In the mid-1960s, Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica [1937-1980] began adopting joyfully transgressive modes of performance, film, and installation to advocate for marginalized people and their culture. Created in collaboration with Brazilian filmmaker Neville D’Almeida [b.1941] while Oiticica was self-exiled in New York during the 1970s, the original series of five installations Bloco-Experiências em Cosmococa–Programa in Progress [Experiments in Block in Cosmococa–Program in Progress, 1973], or Cosmococas, operates on many levels to transform pop and underground culture into an explosive suprasensory experience. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cosmococas, the artist’s nonprofit foundation, the Hélio Oiticica Project, organized a year-long celebration in 2023, during which the series was installed in cities around the world.
As a public institution aligned with Oiticica’s egalitarian values, the Hunter College Art Galleries joined the 50th anniversary initiative and are presenting the exhibition Cosmic Shelter: Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Private Cosmococas at the Leubsdorf Gallery until March 30, 2024.
“Curated by Daniela Mayer, a Brazilian-American researcher, educator, and curator based in New York, focused on transnational networks of artists in the Americas. The exhibition was developed in conjunction with an independent two-semester study by Hunter College MA in Art History students Thais Bignardi, Rowan Diaz-Toth, and Angelica Pomar. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Hunter College Foundation, with additional support from Lisson Gallery, Leon Tovar Gallery, and Sokoloff + Associates.”
Seeking to expand the audience for his work beyond the typical art world audiences, Oiticica and D’Almeida created two sets of instructions for each Cosmococa—public and private—with the latter group only being exhibited since 2018.
Cosmic Shelter presents the U.S. debut of two private Cosmococas, CC2 Onobject and CC3 Maileryn. The CC2 includes music from Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band and slideshows from her book Grapefruit projected on four walls around and over furniture covered with white sheets to create a fully immersive environment. The CC3 features two projected slideshows of images manipulating the face of Marilyn Monroe, the mambo styles of Peruvian singer Yma Sumac, and shallow basins of water for visitors to contemplatively step into.
The exhibition also includes archival materials, such as facsimiles of Oiticica’s notebooks and photographs taken in Oiticica’s downtown lofts, to provide historical context to the layers of political commentary embedded in the subversive and psychedelic series of Cosmococas.
The themes raised in the exhibition Cosmic Shelter resonate with HCAG’s mission to serve as a space for collaborative and experimental engagement with art and pedagogy while exploring issues of access to the arts and the history of Latinx artists in New York.
“Throughout the exhibition, Programming-in-Progress is a complementary series of free public programs that includes tours of the exhibition, screenings of Brazilian cinema, and performances by artists in the gallery.”
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery
132 East 68th St
New York, NY 10065
Entrance on the south side of 68th Street between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue, near Lexington
Gallery hours:
Wednesday to Saturday, 12 PM–6 PM
More information: www.leubsdorfgallery.org