Mishkin Gallery: Visible Communication: Works from the Baruch College Art Collection

Mishkin Gallery
135 E 22nd St. New York, NY 10010

Opening Reception: March 28, 5-7 PM

Drawn almost entirely from the Baruch College Art Collection, this exhibition explores our relationship to communication technologies as tools for worldmaking: socially, culturally, and politically. The works on display are all concerned with some form of media and its mis/use, from traditional mass media (books, newspapers, TV) to experimental sound machines and instant cameras—and they engage with these media technologies as subject matter, raw material, and apparatuses for image-making. Inspired by the title of Juan Downey’s 1967 work Do It Yourself: Invisible Communication, this exhibition asks us to look at the often unexamined structures of communication around us, whether it’s complex networks of production and distribution too vast to behold, or everyday objects so common that we don’t stop to notice them.

The artists included in this exhibition have manipulated existing forms of media, embraced new technologies, or developed entirely novel tools for communicating. Many of the works on display focus on communication technologies that are not “new” media per se, such as the printed book (c. 15th century) and newspaper (c. 17th century). However, all were created during the second half of the 20th century, a period marked by significant transformation in consumer communication technologies driven by Cold War defense research and state-funded economic incentives. As we stand on the precipice of another new information age with the ongoing arrival of AI, the exhibition looks to historical forms of communication technology and invites us to think about how we might navigate into the future.

Artists: Mary Ascher, Sarah Charlesworth, Juan Downey, Jannis Kounellis, Martha Rosler, Andy Warhol

Visible Communication is co-curated by Mishkin Gallery’s Alexandra Tell and Marisa Malone. The exhibition is made possible by Friends of the Mishkin Gallery and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (CUNY).