In a dark time, the eye begins to see
Curated by Robert Cozzolino
It takes time for the eye and the body to adjust to darkness. Where are the edges of things, what poses a threat, what will be helpful in navigating disorienting space? With patience, forms appear, outlines are defined, a path becomes clear. We find a way through. Gradually the eye begins to see, even on a supernatural level. When the moment is urgent, we use our third eye and we act on what it reveals.
This inaugural group exhibition at Andrew Edlin Gallery’s new home in Tribeca features a broad range of artists, including some who have never, or rarely shown in New York, who offer multiple ways of seeing through the current climate. Some call out inequities and abuses of power, others turn to joy to counteract fear. All make work with an intensity that affirms the power and necessity of making and sharing their art when creative uplift is most needed.
Some of the artwork addresses injustice or corruption directly, including a large painting by the late Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie, which satirizes the mistreatment of Indigenous children by Christian missionaries. Sue Coe’s new series of drawings features Elon Musk, modeled after William Hogarth’s The Four Stages of Cruelty. Lela Pierce’s ambitious drawing, Sankofa, expresses a worldview in which we learn from the past and use that wisdom to make a peaceful, harmonious future. Works by Forrest Bess, Karla Knight, Guo Fengyi, Paulina Peavy, Reneé Stout and Esther Pearl Watson call on mystical imagery and spirit contact as a way of navigating through chaos. Astrid Bowlby's exquisite small-scale drawings made from the repetitive action of making thousands of small compact spirals, create fields that call to mind outer space, the brain, and other realms of vast imagination.
Robert Cozzolino is an independent curator, art historian, and critic based in Minneapolis. Dr. Cozzolino is especially drawn to artists who aspire to visually express the intangible, and considers himself a curator of fluid time, not bound to imposed labels and bins. First trained as a musician, he has played free-improvised music as a percussionist for over 30 years.
His exhibition publications include Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art (2021), World War I and American Art (2016), Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis (2014), and David Lynch: The Unified Field (2014) and many others. He has curated over 40 exhibitions for the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Chazen Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Minnesota Museum of American Art, and Woodmere Art Museum. Bodies and Souls, an exhibition curated from the collection of Robert and Frances Colbourn Kohler will open at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in March 2026.
Artists: Frank Big Bear, Hazel Belvo, Forrest Bess, Astrid Bowlby, Maya Brodsky, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Beverly Buchanan, Craig Calderwood, Sue Coe, Joe Coleman, Anton van Dalen, Henry Darger, Jim Denomie, Tom Duncan, Tom Emerson, Guo Fengyi, Jesse Ferdinand, Frank Gaard, Dennis Gordon, Karel Havlíček, Joe Houston, Daniel Johnston, Frank Jones, Brad Kahlhamer, Karla Knight, Terence Koh, Katharine Kuharic, Tyler Macko, Ray Materson, Sam Messer, J.B. Murray, Melvin Edward Nelson, Dougie Padilla, Paulina Peavy, Lela Pierce, Renée Stout, Jon Serl, Hollis Sigler, Fred Tomaselli, Abraham Lincoln Walker, Esther Pearl Watson, Karl Wirsum, Domenico Zindato.