The Lehman Art Gallery’s New Spring Exhibition Opens

The Beeutiful Bronx by The Royal KingBee
Photo by: Monserrate Godinez

By Monserrate Godinez

“The Painted Word: Text, Gesture, and Expression in Contemporary Art” opened on February 11 as the newest exhibition in the Lehman Art Gallery, exploring the deconstruction of language through diverse art forms and inspiring the community with artwork from both famous and emerging artists.

When asked about how he hopes the exhibition speaks to both the Lehman and Bronx community, director of the Lehman Art Gallery, Bartholomew Bland, said, “It works wonders for our design students.” Referencing the playwriting festival held in the gallery in 2024, he added, “I hope we get classes from the English department." He hopes that the exhibit will inspire Lehman students to create and make the general public think about language and the way we use it more deeply.

Maribelle Ceballos, one of the curatorial registrars and researchers, said, “The word fine art isn’t what certain companies and institutions want you to think. As someone from the Bronx, graffiti comes up. I want this to show people that fine art is stuff that comes from low-income places, from people who are not formally trained.”

Both Bland and Ceballos pointed toward the mural on the rotunda as the piece that best encapsulated the theme of the exhibition. “It’s so big, you’re surrounded by the Bronx,” Ceballos said.

The Beeutiful Bronx mural greets guests as they step into the gallery. Painted on the rotunda of the art gallery by a local Bronx artist, The Royal KingBee, the mural displays different neighborhoods of the Bronx and nearby communities inside his iconic honeycomb design. The rotunda makes it so the mural encompasses viewers, with different neighborhoods all highlighted in unique fonts designed by KingBee.

The exhibit features many more graffiti artists and their work that can be considered unconventional. One of these is Voices Carry by Lee Quiñones, a piece done on plywood with enamel, spray paint, ink marker, pencil, and paint markers. It is a collaborative piece that is a collection of messages and signatures from many different artists.

“Like the title implies, both in letter form and in human form on the 
surface, this work is the mark of my studio practice,” said Lee Quiñones about the piece on his Instagram. He refers to the voices that carry etched on the plywood and the voices that carry physically, in collaboration, in connection. 

The exhibition runs from February 11 until May 2.