Artist Donald Moffett has returned to New York's gallery scene with "Snowflake," his first solo exhibition in the city since 2019, now showing at Alexander Gray Associates in Tribeca through October 25. The provocatively titled show represents a deliberate embrace of contemporary political discourse, with Moffett stating he would "gladly wear" the snowflake label as a badge of honor, much like he did with his groundbreaking 1989 exhibition "I Love It When You Call Me Names."

The exhibition marks a significant shift in Moffett's artistic approach, with works that directly address both the climate crisis and the current polarized political environment. His latest "extruded paintings" feature oil paint manipulated with cake-decorating tools into thin tendrils and globs, mounted on cut wood panels to create works that literally appear to be melting. Two standout pieces, "Lot 052525 (nature cult, melt 1)" and "Lot 061625 (nature cult, melt A)," present pristine white and dirty pewter-colored paint respectively, sliding off surfaces in a visceral representation of melting snow and ice.

The artist's color palette has dramatically shifted from the vibrant reds, blues, and greens of his 2019 Marianne Boesky exhibition to predominantly black and white tones, with only two works featuring icy blue. Moffett explains this somber choice by saying, "These are dark times—no question about it," with the white serving as "a hopeful reflex to the black tones." He later clarified that his restricted color choices were meant to "mimic the choices that we all face in the present political climate, which are stark—and more or less black and white."

Moffett's journey to these extruded paintings began in the 1990s, following his intensive activism with the ACT UP-affiliated collective Gran Fury during the AIDS crisis. As antiretroviral therapy became available and activism wound down, Moffett experienced what he describes as "palpable and real" exhaustion from that decade of direct political action. Seeking renewal, he turned to an unlikely source: cake decorating classes, where the technique of manipulating frosting sparked his imagination for working with paint in entirely new ways.

The resulting technique involves pure, unadulterated oil paint—"oil paint through and through—unadulterated, unvarnished, literally," as Moffett puts it. After experimenting with acrylics and finding them inadequate for his vision, he settled on oil paints that could be manipulated like icing. This process, developed over 30 years, allows him to create what he calls "a bleeding out of the definition of abstraction" that moves beyond pure formal concerns into social and political territory.

The exhibition's titles reinforce the climate change themes throughout the work. "Lot 030525 (nature cult, arctic probe)" resembles a snowy landscape with extracted ice cores, while "Lot 060825 (nature cult, flood)" evokes surging floodwaters from melting ice caps. The all-black "Lot 062525 (nature cult, first snow)" presents perhaps the grimmest vision of environmental catastrophe, suggesting a future where even fresh snowfall carries ominous implications.

Three bumper stickers in the exhibition—reading "SCIENCE," "KILL NOTHING," and "LAUGH. RIOT."—continue Moffett's tradition of text-based works that began with his iconic 1987 piece "He Kills Me." That earlier work featured a target paired with a photograph of President Ronald Reagan, created the same year Reagan first addressed the AIDS crisis after six years of federal silence. These new bumper stickers, part of an ongoing series that started with his 2022 exhibition at San Antonio's McNay Art Museum, represent a more measured but equally pointed political statement.

The exhibition also features "Aluminum/White House Unmoored," a 2004 work that demonstrates Moffett's long-standing practice of merging abstraction with political commentary. The piece consists of a canvas covered in waves of metallic silver oil paint onto which a nearly 15-minute video of the White House at night is projected. The grainy, ominous footage transforms the building into something menacing and sinister, creating what Moffett calls a work that "is always with me" and remains relevant across different contentious political moments.

"Snowflake" represents Moffett's first exhibition with Alexander Gray Associates after 23 years with Marianne Boesky Gallery. The artist describes the move as motivated by curiosity rather than dissatisfaction, explaining he wanted to "try other architecture, other minds, and other possibilities." His long friendship with Alexander Gray, who opened his gallery in 2007, and admiration for several artists in the gallery's program made the transition feel natural.

Reflecting on the role of art in turbulent times, Moffett sees his current work as part of a broader responsibility for artists and galleries to engage with political realities. "It's an important time for art, artists, and galleries," he states. "I think artists can play a role and are challenged to." He concludes with a call to action that encapsulates both his artistic philosophy and political stance: "Let's light the match."