Photo by Madison Voelkel/BFA.com
At its annual exhibition Thursday evening, the Queens Museum honored its board members, artist Sable Elise Smith and designer Angelo Pace.
The evening’s festivities kicked off with a cocktail hour hosted by Right Eats’ digital producer Jaykee Cho, who brought together flavors from five different Queens-based restaurants against the iconic Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, just outside the Queens Museum. In addition to the company’s two current solo shows for Alyssa Nissenbaum and Tracy Ross.
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During the dinner, the evening began with remarks by New York City’s current Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, Larry Gumbo, and Sally Tallent, director of the museum, followed by a performance by Nick Hakim. This led to a respectable presentation.
„It is beautiful and poetic to receive this honor from the Queen’s Museum,” Smith said in his remarks. „I want to sincerely thank the Queen’s Museum for this honor, it’s a way to acknowledge and recognize what they need to see. What a surprise that the Queen’s Museum has seen me in so many ways.
Smith added that it means a lot to her to be honored, “especially someone who grew up being told they would never do anything by teachers and academics. … Because personally, I have never been moved by the sheer and utter racism of others. I have always known that the expanse of the world is bigger than anyone’s words.
Smith had his first institutional solo show at the Queen’s Museum in 2017, resulting in Smith being a Jerome Fellow at the museum. Curated by Hitomi Iwasaki, the exhibition established Smith as an important artist. The Whitney and MoMA acquired work that appeared in that show, and last year, other pieces by Smith were exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale.
“The Queens Museum laid a path and a foundation for so many things that will permeate both my career and my life, so the show, the moment, the freedom, and the intimacy and friendship with the curator, who cares about and cares about art and artists as individuals — shout out to Hitomi,” he said. .
Smith was introduced that evening by artist Salome Assega, who called Smith „my Leo twin flame” and added, „Sable is a visionary artist who has established herself as a vibrant voice in contemporary art by telling the truth about what she sees. What she knows, what she feels. Conflict. It was held that it shines a light on structures that some people think are invisible or too large to open.
He continued, “There is a keen awareness of how stories can leave lasting impressions—ideologically and visually—on society, and an intimate imagination of what in turn could be. But his work is not just about confronting structures or institutions. Sable challenges us to consider our own complicity in perpetuating harmful systems, and asks what we can do to create new, abundant, and compensatory visions of life and living? Sable gifted us with a curtain for the possibility of his work.
Following Smith, artist Shaniqua introduced Jarvis Back, who started out as Supreme’s brand director before starting her own label Awake NY and Back Creative and Angelo Back Studio.
During her remarks, Pack, who was born and raised in Queens, spoke of her involvement with the Queens Museum, which deepened during the pandemic when she partnered with La Jornada to launch the Queens Museum Cultural Food Pantry.
„I just wanted to be involved,” Pack said. „You know, 'social’ is a hot word in the fashion industry and the streetwear industry, but what a lot of people don’t understand about the word social is that social comes with action. You have to take action, and you have to participate in the community to create and be a part of it.” .You can applaud that.