“September Issues”

Anyone who has ever put a magazine issue to bed knows that the process is one of unexpected contingencies, high-speed troubleshooting, and panic-soothing deep-breathing exercises. With the group exhibition “September Issues,” curator Mohamed Almusibli charges eight artists to play with the different connotations of the word issue.

Suspended from the ceiling, Miriam Laura Leonardi’s sculpture We don’t need another hero, 2019, hovers over a constellation of works that respond to the infinitely broad definition of identity. Printed on fabric and compressed between two Plexiglas sheets, Shuang Li’s Honey, this mirror isn’t big enough for the two of us, 2022, offers a group portrait of look-alikes whom the artist hired to impersonate her, while in Jeremy’s Untitled, 2019, a nude Narcissus reclines, his body rendered in sallow tones of acrylic, color pencil, and gouache. In the adjacent room, the installation of Victoria Colmegna’s works traces a lineage between the hyperpersonal and the historical, juxtaposing intimately crafted hand-knitted sweaters with antique books, used here as plinths. The pieces pair beautifully with Guendalina Cerruti’s The Artless Fit, 2022, a pillow whose design mimics a traditional fashion-magazine layout: Images of shop windows collide with North Face puffer jackets, white Air Force 1s, and generation-generic claims like “#youthquake” and “unboxed vibe tee,” drawn in acrylic paint, highlighter pens, or transfer. Send to print?

— Federico Sargentone