Contributed by Amanda Church / Christmas in July? Not quite, but Dimin Gallery is presenting “Blizzard” in August, normally the hottest month of the year, and it is indeed a cool, stylistically diverse show of 11 artists, bringing suitably icy commentary to bear during a sultry urban summer. In such a heterogeneous group, it is hard to identify an overarching ethos or attitude, but what resonates most strongly is a shared opposition to climate-change denial or acquiescence and the obstinately backward climate policy of the current U.S. administration.
The press release cites gallery owner Robert Dimin’s recent trip to the Eqi Glacier in Greenland as the impetus for this show, noting that “experts estimate Eqi will only last ten to fifteen more years in its current state as a calving and active glacier.” With earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, heat domes, wildfires, and floods wreaking havoc on the world and its inhabitants, it’s not entirely farfetched to imagine a freak snowstorm in August. Some works on view convey a variety of sensations associated with the specter of these phenomena, from Brett Stano’s car buried in the snow in Ridgewood Snow Van to Elena Redmond’s Soft Sculpture, a painting of a stack of snowballs inevitably conjuring David Hammons’ 1983 Bliz-aard Ball Sale despite its divergent form and intent.
Other artists in the show consider wildlife in a fragile and unstable environment. Peter Schenck’s painting Perched is based on the Atlantic puffin, showcasing its beautiful orange beak and feet, and his On Edge presents an amalgam of a Canada and Arctic goose poised on the brink of a snowy chasm. Both are deftly rendered and Pop-inflected, ironically pristine and cheerful. Likewise, Jessie Edelman’s ostensibly optimistic Sun Come Up features two sweet songbirds on a snow-covered branch. But Lauren Cohen’s ceramic sculptures Mackerel II and III may refer to the species’ urgent migration as sea ice melts and waters warm.
Directly addressing global warming is Ohan Breiding’s photograph Ghostscape I, which shows the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland draped in thermal blankets by local residents to notionally keep it from melting, which, blankets notwithstanding, is predicted to happen by 2050. Without defaulting to didacticism, “Blizzard” transmits a powerful message about the volatility and uncertainty of the future of the environment. It seems noteworthy that the human figure appears in only one of the paintings on display – Redmond’s Landscape Painting.She depicts herself wearing just lingerie in a wintry vista, as if anticipating a grim era of “natural” disasters for which we will be, to put it mildly, underdressed.
“Blizzard,” Dimin, 406 Broadway, Floor 2, New York, NY. Through August 28, 2026. Artists: Sarah Anderson, Ohan Breiding, Lauren Cohen, Jessie Edelman, Inuk Silis Høegh, Caroline Larsen, Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen, Elena Redmond, Peter Schenck, Brett Stano, and Deborah Wasserman
About the author: Amanda Church is a painter and occasional writer living and working in New York City. She will be included in the “Pursuit of Happiness” show opening in September at the Oakland University Art Gallery in California.
