Zoe Crosher

Jun 5, 07:49 pm

The FLAG Art Foundation invites you to join us for the opening reception of The Swimmer, an expansive group exhibition inspired by John Cheever’s 1964 short story of the same name at The FLAG Art Foundation, on Thursday, June 6th, from 6-8pm.

The FLAG Art Foundation invites you to join us for the opening reception of The Swimmer, an expansive group exhibition inspired by John Cheever’s 1964 short story of the same name at The FLAG Art Foundation

June 6 – August 9th, 2024, 6-8pm
FLAG | 545 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001

The Swimmer
Curated by Jonathan Rider
June 6-August 9, 2024

Published in The New Yorker in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, John Cheever’s The Swimmer is emblematic of mid-century America’s changing perception of its own relationship to class, idealism, and failure, evergreen issues as relevant today as sixty years ago. Cheever’s protagonist, Neddy Merrill—who “might have been compared to a summer’s day”—embarks on the novel adventure to swim home by way of his affluent neighbor’s swimming pools. What begins as a carefree midsummer Sunday devolves into something altogether different and nefarious; Neddy’s life and his grip on reality disappear, pool by pool, the closer he comes to finishing his journey and returning home… whether that’s the same day or perhaps many years later.

Artists include:
Henni Alftan, Harold Ancart, Leonard Baby, Conrad Bakker, Burt Barr, Dike Blair, Martin Boyce, Katherine Bradford, Vija Celmins, Zoe Crosher, Nancy Diamond, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tony Feher, Elizabeth Glaessner, Robert Gober, Wayne Gonzales, Jim Hodges, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Roni Horn, Ludovic Nkoth, Amy Park, Jack Pierson, Alessandro Raho, Calida Rawles, Ed Ruscha, Melanie Schiff, Cindy Sherman, Cynthia Talmadge, Deanna Templeton, Paul Thek, and Stephen Truax.

FLAG’s exhibition similarly confuses time and unfolds through a series of disappearances in bodies of water—in pools, lakes, and oceans—through serial works that concern loss and losing oneself. Navigating themes inherent in The Swimmer and Cheever’s broader oeuvre, including alcoholism, grandiosity, loss of innocence, selective memory, privilege, sexuality, etc., the exhibition trains an eye to the crumbling of an American dream, set against the glittering backdrop of a string of swimming pools. The ninth floor of the exhibition closely aligns itself with Cheever’s narrative and features a variety of painting, photography, and sculpture in which the body is suggested, but not depicted, positioning the viewer as the “swimmer” in space. The exhibition’s tenth floor focuses almost exclusively on the figure—the body in water—and explores night swimming, locating the pool as an intimate, self-contained site for mystery and experimentation.

Click here for more information.

“In Crosher’s erudite photographs, she captures the murky, stilled waters of a dock and the hazy seascape of an empty beach. Each image, devoid of the human figure, is taken at the approximate time of its subject’s vanishing. Photo captions indicate both subject and site…to varying degrees, each narrative remains unresolved, containing many unknowns. By combining literary characters with actors and celebrities, Crosher risks surpassing her viewers’ abilities to suspend belief…(the photographs) act as waypoints, dotting the geophysical edge of the West, directing us towards a limitless promise–indefinable and mercurial–between reality and the sublime.”
-Jenée Misraje

About:
The FLAG Art Foundation is a non-collecting, nonprofit exhibition space that mounts solo, two-person, and thematic group exhibitions centering on emerging and established artists from around the globe. Organized by a diverse community of curators and thinkers within and beyond the art world, FLAG opened to the public in 2008 and has staged over 100 exhibitions celebrating the work of nearly 1,000 artists. Committed to providing education and resources for its surrounding community, and across New York City, all exhibitions and programs—including artist talks, artist-led workshops, and guided tours for school and museum groups—are free and open to the public.

FLAG provides various projects, prizes, and initiatives that offer dynamic support to contemporary artists. Its recurring Spotlight series features a new or never-before-exhibited artwork accompanied by a commissioned piece of writing, encouraging focused and thoughtful dialogues between the visual arts and critics, scholars, poets, and beyond. The Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize comprises a $200,000 unrestricted award to an artist along with two solo exhibitions—originating at The Contemporary Austin, Austin, TX, and traveling to FLAG—an accompanying publication, and related public programming. Over the years, FLAG has collaborated with local, national, and international organizations including Art & Newport, Newport, RI, The Harlem Children’s Zone, New York, NY, The Lab and Museum School, New York, NY, New Curators, London, UK, and New York Road Runners, New York, NY, to reach an audience of all ages and backgrounds.

The FLAG Art Foundation was founded by Glenn Fuhrman, an art patron, philanthropist, and alongside his wife Amanda, a Co-Founder of The Fuhrman Family Foundation. Fuhrman is a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, and The Tate Americas Foundation, New York, NY. He is a Board Member of The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, the 92nd Street Y, New York, and The Central Park Conservancy, New York, NY.

*Installation view of The Swimmer at The FLAG Art Foundation, 2024. Photography by Steven Probert.