please come flying

GALLERY I

November 19 - December 18, 2022

Opening reception: Saturday, November 19 from 6–8pm

Tomoko Amaki Abe, Susan Bee, Liz Surbeck Biddle, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Isabella Cruz-Chong, Kim Dacres, Daria Dorosh, Yvette Drury Dubinsky, Angie Eng, Christine Gedeon, Shanti Grumbine, H.A. Halpert, Maxine Henryson, Bonam Kim, Rosina Lardieri, Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Sylvia Netzer, Ann Pachner, Bat-Ami Rivlin, Aya Rodriguez-Izumi, Barbara Roux, Ann Schaumburger, Kathleen Schneider, Yvonne Shortt, Joan Snitzer, Susan Stainman, Erica Stoller, Nancy Storrow, Jane Swavely, Zazu Swistel, Sam Vernon

Curated by Elizabeth Wiet and Taylor Bluestine

“Come like a light in the white mackerel sky,

come like a daytime comet

with a long unnebulous train of words,

from Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, on this fine morning,

please come flying.”

– Elizabeth Bishop, from “Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore” (1947)

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce please come flying, a group exhibition curated by Elizabeth Wiet and Taylor Bluestine. Taking its title from a poem that Elizabeth Bishop wrote in homage to her mentor Marianne Moore, please come flying explores the importance of intergenerational exchange to A.I.R.’s history by bringing together works by A.I.R. New York & Adjunct Members and former A.I.R. Fellows on the occasion of the gallery’s 50th anniversary. 

Moore and Bishop were, in some respects, an unlikely pair. Moore was garrulous and famous for her ornate hats, whereas Bishop was taciturn, holding her cards close in her crisp white button-downs. Firmly anchored to her Brooklyn brownstone, Moore rarely left New York. Bishop, meanwhile, was peripatetic, moving between countries and continents throughout her adult life. Yet the two poets, separated in age by a quarter century, formed a connection after Bishop sought out a meeting with Moore in 1934 during her senior year at Vassar College. Over the course of thirty-five years, their friendship evolved into one of mutual admiration, at a time when literary influence was often understood to be a Herculean battle between men.

Inspired by Bishop and Moore’s enduring rapport, please come flying celebrates a value that has long been at the core of A.I.R.’s mission, but has mostly been invisible to the public: the forging of intergenerational bonds between women and non-binary artists. The exhibition places works by current New York and Adjunct Members, who themselves span several generations, alongside works by former Fellows, who would have been individually mentored by New York Members during their tenure at the gallery. Two of the former Fellows included in the exhibition, Aya Rodriguez-Izumi and Susan Stainman, have expanded their relationship with A.I.R. by becoming New York Members. 

Like Bishop, the artists in please come flying create works that are animated by themes of migration, connection, cultural and familial inheritance, and home. Like Moore, who was known for her eccentric rhythms and keen observational eye, they challenge the ways we perceive. Several of the artists in please come flying have collaborated directly with one another, such as Daria Dorosh and Yvonne Shortt or Rosina Lardieri and Zazu Swistel. Others are simply united by shared formal and thematic concerns. The connections that the installation draws between works are sometimes fully formed. But they are also sometimes speculative—a nod to the provisionality of the “fine morning” still-to-come in Bishop’s invitation to Moore.

View the press release here.

Photography: Sebastian Bach