ARTISTS
Christian ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©: Decisions at a Desk
Mishkin Gallery is pleased to present Decisions at a Desk, a solo exhibition by Christian ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©, on view from September 25 through December 5, 2025. Encompassing drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, this exhibition emerges from ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©'s extensive research across municipal archives and site visits throughout New York City. Expanding on a project ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© developed between 2018 and 2019, the works on display investigate previously unstudied decorative motifs found within the Harlem section of Riverside Park—in particular, four shackled monkey statues that were installed at the entrance of the 148th Street playground’s restrooms. In ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©â€™s project, these statues act as a prism towards understanding the subtle and oblique ways that pernicious ideology is designed into the built environment.
±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© first visited the playground in 2018, after reading a brief mention of the statues in The Power Broker (1974), Robert Caro’s expansive biography of Robert Moses, the longtime New York City Parks Commissioner and unapologetically racist city planner. He began documenting the statues’ material presence in the park and searching for official traces of their existence and provenance in various city archives. Dating from Moses’ redesign of Riverside Park in the 1930s, the shackled monkey statues placed in the Harlem playground are evocative of racist and colonial symbolism that glorifies Western dominance over objects, animals, and people through exoticization and display. The statues remained in the park for nearly a century, until they were removed by the Parks Department in 2023.
In this exhibition, ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© adopts the visual language of architectural drawings and recontextualizes found archival documents to confront social and material histories of the built environment. The works include inverted photographic diazotype blueprints, monumental site-specific rubbings, and a negative impression of one of the monkey statues captured in a sunken relief sculpture made from kneaded eraser putty, a gesture that conjures their eventual removal. Keenly attuned to the whims of public discourse and social memory, ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© has assembled a counter-archive through which to contend with the afterlife of these now-removed statues, as well as the broader landscape of racialized urban planning.
Decisions at a Desk is ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©â€™s first institutional solo exhibition, marking the first time this pro-ject has been presented in New York. The exhibition is organized by Alexandra Tell, Interim Director of Mishkin Gallery. It is made possible by Friends of the Mishkin Gallery, the Schindler-Lizana Fund, and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (CUNY). Addi-tional support is provided by The Jenni Crain Foundation, an initiative dedicated to preserving the legacy of the esteemed artist and curator.
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Mishkin Gallery is pleased to present Decisions at a Desk, a solo exhibition by Christian ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©, on view from September 25 through December 5, 2025. Encompassing drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, this exhibition emerges from ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©'s extensive research across municipal archives and site visits throughout New York City. Expanding on a project ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© developed between 2018 and 2019, the works on display investigate previously unstudied decorative motifs found within the Harlem section of Riverside Park—in particular, four shackled monkey statues that were installed at the entrance of the 148th Street playground’s restrooms. In ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©â€™s project, these statues act as a prism towards understanding the subtle and oblique ways that pernicious ideology is designed into the built environment.
±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© first visited the playground in 2018, after reading a brief mention of the statues in The Power Broker (1974), Robert Caro’s expansive biography of Robert Moses, the longtime New York City Parks Commissioner and unapologetically racist city planner. He began documenting the statues’ material presence in the park and searching for official traces of their existence and provenance in various city archives. Dating from Moses’ redesign of Riverside Park in the 1930s, the shackled monkey statues placed in the Harlem playground are evocative of racist and colonial symbolism that glorifies Western dominance over objects, animals, and people through exoticization and display. The statues remained in the park for nearly a century, until they were removed by the Parks Department in 2023.
In this exhibition, ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© adopts the visual language of architectural drawings and recontextualizes found archival documents to confront social and material histories of the built environment. The works include inverted photographic diazotype blueprints, monumental site-specific rubbings, and a negative impression of one of the monkey statues captured in a sunken relief sculpture made from kneaded eraser putty, a gesture that conjures their eventual removal. Keenly attuned to the whims of public discourse and social memory, ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã© has assembled a counter-archive through which to contend with the afterlife of these now-removed statues, as well as the broader landscape of racialized urban planning.
Decisions at a Desk is ±á¾±²Ô³¦²¹±è¾±Ã©â€™s first institutional solo exhibition, marking the first time this pro-ject has been presented in New York. The exhibition is organized by Alexandra Tell, Interim Director of Mishkin Gallery. It is made possible by Friends of the Mishkin Gallery, the Schindler-Lizana Fund, and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College (CUNY). Addi-tional support is provided by The Jenni Crain Foundation, an initiative dedicated to preserving the legacy of the esteemed artist and curator.
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