february 22 - march 16, 2025
opening reception: Sun., February 23, 5:30-8pm
closing reception: sun., march 16, 4-6pm
zigzags
janet goldner
curated by ruby lindsey
Circular. Rectangular. Triangular. Zigzags. Sitting and standing like a flock of visiting ancestral spirits, Janet Goldner’s Zigzags gather in silent assembly behind the Plus/Space gate. We can peer in at their hard three-dimensional bodies, dark with patina and age. An alphabet of abstraction.
These welded steel sculptures are inspired by the artist’s annual research trips to Mali over many years. They reference symbolic writing systems and cultural objects, such as chiwaras, masks and ideograms which are imbued with Malian philosophy. Zigzag symbols in the bamana mileau can represent a road that is not straight but contains many twists, turns and detours.
Always shown in groupings, Goldner’s Zigzags might feel like an obscure miniature city, the early monuments within its walls, or the language used inside. To look at them means to choose a path. Up, down, left, right, round, around, back again. Our eyes follow their direction to a road around the corner and around the world.
Janet Goldner is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. Her steel sculpture, photography, video, text, installation, and social projects bridge diverse cultures, exploring and celebrating similarities and differences. Goldner’s work has been exhibited in over thirty solo exhibitions and over one hundred fifty group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. Highlights from Goldner’s museum exhibitions include Global Africa Project, Museum of Art and Design, New York; Women Facing AIDS, New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York; Visions of Life, Islip Museum, Islip, NY; and Bronx Museum of the Arts. Permanent collections include the American Embassy in Mali, Segou, Mali, and the Islip Museum on Long Island, NY. She received a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship to Mali and four Fulbright Specialist grants (Mali, Zimbabwe, Japan, Uganda) as well as grants from the Ford Foundation, the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the US Dept of State, Public Diplomacy. Janet will be in residence at the VCCA's Moulin a Nef Studio Center in Auvillar, France from mid-April to early May. And she has been awarded the first Sculptors Guild residency in Pietrasanta, Italy for the month of June.
janetgoldner.com
Ruby Lindsey is a graduate of Camberwell College of Art (University of the Arts, London) and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Arts and Design (University of Dundee). Upon completion of her Camberwell degree show she was awarded the AMP prize, which included a solo exhibition at AMP Gallery in Peckham, London. After growing up in the North East of England she moved to New York City to work in the Arts. For the past five years she has worked as Programs Manager at non-profit visual art and performance space FiveMyles in NYC. She has exhibited her own work in multiple group exhibitions in New York and the UK. Her curated exhibitions include HERESAY//HERASY, Sam Tufnell, SPRING/BREAK Art Fair (NY) 2021, Paradise, a light in our stars, Scarlett Lingwood, FiveMyles (NY) 2024, Run Rabbit Run!, Ana Busto, Hilary Kliros, George Simonds, A.P.E. (MA) 2024, and Zigzags, Janet Goldner, FiveMyles (NY) 2025.