“AMAZONS & WARRIORS: The Battle for the Showroom”

“AMAZONS & WARRIORS: The Battle for the Showroom”
A revolutionary exhibition at  SHOWROOM
(a Division of NextWave: a Wade Bonds and William Norton Galleries Productions)
Saturday 6/7/2025 – Friday 7/5/2025

“Amazons & Warriors: The Battle for the Showroom” features the Women and Men of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Art Handling Team Taking Center Stage in a Mythic Clash as the protagonists in a living, breathing tableau of myth, labor, and artistic dominance.

“Art handlers are the invisible backbone of institutions,” says curator William Norton, “and this show gives them the chance to mythologize themselves, to reframe their choice of employment as something truly heroic, something only the top percentage of the aesthetically gifted can even hope to accomplish.”

This gallery exhibition will be a demonstration of the incredible artistic talent that’s necessary to be a part of this museum’s back-of-house infrastructure, proving that not just anyone can perform such complex and challenging work as required by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Inspired by the ancient Greek legends of fierce Amazonian warriors locked in eternal contest with their Greek male counterparts, this exhibition recasts that storied conflict with a vital behind-the-scenes secret: while these artists are individualists by nature, on-the-job daily cooperation and respect, instead of conflict, allows them to accomplish seemingly impossible Herculean tasks. Here muscle combines with intelligence, highly trained skills meet duty, and oversized egos and myths blur into the everyday sweat of cultural labor. Art handlers are not just technicians—they are the performers of unseen rituals; in their gifted hands, tools become talismans.

Please Note: While cooperation is vital to their daily chosen tasks on the museum floors, in their own studios these fiercely talented egos are in constant competition with the rest of the art world, and in this exhibition the gloves are off!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN AND WATCH THE SPARKS FLY!!!

featuring:

Denise Kupferschmidt @dennerdenner
Iris Loughran  @irisloughran
Natalee Cayton @natteroffact 
Elisa Flynn  @elisa_fff
Chris Ketchie @ckny1800
Jason Phillips @jgphil
Jesse Gelaznik @gelazik
William Norton @norton_william

Opening Reception: Sunday June 8, 2025, from 3 to 6 PM
Location: SHOWROOM 
Guerra Paint & Pigment Corp.
57-52 58th Place
Maspeth, NY 11378

Exhibition Dates: Sunday June 8 – Friday July 5, 2025 Gallery Hours M-F 10am – 4pm

This exhibition is not just a show—it’s a reckoning. With humor, grit, and mythic swagger, the Whitney’s Art Handlers step out from behind the canvas and into the frame.

For press inquiries, interviews, or images, please contact William Norton: Email: thewilliamnorton@gmail.com