This 12-artist summer group show, which continues through mid-October at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation’s exhibition program at The 8th Floor, suggests a turn away from zombie formalism toward ideas at the forefront of today’s headlines—cultural exclusion and transformation by bodies marked as “othered.” The presence of Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta, who died after a suspicious fall from a 34th floor window 30 years ago this September 8, haunts the exhibition through her famous 1972 photographs of her body pressed up against panes of glass. Other standouts include Brendan Fernandes’s photographs of dancers in classical poses with non-Western sculptural figures, and Firelei Báez’s large, colorful works on paper depicting diasporic subjects.
Pictured: Brendan Fernandes: As One I, 2015, 15 by 9 inches, silver gelatin print. Commissioned by Seattle Art Museum. Courtesy the artist.