SEE YOUR COUNTRY CLEARLY
Michael Paul Britto & Jonathan Allen
PS122 Gallery
October 5–November 10, 2024
“These collages address pride, anger, depression, hopelessness, and misunderstanding, all stemming from the occupancy of the New York City House Authority public housing.”
– Michael Paul Britto
“Interruptions began in 2017 as a response to Trump and the harsh, rightward lurch of America’s body politic after Obama. Since then, the project has maintained its sceptical stance and evolved into a hybrid of performance, installation art, and political commentary.”
– Jonathan Allen
From October 5 through November 10, PS122 Gallery (150 1st Avenue, New York City) is presenting a two-person show, SEE YOUR COUNTRY CLEARLY, a show proposed by artists Jonathan Allen and Michael Paul Britto as part of the open call in 2023. In their work, Britto and Allen often respond critically to the social and political status quo. This fall, in the weeks leading up to and immediately following the consequential U.S. presidential election, they are collaborating on a two-person show, the title of which is taken from Black Boy Interrupted: American Plunder and the Incomplete Life of Jordan Davis, a speech by Ta-Nehisi Coates imploring the audience to educate themselves on the history, politics, and social conditions of life in the United States.
SEE YOUR COUNTRY CLEARLY will feature multiple bodies of work, Britto’s NYCHA series and other works, Allen’s Interruptions, that ask questions, expose uncomfortable truths, and provide no simple answers. There will also be three free public events as part of the exhibition.
Michael Paul Britto works in digital photography, sculpture, collage, performance, and video. He is based in the Bronx, NY. His NYCHA series contrasts silhouettes of people with the architecture of New York City public housing. The uneasy tension between these posturing figures and the spaces they inhabit is amplified by intricately cut and seamlessly collaged magazine advertisements. More information at brittofied.com @brittofied (Instagram).
Jonathan Allen works in painting, collage, video, and performance. He is based in Brooklyn, NY. For “SEE YOUR COUNTRY CLEARLY” he has selected videos and prints from his Interruptions series which are painted, collaged interventions in NYC street advertisements, publicly installed for an incidental audience. It is an ongoing project that began in 2017. Individual pieces are destroyed within hours of installation, the documentation of which exists on Instagram @jonathanallenstudio. In total, over 370 unique interventions have been installed as part of this project; the works presented in this exhibition form a window into the United States’ social, political, and healthcare struggles over the last seven years.
Photos: Argenis Apolinario
