Benrubi Gallery is pleased to announce Alia Ali’s first solo exhibition with the gallery: “Glitzch.”

Alia Ali is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist. Her work explores cultural binaries, challenges culturally sanctioned oppression, and confronts the dualistic barriers of conflicted notions of gender, politics, media, and citizenship.

Working between language, photography, video, textile, and installation, Ali’s work addresses the politicization of the body, histories of colonization, imperialism, sexism, and racism through projects that take pattern and textile as their primary motif. Textile is central to Ali’s practice. She reminds us of how significant fabrics are to our collective
humanity: we are born into it, we sleep in it, we eat on it, we define ourselves by it, we shield ourselves with it and eventually we are swathed in it as we are put to rest. And while it unites us, it also divides us physically and symbolically. Ali’s work broadens this into immersive installations to move past language and offer an expansive, experientialunderstanding of self, culture, and nation. Weaving us, so to speak, to each other and in
turn back to ourselves.

“Glitzch” Ali’s current project, considers this idea of a potentially minor technological malfunction, the inherent implication of a glitch is that of a surprise mistake or misstep
within a specific framework or system of which it is breaking the rules. The glitch calls attention to that which it disrupts; the system that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and unquestioned. Ali’s “Gltizch” is an activated force, not a passive phenomenon. If an aspect of a system is in conflict with the framework that contains it, then it can attack that framework and call attention to the mistakes inherent in that system. (Zeller, “alia ali….) Glitzch can be a battle cry. Glitzch can be an opportunity.

Ali is a graduate of Wellesley College and the California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS).
She lives between New York and Marrakech and has exhibited numerous solo exhibitions and art fairs across the globe. Her work is in collections at the British Museum, Princeton University, New Orleans Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art, Museum of Photography in Chicago, Benton Museum of Art, and a myriad of international private collections. Ali is the recipient of the ARTSY Vanguard Prize 2021-22 and is a NIKON Global Ambassador.

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Featuring works by Matthew Albanese, Jude Broughan, Kang Hee Kim, and Jeffrey Milstein

Benrubi Gallery is please to present a Winter Group Show organized around the idea of the Manufactured Landscape. One could consider the “Manufactured Landscape” to be a norm of our modern world, which it absolutely is, and it is not a new concept for photographers to explore either. It is in this vein that we seek to see what an idea made into a household phrase with the work of Edward Burtynsky in a 2006 world looks like now. We have changed in so many ways since the now seemingly halcyon days of a pre-2008, pre-pandemic society. We have come to fully inhabit our digital spaces, and whereas the integration of technology into fine art was always inevitable, and photography has always been a medium of change, we must still highlight where those changes live and how they are being executed and why. Four gallery artists: Matthew Albanese, Jude Broughan, Kang Hee Kim, and Jeffrey Milstein all using various methods to create these narratives within their picture spaces offer an investigation into the idea of what a Manufactured Landscape in 2025 is. From the use of the intricate diorama to the reappropriation and integration of slices of life, to the use of photoshop as the cardinal gesture of the composition, and Milstein’s use of pure optics to disturb and disrupt, allowing the viewer to question the very nature of their own perception. This is where we find ourselves at the juncture of what is the gesture of the hand and what is engineered, a synthetic reality that at its most impactful is now something we are quite comfortable with. We are even comfortable with the new awareness that we may not know. We find ourselves fluent in the language of what creates these disruptions of perspective, and we find perhaps they are not so disruptive anymore, they are simply our world at this time, in this place.

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Benrubi Gallery is pleased to present “Landscapes Noticed,” a solo exhibition of works on paper by Dennis Powers. A collection of exquisitely rendered views that reveal to us the artist’s gaze unto a rapidly changing world; a world rattled by climate change, and a complimentary inward turn to the life of the interior. The two are meditations on the scenes that make up our days. These are the slices of life that determine the course of our lives, our internal and external selves. Our inner monologues, the spaces that hold us close and the landscapes beyond our walls where the eternal rhythm of change and motion is the one constant.

For Powers weather and all its infinite influence at this juncture of humanity plays a vital role in how he sees the natural world and its subsequent collision with the man made. The turbulence of wind, the heat of a summer’s day, the clouds crossing our sky, the brilliant drama of natural motion is critical to his gestural brushstroke. He then applies this to the domestic world where a floral still life becomes a record not just of the ever changing external but a meditation on line and all its possibilities for expression.

