Rising and Sinking Again

Rising and Sinking Again presents sixteen graduate exhibitions realized by the Class of 2023 master’s candidates at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard). Distinct in theme and focus, these projects are the culmination of a year and a half of research in collaboration with artists, writers, scholars, and more. More information on these exhibitions can be found on our website here.

In their first week at CCS Bard, the students were asked to read critic and curator Cuauhtémoc Medina’s reflections on the meaning of “contemporary”—a word that both defines and haunts a program such as this. He argues that properly addressing the present “involves the memory of failure and a necessary infatuation with the powers of history.”

Spread throughout the Hessel Museum of Art, these sixteen exhibitions take up Medina’s statement as their collective method—considering the transmission of heritage, history, and culture; forms of spatial and perceptual mapping; and lesser-known artistic tendencies, among other topics. As various pasts roll in to meet us or recede into the distance, the MA candidates approach the contemporary as a continuous reckoning with the aftereffects and unexpected futures of such pasts. Thinking of history as a permanent process of transition, the projects of Rising and Sinking Again map idiosyncratic routes through the recurrent and liquid nature of our contemporary moment.

A complete list of exhibitions follow below, organized alphabetically by curator name.

Boundary Monuments Dissolve
Featured artists: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Jia-Jen Lin, Christopher Meerdo, Naomi Nakazato, and Amina Ross
Curated by Katherine C. M. Adams. 

Extended Structures
Featured projects: Silent University and unitednationsplaza
Curated by Zehra Begüm Kışla.

Bettina: The Fifth Point of the Compass
Featured artist: Bettina Grossman
Curated by Marina Caron. 

Silät
Featured artists: Thañí weavers and Andrei Fernández
Wichí Translator: Demóstenes Toribio García
Curated by María Carri. 

An Anathema Strikes the Flesh of the Laborer
Featured artist: Harry Gould Harvey IV
Curated by Leo Cocar.

Sarah Rapson, Free admission
Featured artist: Sarah Rapson
Curated by Liv Cuniberti. 

Shapeshifting: Or, Synonyms for Skin
Featured artists: Anna-Sophie Berger, Nicola Costantino, Hannah Levy, Karinne Smith, and Rosemarie Trockel
Curated by Mary Kathryn Fellios. 

Right to Mother
Featured artists: eobchae, Kyuri Jeon, Hyojae Kim, and TZUSOO
Curated by Jiwon Geum. 

Ya nada es como antes
Featured artists: Kevin Ávila, Bad Bunny, Liz Cohen, David Cordero, Luis Gispert, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and Joiri Minaya
Curated by Abel González Fernández. 

Meet Me in the Middle of Nowhere
Featured artists: Tom Burr, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jordan Ramsey Ismaiel, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Keioui Keijaun Thomas
Curated by Kyle Herrington. 

Open Secret
Featured artists: Nina Valerie Kolowratnik and Hương Ngô
Curated by Rachel Horvath-Eboh. 

Memory Work
Featured artists and poets: Natalie Diaz, Jasmine Gibson, Lotus Laurie Kang, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Esteban Ramón Pérez, and Jennif(f)er Tamayo
Curated by Claire Kim. 

Gorgeous, Thrilling, Spectacle
Featured artists: LaKela Brown, Ayanna Nayo, and Polo Silk
Curated by Sidney Pettice. 

Fuga
Featured artists: Carmen Barradas, Roma Cortina, Proyecto Deatres (Cristi Aimaretti, Raquel Minetti, Magalí Moyano, María Paula Olivieri, Pedro Sosa, Vicente De Stefano), Lucas Scandinavia, Gabriel Sierra, Probject (Manuel Raeder, Rodolfo Samperio), and Joaquín Torres-García
Curated by Ursula Pokorny. 

No Jokes Allowed
Featured artists: Alex Forrest, Rachel Harrison, Tala Madani, Lisi Raskin, Elaine Sturtevant, Alex Tatarsky, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, and Ry Rocklen
Curated by Olivia Rodrigues. 

The Hoarder of Things
Featured artists: Yuji Agematsu, Nobutaka Aozaki, Mimi Park, and Tania Pérez Córdova
Curated by Calvin Wang. 

Planning your visit
Limited free seating is available on a roundtrip-chartered bus from New York City for the April 1 opening—reservations are required and can be made by calling +1 845-758-7598 or emailing alaracuente@bard.edu.

The Hessel Museum of Art is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 5pm. All exhibitions and public programs are free and open to the public. Advance reservations are preferred but not required and can be done so here.

The Hessel Museum of Art and CCS Bard Galleries are located in a single-level facility. Parking is available outside of the building in an ADA-compliant parking lot which has four accessible parking spaces at the end of the paved entrance way. To read our full Accessibility Policy, please see our website here.