Shirley Fiterman Art Center Presents Exhibitions by Dennis Oppenheim and Zhiyuan Yang

Two exhibitions are set to open simultaneously with a reception Wednesday, November 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Shirley Fiterman Art Center (SFAC) at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY). The exhibitions — Feedback: Parent-Child Projects from the 70s by artist Dennis Oppenheim and A Family of Three by artist Zhiyuan Yang — will run through February 1, 2020.

Also, on December 11, SFAC presents In Conversation, an exhibition-related panel discussion between Teacher Education Professor Mindi Reich-Shapiro, Oppenheim Estate curator and executor Amy Oppenheim and artist Zhiyuan Yang. This event is free and open to the public.

Dennis Oppenheim: Feedback: Parent-Child Projects from the 70s 

American artist Dennis Oppenheim pushed the boundaries of traditional art forms and is perhaps best known for his monumental Land Art works.

This exhibition is based on performance works that were made in collaboration with his family and that explore issues of identity and temporality, according to Lisa Panzera, Director and Curator of the Shirley Fiterman Art Center. He began making work with his wife and children in 1970 in a series of projects that are the focus of this show.

The exhibition brings together a selection of video and photo documentation of the performances. Panzera explains that in the performance piece Two-Stage Transfer Drawing. (Advancing to a Future State)…. (Returning to a Past State) (1971),  the artist and his son stand behind, and then in front of each other, each drawing on the other’s back, trying to transfer that sensation to the wall.

Through this and related works, Oppenheim investigates family relations, learning and cognition, and the nature of the act of drawing itself.

Zhiyuan Yang:  A Family of Three 

Beijing-born, Brooklyn-based artist Zhiyuan Yang explores identity, family structure and the profound affect that government and social policy have on both.

“In the three series of works presented here, Yang examines not only relationships between political legislation and family, but also the tensions between emerging feminist politics and patriarchal traditions,” said Panzera.

In a collaborative process with her parents, Yang uses performance, photography and video to challenge normative definitions of gender and ethnicity, and to complicate social structure, Panzera says, adding that “through masquerade, role play, staged poses, costumes, and humor Yang’s photographs express an awkward familial intimacy and construct alternatives to social and familial interaction.”

The Shirley Fiterman Art Center, located on the first floor of BMCC’s Miles and Shirley Fiterman Hall, 81 Barclay Street in Tribeca, is open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m. For more information, contact shirleyfitermanartcenter@bmcc.cuny.edu or (212) 776-6237.