With its exterior renovations completed just in time, The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture ushered in the public last week for the opening of 3 Jurors = 3 Shows, the school’s 2015 alumni exhibition featuring a broad range of paintings, sculptures and works on paper by nearly 50 artists.
The logistics of how this show of shows came together—as conceived, that is, by exhibition Co-Chairs Michael Tcheyan and Larry Greenberg—might well be intuitable from its title, but just to be clear: three different jurors sifted through hundreds of submitted images to arrive at works by a group of artists, and each juror assembled therefrom his or her own show. The jurors were Jason Andrew, of Norte Maar and Outlet Gallery; Fred Valentine, artist and Director of Valentine Gallery; and Yevgeniya Baras, artist and Co-Founder of Regina Rex Gallery.
Three somewhat separate rooms are devoted to each juror’s show, yet the spatial interflow and stylistic overlaps—the latter being at times quite total, since a few of the artists had works selected by more than one juror—create far more visual cohesion from one space to the next than one might expect from an exhibit consisting of a triptych of exhibits.
Or maybe this was bound to happen given the artists, the school, the parameters or the jurors. Or maybe trinities have an invariable way of working together harmoniously. Or maybe it’s just the times. Zeitgeists and suchlike.
Speaking of time—or rather, of time and its passing—you’ll probably want a more complete glimpse than what I’m offering here, so head over to 8 West 8th Street before September 20th to give 3 Jurors = 3 Shows a thorough walk-through of your own.
Paul D’Agostino is @postuccio on Instagram and Twitter.
