White Cube New York Opens with “Chopped & Screwed”

US Senior Director, Courtney Willis Blair, curates a powerful inaugural exhibition

Certain art exhibitions impart inspiration, others initiate dialogue. Every so often, however, an exhibit opens and the cultural fabric of a city changes. This sentiment applies to Chopped & Screwed, the highly anticipated inaugural show within White Cube New York. Curated by White Cube’s US Senior Director, Courtney Willis Blair, the group exhibition confronts archetypal structures—of governance, gender, religion and even value—through the work of 19 groundbreaking artists, including Julie Mehretu, Theaster Gates, David Altmejd, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and more. No artwork feels like an afterthought—with each asking the viewer to pause and reflect.

Chopped & Screwed is installed throughout two floors of a landmark Upper East Side building, the first permanent US outpost of the beloved gallery, which was founded in London. In addition to paintings, mixed-media pieces and free-standing sculptures, Willis curated works within the very walls of the gallery. Two act as voyeuristic disruptions within the traditional white-walled spaces.

Since its inception in 1993, now thirty years ago, White Cube and founder Jay Jopling have captured art world attention through meaningful, cutting-edge curation and a focus on international expansion. The Chopped & Screwed exhibition, named for the music remixing technique popularized by DJ Screw in the Houston hip hop scene of the early ’90s, acts as an NYC anchor for White Cube’s global reputation.

Chopped & Screwed will run through 28 October at 1002 Madison Avenue. Running from 4 November 2023 to 12 January 2024, White Cube New York will present a solo show from Tracey Eminin entitled Lovers Grave.