Exhibition Video
Exhibition Video
In this video, Zoya Cherkassky discusses her inspiration for the show with Neubauer Collegium Curator Dieter Roelstraete.
Exhibitions
Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis
09.25.2025 – 01.09.2026
Zoya Cherkassky, The Loner (detail), 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort, New York.
Exhibition Summary
This exhibition featured a suite of new works by Soviet-born Israeli artist Zoya Cherkassky. Teasingly titled The Global Political Crisis, the exhibition consisted of erotic drawings in Cherkassky’s signature diaristic style and five large acrylic paintings with similarly charged content, as well as an erotic sculpture and a small collection of pornographic tchotchkes. Touching on the vexed issue of free speech at a moment when political and cultural leaders seem to have very clear ideas about what art should say and do (or, just as patronizingly, what it shouldn’t say and do), Cherkassky’s humorous paean to the “joy of sex” offered a vision of everyday desire that stands in knowing, defiant contrast with the planetary polycrisis alluded to in the title. More than a mere escapist fantasy, Cherkassky’s foray into the age-old tradition of ars erotica symbolized the importance of pleasure in our trying times – of joining the beleaguered forces of Eros against a surging spirit of Thanatos.
Gallery
Exhibition Narrative
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi Offers a Response to Our Global Political Crisis: Sex.
Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi Offers a Response to Our Global Political Crisis: Sex.
Nolan Shaffer reviews Zoya Cherkassky's Fall 2025 solo exhibition with the Neubauer Collegium in The Chicago Maroon.
CWAC Voices Review
CWAC Voices Review
Sarah Thau reflects on Zoya Cherkassky's exhibition for the online journal CWAC Voices, published by students in the "Writing Art Criticism" seminar taught by UChicago art historian Christine Mehring.
Disrobing ‘The Global Political Crisis’ at Neubauer Collegium
Disrobing ‘The Global Political Crisis’ at Neubauer Collegium
Hyde Park Herald reviews 'Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis'. Contributing writer Jared Brown considers the thematic underpinning of the show: surveillance, sexuality, and the artist's own ...
Opening Reception for Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis
Exhibition Opening
Opening Reception for Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis
The Neubauer Collegium's Fall 2025 gallery exhibition features a suite of new works by the Soviet-born Israeli artist.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi Offers a Response to Our Global Political Crisis: Sex.
Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi Offers a Response to Our Global Political Crisis: Sex.
Nolan Shaffer reviews Zoya Cherkassky's Fall 2025 solo exhibition with the Neubauer Collegium in The Chicago Maroon.
CWAC Voices Review
CWAC Voices Review
Sarah Thau reflects on Zoya Cherkassky's exhibition for the online journal CWAC Voices, published by students in the "Writing Art Criticism" seminar taught by UChicago art historian Christine Mehring.
Disrobing ‘The Global Political Crisis’ at Neubauer Collegium
Disrobing ‘The Global Political Crisis’ at Neubauer Collegium
Hyde Park Herald reviews 'Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis'. Contributing writer Jared Brown considers the thematic underpinning of the show: surveillance, sexuality, and the artist's own ...
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Opening Reception for Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis
Exhibition Opening
Opening Reception for Zoya Cherkassky: The Global Political Crisis
The Neubauer Collegium's Fall 2025 gallery exhibition features a suite of new works by the Soviet-born Israeli artist.
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