Slag Gallery's 'With Passion' Exhibition Explores Trauma and Compassion Through International Artists

From June 3 to July 17, 2016, Slag Gallery in Brooklyn presented 'With Passion,' a group exhibition curated by Naomi Lev and Jovana Stokic. The show featured five international artists examining themes of passion, compassion, and suffering in response to contemporary trauma. Hungarian artist Erika Bagylas displayed six drawings from her 'Don't Become a Statistic!' series, created between 2013 and 2014, addressing social trauma during Hungary's Kádár era through delicate crosshatching on black paper. American socially engaged artist Jody Wood presented video work 'In the Black Box (Looking Out)' and photographic series 'Client Abstraction,' both from 2016, derived from her 'Choreographing Care' workshop teaching care workers actor techniques to manage secondary trauma. Israeli artist Masha Zusman showed labor-intensive engravings on found wood panels, including 'Untitled' from 2015 featuring gold Hammerite paint and intricate ballpoint designs. The exhibition opened with a bell hooks quote about love ethics and was contextualized by the curator's reference to Simone Weil's writing on fragile human existence. The review was written against the backdrop of the Brock Turner sentencing and the Orlando nightclub shooting that killed 49 people. The gallery is located at 56 Bogart Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, between Harrison and Grattan streets.