022
  Acrylic on canvas
  60 x 50 inches
  152.4 x 127 cm
Close
“In conversation with Brian and another artist, they’re able to express themselves without worrying about how to translate what they mean for a lay audience. In those moments of warmth and connection, new kinds of insights into who they are and how they think inevitably emerge. In these pages, the wisdom, lessons, and miniature autobiographies that the artists gave to Brian are presented as profiles, offering insight into why these folks decided to (and continue to) make art.”

- Hrishikesh Hirway, foreword to "Why I Make Art"
Close
LIZ NIELSEN
Swan Landscape, 2021
Analog Chromogenic Photogram, on Fujiflex
Image Size: 49 3/8 x 74 1/4 inches
125.4 x 188.6 cm
Framed Size: 53 1/8 x 78 inches
134.9 x 198.1 cm
“This book is full of written portraits of artists. It’s not about one thing in particular–theory or studio practice or their inspiration. It’s about them as people in the world. An artist myself, I wanted to approach this compendium of portraits as an exploration, rather than a place to make definitive statements about the art being made today.”

-Brian Alfred
Close
BRIAN ALFRED (b. 1974 in Pittsburgh, PA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997 from Pennsylvania State University and his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1999 from Yale University.

Recent solo exhibitions include “High Rises and Double Vision: Images of New York,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Future Shock,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Techno Garden,” Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “New Animations,” Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; “Beauty in Danger,” Salon 94 Video Wall, New York, NY; “It’s Already the End of the World,” Frist Center for Visual Art, Nashville, TN; “Co-op,” Giraud Pissarro Ségalot, New York, NY, and “Rise Above,” Haunch of Venison, London, United Kingdom.

Recent group exhibitions include "Why I Make Art," Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists,” Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; “Do You Think it Needs a Cloud,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Fixed Contained,” Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “Door Into Summer / M’s collection +,” Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “Rag & Bone Mural,” Houston Street, New York, NY; “Art on Link,” Art on LINK/NYC Kiosks, New York, NY; “Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “The Frame,” Samsung Art TV, Samsung, USA; “Like Oxygen,” Mountain Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and “Room with a view,” EDDYSROOM, Brooklyn, NY.

His work is included in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Cleveland Clinic Art Foundation Program, Lyndhurst, OH; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Musuem of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, AZ; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

Brian Alfred lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Close

WHY I MAKE ART

DIANA AL-HADID, BRIAN ALFRED, TRUDY BENSON, INKA ESSENHIGH, ANDREW KUO, GEOFF MCFETRIDGE, LIZ NIELSEN, MARGAUX OGDEN, CARL OSTENDARP, JAMES SIENA, JASON STOPA, and ANNE VIEUX