For 15 years, the art collective 4heads was a mainstay of Governors Island, helping make the former Coast Guard base an unlikely arts destination in New York Harbor. Now, they are bringing their magic to Rockaway, staging a new edition of their group show “Portal,” with 35 artists showing in a repurposed military warehouse at Fort Tilden, a former United States Army installation right on the beach.
“We were really sad that the island did not have us back,” 4heads co-founder Nicole Laemmle told me. “We took a one-year hiatus—a leap year.”
Then she and co-founder Jack Robinson, her husband, started looking for a new place to stage an exhibition. They landed in Rockaway last year thanks to Christopher Saucedo, a past 4heads artist who is a board member of the Rockaway Artists Alliance, which operates the space.
“It’s just like Governors Island. We’re surrounded by water, and it’s a pain in the ass to get to,” Robinson joked.
Caleb Nussear, (2016) at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
A Celebration of Art in All Mediums
A tessellated mirrored sculpture by Caleb Nussear is among the works displayed on the lawn in front of the building, greeting visitors who make the worthwhile trek.
Inside, Robinson and Laemmle have put together a compelling mix of painting, sculpture, photography, and video work, selected via an open call.
A few works were familiar to me. Kate Clark‘s unnerving sculptures of human faces, transformed with animal hides and with the bodies of anthropomorphized deer, have been shown widely at museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Work by Kate Clark in the foreground, with Bianca Abdi-Boragi in the center and Robert Lach on the back wall at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
“She’s kind of a big deal—I was surprised she was so psyched to show with us,” Robinson laughed.
And I remembered the life-size, newsprint-covered Coney Island beach goer sculptures by Will Kurtz—a “Portal” veteran I first encountered on Governors Island in 2014—from an excellent booth at the 2024 Spring Break Art Show.
Will Kurtz, and at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
Also thematically on point was another Spring Break favorite, from 2025, by Bianca Abdi-Boragi, who coated the inside of suitcases with sand she collected in the Bahamas, Martinique, and the Sahara, and used them as shelves to display cast bronze sculptures of fruits turned into telephones. (The artist did the Midnight Moment video for Times Square in August.)
“Portal” exhibitions tend to excel at finding artists working with unconventional materials.
Robert Lach, (2013) and (2015) at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
A circular, mandala-like work mounted on one wall, on closer inspection, turns out to be made entirely from salvaged crutches that Robert Lach collected off the streets of New Jersey over a period of about three years. Its surprisingly spare beauty is paired with another work by the artist inspired by his former day job as an art handler, made from foam and cardboard tape roll interiors, bound together by packing tape in cell-like accumulations.
And then there’s Cynthia Reynolds, who has two works in the show: a tidy bundle of bubble wrap, displayed in wavy layers in the window to catch the late summer light, and a large trailing sculpture of pink packing peanuts strung together in a surprisingly delicate arrangement.
Cynthia Reynolds, (2025). Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
“At our opening, the artist actually wore the artwork. What she eventually wants to do is walk into the ocean with it because the packing peanuts dissolve,” Laemmle said. “It’s really beautiful when she wears it.”
On the other side of the coin are excellent paintings, including a shrine-like display of colorful animal works by Viktoriya Basina.
Work by Viktoriya Basina at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
More subtle were Jamie Orr’s canvases mixing acrylic with walnut ink, coffee, and saltwater to create gorgeous, swirling abstractions reminiscent of landscapes with a delicate shimmer.
There is even documentary photography, from Stephanie Keith, who has captured harrowing views of ICE agents at work, detaining immigrants and separating families as part of the current crackdown on the undocumented.
Stephanie Keith, (2025). Photo: courtesy of the artist.
A New Era for a Beloved Organization
Robinson and Laemmle miss some things about Governors Island. The exhibition, originally dubbed the Governors Island Art Fair, adapted crumbling officers’ houses into makeshift galleries, displaying art on kitchen counters, spilling out of ovens and dusty cabinets.
That unique vibe was recaptured in John Buron’s , a life-size installation of a recliner chair, television (with working screen), living room window, and baseboard radiator all crafted from cardboard, rope, and fabric, painted entirely in white. The objects, mounted on a platform in the corner of the gallery, are shown askew, an ironing board disappearing into the wall as if being suctioned off into some alternate dimension.
John Buron, . Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
And the artists have made good use of the space’s soaring ceilings, hanging works from the aesthetically pleasing beams. From across the room, semicircles of orange and yellow macramé by Ellie Murphy face a site-specific Erin Turner sculpture made of countless copies of her own photo on newsprint, woven together over a chickenwire frame into a massive, twisted ring-like form.
It’s the second year in the barn-like gallery for “Portal,” and the plan is to make it an annual event that can grow to partner with other cultural organizations in the area.
Erin Turner, (2025) at “Portal: Rockaway.” Photo: courtesy of 4heads.
“We’re hoping next year to have a big art month here for August in Rockaway,” Laemmle said.
“We love it here,” Robinson agreed.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
