Carefully Constructed
Joan Snitzer
GALLERY I
Joan Snitzer, Unfinished Sentences, 2026.
February 14 - March 15, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, February 14 from 6-8pm
Curated by Landon Wilson
A.I.R. Gallery is thrilled to present Carefully Constructed, a solo exhibition by A.I.R. New York Member Joan Snitzer. Snitzer offers a reflection on how artistic and institutional practices are built, sustained, and reshaped across time. The exhibition moves beyond the static display of objects, unfolding as a living system that prioritizes relation over resolution.
The exhibition features two parallel bodies of work: Graphic Phonemes, a pixelated grid of 57 small square paintings produced through an intensive process of layering and blurring of mediums, each panel containing its own distinct visual vocabulary; and Unfinished Sentences, a decade-long study on the crossword realized as a series of schematic works on paper.
The Graphic Phonemes are shown as modular fragments of imagined paintings. An ongoing practice in Snitzer’s studio, the paintings refuse to settle into fixed compositions. The configuration of 57 panels has a versatile potential to shift throughout the duration of the exhibition, mirroring the fluid nature of human memory and identity. On the exhibition’s opening night, Snitzer will present a performative activation, in which several participants will reconfigure the paintings in real-time. This intervention foregrounds her process as one of live assembly, shown as an ongoing process inviting the audience to witness the work in its state of constant becoming.
Running alongside the paintings, the Unfinished Sentences series utilizes a crossword logic to map visual systems through pattern and association. These works extend the methodologies of construction and composition into the realm of semiotics and language. Both bodies of work are deeply informed by Snitzer’s research into neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself through new connections. By allowing multiple centers of attention to coexist, Snitzer challenges the viewer to embrace a way of seeing that remains open to continual change.
Carefully Constructed is a meditation on transience and the beauty of the unresolved. It serves as a reminder that even the most established structures—whether a painting, a neural pathway, or a space—are always subject to reconfiguration.
Special thanks to Józefina Chętko.
Joan Snitzer is an artist and educator whose work explores the intersection of visual perception and the physical act of painting. A long-standing member of A.I.R. Gallery, she has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Department of Art History at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she also directs the Visual Arts Program. Her practice remains dedicated to investigating how visual systems can remain open to change and collaborative intervention.
Landon Wilson (b. 2001) is an emerging curator and creative producer.
He has developed and supported new work internationally: in New York City (A.I.R. Gallery, Baryshnikov Arts, Carnegie Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Hauser & Wirth, The Kitchen, National Sawdust, the Smithsonian Design Triennial), Los Angeles (MOCA Geffen, Monday Evening Concerts, L.A. Dance Project, Ojai Music Festival), and across Europe (Deutsche Oper Berlin, neugerriemschneider, Stadtkuratorin Hamburg, MOM art space, TOBE Gallery, DOXA Budapest).
He has collaborated with an array of visual artists, researchers, composers, performers, and artist collectives, including AMOC*, Claire Chase, Chto Delat, Anthony Roth Costanzo, inti figgis-vizueta, Rhiannon Giddens, Hugh Hayden, Diki Luckerson, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobbi Jene Smith, Júlia Standovár, Davóne Tines, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sissel Tolaas, Mitsuko Uchida, Danielle Webb, and Zack Winokur.
Landon is currently a graduate candidate at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. He recently completed his undergraduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music (B.M., Classical Piano) and postbaccalaureate studies at Columbia University (non-deg., Art History & Musicology).
He lives and works between New York and Berlin.
View Joan Snitzer’s artist page here.
View the Press Release here.