Adam Pendleton's 'Who Owns Geometry Anyway?' Champions Deliberate Pace as Political Stance

2 hours ago7 min read1 comments

Adam Pendleton’s exhibition 'Who Owns Geometry Anyway?' at Friedman Benda’s reconfigured New York space is not a passive viewing experience but an active, theatrical engagement with form and history. The artist, known for dissecting the political dimensions of abstraction, has curated an environment where geometric principles are imbued with the gravity of Black lived experience.The show’s core tenets—slowness and weight—function as a direct counter-narrative to the rapid, disposable consumption of images in modern culture. Every artwork, from the monumental monochrome canvases to the thoughtful sculptural arrangements, requires a deliberate and contemplative pace from the observer.The geometric elements, rooted in Pendleton’s 'Black Dada' lexicon, are intentionally impure. They are complex, layered fields where stenciled typography, fractured text from thinkers like Amiri Baraka and Adrian Piper, and expressive paint marks coalesce, building a palpable density that is both physical and deeply historical.This is a geometry marked by use, debate, and re-appropriation—a stark departure from the cold, universal ideals of modernist dogma. Pendleton poses a critical question: To whom do these fundamental forms truly belong? Whose narratives are embedded within the precise angle or the flawless curve? By saturating these ostensibly neutral shapes with the specific, complex heritage of Black identity and radical art theory, he directly contests who holds the deed to abstraction itself.The advocated 'slowness' is therefore an act of defiance; it compels the audience to pause, to wrestle with the intricate web of allusions, and to recognize that these pieces are not quick visual statements but protracted, simmering inquiries into representation, authority, and the potential for a genuinely abstract art within a world defined by racial constructs. The exhibition stands as a vital and timely contribution to dialogues on art and identity, demonstrating that the most powerful political commentary can emerge not from overt subject matter, but from the intentional, heavy-handed reworking of form.

#art exhibition

#Adam Pendleton

#geometry

#gallery opening

#Friedman Benda

#featured

#contemporary art

#New York

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