Sam Moyer: Woman with Holes

A group show curated by Hilton Als meditates on words in the visual arts, but wields silence in ways that verge on obstinate obscurity.

This is a week of big statements by artists and expanded possibilities by curators and gallerists, past and present. If you haven’t already made the trip to Pioneer Works in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood to see American Artist’s exploration of author Octavia E. Butler, we highly recommend it. Multimedia artist Nick Cave’s new work makes some pretty grand statements as well, while a survey of the 1960s Black-owned and focused gallery Acts of Art and a Hilton Als-curated show on the limits of language and silence provide plenty of food for thought. And filmmaker Ericka Beckman’s solo presentation at the Drawing Center may be the most surreal “Pictures Generation” show you’ll ever see. —Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor

I wanted to find work that really balanced. And there are other pieces that are bridges to language — I’m thinking of the Steve Wolfe/Christian Marclay collaboration [ “La Voix Humaine,” 1991] of a stereo. Language is on the record in the form of writing on the label, and the silence of the record, which isn’t playing, is a bridge to Ellen Gallagher’s very text-heavy grid of prints [ “DeLuxe”].

The real challenge, and the joy, was to find connections and bridges. Once you have the kind of — what would they say in a movie? A master shot — you have to find the details that connect the smaller scenes to the bigger scenes. And I felt that I wanted to be very careful that the connections didn’t overwhelm the bigger pictures, but helped the bigger pictures to be there.