April 22–May 20, 2021
Curated by Ellie New, Jasmine Buckley, and Troy Gibbs-Brown
Refractions of a Present Future features six young artists whose works channel sensory, poetic, and personal explorations of living within lifetimes characterized by environmental destabilization on multiple scales. In a diverse set of media–including color study, poetry, narrative film, sonic composition, digital illustration, and painting–they trace instances of environmental, cultural, and temporal rupture that reveal how our pasts and our futures both resonate in the ever-unfolding present. Across disciplines, their works use abstraction, texture, and sensory modes of communication to investigate the tensions between experiences of fragmentation and acts of mending in the midst of climate crises.
Featuring artwork by Clara Allison, Taylor Burkhead, Kinsale Hueston, Brock Riggins, Priya Subberwal, and Ming Ying
Presented by The Gallatin Galleries and WetLab with support from the NYU Gallatin Dean’s Award for Graduating Seniors.
Ellie New (BA ‘20) is a curator, producer, and writer. Her projects include exhibitions, events, and writing that connect art, environmental justice, and the emerging field of curatorial activism in order to catalyze the power of artists’ voices to generate alternative futures. In March 2021, she curated Press Your Ear to the Wind: a virtual stage for artist “duets” that explore the complexities of climate crises through artworks, conversation, and questioning. She graduated from New York University with an Individualized B.A. titled “Art for Our Sake: Curatorial Activism and Cultural Institutions as Civic Assets” and a minor in Arts Politics from the NYU Tisch Department of Art & Public Policy. She is an alumna-in-residence and curatorial fellow with WetLab.
Jasmine Buckley (BA ‘22) is a curator and graphic designer born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Jasmine has previously worked at C.J. One Gallery, formerly in the east village. In addition to curating Refractions of a Present Future, she is also a curator for the 2021 Gallatin Arts Festival. Jasmine is passionate about bringing underrepresented narratives and histories into art institutions. She seeks to do this by curating exhibitions centered around these experiences and expanding the opportunities of receiving art education to encourage young emerging artists and curators to do the same. She will be graduating from New York University in May 2022, with a concentration in curatorial ethics with an Art History minor from the College of Arts and Science.
Troy Gibbs-Brown (BA ‘22) is a visual artist, researcher, and environmental arts theorist based in New York, NY. Self-taught from 2013, Troy’s work mainly comes in the form of photography, both digital and analog. Refractions of a Present Future is his first curatorial role, in which he extends the agenda of his studies to this venture: to investigate the human relationship to the natural world through environmental research and artistic expression. Recently venturing into abstract painting and curatorial studies over the past year, Troy hopes to rediscover the power that resides in the human attachment to nature and creativity. He employs established perspectives in the field of ethics and philosophy to reform the human attitude towards and perception of the environment which humankind sees themselves so separate from.
This digital exhibition emerges from Ellie New’s ongoing curatorial investigation into the meeting points of curation, art, and environmental issues. Additional iterations within this research include Press Your Ear to the Wind: a virtual stage for artist “duets” on climate crises (March 2021), and Knowing the Way to Tomorrow: a digital exhibition prospectus and senior project (May 2020). You can learn more about this ongoing research here.
