Commonwealth and Council returns to Frieze New York with a presentation by Beatriz Cortez, Clarissa Tossin, and Suki Seokyeong Kang. The artists share an interest in interweaving craft traditions with modern technologies to reflect on contemporary issues touching on postcolonialism, migration, climate change, and individual freedom. This presentation comes on the heels of major institutional exhibitions for each artist: Cortez at Storm King, Williams College and the Venice Biennale; Tossin at Frye Art Museum and the Whitney Biennial; and Kang at Leeum Museum of Art.

Tossin splices together NASA images of space, the technologist frontier for colonization, with Amazon.com boxes, employing Amazonian basket-weaving techniques to nod to the fraying of our living conditions in late capitalism. Kang’s practice is rooted in her training in Oriental painting’s search for the “true view” and research on Korean art traditions like the late Joseon-dyansty dance chunaengmu and music like the 15th century notation system jeongganbo to proffer ways we can find freedom within rule-bound systems. Cortez builds machines that explore ideas of simultaneity—particularly from the perspective of immigrants—bringing together myriad histories, from the Mayan to the post-war utopian community Drop City, to consider global and cosmic nomadism, and imagine alternative futures.

The three artists draw on history and speculations about the future to address urgent issues of today as we consider the perils of globalization, climate change, and political polarization in the name of progress.

Beatriz Cortez (b. 1970, San Salvador; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA from California Institute of the Arts (2015) and a PhD in Latin American Literature from Arizona State University (1999). Cortez is faculty at University of California, Davis. Solo exhibitions have been held at Storm King Art Center, New Windsor (2023); Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown (2023); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2022); Pitzer College Art Galleries, Claremont (2022); Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2021); Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles (2019); Occidental College, Los Angeles (2019); Clockshop, Los Angeles (2018); and Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park (2016). Selected group exhibitions have been held at 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford (2022); Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2021, 2016); Michigan State University Broad Art Museum, East Lansing (2021); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama (2021); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2020); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2020); Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2019); Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (2019); TEOR/éTica, San José (2019); Ballroom Marfa (2019); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2019); John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan (2018); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017). Cortez is a recipient of Latinx Arts Fellowship, Mellon Foundation (2023), New School Vera List Center Borderlands Fellowship (2022-24), Artadia Los Angeles Award (2020), Frieze LIFEWTR Inaugural Sculpture Prize (2019), Foundation of Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (2019), Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2018), Artist Community Engagement Grant (2017), and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2016). Cortez has participated in residencies at Atelier Calder, Saché (2022); California Studio Manetti Shrem, University of California, Davis (2022) and Longenecker-Roth, University of California, San Diego (2021). Her work is permanently on view at Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego North, Encinitas.

Cortez’s work is in the collections of El Paso Museum of Art; Ford Foundation, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Lawrence University, Appleton; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Michigan State University Broad Art Museum, East Lansing; Museo Comunitario Kaqjay, Patzicía; and Museo de la Imagen y la Palabra, San Salvador.

Clarissa Tossin (b. 1973, Porto Alegre; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA from California Institute of the Arts (2009) and a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo (2000). Solo exhibitions have been held at Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2022); Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston (2022); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2022, 2017); La Kunsthalle Mulhouse (2021); Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge (2019); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2019); Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2018); Blanton Museum of Art, Austin (2018); and Wesleyan University, Middletown (2017). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Whitney Museum of American Art (2024, 2018); Shanghai Biennial (2023); Denver Art Museum (2021); Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2021); MASS MoCA, North Adams (2020); Dhaka Art Summit (2020); New Orleans Museum of Art (2020); SESC Pompéia, São Paulo (2020); Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (2019); Luhring Augustine, New York (2019); 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018); Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco (2017); and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2017). Tossin is a recipient of Graham Foundation Grant (2020), Andy Warhol Foundation Grant (2020), Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant (2019), Artadia Los Angeles Award (2018), Fellows of Contemporary Art Grant (2019), and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2014). Tossin has participated in residencies at LABVERDE Art Immersion Program, Manaus (2019); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2019); Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge (2017-18); Fundação Joaquim Nabuco (2015); and Artpace San Antonio (2013).

Tossin’s work is in the collections of Frye Art Museum, Seattle; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; New Orleans Museum of Art; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; Kadist Art Foundation; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Suki Seokyeong Kang (b. 1977, Seoul; lives and works in Seoul) received an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London (2012) and an MFA and a BFA in Oriental Painting at Ewha Womans University, Seoul (2002, 2000). Solo exhibitions have been held at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2023); Musée d'Art Contemporain du Luxembourg (2019); Seoul Museum of Art (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2018); Audiovisual Pavilion, Seoul (2015); and Gallery Factory, Seoul (2013). Selected group exhibitions have been held at 58th Venice Biennale (2019); 10th Liverpool Biennial (2018); 12th Shanghai Biennale (2018); 12th and 10th Gwangju Biennale (2018, 2016); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London (2012); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2018); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2017); Villa Vassilieff, Paris (2016); and Seoul Museum of Art (2014). Kang is a recipient of Baloise Art Prize (2018) and Songeun Art Award (2013).

Kang’s work is in the collections of Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Mudam Luxembourg; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Princeton University Art Museum; Seoul Museum of Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.