Carter Burden Gallery presents the exhibition Play, featuring the whimsical work of sixteen artists, each working in an array of media that includes photography, mixed media, found object sculpture, ceramics, collage, monotype, silkscreen, and painting. Through these mediums the artists explore the multifaceted theme of playfulness.

Each piece in the exhibition embodies a whimsical or light-hearted spirit, inviting viewers to rediscover the joy and spontaneity often associated with play. This collection of artworks not only highlights the imaginative potential of different artistic mediums and styles, but also celebrates the universal human experience of play in its many forms.

Play features the work of Karin Bruckner, Pauline Chernichaw, Nancy Clark, Ellen Denuto, Jodi Fink, Fukuko Harris, Vicki Khuzami, Barbara Lubliner, Judy Mauer, Kate Missett, Vernita Nemec, Ira Pearlstein, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Jerry Vezzuso, and Anna Walter.

Jerry Vezzuso presents works from his series A long hot summer, a collection of silkscreen prints of bathers. Vezzuso states, “It’s a reminiscence of childhood activities growing up in Brooklyn”. Nancy Clark explains her mixed media sculpture, “...it is this very sense of play in its most dramatic sense that has directed my work".

My sculptures are metaphors, for my own personal history, for the objects I grew up with, for the memories they gave me”. Painter Pauline Chernichaw presents two paintings from her current body of work, which are based on personal narratives and life experiences. For example, the painting Blue Hawaii depicts her time spent with her husband in paradise.

Utilizing discarded materials repurposed to create new monuments to the everyday, Jodie Fink’s. sculptures embody the games we play as children, like Cat’s Cradle, to the ones that extend to the professional such as baseball.