HAND IN HAND
September 23 – October 30, 2021
John Ahearn, Janine Antoni, Ivan Argote, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Jonathan Callan, Sophie Calle, Marti Cormand, Jackson Denahy, Lou Doillon, Richard Dupont, Juan Manuel Echavarria, Fernanda Fragateiro, Charles Haescot, Christina Hejtmanek, Brad Kahlhamer, Peter Kim, Ted Lawson, Glenda Leon, Marco Maggi, Stefana McClure, Ana Mendieta, Sean Mellyn, Bruce Nauman, Ebony Patterson, Jaume Plensa, Liliana Porter, David Salle, Keris Salmon, Julianne Swartz, Anita Steckel, Ana Tiscornia, Umbo, Sara VanDerBeek
Bienvenu Steinberg & Partner is a new gallery formed by Josée Bienvenu of the eponymous gallery formerly located in Chelsea, and Michael Steinberg, the founder of Eminence Grise Editions. In celebration of partnership and its gesture, Bienvenu Steinberg & Partner presents the inaugural exhibition, Hand in Hand.
The exhibition was inspired by a series of concerts by French artist Lou Doillon. For 55 consecutive days, during the first lockdown in Paris, she performed on Instagram, comforting and inspiring people around the world.
"I have an obsession with hands. Mankind shaped and keeps on shaping the world with its hands. They are the tools that make us be in relation to ourselves and to others. Hands save, comfort, caress, create, invent, prevent, shape, and also can hurt, hit, kill. We are what we do with our hands, and so many choose to save lives with their hands, save our hearts, our lungs, our lives. I wanted to honor the ring of hands, all over the world that are keeping us alive. The medical hands, the feeding hands, the soothing hands, the washing hands, the driving hands, the stay at home hands…May the hands come together, love and encourage kindness.” (Lou Doillon, April 11, 2020)
The exhibition brings together a group of international artists. It includes historical works by seminal artists: a hand by Bauhaus photographer Umbo, a hand imprint by Ana Mendieta, drawings by proto-feminist Anita Steckel, a game of hands by Bruce Nauman as well as recent works by contemporary artists.
Hand in Hand is about the hand as a subject, about collaboration and togetherness, the essential modalities of our collective survival.