ArtYard’s Invisible Reveals “Missing Histories” in Works by 12 Artists

Curated by Jill Kearney, this exhibition in Frenchtown, NJ amplifies stories both local and universal with work by Willie Cole, Sandra Ramos, sTo Len, and more.

By ArtYard

From: Hyperallergic

ArtYard is pleased to present Invisible, an exhibition featuring the work of 12 artists whose practices examine omitted histories, imperceptible forces, and unspoken narratives which render that which is apparent misleading or incomplete.

Curated by Jill Kearney, Invisible illuminates unseen forms of labor, unspoken emotional states, and unnoticed effects of human presence, examing what the author Svetlana Alexievich calls “the missing history — the invisible imprint of our stay on Earth and in time.”

“My favorite word in the English language is anosognosia, or not knowing what you do not know,” says Jill Kearney, ArtYard’s founder and executive director. “This show is the visual equivalent of not seeing what you do not see.”

The exhibition features artists Monica Banks, Willie Cole, Phebe Macrae Corcoran, Vasiliki Katsarou, sTo Len, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Kelly Popoff, Sandra Ramos, Gabrielle Senza, Pavel Urkiza, Kawita Vatanajyankur, and Natalija Vujošević. Their work explores untold stories that are both universal and local, including some about ArtYard’s home community of Frenchtown.

The idea for Invisible germinated when Kearney stumbled on Vatanajyankur’s silent videos in the Foul Play exhibition at the Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, New York. In these videos, including “The Scale” and “Dye,” the artist captures and distills the beauty, humor, inequity, fragility, ugliness, and tenderness of life. 

“Invisibility extends to every corner of human existence, from the histories that are never taught in school, to the palpable absence of a loved one who died suddenly and for no good reason, to the biology of life itself,” says Kearney. “Art is an antidote to the loneliness of human existence. To be seen is everything.”

Invisible continues through April 10 at ArtYard, located at 13 Front St., Frenchtown, New Jersey, 08825. Public hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

To learn more about the exhibition, visit artyard.org.

January 20, 2022