Venus Over Manhattan

Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Bowery Nation: Birds Are Talking, Brad Kahlhamer’s first solo exhibition with the gallery since joining the program last year. On view from May 13th, the presentation debuts a new body of work created primarily at his winter studio in Mesa, Arizona—and exhibited publicly here for the first time—including eight large-scale paintings on bedsheets, a newly conceived “Supercatcher” sculpture, and a large work on paper. Together, these works map a deeply personal cosmology that draws upon Indigenous storytelling, punk aesthetics, Abstract Expressionism, and the raw textures of New York City street culture. In Bowery Nation: Birds Are Talking, the works on sleep linens capture lush visual improvisations that fuse references to Plains Indian winter counts, pop-cultural graphics, and the radical openness of Manhattan’s post-punk scene. Kahlhamer was initially drawn to painting on bedsheets for their portability and responsiveness to varied mediums, seeing parallels to Lakota winter counts—historic pictorial calendars painted on hides or cloth. Much like winter counts, these paintings feature no fixed beginning or end point, instead offering a dreamlike tapestry of figures, symbols, and vignettes. The exhibition builds upon the foundation set by Kahlhamer’s acclaimed 2024 presentation at Independent 20th Century—named a ‘Best Booth’ by ARTNews magazine—which spotlighted pivotal works from the 1990s that crystallized his concept of the “third place,” merging Indigenous heritage, German American upbringing, and downtown New York counterculture. Kahlhamer’s exhibition at Venus also precedes his inclusion in “Terraphilia,” a major group exhibition opening in July at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, organized in collaboration with TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.” The largest work in the current exhibition, Mesa, 6:00 AM (2024), is a sprawling composition that Kahlhamer began outdoors in the Arizona desert, folding and transporting it in his carry-on luggage as he moved between several locations—including a residency at Civitella Ranieri in Italy—before completing it in his Bushwick studio. Populated by birds, human figures, and ringed winter-count structures, the painting balances gestural abstraction with cartoon-like precision. As Kahlhamer observes, “every successful image has three registers—three line-weights, three intensities,” a layered approach that establishes non-linear narratives of movement, myth, and personal history. In this sense, the visual layering of his images mirrors the conceptual layering of identities within his notion of the “third place.” Born in Tucson, Arizona, and adopted by German American parents, Kahlhamer has long interrogated questions of identity and belonging. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations navigate lived experience, collective memory, and economic storytelling honed at the Topps Company of Red Hook, where he worked as an art director alongside Art Spiegelman in new product development. Several of the new paintings, such as Superstition Ranch Market, 6:51 (2025), incorporate skeins of paint, coffee stains, and folds accrued during nomadic travels between the deserts of Arizona and Kahlhamer’s Brooklyn studio. He likens his unstretched surfaces to “dream sheets,” capable of absorbing the layered traces of movement, memory, and encounters across diverse geographies; each mark—whether intentional or accidental—becomes a compositional opportunity. Their vivid colors evoke the watery, chance-driven staining of painters like Sam Gilliam or Helen Frankenthaler, while the bold outlines, and episodic imagery reflect a collision of influences—from the line work and panel sequencing of graphic novels to the geometry of Navajo blankets. The paintings tend to radiate outward from a central figure, with secondary characters, symbolic motifs, and vibrant borders reminiscent of Pendleton blankets— though Kahlhamer intentionally “glitches” these references to explore the complexities of contemporary Indigenous identity. Extending this visual ethos into three dimensions, the exhibition features a new hanging sculpture titled Mesa AZ + NYC Dreamcatcher (2025) from Kahlhamer’s ongoing series of “Supercatchers.” The work reimagines the dreamcatcher motif using bent-wire, bells, jingles, and found materials that clank and shimmer in response to ambient movement. In it, the artist has translated the spiritual connotations of traditional dream catchers into the industrial vernacular of downtown New York. Kahlhamer’s work also situates itself within the lineage of bent-wire sculpture, recalling Alexander Calder’s mobiles while forging an aesthetic consistent with his notion of the “third place” that merges Native tradition, punk’s DIY ethos, and postwar abstraction. In addition to these new bedsheet paintings and sculpture, the exhibition includes Birds Are Talking (2025), a monumental work on paper in watercolor, ink, and coffee stain. Condensing Kahlhamer’s long-standing fascinations—Plains Indian iconography, autobiography, cartoon panels, and improvised mark-making—this drawing’s layered wash and fluid line highlight the artist’s belief in creativity as a form of “narrative mapping.” Across paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, Kahlhamer continuously navigates and reframes his own cultural inheritance. While referencing historical forms like ledger drawings or dream catchers, he acknowledges how these symbols have been distorted through colonial histories and mass-market appropriation. His practice maintains a forward-looking stance, inventing a future out of the raw material of ancestral memory and hard-won subcultural aesthetics. Bowery Nation: Birds Are Talking embodies that spirit: a nomadic, searching, and deeply personal visual language attuned to the complexities of contemporary life, even as it reactivates the spiritual and cultural networks of the past.

