Petah Coyne in Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America

Galerie Lelong & Co., New York is pleased to announce Petah Coyne's participation in Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, a group exhibition at the African American Museum of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The exhibition will remain open through October 8, 2023. 

The multi-venue exhibition of new works examines the provocative and timely question: “Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy?” Installations by 20 celebrated artists explore themes of equality, free speech, and other tenets of democracy. In a time when perspectives in the U.S. are radically disparate, the exhibition invites viewers to explore how art inspires us to reflect on, challenge, and expand our own lived experiences.

Coyne answers this question with a new installation in two parts, Untitled #1541 (Two Halves of the Same Soul) (2023), also the artist's most monumental work to date. On the ground floor of the gallery sits the installation centerpiece, Untitled #1383 (Sisters—Two Trees) (2013-2023), an imposing apple tree that stands at nearly fourteen feet tall and twenty-three feet wide, stained blue-black and dotted with clusters of blood-red wax-covered silk flowers and seventeen monochromatic white and Silver Pied peacocks perched atop its branches. Untitled #1383 (Sisters—Two Trees) symbolizes the baby-boomer generation, with the scale of the work recalling the breadth of their efforts in fighting for social change, while the lack of color serves as a reminder of the limits of their work. A staircase in the gallery, designed in collaboration with McBride Architects, leads to the rafters of the historic building, illuminated by a skylight from which a second work by Coyne, Untitled #1551 (Color of Heaven) (2021-2023) is installed. Comprised of eleven multi-colored bouquets of wax-covered silk flowers and three India Blue and Black Shouldered peacocks, Untitled #1551 (Color of Heaven) represents the bright hope of a new generation. “Looking to the next generations, I can see their hunger for solving so many of the problems,” said Coyne, as quoted in The New York Times.

The exhibition is curated by: Dejay Duckett, Vice President of Curatorial Services (AAMP); Judith Tannenbaum, Project Curator (PAFA); Mekhala Singhal, Curatorial Fellow (PAFA); Michael K. Wilson, Curatorial Fellow (AAMP). Curatorial Contributions by: Jodi Throckmorton, Originating Curator (PAFA); Juan Omar Rodriguez, Curatorial Fellow (PAFA).

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