Please join us for a curatorial welcome and self lead walkthrough of Soft Water Hard Stone, the fifth New Museum Triennial which brings together works across mediums by forty artists and collectives from around the world. The title of the exhibition is taken from a Brazilian proverb, versions of which are found across cultures: Ăgua mole em pedra dura, tanto bate atĂ© que fura (Soft water on hard stone hits until it bores a hole).
The title speaks to ideas of resilience and perseverance, and the impact that an insistent yet discrete gesture can have in time. It also provides a metaphor for resistance, as waterâa constantly flowing and transient materialâis capable of eventually dissolving stoneâa substance associated with permanence, but also composed of tiny particles that can collapse under pressure.
In this moment of profound change, where structures that were once thought to be stable are disintegrating or on the edge of collapse, the 2021 Triennial recognizes artists re-envisioning traditional models, materials, and techniques beyond established paradigms. Their works exalt states of transformation, calling attention to the malleability of structures, porous and unstable surfaces, and the fluid and adaptable potential of both technological and organic mediums.
Soft Water Hard Stone is curated by Margot Norton, Allen and Lola Goldring Curator at the New Museum, and Jamillah James, Senior Curator, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), with Jeanette Bisschops, Curatorial Fellow, and Bernardo Mosqueira, ISLAA Curatorial Fellow.
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Proof of vaccination is required for museum entry.
In compliance with the Mayor's Emergency Executive Order 225 issued on August 16, 2021, the New Museum requires visitors 12 years of age and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the Museum. Visitors 18 years of age and older must also show an ID bearing the same identifying information as proof of vaccination. Vaccinated visitors ages 12â17 without an ID must be accompanied by a vaccinated adult with an ID.
All visitors ages 4 and up are still required to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status.
Accessibility
HEARING
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Getting There
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About the speaker
Jeanette Bisschops is a curator and writer from Amsterdam based in New York. She is currently a Curatorial Fellow at the New Museum, New York. Between 2016 and 2019, Bisschops served as Curatorial Assistant for Time-Based Media at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and has curated multiple exhibitions as an independent curator. She holds a Masterâs in Psychology from Maastricht University and a Masterâs in Art History from the University of Amsterdam.
Thank you to Regan Lynn Larroque, New York Chapter Programs Committee Co-Chair, for organizing this program.
Images:
- Soft Water Hard Stone

Mary Engel is the founder and president of the American Photography Archives Group, APAG, an award winning filmmaker and the director of the Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive. Engel has been the director of the Ruth Orkin Photo Archive since its inception in 1985. She is responsible for all aspects of managing the archive including sales, licensing, marketing, legal issues, preservation and social media. Engel works with photography galleries, museums and auction houses in the United States and abroad. She has published four catalogs of photography.
Gwendolyn H. Everett, art historian, museum educator, curator, and childrenâs book author, and ArtTable member is an Associate Professor in Art History in the Department of Art at Howard University, Washington, D.C. She formerly served as Associate Dean for the Division of Fine Arts, Director of the Howard University Gallery of Art, and Chairperson of the Department of Art. Everett received her Ph.D. from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, MA in Art History from Howard, and a BA from Spelman College, where she majored in Studio Art. She is currently co-organizing a symposium,
ArtTable member Renee Maurer is Associate Curator, The Phillips Collection, and coordinating curator for the Phillipsâs presentation of the Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful exhibition. Other exhibitions she has coordinated include Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, guest curated by Adrienne Childs in 2020; A Modern Vision: European Paintings from The Phillips Collection and its tour (2017â2020); Toulouse-Lautrec Illustrates the Belle Ăpoque (2017); Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland (2016); American Moments: Photographs from The Phillips Collection (2015); Georges Braque and the Cubist Still Life: 1928â1945 (2013); and Jasper Johns: Variations on a Theme (2012). Prior to working at the Phillips, she was a research assistant at the National Gallery of Art. She received her BA from Dickinson College and her MA from George Washington University.
Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful provides a fresh perspective on the artistâs dynamic long life (1891-1978) and multifaceted career that was defined by constant creativity. This major retrospective traces her journey from semi-rural Georgia to Washington, DC, to become the first Black woman given a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art at age 80. Through artworks and archival materials, this exhibition demonstrates how Thomasâs wide-reaching artistic practices extended far beyond her studio. It helped shape every facet of her lifeâfrom community service to teaching to gardening.


Ruth Estévez is a curator and stage designer. Her research work focuses on artistic practices that explore how the spoken and written language operates within the visual arts, contemporary culture and politics.