Organized by Downtown for Democracy
Curated by Jasmine Wahi AND Rebecca Pauline Jampol

Opening

Downtown for Democracy, the cultural Super PAC, is pleased to announce the second part of Abortion Is Normal, an exhibition organized by a collective of cultural practitioners as an urgent call-to-action to raise both awareness and funding in support of accessible, safe, and legal abortion. This show comes at a time when legal abortion is under acute attack throughout the United States, with fifty-eight restrictive laws passed in the United States since January 2019 alone. Simultaneously, the 1973 landmark ruling, Roe vs. Wade, which federally sanction the right to choose, is in jeopardy of being reversed.

The two-part exhibition, which first opened on January 9th at Eva Presenhuber, will open a second iteration on Tuesday, January 21st with public reception from 6 - 8 p.m. at Arsenal Contemporary, located at 214 Bowery, through Saturday, February 1. All works from both shows will be available for viewing and purchase exclusively through Artsy at artsy.net/downtownfordemocracy until February 1st. Crozier Fine Arts is pleased to provide purchasers discounted shipping in support of the cause.

Talks programming at Arsenal Contemporary will include: “Revolting Bodies: Performance & Art in Movement Building” on January 24th at 6:30 p.m. with Natalia Broniarczyk, Viva Ruiz, and moderated by Brooklyn Museum curator Carmen Hermo; on January 30th at 6:30 p.m., “The Future is Choice: Introducing Abortion as Normal” with Christen Clifford, Chana Ginelle Ewing, and Michi Jigarjian and moderated by co-curator Rebecca Pauline Jampol; and to close the event, a discussion with Laurie Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, and co-curater Jasmine Wahi on February 1st at 1pm. More information is available at abortionisnormal.org.

Participating artists on view in Part 2 include: Ameya Marie, Amy Khoshbin, Cecily Brown, Chloe Wise, Chris Myers, Delano Dunn, Elektra KB, Fin Simonetti, Grace Graupe Pillard, Hank Willis Thomas, hayv kahraman, Jaishri Abichandani, Jane Kaplowitz, Jonathan Horowitz, Laurie Simmons, Marilyn Minter, Mika Rottenberg, Ryan McGinley, Sarah Sze, Shirin Neshat, Shoshanna Weinberger, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Suzy Lake, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Viva Ruiz/Thank God For Abortion, Xaviera Simmons, and Zoe Buckman. Artists that are new to the exhibition include Cajsa von Zeipel, Carrie Mae Weems, Derrick Adams, Jack Pierson, Jonathan Lydon Chase, Marisa Morán Jahn, Miguel Luciana, Narcissister, Portia Munson, Sahana Ramakrishnan, and Yvette Molina.

Downtown for Democracy aspires to motivate activism through image, word, music, and all other forms of creativity. It seeks to remind fellow citizens of ideals that bind us as a nation: liberty and equality. Downtown for Democracy uses creative capital, raising funds that will be spent in key congressional districts to get out the progressive vote in 2020. Founded in 2003 as a cultural PAC, Downtown for Democracy participated in several election cycles, and was revived in 2017 after a hiatus. Just this month, Downtown for Democracy announced over $100,000 in funds provided to groups including Black Voters Matter, BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing for Communities), Empire State Indivisible, Fair Fight, Flip the Senate, RAICES, Supermajority and Swing Left, with donations earmarked for grassroots voter turnout and community organizing efforts. For more information, visit downtown4democracy.org.