Greater New York, MoMA PS1’s recurring survey of artists based in the city, has managed to lure one of New York’s most high-profile sensations: Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
On her Instagram, PS1 director Connie Butler posted news that Mamdani had personally visited Greater New York alongside Claire Valdez, a New York State Representative who is currently running for a seat in the House of Representatives. Valdez, like Mamdani, is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America; Mamdani previously held a fundraiser in support of her campaign.
“A great way to start the day with a visit from the mayor!” wrote Butler on her Instagram Story.
In a follow-up Story, Butler posted an image of Mamdani and Valdez with an installation by Dean Majd, a Palestinian American photographer based in Queens. Majd’s contribution to Greater New York is an all-over presentation of pictures of people from communities in New York and the West Bank, often with an eye toward places of intersection between the two locales. Among those photographs is a portrait of Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian Palestinian activist whom ICE detained for his pro-Palestine activism at Columbia University.
On a picture of Valdez and Mamdani smiling and raising their arms near Majd’s display, Butler wrote, “And they loved Greater New York!”
Greater New York takes place once every five years; this year’s edition opened in April and runs through August 17. It features 53 artists, many of whom are this time around concerned with issues such as urban decay, infrastructural failure, and forms of survival in spite of it all.
