As part of the Art & Archaeology Undergraduate Mentoring Program, A&A juniors Drew Pugliese, Cary Moore, and Lucy Gutman, senior Benjy Jude, and graduate student Samuel Shapiro traveled to New York to visit Chelsea Galleries and Tom Tuttle’s ’88 private collection.

Regarding Violence, an exhibition of recent works by Los Angeles-based artist Rodney McMillian at Petzel Gallery, was particularly memorable. With Beacon: Comrades, Don’t Be Fooled, one of the exhibition’s most striking installations, McMillian organized decoy ducks around a totemic taxidermized deer head-cum-lamp post. On our viewing, McMillian’s work, despite its immediate absurdity, surfaced systems of violence and consumption.

The group also enjoyed seeing Ragnar Kjartansson’s nine-screen video installation, No Tomorrow, on view at the Luhring Augustine Gallery. In No Tomorrow, eight dancers—all woman dressed in blue jeans and white T-shirts—perform an original composition on a variegated stage beset by a turquoise, curtained backdrop. The video’s disorienting seriality and immersive soundscape entranced the entire group.

It was also a delight to visit Tom Tuttle’s Chelsea home and learn about his private collection. The Princeton graduate has amassed an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art— Frankenthaler, Motherwell, Kusama, Serra, and Anatsui were a few of the artists represented. Mr. Tuttle’s installations invited unexpected dialogs between temporally and formally distinct works. Mr. Tuttle was also able to instruct the group on some of the inner workings of the art market—these conversations nicely followed a day filled with gallery visits.  

The group looks forward to another Mentorship Program trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this Spring!