KARL HAENDEL Praise New York 16 (Rev. Dr. Protopresbyter Nicolas Kazarian), 2022

Written by Megan May Walsh

Copy edited by Jana Massoud

The hand as an instrument of creativity, healing, and knowledge is the driving inspiration behind Karl Haendel’s exhibition Praise New York. Presenting larger-than-life installations of realist drawings depicting the hands of New York City’s inspiring Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and Sikh spiritual leaders, Haendel creates a vision of religious diversity. In the wake of COVID and unsettling times, Haendel pays homage to the religious leaders—pastors, imams, rabbis, and priests—that have lent their hand to thousands of New Yorkers in times of need. Inspired by the world building power of the human hand, Haendel uses his own two to draw the multi-racial, multicultural, multi-faith climate of New York in the hopes it might build this multiplicity around the world.

Despite the daunting and seemingly impossible task of bringing religious toleration to the entire world - a world that has historically proven itself to be intolerable - there is an air of simplicity about Haendel’s project. The ability of the hand in building better worlds is a power, deep and thrumming with life, that we all hold. In one nine-foot-tall image, Karl Haendel transforms the Sisyphean struggle to build a world that spins on tolerance and kindness to a resistance project brimming with joy and possibility.

For this project, Haendel sought out religious leaders who engage in inter-faith dialogue, practice toleration, and lead houses of worship in all five New York boroughs. Inspired by the inconspicuous space occupied by houses of worship between the street corners of New York City, Haendel desired to cast a spotlight on this hidden gem in the city’s sprawling landscape. The artist took these motivations and created a godlike embodied presence for viewers to witness. Playing with the parallels of the hand in religious texts and practices - as the tools god and gods wield to mold the earth and the creatures that walk it and the instrument spiritual leaders use to heal and spread kindness, Haendel wields the power of his own hands to spread awareness of these glimmers of hope and compassion shining around the city.

KARL HAENDEL Praise New York 14 (Father Enrique Salvo), 2021

Karl Haendel’s exhibition Praise New York manages to unveil the godlike power of the human being to build better worlds through the creativity and kindness emanating from their bare hands. Such a realization inspires a deeper responsibility among humans to care for one another. It reveals that our social ontology is not one of independence destined to isolation, but one of deep and beautiful dependency on each other. In one exhibition, Haendel masterfully reconceptualizes the Sisyphean struggle of building a tolerant world to an image of Sisyphus smiling down at his hands as he pushes the boulder of world peace up the hill one act of kindness and burst of creativity at a time.

Karl Haendel’s Praise New York will be on exhibition at New York’s Mitchell-Innes and Nash Gallery from March 10th to April 16th, 2022. For more information on the exhibition, please visit https://www.miandn.com/exhibitions/karl-haendel3

Photo Editing By Lenin Arache