Art21 digital film series explores a new wave of trailblazing NYC artists

A figure works on a hanging piece of visual art using a pencil

Daily life takes center stage in Maryam Hoseini's Everyday Abstractions (2019). (Source: Art21)

We're gearing up for the weekend with another installment of #FridayFilms. Focusing on a wide range of themes, our weekly round-up of streaming selections is designed to help you connect with art through video. We've brought you documentaries about portraying Black lives through visual art, short films by women animators, literary adaptations picked by our staff and a whole lot more.

Looking ahead to this weekend's free, socially distanced screening in our 3,500 square-foot Te Ata Theater on Sept. 27, today we're bringing you a special series from Art in the Twenty-First Century (Art21). New York Close Up introduces you to some of the boundary-pushing creators who are bringing a new sensibility to the art scene in the Empire State. Before you join us on Sunday for Art21 documentaries on Bright Golden Haze artists James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson, get to know a few of the bold young artists who are setting the stage for a new generation in the Five Burroughs and beyond.

The Incredulity of Jacolby Satterwhite (2020) | Documentary, 8 minutes 28 seconds

Performance and technology collide in the work of Jacolby Satterwhite. The New York City-based artist launches bold explorations of his own body and personal history through new media. Scrambling concepts like indoor and outdoor, virtual and real, Satterwhite creates dreamlike works exploring queerness in the 21st century. "It's really loose and not premeditated," Satterwhite says of his uncanny virtual environments. "In a way, it's kind of like just finding beautiful compositions with data language."

Maryam Hoseini's Every Day Abstractions (2019) | Documentary, 5 minutes 34 seconds

Brooklyn-based artist Maryam Hoseini explores the intersections of reality and abstraction through painting and drawing. Her fragmented depiction of women's bodies in flattened architectural spaces contain alternating layers of anxiety, humor and strength. "So much of being an artist depends on daily life: daily intractions, daily politics," Hoseini tells Art21 in this short documentary about her art practice.

Meriem Bennani: In Between Languages (2020) | Documentary, 7 minutes 47 seconds

Meriem Bennani wants you to re-think your assumptions about people in Muslim communities. Leveraging comedy, social media and performance, the Moroccan-born artist spurs critical reflection on how we live together through video and installation work. In her Art21 profile, Meriem Bennani: In Between Languages, the artist talks about examining taboo subjects through an absurdist lens.

The work of Louise Despont has a lot to do with instinct. The artist composes dizzying abstract works using pencil and architectural stencils on paper, often relying on her own intuition to guide the compositions in real time. In this Art21 short, the native New Yorker discusses how a move to Bali, Indonesia, impacted her work. "I know that the most important thing to make good work is time and space," she says of the relationship between place and art. "And living in Bali, that's where I was going to have the most of it."

Be sure to check out the full Art21 playlist, including these and other illuminating, bite-sized documentaries. Reserve your limited-access seats for this weekend's socially distanced Sunday Matinee program running from 2-5 p.m. on Sept. 27, featuring Art21 documentaries about Bright Golden Haze artists James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson.

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