Opening Reception for Raúl de Nieves, Tega Brain, and Sam Lavigne

Join Pioneer Works in a public opening celebration of Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence and Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne: How To Get To Zero.

In Light of Innocence marks Raúl de Nieves’s first solo institutional show in New York City, featuring a new body of work that transforms the entire Main Hall of Pioneer Works into an immersive, cathedral-like environment that conjures personal reflection and collective imagination. Known for his use of modest, everyday materials, de Nieves explores aesthetic beauty while challenging its historical and religious underpinnings. His practice references Western religious traditions—particularly, those of Catholicism—and ultimately reimagine places of worship as sites of transformation, despite their legacies of violence and exclusion. The exhibition presents the site-specific installation of 50 faux stained glass panels, all further inspired by the visual language of tarot.

How To Get To Zero marks the first-ever survey of work by residency alumni Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne. The exhibition presents a comprehensive look at the artists’ solo and collaborative practices, which examine the present limits and future possibilities of political agency during our time of climate crisis. Over the past ten years, Brain and Lavigne have worked at the forefront of social critique and participatory art, examining subjects ranging from economic corruption to police surveillance, and from data manipulation to the commodification of everyday life. By repurposing the technologies used to perpetuate these conditions, the artists highlight the underlying conceptual and political frameworks that so often reinforce an unjust and repressive status quo.

Raúl de Nieves: In Light of Innocence is made possible with generous support by Bruce M. Halpryn and Chas Riebe with additional support provided by 1800 Tequila, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Tega Brain & Sam Lavigne: How To Get To Zero is made possible with support from Creative Capital. Exhibitions at Pioneer Works are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.