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Elizabeth Colomba, the artist’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition provides a comprehensive look at Colomba’s distinctive approach to figurative painting, featuring a selection of new and recent paintings and works on paper—most of which have never been shown publicly. Opening on April 15th, the exhibition foregrounds Colomba’s engagement with historical, mythological, and allegorical subjects, centering Black women as protagonists in painterly traditions from which they have long been excluded. The show coincides with the ongoing installation of Colomba’s Armelle (1997) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—one of several recent prominent showcases of her work, which also include a cover for The New Yorker and a permanent commission for the Park Avenue Armory’s entrance hall. In conjunction with the exhibition, Venus Over Manhattan will publish a richly illustrated catalogue featuring a new conversation between Colomba and the artist Wangechi Mutu. Colomba’s work serves as a critical intervention into the Western art historical canon. Employing the aesthetic conventions of Old Master painting, she centers Black women in her compositions, portraying them with dignity and self-possession. Influenced by Renaissance and Baroque traditions, her meticulous technique supports a fearless revisionism that insists on Black representation across historical and symbolic registers. “Beauty is democratic—it shouldn’t be a privilege to enjoy beauty,” Colomba has said. The exhibition at Venus Over Manhattan builds on Colomba’s recent museum presentations—Elizabeth Colomba: Mythologies at the Portland Museum of Art in 2023 and Elizabeth Colomba: Repainting the Story at the Princeton University Art Museum in 2022—and spans multiple thematic groupings. The presentation includes paintings from the artist’s History series, honoring Black women who profoundly shaped American social and political life; single portraits from her Mythology and Allegory series, reimagining goddesses, heroines, and archetypes; and new works from her Orientalism series, a pointed interrogation of nineteenth-century academic painting. The newest painting featured in the exhibition emerges from Colomba’s Tarot series, where she reimagines specific Major Arcana cards replete with newfound iconography that fuse both Western and Afro-Caribbean vocabularies. The Magician (2025) features a regal Black woman in a richly appointed interior, wearing a tiara inscribed with the infinity symbol. Amidst symbolic references—a pentacle on a serving tray; the self-devouring serpent of the magician’s necklace—the painting positions her subject as an empowered conduit of mysterious forces. Colomba’s interest in occult symbolism reflects her broader vision of Black women as sovereign participants in their own mythologies. This perspective continues through her History series, which centers Black women of the past whose accomplishments, heroism, or notoriety are often excluded from conventional narratives. Fisk Jubilee (2024) honors the famed a cappella singers who brought the musical traditions of African American spirituals to mainstream audiences, performing for leaders such as President Ulysses S. Grant and Queen Victoria. Mary Ellen Pleasant (2024) pays tribute to the legendary abolitionist and entrepreneur often called the ”Mother of Human Rights in California,” depicting her amid symbols of her financial acumen and radical influence. These paintings insist upon the significance of women like Pleasant not as footnotes to history, but as defining agents of political, personal, and cultural freedom. This exhibition marks the public debut of Colomba’s ongoing Orientalism series, begun in 2022, which examines the European tradition of exoticizing the “East” while either excluding Black figures or relegating them to subordinate positions. Paintings such as Orientalism — Plate 3 (2024) reframe the aesthetic trappings of nineteenth century Orientalist painting, centering Black women in scenes that challenge colonial fantasies. Colomba also explores allegory, mythology, and the feminine sacred as channels for envisioning Black female subjectivity. Notable in this vein is her Four Seasons suite—Spring (2018), Summer (2012), Fall (2012), and Winter (2012-18)—which collectively reclaim the classic Western tradition of personifying seasons. The series traces the life of a Black woman, with each painting embodying a season and a stage of life. The figures convey a palpable sense of self-awareness and presence, whether evoking the adolescent innocence of Spring, barefoot among roses and modeled on the artist’s niece, or the contemplative wisdom of Winter, inspired by Colomba’s own mother. Taken together, Colomba’s paintings present a critical vehicle through which to examine portraiture’s role in shaping identity, creating environments that honor her subject’s presence in and through culture. Repositioning her figures across epochs and mythic registers, Colomba redefines not only how Black people have been conditioned to be seen, but also how Black people have been conditioned to reflect upon themselves.

Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Richard Mayhew: Watercolor, the first exhibition in over two decades dedicated exclusively to the artist’s remarkable work in watercolor, and the first presentation of Mayhew’s work since his passing in September at the age of 100.Opening on Thursday, November 7th, the show features some twenty-five works spanning the last thirty years of his practice, including several created expressly for this exhibition, and many that have never before been publicly exhibited. The exhibition showcases Mayhew’s enduring vision across a notoriously challenging medium. Richard Mayhew: Watercolor will remain on view at 39 Great Jones Street through Saturday, January 18th.

On September 12, Venus Over Manhattan will open the first US-based solo exhibition of artist and poet John Pule. From the small island nation of Niue in the South Pacific Ocean, Pule has risen to become one of the region’s most celebrated and important artists and is increasingly gaining notoriety across the world. His intricate paintings and drawings offer distinct meditations on the history, natural environs, and iconography of his home island and Polynesia more broadly. With John Pule, Venus Over Manhattan presents a unique opportunity for American audiences to experience the depth of Pule’s dynamic work, enhancing global awareness of his singular vision and practice. The exhibition will remain on view through October 26, at the gallery’s location at 39 Great Jones Street.

Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring the vibrant works of Maija Peeples-Bright and Roy De Forest, curated by artist Adrianne Rubenstein. Both Peeples-Bright and De Forest were central figures in the Northern California Funk Art movement of the 1960s, a period known for its whimsical imagination, vibrant colors, and unique quirkiness. Featuring historical works by both artists, as well as new work by Peeples-Bright, the exhibition draws out the visual and historical connection between these two artists’ work. Comprising paintings, works on paper, and sculpture, the presentation will be on view at 39 Great Jones Street from June 20th through July 26th, 2024.

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: The Second Coming, the gallery’s debut solo exhibition with artist and cultural activist Xenobia Bailey. This landmark presentation—Bailey’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York City in over two decades—explores her signature method of crochet, featuring some twenty recent and historic works that comprise an immersive installation. Notably, this presentation marks Bailey’s first gallery exhibition since the unveiling of “Funktional Vibrations” in 2015, the artist’s large-scale mosaic commissioned by the MTA for the 34th Street Hudson Yards subway station, one of the largest works ever commissioned by the authority. Staged in advance of Bailey’s participation in the Seattle Art Museum’s exhibition “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture,” the exhibition will feature a series of public programs that activate the presentation. Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: The Second Coming will be on view at 39 Great Jones Street from May 15th through June 15th, 2024.

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan and 56 Henry are pleased to present a collaborative, two-venue exhibition of new work by Al Freeman. On view simultaneously at 39 Great Jones St. and 56 Henry St., the exhibition marks the first solo presentation dedicated to the artist’s drawing practice. Featuring recent drawings of book covers and album covers, the exhibition is titled Covers: Drawings 2023–2024, referencing both the subjects depicted and Freeman's appropriative strategy of reinterpreting existing works. The exhibition will be on view at both 39 Great Jones Street and 56 Henry Street from April 6th through May 6th, 2024. An opening reception will take place at 56 Henry on Saturday, April 6th, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Covers marks the artist's first solo presentation with Venus Over Manhattan, and her fourth with 56 Henry.

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to announce Reflections on Porgy & Bess, a major solo exhibition of new paintings by Chicago-born, New York-based artist Claude Lawrence. Spanning the gallery’s spaces at 39 and 55 Great Jones Street, this presentation—Lawrence’s first with Venus—debuts a suite of exuberant, monumentally scaled canvases created in response to composer George Gershwin’s 1935 masterpiece Porgy & Bess. Lawrence’s abstract paintings unfold sequentially, echoing the opera’s sweep and emotional impact through the artist’s radiant abstraction and confident improvisation.

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present A Boy’s Head, an exhibition of new paintings by Seth Becker. The presentation marks the artist’s debut solo exhibition in New York City, and the gallery’s inaugural solo presentation of his work. Borrowing its title from a poem by Miroslav Holub, A Boy's Head follows Becker’s participation in the gallery’s 2022 exhibition Small Paintings. Venus Over Manhattan will publish a small catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition, which will be on view from February 1st through March 9th at 39 Great Jones Street.

(New York, NY) — Opening February 1, 2024, Venus Over Manhattan presents Ecce Homo, a testimonial film written and performed by painter Maryan. Filmed in 1975, Ecce Homo recounts Maryan’s harrowing experience as a young Jewish man during the Holocaust. The film is composed of Maryan’s anecdotal narration interspersed with arresting images of human violence, from the Holocaust to the K.K.K to the Vietnam war. Grappling with his survival in a post-Holocaust world, Maryan questions what it means to be human, and laments the bitter suffering that exists across the globe. A selection of archival materials, used by the artist during the production of the film, will also be on view.