A major exhibition is about to demonstrate that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
The Gatherers, which explores excess production, failing infrastructure, and political instability, opens at MoMA PS1 on Thursday, April 24.
Featuring 14 international artists—many exhibiting for the first time in a U.S. museum—the presentation fills the third-floor galleries with sculptural installation, assemblage, painting, video, and performance. Most of the prime material was obtained via retooling detritus and discarded materials to give them new meaning.
New York State residents can attend MoMA PS1 for free, but there’s a suggested donation of $10 or $5 for students and senior citizens.
Politics runs through the show, which underscores the concerns of a generation of artists grappling with the impacts of recent world orders, such as the fallouts from globalization and neoliberalism. Among other themes, The Gatherers touches on the wide-reaching impacts of post-Soviet global reconfigurations. For example, Selma Selman (Bosnian, b. 1991) draws from the issues faced by Roma communities and her own family’s scrap metal business by transforming salvaged parts—including cars, construction equipment, and hard drives—into painted canvases and motorized machines.
From discarded objects on the streets of Kanagawa, Miho Dohi (Japanese, b. 1974) creates enchanting “buttai” or objects reassembled into intimately scaled worlds and spaces. Then there’s Emilija Škarnulytė (Lithuanian, b. 1987), whose 2022 video “Burial” draws attention to Lithuania’s Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant—once the most powerful nuclear structure in the world, but now undergoing a long decommissioning process.
Two more examples. Samuel Hindolo’s (American, b. 1990) psychological paintings give rise to figures wrought by the dystopian collapse of urban infrastructure. He Xiangyu’s (Chinese, b.1986) sculptures of architectures and monuments erase markers of recognition within hybrid forms that evoke erosion.
Here’s a list of all the artists.
Karimah Ashadu (British-born Nigerian, b. 1985), Tolia Astakhishvili (Georgian, b. 1974), Miho Dohi (Japanese, b. 1974), Andro Eradze (Georgian, b. 1993), Samuel Hindolo (American, b. 1990), Geumhyung Jeong (Korean, b. 1980), Klara Lidén (Swedish, b. 1979), Jean Katambayi Mukendi (Congolese, b. 1974), Nick Relph (British, b. 1979), Selma Selman (Bosnian, b. 1991), Ser Serpas (American, b. 1995), Emilija Škarnulytė (Lithuanian, b. 1987), Zhou Tao (Chinese, b. 1976), and He Xiangyu (Chinese, b. 1986).
The Gatherers is organized by MoMA PS1 Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs Ruba Katrib with Curatorial Assistant Sheldon Gooch. Support is provided by the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art and the International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. George Petrocheilos and Diamantis Xylas also provided support.
MoMA PS1 is located at 22-25 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City. By subway, take the E, M, or 7 to Court Sq or the G to Court Sq or 21 St Van Alst.
Bonus
If 14 artists isn’t enough, Sandra Poulson (Angolan, b. 1995) unveils her first museum exhibition, Este quarto parece uma República! [This Bedroom Looks Like a Republic!], at MoMA PS1 on April 24, too. Featuring an installation of new assemblage works, the show includes sculptures made from furniture and garments, reflecting on the abstraction of nation-building within the domestic sphere. Poulson’s practice takes an archaeological approach to Angolan symbols, codes, and cultural objects to untangle histories, oral traditions, and geopolitics. Seen together, her works shed new light on the transnational circulation of images and material culture in the wake of the Angolan Civil War.
Poulson lives and works in Luanda, London, and Amsterdam, where she is currently a resident at Rijksakademie. She has completed large-scale commissions for various institutions including the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2024) selected as part of Biennale College Art (2024); The Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023; Bold Tendencies, London (2023); and the British Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2023). She graduated with an MA in Fashion from the Royal College of Art, London, and a BA in Fashion Print from Central Saint Martins, London.
