Art & Exhibitions
For Its Major Post-Pandemic Triennial, the New Museum Has Invited 40 Rising Artists to Explore the Theme of Persistence
The exhibition, titled “Soft Water Hard Stone,” opens in October.
![Still from Kate Cooper's video, Symptom Machine (2017). Courtesy of the artist. Still from Kate Cooper's video, Symptom Machine (2017). Courtesy of the artist.](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2021/04/Cooper_SymptomMachine_E_HiRes_RGB-1024x576.jpeg)
The exhibition, titled “Soft Water Hard Stone,” opens in October.
Taylor Dafoe
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The 2021 New Museum triennial—the fifth iteration of its signature exhibition of emerging artists—has been in the works since long before the pandemic. But its overarching theme, of tenacity in the face of hardship, will likely feel more relevant than ever when the show opens this fall, well over a year into the pandemic.
The museum announced today that the exhibition, co-organized by Margot Norton, a curator at the New Museum, and Jamillah James, senior curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is titled “Soft Water Hard Stone.” The name comes from a Brazilian proverb: Água mole em pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura (“Soft water on hard stone hits until it bores a hole”).
For the curators, it’s a metaphor for persistence: Even the most inexorable of materials change with time and energy.
The 40 artists included in the show—a group that represents five continents and nearly all media—the proverb can, occasionally, be read more literally. The transfiguration of discordant materials and ideas will constitute a prominent theme in the exhibition, as will the use of outmoded models and artistic traditions.
“Their works exalt states of transformation, calling attention to the malleability of structures, porous and unstable surfaces, and the fluid and adaptable potential of both technological and organic media,” a statement on the triennial reads.
Ambera Wellmann, UnTurning (2019). Courtesy of the artist and KTZ gallery, Berlin.
Though all of the artists were born after 1975, the curators say they didn’t look to birth dates for their definition of “emerging artists.”
“We decided that, instead of age, our parameter would be based on exposure,” James tells Artnet News, “so that artists we invited that had not yet had a major solo exhibition in a U.S. museum.”
Norton and James began research for the Triennial in the summer 2018, logging nearly two year’s worth of travel and in-person studio visits before the pandemic necessitated some improvisation. “When we scheduled our travel, we were interested in visiting locations where it made a difference to be there physically, and in areas where artists are often underrepresented in international exhibitions,” James says, pointing to places such as North Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Since then, the curators have “become quite accustomed to the Zoom studio visit, to say the least.” Norton says. “While there is a huge disadvantage to not seeing work in person, we actually found it to be quite efficient to continue our research remotely, particularly as we honed in on the show’s theme, and for the artists whose works we have had the opportunity to see in person prior.”
Brandon Ndife, Modern Dilemma (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Bureau, New York.
“Soft Water Hard Stone,” is set to run from October 27, 2021 to January 23, 2022 at the New Museum. See the full list of participating artists below.