Yossi Milo at The Armory Show

Asif Hoque’s (b. 1991; Rome, Italy) celestial paintings show Brown deities and angels escaping the boundaries of the physical world, swooping among the clouds in playful compositions that innovate on traditional mythological symbols and themes. The artist’s warm, vibrant palette imbues drama into scenes that take inspiration from his upbringing between Florida and Italy as well as his Bangladeshi heritage.

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With a complex multidisciplinary practice, Shikeith (American, b. 1989) interrogates the sociopolitical structures and histories that oppress the psychological landscapes of marginalized communities. Influenced by his interest in hauntology and spiritual traditions from the African diaspora, Shikeith's artwork both mines and speculates on methodologies of disentangling and reconciliation. His works employ magical realist aesthetics, creating elusive compositions challenging gender norms and asking viewers to engage with the invisible forces that shape their perception of the subjects depicted and self. 

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Expansive ideas of traditional craft are shared by ceramicist Ibrahim Said (b. 1976; Cairo, Egypt), whose gravity-defying vessels build on storied traditions to achieve forms previously impossible. Recalling ancient artifacts of dynasties past, the Egyptian-American artist’s works transform both clay and convention into levitating, weightless forms that seemingly exist outside time. In this way, the artist celebrates his heritage while advancing Egyptian motifs towards new horizons. 

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Matthew Brandt (American; b. 1982) revives pre-film photographic technologies while introducing unconventional materials that allow new interactions of subject and image that are otherwise impossible in traditional processes. In his Silver series, each of Brandt’s black-and-white photographs of forests is produced as a gelatin silver print, which the artist mounts with an application of liquid silver. This intervention references the material by which the photographs are made, and offers an exploration of photography as metal, brought full-circle by the medium’s reliance on mineral components. The cool, smooth surfaces of this series recall moonlit, reflective forest pools and antique mirrors, furthering comparisons between the natural world, the realm of antique technologies, and the viewers, themselves reflected in the silver surface.

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