Dennis Powers has been an integral member of the Benrubi Gallery since it’s very inception and we are honored to celebrate his work. His practice has been a life’s journey, and the seeds of these works were planted in the 90’s followed by a period of intensive focus beginning in 2010 through the present day. 
    In 1980, following a career in advertising and Corporate Communications, Dennis started his own production company to direct and produce documentary films and commercials for television, as well as corporate videos. Dennis has produced and/or directed many award-winning TV commercials and films including an hour-long documentary for American Masters Television on The Actor's Studio, featuring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Eli Wallach, Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel, Lee Grant and Norman Mailer; a PBS documentary on Andrew Wyeth's the Helga Pictures, featuring Charlton Heston; and, several award-winning documentaries for the Boys' Club of New York, The University of Virginia, Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York, and The New York Historical Society.
     Dennis was awarded a New York Emmy for his work as director on a project for Gallery HD titled Aperture, featuring Catherine Chalmers and Rosario Dawson. As Director/Producer he has also received awards from the New York Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival, The Clio Awards, the Houston Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival.

In 1987 Dennis married Bonni Benrubi, who established the Bonni Benrubi Photography Gallery in New York City. They have two sons, Sam and Jack. Bonni passed in 2012 after a long battle with lung cancer. The Benrubi Gallery continues to flourish in the Chelsea area of New York City.

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Benrubi Gallery is pleased to present “In Italia” a solo exhibition of new work by Valerio Spada. Valerio Spada's profound social documentary work examined the shifting landscapes and cultural transformations of Italy since his milestone work “Gomorrah Girl” to “I am nothing” with theprecious support of the Guggenheim Foundation now to his new book “Santa Maria del Fiore”. “In Italia” moves in the nuanced changes brought about by socio-economic shifts and over-tourism in one of the most sought after travel destinations in the world.

Inspired by Physics Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi’s insights into the socio-economic dynamics of historic city centers, Spada’s work delves deep into the cascading effects of depopulation of historic city centers. As Parisi emphasizes, "In large cities, schools in the historic center risk closing because there are not enough students attending, which then tends to amplify the desertification by the residents of the center. Because there are few inhabitants, schools close, and young couples do not move there because there are no schools. And we need schools to talk about imagination, curiosity, the desire to learn, gender equality, the future, but also about the historic center and the need to save it from a fate as "trolleyland”, being only a crowd of trolleys arriving and departing, so it remains, as Parisi says, a vital, hospitable place, rich in humanity. For this, schools are essential, as well as bookstores, theaters, and cultural places that give meaning to the community. That is why the schools in the center must be strengthened and helped to grow."

From 2019 to 2024 Spada observed the most crowded placed in Italy, concentrating his work in Florence most visited spot, Piazza Santa Maria del Fiore, meticulously as Parisi studied the sophisticated flight pattern of starlings, as a study on complex systems proving an illuminating way to understand how we move and live in the world, capturing the emptiness of once-vibrant neighborhoods now deserted as local families move away, and schools shut down. We can find kids rushing out of school not even noticing the gigantic Duomo behind them, but few amongst them just stop, turn around, and even if they see it everyday on their walk to school, they are staring at it and decide to use their phone to take a picture, as thousands of tourist will do.

The images of the Duomo stands amidst a sea of visitors juxtapose with 5am scenes of the piazza, Santa Maria del Fiore, transitioning back to a state of calm as tourists are sleeping in their airbnbs or left already, leaving the city for few hours highlighting the cyclical nature of the piazza’s life and the stark contrast between its historical significance and current transient usage. The swarming of people in the square of Florence evokes the idea of a wimmelbüch, a children’s book filled with intricate scenes bustling with activity. Just as a wimmelbüch invites readers to explore its myriad figures and stories, Spada’s photographs compel viewers to navigate the dense, teeming spaces of Italy, revealing the layers of interaction and life within the crowd.

In one of the exhibition's most evocative images, “Gaiola, 2023 - Diptych” Spada captures a tender moment between two men hiding away from the beach riding on two different kayaks, once they met again around the corner kissing each other away from prying eyes. This photograph not only reflects the quiet yet profound social changes in Italy but also the personal freedoms that still grapple with societal norms and prejudices. It is a testament to Spada’s ability to encapsulate intimate human experiences within broader social contexts.

Through "In Italia," Spada paints a comprehensive portrait of Italy in transition. His work transcends mere documentation, instead offering a profound exploration of the socio-economic forces at play. The exhibition challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions of Italy, balancing its romanticized image with the stark realities of modern life. As Spada continues to live between New York and Sicily, his art remains a crucial voice in contemporary photography, illuminating the often unseen struggles and evolving social
landscapes within Italian society.

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