Photo Pest: Thunderstorms @ the Whitney

I feared the outdoor galleries might be closed at the Whitney on a free Friday night due to the severe thunderstorm forecast, as they had been at the Met the week before because of the heat.

Instead, a gallery featuring a large-scale work by artist Mary Heilman offered colorful seating to watch the skies darken over New Jersey.

Amy Sherald's 2018 portrait of Michelle Obama put her on my art map, although I didn't much care for its muted tones. Turns out she's a lot more colorful even if she only paints Black people.

"Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured)" (2018)

"Guide Me No More" (2011)

"It Made Sense... Mostly in Her Mind" (2001)

"Freeing herself was one thing, taking ownership of that freed self was another" (2013)

With a few exceptions--such as "If You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It" (2019) which alludes to a sentence from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon--most of her portraits are the same size.

Pay attention to the titles. Sherald, whose great-grandfather was a German-Jewish tailor, preaches a kind of gentle Black self-empowerment.

"A Bucket Full of Treasures (Papa Gave Me Sunshine to Put in My Pocket)" (2020)

In the Black community, the term "redbone" refers to people with lighter skin color, a category that includes Sherald who clearly finds the distinction meaningless.

"They Call Me Redbone, but l'd Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake" (2009)

This painting reminded me that our current president used bone spurs to evade the draft.

"American Grit" (2024)

It's been harder and harder lately to find solace in art when so much of it now has political associations. The "Justice" Department decided that the police officer who shot and killed this emergency medical technician in her own home should serve only a day in jail. A federal judge in Kentucky decided otherwise this week, sentencing the man to nearly three years.

Breonna Taylor (2020)

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibited Amy Sherald: American Sublime before it arrived at the Whitney. Residents of the nation's capital were supposed to be in for the same treat until the National Portrait Gallery decided "Trans Forming Liberty" (2024) might offend the current occupant of the White House, who wants to name the Kennedy Center after his wife. Even though Ivy League schools and white-shoe law firms have caved in the face of his creeping but relentless authoritarianism, Sherald cancelled the show rather than remove her painting. That's what I call integrity--stand with Amy, a dentist's daughter from Columbus, Georgia!

Like I said earlier, pay attention to her titles.

"For Love, and for Country" (2022)

IMHO, Louise Nevelson's work has never been displayed to better effect.

"Moon Gardenscape No. XIV (1969-77)

Marina Kurkow showcases her environmental concerns through animation and sculpture on the Whitney's Hyundai Terrace. The Korean motor company also sponsors digital art at MoMA.

"The River Is A Circle" (with James Schmitz) (2025)

If I ever book a room at the Standard, I'll ask for a view of the Whitney. Or maybe I should just grab a drink at Le Bain. Who wants to join me?

"The River Is A Circle" (partial, with Blake Goble) (2025)

Zurkow also staked her claim to an interior gallery. My patience for video art increases in direct proportion to the outside temperature. I found "Mesocosm (Wink, TX)," another animated work from 2012, mesmerizing. It depicts an actual sinkhole about a four-hour drive from El Paso that has been expanding since 2002 on property privately owned by an oil company. An edible helped me concentrate on finding the moving elements.

In the "Earth Eaters," (2025) Zurkow and James Schmitz create a world of floating islands endlessly plundered for their minerals by human beings who are represented by gold statues (putting orange wigs atop them probably would be a little too-on-the-nose). The artists mashed up 16th century woodcuts by Georgius Agricola, the father of modern geology, war weaponry and artificial intelligence to produce an endless, unsettling loop of Mother Earth's exploitation.