Adrienne Ottenberg

My Show at The Museum at Eldridge Street has closed. Thank you to my curator Nancy Johnson, and the wonderful staff at the museum. I am delighted that the show received the 2023 Victorian Society of New York award for exhibit of the year.

Art installation at the Museum at Eldridge street. Featuring two semi-transparent fabric panels, one of Frances Perkins, one of Dora Welfowitz who dies in the triangle shirt waist factory fire.
A creative glass window projection showing a woman in a yellow dress, a blue-capped building, star-shaped lights, and a detailed patterned background.
A vintage-style newspaper poster with the title 'The National Police Gazette' at the top. It features an illustration of a woman with dreadlocks and sunglasses, dressed in a dress, standing in front of a city map background. The poster has a wanted notice for a person, along with decorative elements and text in an old-fashioned font.
A stained glass window with a digital overlay of a woman reading a newspaper. The overlay includes a stylized illustration of her face and a crossword puzzle. The scene appears to be inside a church or cathedral with colorful stained glass windows in the background.

The Lower East Side has a rich history of trouble makers, artists, and social movements. Reaching back in time to connect with a few of the women who were part of this history was the basis of my installation:

ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE: Twenty-Eight Remarkable Women… and One Scoundrel

Map of the Lower East Side highlighting twenty-eight remarkable women and one scout, with illustrations of each woman and their quotes, set against a starry night background.

Reviews of the show:

The Forward New York Jewish Week

A glimpse of the installation

Adrienne Ottenberg talks about her installation at The Museum At Eldridge Street. Twenty-eight remarkable women…and one scoundrel.

“St Augustine says, ‘the dead are invisible, they are not absent.’ You needn’t believe in ghosts to see that’s true. We carry the genes and the culture of our ancestors, and what we think about them shapes what we think of ourselves, and how we make sense of our time and place.”

Hilary Mantel The Reith Lectures