Pratt Manhattan Gallery will open on Friday 18 April Two new photography -exhibitions: Black | Box By Dona Ann Mcadams, who combines black -white photography with text to capture American life from the late 20th century, and Autoworks & Waterworks By Abby Robinson, which records the body of coincidence with the camera, moves through light and the fluidity of water.
Dona Ann Mcadams: Black | Box
Black | Box is an exhibition of award-winning American photographer Dona Ann Mcadams, who combines 50 years of black and white photography with her own short text texts. Made between 1974 and 2024, the photos document amazing moments and people for decades of American life. These striking historical images combined with personal reflections that read as prose poems work together to convey a unapologetic history of the queer liberation movement, the cultural wars and the implementing art scene of the 1980s and 1990s. This show has been timed to coincide with the release of the recent monograph from McAdams, Black | Box: a photographic memoirPublished by Saint Lucy Books.
Abby Robinson: Autoworks & Waterworks
Abby Robinson (1947–2024) developed her Car Series for more than 30 years, starting in 1971. The series communicates the art of women who implement the camera to invalidate fixed gender roles through self -portray photography and presentation. Composed of black and white prints about two by three in size, the images of Car are small and intimate photos.
Robinson’s Waterwork series grew out Car In the past decade, when she brought her camera in the shower. The use of color and considerably larger prints results in a different mood for the Waterwork Photos. The images are direct and only show a figure and a described space transformed by a combination of water and light. The exhibition contains works from both series, which were selected by the photographer before her death in July 2024.
Both exhibitions can be seen on Pratt Manhattan Gallery From Friday, April 18 to June 7, 2025, with a public reception on Thursday, April 17 from 6 pm to 8 pm. Pratt Manhattan Gallery is located on 144 West 14th Street in New York City, open from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.
Visit for more information pratt.edu.
The Pratt Manhattan Gallery program is made partly possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s office and the legislative power of the state of New York.
