Cosmic Shelter: Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Private Cosmococas
October 12–March 30, 2024
Opening Reception: October 12, 6:30–9:00 pm
Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery
132 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10065
Entrance between Lexington and Park Avenues
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12–6 pm
Digital Zine & Additional Reading
Library Guide to the Exhibition Reading Room
MFA Performance Showcase
Curatorial Talks
In the mid-1960s, Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–80) began embracing joyously transgressive modes of performance, film, and installation that championed marginalized persons and their culture. Created while Oiticica was self-exiled to New York in the 1970s, the immersive 1973 installation series of Bloco-Experiências in Cosmococa–Programa in Progress, or Cosmococas, operate on multiple levels to transform pop and underground culture into a psychedelic experience. Made in collaboration with the Brazilian filmmaker Neville D’Almeida (b. 1941), for each of the five original Cosmococas the artists crafted two sets of instructions: one for public institutional presentations and, in an anti-elitist effort, another for display in private homes. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cosmococas, the artist’s nonprofit foundation, the Projeto Hélio Oiticica, has organized a year-long celebration for 2023, during which the series has been installed in cities around the world.
The Hunter College Art Galleries have joined the initiative to present Cosmic Shelter: Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Private Cosmococas at the Leubsdorf Gallery from October 12, 2023–March 30, 2024. This exhibition features the United States premiere of two private Cosmococas and includes archival material to provide historical context for the layers of political commentary embedded in the subversive, psychedelic series.
Curated by Daniela Mayer. The exhibition was developed in conjunction with a two-semester independent study by Hunter College MA Art History students Thais Bignardi, Rowan Diaz-Toth, and Angelica Pomar. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Hunter College Foundation with additional support from Lisson Gallery, Leon Tovar Gallery, and Sokoloff + Associates.
Every exhibition is a collaboration. Sincere thanks to all those listed below and the many others who contributed to the development and production of Cosmic Shelter.
Curators: Daniela Mayer with Thais Bignardi, Rowan Diaz-Toth, and Angelica Pomar.
Hunter College Art Galleries: Harper Montgomery, Katie Hood Morgan, Tara Ohanian, and Phi Nguyen
Art Installation: Phi Nguyen with Joseph Gannon, Cannon Michael, Jules Oñate, Kevin Fusco, George Simonds, and Holden Pham
Exhibition Design: Liz Naiden with Daniela Mayer
Installation Photography: Argenis Apollinario
Publication and Graphic Design: Natalie Wedeking
Technology and AV: Liz Naiden
Translations: Gustavo Aguiar (labels/essays), Patricio Orellano (Jardim de Guerra)
Website: Tara Ohanian
Special thanks to Neville D’Almeida, Cesar Oiticica Filho and the Projeto Hélio Oiticica for their collaboration.
