signs and symbols

(sigh...) at 89 Greene
Eileen Cowin

September 4 - October 12, 2024

Opening Reception:
September 4, 2024
6:00-8:00pm

89 Greene at signs and symbols is delighted to present Eileen Cowin: (sigh…), curated by Dr. Kathy Battista for the gallery’s project space. The exhibition includes one installation that consists of a wallpaper piece, a photograph, and a neon.

The project at 89 Greene continues Cowin’s five-decade examination of the construction of visual narratives through photographic and video works that are as seductive as they are elusive. Arriving in Southern California from the East Coast in 1975, Cowin was part of a generation of artists that experimented with the conceptual potential of the photographic image in relation to art history, cinema, and mass media. This project brings her work again to a New York City audience after over thirty years.

Cowin’s installation (sigh…) (2024) makes visible the underrepresentation of women artists throughout history. From Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Lavinia Fontana to Faith Ringgold, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Samia Halaby, Cowin pays homage to these overlooked women artists by creating a wallpaper featuring their names and those of many more women artists, written in cursive script against a black background and flanked by a large orchid. A photograph of a duck mounted on aluminum is placed directly on top of the wallpaper, visually blending into the wall. On an adjacent wall, colored pink, a neon sign reads “sigh…“, a sardonic nod to how another woman artist acknowledges the art historical gender deficit, assimilating it into her work. 

(sigh…) may be understood in the context of other feminist artists who have interrogated the history of art and its lacuna of female icons. Cowin’s project evokes a similar sentiment to Mary Beth Edelson’s Some Living American Artists, a collage from 1972, and Judy Chicago’s ambitious The Dinner Party (1974-79), which now has a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. Cowin’s work highlights the sad fact that although progress has been made, five decades on the art market and institutional structures still favor male artists. 

Postcards that include a list of the featured artists are available for visitors to take with them, with the hope that they will be further researched. On the reverse side of the postcard is a representation of Cowin’s Sitting Duck (2024).  

*Please note that all 89 Greene exhibitions are on view at the gallery’s location at 249 East Houston Street; the name of the project is only in reference to Jack Smith's historic address.

eileen cowin (b. New York) is a Los Angeles-based artist known for photography, video, and mixed media installations. Her work has been presented in over 30 solo exhibitions and in more than 200 group exhibitions. She has received numerous awards, among them are three Individual fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a commission from the Public Art Fund in New York, a City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship, an Artist’s Fellowship in New Genres from the California Arts Council, the California Community Foundation’s (CCF) Fellowship for Visual Artists, City of Santa Monica Artist’s Fellowship, Best Experimental Film USA Film Festival, and four commissions from Los Angeles World Airports. Cowin’s work is included in major public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum, NY; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; MoMA, New York, NY; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.; and MOCA, Los Angeles, CA. She has had four temporary installations at the Los Angeles International airport and a permanent installation at the Martin Luther King Jr. Metro Station in Los Angeles.