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Recognizing an artist who is having their first significant gallery or small nonprofit solo show or has made an important contribution to a biennial.
Coco Klocknerfor “In Practice: Coco Klockner” at SculptureCenter, New York (October 18, 2025–December 22, 2025) and her contribution to “Greater New York 2026” at MoMA PS1, New York (April 16–August 17, 2026)
Coco Klockner has said she approaches making sculpture “as though it were in transition,” a turn of phrase that refers to the unknowable, shape-shifting quality that has characterized much of her work since her first gallery show in 2018. At New York’s SculptureCenter, she continued that line of thinking with her “In Practice” exhibition, which was largely composed of one ambitious installation: null dialogue (2025), a work that was composed of subwoofers, construction fill, and an amplifier, among other materials. An easily missed motion detector at the entrance set off the piece’s soundtrack, which Klockner has described as “an undisclosed conversation between lovers.” Yet the words of that conversation were heavily edited and therefore difficult to understand, and the show itself contained little information about the work. A machine emitted fog every three minutes, cloaking the space in a mysterious haze. Depending on when one encountered Klockner’s SculptureCenter show, null dialogue may have been heard before it was seen. Indeed, Klockner has described drawing influence from the notion of thinking of “sounds as objects.”
She gave that idea new form with her contribution to MoMA PS1’s 2026 edition of Greater New York, where she showed Glottoplasty (2026), an installation in which plastic storage drawers embedded with speakers play sliced and sutured excerpts from trans oral archives. As with null dialogue, the words emitted were nearly impossible to parse, even if they were played quite loudly. The work suggested an effort to simultaneously reveal and conceal. Implicit in both the SculptureCenter show and the PS1 work was an interest in the body. Glottoplasty took its name from a medical procedure that is used to raise the pitch of one’s voice; null dialogue was accompanied by an untitled work composed of a plastic mouth retractor, wood filler, and 935 silver. Notably, at both presentations, it was possible to feel the rumbling of Klockner’s art while standing before it.
Eric Gyamfifor “Eric Gyamfi: Exposure: Black Queer Visual Constellations” at Brown Arts Institute, Providence, Rhode Island (April 16 – June 15, 2026) and contributions to “If the word we: 59th Carnegie International” (May 2, 2026–January 3, 2027)
Blas Isasifor “Currents 125: Blas Isasi” at Saint Louis Art Museum (February 6–August 9, 2026)
Emma McCormick Goodhartfor “sottobosco (climate remix): CAVE 0 by Emma McCormick Goodhart” at SculptureCenter, New York (December 11–22, 2025)
Christelle Oyirifor “Christelle Oyiri: Belief May Vary” at Amant, New York (March 19, 2026–August 19, 2026)