Billy Gerard Frank: 1-54 Caribbean Spotlight

Billy Gérard Frank, Who is Queen Now?, 2022, mixed media, fabric, acrylic on paper, 36 x 24 in.

EFA Studio Member Billy Gerard Frank will be in this year’s 1-54 Caribbean Spotlight exhibition in Miami.

ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE is a hybrid collective of galleries, artists, designers, creatives, and art professionals from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, dedicated to expanding access to and facilitating the acquisition of art and design from the region.

Its unique hybrid format—blending culturally specific e-commerce with in-person curated exhibitions and dynamic programming—creates a dedicated space for underrepresented contemporary creatives from Caribbean, Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and LatinX communities.

By increasing visibility and fostering connections with collectors who value diversity and understand the impact of their investments, ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE helps shape a more inclusive art market.

Through thoughtfully curated group exhibitions, ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE explores the convergence, currents, and histories of the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic. For the 1-54 Caribbean Spotlight, it proudly presents eleven exceptional visual artists from the region.

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Susan Silas in "MirrorMirror" by Michael Petry

MirrorMirror: The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art

Michael Petry presents EFA Studio Member Susan Silas’ work within his new book MirrorMirror published by Thames & Hudson.

“From the art of Cindy Sherman to Anish Kapoor, from Yayoi Kusama to Tracey Emin, MirrorMirror presents an intriguing and gloriously illustrated global survey of “reflective” work by more than 150 artists across media, nationalities, genders, and locations.

A fascination with mirrors and reflective surfaces is a common theme among artists of the past. Michael Petry’s thought-provoking introduction begins with Jan van Eyck’s celebrated Arnolfini Portrait (1434), one of the first paintings to feature a significant mirror. Petry references key works by the great masters—from Diego Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus (1647–1651), to Édouard Manet’s complex painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), and Claude Cahun’s Reflected Image in Mirror, Checked Jacket (1928), a seminal photograph for those whose gaze is often upon themselves.

Present-day practitioners are no less intrigued, revisiting historical concerns and approaches for contemporary circumstances, often working with modern technologies and materials. Petry presents Jeff Koons’s Balloon sculptures, Subodh Gupta’s stainless-steel life-sized trees, and Not Vital’s mirror architecture, and documents works that use actual mirrors, including pieces by Gavin Turk and Alicja Kwade, and the largescale, spectacular installations of Doug Aitken, Teresita Fernández, Olafur Eliasson, and Sarah Sze. Special consideration is given to selfies and the way in which the cellphone now operates as a modern-day mirror to the self.

The multitude of artworks in MirrorMirror—from monumental installations to the slightest selfie—capture how mirrors appeal to more than just human vanity but are objects of magic, transformation, and power.”

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Elizabeth Colomba at Venus Over Manhattan

Elizabeth Colomba, The Magician, 2025. Oil and gold leaf on canvas; 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Venus Over Manhattan
39 Great Jones Street
New York, NY 10012

Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Elizabeth Colomba, the artist’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition provides a comprehensive look at Colomba’s distinctive approach to figurative painting, featuring a selection of new and recent paintings and works on paper—most of which have never been shown publicly.

Opening on April 15th, the exhibition foregrounds Colomba’s engagement with historical, mythological, and allegorical subjects, centering Black women as protagonists in painterly traditions from which they have long been excluded. The show coincides with the ongoing installation of Colomba’s Armelle (1997) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—one of several recent prominent showcases of her work, which also include a cover for The New Yorker and a permanent commission for the Park Avenue Armory’s entrance hall. In conjunction with the exhibition, Venus Over Manhattan will publish a richly illustrated catalogue featuring a new conversation between Colomba and the artist Wangechi Mutu.

For further information about the exhibition and availability, please contact the gallery at info@venusovermanhattan.com

 Press Contact
Dan Duray
+1 (203) 520-0619
dan@nothingobstacle.com

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Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me at MCA Chicago

Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966, Najaf, Iraq; lives and works in New York), Rendering of Canto III, 2023. © Wafaa Bilal. Courtesy of the artist.

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
220 E Chicago Ave
Chicago IL 60611

Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me is the first major survey of internationally renowned artist Wafaa Bilal (b. 1966, Najaf, Iraq; lives in New York, NY). Working in performance, sculpture, and with online and interactive technologies, Bilal’s interdisciplinary practice investigates the dynamic between international and interpersonal politics while highlighting the tension between his home in the United States, which he has deemed the “comfort zone,” and the “conflict zone” of Iraq. The exhibition covers the breadth of Bilal’s versatile career by exploring his performance practice, the use of power in Saddam Hussein’s regime, and Iraqi history and antiquity. It will feature archival displays of his iconic month-long performance Domestic Tension (2007) and year-long performance 3rdi (2010–11), as well as two new works including a sculptural commission for the MCA.

A theme running throughout the exhibition is cultural cannibalism—that is, how culture (in particular the culture of the other) can be used, disassembled, and consumed. Within each of Bilal’s works, one can find metaphorical and literal traces of this idea. Whether through the artist leveraging his own body to interrogate notions of power, or through his use of innovative technologies to rectify acts of cultural destruction, Bilal shows us what it means to consciously engage across cultures while highlighting the negative global implications of consumption, exploitation, and profiteering.

The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication, the first to survey multiple projects by the visionary artist.

Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me is curated by Bana Kattan, Pamela Alper Associate Curator, with Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.

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