ABC Powder

This show brings together four artists who circumvent the tether between a symbol and its meaning. A new essay by Helen Marten elaborates on the subject.

Excerpt from Marten’s essay, ABC Powder, written on the occasion of the exhibition:

“In such moments, representation collapses into its most elementary forms, into the bigness of megastructures. Grain, texture, grammar – all become momentarily irrelevant except as underlying notations, a kind of abstraction-in-suspension that points directly at meaning without fully inhabiting it. What remains is a pre-symbolic state, an attitude rather than a language. It is as if language itself has been ground again into another kind of powder, gleefully suspended in air, and it must wait to settle into sequences of more acceptable pronounceability. The particulate becomes both medium and message, both the maker of signs and their obstruction. Air is the armature.”

Richard Aldrich (b. 1975) lives and works in New York. Aldrich has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including Fondazione Giuliani, Rome (2022); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2016); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (2011); and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2011). Aldrich’s work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, among others.

Steffani Jemison (b. 1981) lives and works in New York. A solo exhibition of her work is on view at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster through September 20. Solo exhibitions, screenings, and performances include Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2025–26); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford (2025); CAC Genève (2024); Greene Naftali, New York (2024, 2021); JOAN, Los Angeles (2022); Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019); MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts (2017); Nottingham Contemporary (2017); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015). Her work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, among others.

Helen Marten (b. 1985) lives and works in London. In 2016, Marten was awarded the Turner Prize and was the inaugural recipient of the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. Past solo exhibitions of her work include 30 Blizzards., commissioned by Miu Miu, Art Basel Paris (2025); Greene Naftali, New York (2023, 2021, 2016); Serpentine Gallery, London (2016); Fridericianum, Kassel (2014); Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2013); Kunsthalle Zurich (2012); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012). Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.

Walter Price (b. 1989) lives and works in Brooklyn. Recent solo exhibitions include Greene Naftali, New York (2025; 2022; 2020); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2024); Camden Art Centre, London (2021); Aspen Art Museum (2019); MoMA PS1, New York (2018); and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2018). His work is held in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate, London; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, among others.