The Ford Foundation will open an art gallery in its Manhattan headquarters.
The Ford Foundation headquarters in New York City. Photo by Kenlarry, via Wikimedia Commons.
The fifth-wealthiest charitable foundation in the world, the Ford Foundation, has announced that it will open an art gallery in its recently renovated Midtown Manhattan headquarters, now officially dubbed the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice. According to a press release, the 2,000-square-foot Ford Foundation Gallery will be “an innovative exhibition space dedicated to presenting multidisciplinary art, performance, and public programming by artists committed to exploring issues of justice and injustice.”
The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, “PERILOUS BODIES”, was organized by Jaishri Abichandani and Natasha Becker and will open March 5th. Artists featured in this group show will include Tiffany Chung, David Antonio Cruz, Barthélémy Toguo, Wendy Red Star, and Vanessa German, along with 14 others from around the globe.
Barthélémy Toguo, Road to Exile, 2018, mixed media installation: wooden boat, fabric bags, glass bottles, and plastic containers. Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co, Paris - New York and Bandjoob Station, Cameroon.
According to a statement from Lisa Kim, a former director of operations and exhibitions at Gagosian and the newly appointed director of the Ford Foundation Gallery, the show:
explores the inhumanity and injustice created by divisions of gender, race, class, and ethnicity. The artists in the exhibition offer a raw and honest look at the issues we must address head-on to ensure dignity for all.
The venue will host exhibitions, talks, and performances in hopes of creating an atmosphere in which, according to a press release, “the art world and the public can come together for contemplation and conversation in an inspiring, adaptive space.”
