Karl Haendel

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to present Praise New York, a group portrait of contemporary religious diversity and practice in New York City by artist Karl Haendel. The exhibition presents a series of large-scale, realist drawings depicting the hands of some of the city’s most inspiring Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Sikh faith leaders, paying homage to a diverse group of pastors, imams, rabbis and priests who have shared vital resources—from wisdom and hope to food and shelter—with thousands of New Yorkers in a time of pandemic, racial injustice, climate crisis, and civil unrest. Highlighting how these communities of believers are vibrant, welcoming, and tolerant, the artist hopes to provide space for viewers to reassess their own systems of belief, embrace complexity, and expand their acceptance.

For Haendel, the act of drawing invokes the human impulse to leave a mark while also offering a physical system to reconsider accepted imagery. This exploration—of the act of drawing itself—has led the artist to examine the hand as a tool of creation, a means of expression, and an organ of knowledge. Over the past two years, the New York-born, Los Angeles-based artist has been exploring portraiture through the drawn representation of his subjects’ hands. “It’s a novel way to make a portrait, allowing people to express themselves with gesture and nuance, but free from the tropes and standards of beauty associated with traditional representational portraiture, which generally focuses on the face,” explains the artist. “In a time of pandemic when touching isn't allowed, representing hands became only more interesting to me. And the hands of religious leaders, as they pray or perform rituals, are filled with potential healing and spiritual resonance, further compelling me to the project in a time when faith is in short supply.”

To make the work, the artist met with each leader in their house of worship, to talk about their faith, the history of their congregation in the city, and to take reference photos of their hands. Back at his studio, Haendel digitally manipulated these photos to create new and often physically impossible hand compositions, which subtly reference hand gestures found in religious imagery across art history. But the digital affect is left imperceptibly visible (the same hand holding itself, or a hand with too few or too many fingers), reminding us that these mystical and uncanny appendages are of the present. With these digital renderings in hand for reference, Haendel drew each hand portrait in pencil on paper, slowly and meticulously, at very large scale.

A portion of the proceeds from the exhibition will go towards supporting the participants' places of worship.