WE ARE

WE ARE is a collaborative exhibition at NURTUREart that explores the idea of community within the context of the New York art world. Conceived as a response to the organization’s evolving role in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, the project invites artists, curators, and neighboring galleries to take over the space for weekly exhibitions, performances, and events. Rather than presenting a single curatorial vision, WE ARE functions as a dynamic, collective self-portrait—reflecting on identity, participation, and the ongoing dialogue between art spaces and their communities.

As part of the chapter WE ARE: Fortress to Solitude, Nadja Verena Marcin presents her video Grand Slam (2011), a visceral black-and-white performance that stages the act of a female tennis player relentlessly hitting paint-soaked balls against a white wall. Each strike leaves thick black marks that drip and spread, transforming the wall into a chaotic painting and charging the space with both aggression and fragility. Close-up shots reveal the physical toll: paint-splattered skin, labored breath, the exhaustion that seeps in as the athlete pushes against her own limits.

Grand Slam creates a new space for feminist discourse, using the language of sport and spectacle to address the endurance, struggle, and repetition embedded in women’s lived experience. Marcin embodies both the force and fatigue of this relentless exchange, suggesting that the struggle is at once external and internal, private and political. Within the larger framework of WE ARE, the work resonates as a metaphor for collective resilience and the pressures exerted by societal structures—whether in neighborhoods, institutions, or personal histories.

The exhibition is curated by Guillermo Creus and features works by Sarah Frost, Nadja Verena Marcin, and Ash Sechler.