Installation view of “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts,” Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. (Jan. 10-March 29, 2025). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY, craft, and the natural world frame two profound bodies of work by Nick Cave. It’s an unusual lens through which to explore the fault lines of race, class, and power. The terrain is familiar for Cave, however. He regularly employs florals, vintage objects, and various materials and embellishments to engage with America’s historic and contemporary ills.
The Chicago artist works across mixed media, sculpture, installation, and is particularly known for his Soundsuits. His latest exhibition features new and recent works.
“Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts” at Jack Shainman Gallery presents three bronze sculptures called Amalgams, one of which stands 26 feet tall at the center of the exhibition. Blending the human figure with flora and fauna, the works were cast from a scan of the artist’s own body. Adorned with birds, flowers, leaves, and branches, Cave envisioned the sculptures as contemporary monuments with a spiritual essence. The sculpture are designed to counter the problematic statues that have occupied public squares throughout the nation, honoring Confederate generals and enslavers, commemorating war and domination, and nearly exclusively memorializing white men, while ignoring the lives, historic contributions, and unjust experiences of women and people of color.
Cave’s Graphts series was produced in 2024. Backed by wood panel, the mixed-media works feature needlepoint, decorative flora, vintage metal serving trays, and an image of the artist’s face. The works draw on multiple meanings. The gallery’s introduction to the exhibition delineates the layered metaphors:
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The needlepoint is associated with upper class gentility and was a common way to pass the time in these households. Conversely, the patchwork of serving trays evoke quilting traditions prevalent in the Black community, a form of creativity born out of necessity. The vintage trays themselves are embellished implements of servitude that ask us to consider the role that aesthetics have historically played in concealing and perpetuating hierarchies. An additional layer of meaning is introduced by the phrase “to serve,” which in ballroom culture is a directive to act with confidence and attitude.
Jack Shainman has been based in Chelsea and Upstate New York. This exhibition is presented in the gallery’s new flagship location in The Clock Tower Building in Tribeca. The former home of New York Life Insurance Company, the Beaux-Arts building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Rife with original architectural details, the 20,000-square-foot gallery space provides a striking backdrop for contemporary art. In April 2024, Jack Shainman presented woven tapestries by Diedrick Brackens at the location. Cave’s show is the first to be on view in the space since renovations have been complete. CT
“Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts” is on view at Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y., where it opened on Jan. 10. Originally scheduled to close on March 15, the exhibition has been extended to March 29, 2025.
NICK CAVE, “Grapht,” 2024 (triptych: vintage metal serving trays and needlepoint on wood panel, 95 1/2 x 143 1/2 x 2 inches, overall). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, “Grapht,” 2024 (diptych: vintage metal serving trays and needlepoint on wood panel, 72 1/4 x 36 1/4 x 2 inches, overall). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
Installation view of “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts,” Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. (Jan. 10-March 29, 2025). | Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, “Amalgam (Plot),” 2024 (bronze, tole flowers and cast iron door stops). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, “Grapht,” 2024 (diptych: Vintage metal serving trays and vintage tole on wood panel, 95 1/2 x 95 1/2 x 10 inches, overall). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
Installation view of “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts,” Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. (Jan. 10-March 29, 2025). Shown, “A·mal·gam,” 2021 (bronze, 122 x 94 x 85 inches). | Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, “Grapht,” 2024 (diptych: vintage metal serving trays and needlepoint on wood panel, 95 1/2 x 95 1/2 x 2 inches, overall). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
Installation view of “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts,” Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. (Jan. 10-March 29, 2025). | Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, Grapht, (diptych: vintage metal serving trays and needlepoint on wood panel, 72 x 36 x 2 inches, overall). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
Installation view of “Nick Cave: Amalgams and Graphts,” Jack Shainman Gallery, 46 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. (Jan. 10-March 29, 2025). | Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
NICK CAVE, “Grapht,” 2024 (vintage metal serving trays, vintage tole, and needlepoint on wood panel, 95 1/2 x 193 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches). | © Nick Cave. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Dan Bradica Studio
BOOKSHELF
Described as the definitive volume on the artist’s work, “Nick Cave: Forothermore” was published on the occasion of his recent career survey presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Also consider “Nick Cave: Until” and “Nick Cave: Epitome.”
