Ruttkowski; 68 Paints a Portrait of New American Life
‘We the Structures’ is now on view in New York, featuring work by February James, Andrew Kass and Baseera Khan.
Summary
- Ruttkowski; 68 in New York is presenting We the Structures, a new group show bringing together work by American artists February James, Baseera Khan and Andrew Kass
- The exhibition explores structure as a medium and subject, from personal and psychic life, family systems, urban infrastructure and the spiritual
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, art institutions across the country are offering up their own national state of affairs. From the 2026 Whitney Biennial to MONUMENTS at LACMA, exhibitions are looking to the past for answers for our future, and New York’s Ruttkowski;68 is taking part with its new group show.
Running through May 9, We the Structures delves into the emotional and civic frameworks that define contemporary American life, bringing together works by February James, Andrew Kass and Baseera Khan. Architectures of constraint and possibility come into full focus in, what the gallery calls, a “reminder that art can still build what our structures struggle to hold.”
The exhibition scales in and out of structure as both its medium and subject, spanning the civic to ceremonial. James, working primarily with oil pastel, acrylic and charcoal, turns her gaze toward family. “Let’s Make Our Dreams Synchronize” and “Love is the Only Solution??,” two large-scale panels embody the psychic interiority of the home, probing into what it inherited and what is passed on through everyday objects.
Kass carries in works from his A Little About Lots and PLAQUE series, shifting focus to the city itself. By recontextualizing the raw material language of urban redevelopment in the gallery, the artist exposes frameworks and networks of labor and abandonment, critically considering our spatial and civic kinships. Meanwhile, Khan, whose work explores the tension between the “devotional and disciplinary,” delves into spiritual sites. Their paintings and installation probe into constellations of belief and authority, evidenced in “Painful Arc, Shoulder-High I,” a commanding violet-lit archway cut with silhouettes of jubilant dancers.
As Roseline Michael Neveling and Leo Fitzpatrick, co-curators and the pair at the helm of the gallery, explain, the exhibition functions as a reflection of their immediate art environment. An ode to an interdependent ecosystem empowered by hope, trust and repair: “[The exhibition] reads as an artist’s preamble to a more perfect union, still under construction.”
We the Structures is now on view in New York. Head to the gallery’s website for more information.
Ruttkowski;68 New York
46 Cortlandt Alley,
New York, NY 10013
