2024 Inaugural Exhibition

Bortolami, James Cohan, kaufmann repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and kurimanzutto are pleased to present the inaugural exhibition at their new shared space, The Campus, in Claverack, NY. Embracing a collaborative model, the galleries have turned an abandoned former school building into a platform for dynamic cultural exchange. Organized by Timo Kappeller, the inaugural exhibition will run from June 29 through October 27, 2024.

Vacant since the ‘90s, the 78,000-square-foot building of the Ockawamick School, built in 1951 and largely unrenovated, has been ripe for reanimation. Colorfully-painted classrooms, mid-century architectural details, and generous natural lighting create a compelling context for artists to engage with the space, the original purpose of the structure, and one another.

In recent years, a reconsideration of values has led many artists toward the long-established creative community of Upstate New York. The Campus embraces this environment of spirited exchange with a sweeping exhibition that fills 40 rooms and the surrounding grounds with artwork. Within each room, thoughtful groupings offer moments of focused dialogue amongst diverse voices from within and beyond the six gallery programs.

In the spirit of collaboration, The Campus is partnering with NXTHVN’s Cohort 05 Studio and Curatorial Fellows. Founded by Titus Kaphar and Jason Price, NXTHVN’s annual fellowship works to mentor and uplift underrepresented artists and curators. The exhibition will feature the work of Studio Fellows Adrian Armstrong, Alexandria Couch, Eric Hart Jr., Fidelis Joseph, Jamaal Peterman, Eugene Mackie, and Alex Puz, organized by Curatorial Fellows Marquita Flowers and Clare Patrick.

The inaugural exhibition connects new, historical, and site-specific works by over 80 artists:

An urgent installation of film, neon, and sculptural work by Andrea Bowers activates artwork into a resonant call to inform, educate, and mobilize on climate change.

Miguel Calderón reflects on the juxtaposition between making art within the comforts of school and the life of an artist post-graduation. Drawing from his own school experience, filled with toxic information, his sculptures and photographs encourage spectators to transcend the formalized structures we so often live and learn within.

Jim Denomie’s (Lac Courte Oreille Band of Ojibwe) first comprehensive New York presentation brings notable works from the artist’s striking oeuvre to a new audience. In his vivid palette and gestural brushwork, figures and scenes express the spiritual and the dreamworld.

Installations by Nathalie du Pasquier and Barbara Kasten mingle in a transformative response to the former school’s architecture. As du Pasquier stretches the boundaries of what a painting is, Kasten explores the nature of photography, perception and materiality. Together, their interventions investigate an object’s presence within illusionistic and real space.

Evocative and cinematic representational paintings by Bendt Eyckermans turn the nuances of daily life unearthly. Drawing upon his own memories, five new works respond to the innately nostalgic atmosphere of the former science lab.

A newly-commissioned instructional work by acclaimed choreographer William Forsythe, installed on the grounds of the school, will ask participants to engage with an “assignment” that prompts them to navigate a complex accumulation of simple physical directives.

An outdoor sculptural installation of archetypal steel “vessels” from Maren Hassinger’s series, Steel Bodies, will activate the grounds. Using the metaphor of vessel as body, the formal simplicity of the five open, 3-D line drawings on view express the artist’s assertion that we are all made equal.

Recent sculptures by Diane Simpson playfully oscillate between two and three-dimensional space, translating her subjects into schematic drawings and then, using the same tricks of pictorial illusion, transforming them back into curiously flattened versions of familiar objects in the actual space of the classroom.

Rebecca Morris’s process-driven abstract paintings echo the textures and tenor of the classroom within which they’re situated. In her practice of juxtaposing thin, matte washes of color with shimmering impasto, each composition combines organic patterns and geometric motifs to generate new outcomes and possibilities.