Filtering by: Benefit
Opening Reception: "mādar: Iran Relief Exhibition" curated by Melika Abikenari and Golnar Adili
May
15
to May 16
Openings, Events, Benefit

Opening Reception: "mādar: Iran Relief Exhibition" curated by Melika Abikenari and Golnar Adili

Illustration adapted from an original image by Ali Akbar Sadeghi

Opening Reception:
mādar: Iran Relief Exhibition curated by Melika Abikenari and Golnar Adili

Friday, May 15, 2026
6:00 pm–late (sounds by Nar at 9 pm)
137 W. 25th Street, New York, NY
RSVP

Please join us at the opening reception for mādar, a group benefit exhibition and auction that presents works by over 80 contributing artists. The exhibition is curated by Melika Abikenari and Golnar Adili. The event features sounds by Nar beginning at 9 pm, aragh cocktails by Sag, beer provided by Back Home Beer, and bites donated by Golbarg Jokar of food collective Bazm.

mādar presents contributed artworks available for acquisition, with proceeds supporting humanitarian relief efforts through Moms Against Poverty and additional initiatives supporting people on the ground in Iran. An online auction featuring exhibited works will launch simultaneously with the opening reception, allowing supporters to view, learn more about, and acquire works both in person and remotely until 11:59 pm EST on Friday, May 15th.

RSVPs to the opening reception are requested but not required. The event is free and all are welcome.

This exhibition will remain on view through the weekend at CUE’s gallery space at 137 West 25th St. Weekend gallery hours on Saturday, May 16th and Sunday, May 17th are from 12–6 pm; no reservations are required.

Read more about the exhibition here, and see below to RSVP to the opening reception.

RSVP

About the Curators
Melika Abikenari (b. 1992, Iran) is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator, and organizer. She holds a BA from UCLA and an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is The Bronx Museum’s 2026 AIR fellow and a recent artist-in- residence at NARS Foundation. She has participated in the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program and completed residencies at Cerámica Suro, Art Cake, and Textile Arts Center. Abikenari has received the Creatives Rebuild New York grant, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center 2020 Scholarship Partnership Program, and the Meredith Beau CAA ’97 and Scott Beau Materials Fund. Her work has been exhibited at ArteEast (Brooklyn, NY), the Bronx Council on the Arts (Bronx, NY), New York Live Arts (New York, NY), M. David & Co (Brooklyn, NY), Art Cake (Brooklyn, NY), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), The Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH), and The Main Museum (Los Angeles, CA), among others.

Golnar Adili (b. 1976, USA) is an Iranian American artist, designer, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Adili holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Michigan and has participated in residencies with the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Bellagio, Italy), Center for Book Arts (NYC), Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY), Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), MacDowell (Peterborough, NH), Ucross Foundation for the Arts (Clearmont, WY), Lower East Side Printshop (NYC), Women’s Studio Workshop (Rosendale, NY), and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace (NYC), among others. Her work has been presented internationally in solo and group exhibitions organized by institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), CUE Art Foundation (New York, NY), Craft and Folk Art Museum (Los Angeles, CA), and International Print Center New York (NYC). She is the past recipient of major grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NYFA, and the Jerome Foundation. In 2021, Adili was a finalist for the Jameel Prize, sponsored by the V&A Museum and Art Jameel. Her artist books are in more than fifty collections, including the Library of Congress, the V&A Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University, and the Smithsonian.

Graphic Design: Melika Abikenari, featuring an illustration adapted from an original image by Ali Akbar Sadeghi

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Opening Dinner: What's Left in the Remaking
Nov
6
6:00 PM18:00
Benefit, Openings, Events

Opening Dinner: What's Left in the Remaking

Opening Dinner: What’s Left in the Remaking
A dinner at CUE organized in partnership with Off-Menu
Food by chefs Annie Faye Cheng, Srishti Jain, and Shauna Saneinejad
Drinks by Drink Dio, Mai Vino, Màkku, De Soi and Less Than 0.5

Date: Thursday, November 6th, 2025
Time: 6:00–10:00 pm
Tickets: Sliding scale, $50–$250 (see here and below)

Join us in the gallery for a special dinner event in collaboration with Off-Menu, a publication centering behind-the-scenes voices in food, to celebrate the opening of What’s Left in the Remaking. This group exhibition, which doubles as a benefit initiative, brings together the work of thirty NYC-based alumni artists and mentors of CUE from over the past decade. 

All works in the exhibition offered for sale. The event and exhibition come at an urgent moment, and raise crucial funds for CUE’s deeply relational and robust model supporting emerging and underrepresented artists who take risks and challenge existing boundaries of practice. The dinner will be the first chance to reserve works in the show.

Chefs Annie Faye Cheng, Srishti Jain, and Shauna Saneinejad, brought together by Off-Menu, will present a collective, site-specific, multi-course meal inspired by the exhibition. Guests will have a first look at the artwork, enjoy food and drink, and gather with our community of visionary alumni artists and mentors who are contributing their work and energy in solidarity with CUE. 

Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking
Tickets for Opening Dinner of What’s Left in the Remaking
from $50.00

Tickets for What’s Left in the Remaking are available on a sliding scale from $50 to $250. The true cost of the event is $100 per person, not including sponsorships, in-kind donations, and staff labor. This evening is a benefit supporting CUE Art at a time of need. We ask that you contribute at the level that feels most meaningful and accessible to you.

The event will offer a collaborative meal by three emerging chefs in three courses, with drinks included. Vegan and vegetarian items will be offered. See more info here.

Capacity is limited and tickets are available on a first come, first served basis. The event will be a standing, cocktail style format—not seated. If you require an accommodation, please request upon purchasing your ticket or reach out to rsvp@cueartfoundation.org.

See the full list of participating artists here.

About the Event Partner

Off-Menu is an independent, community-driven magazine exploring the world of food and drink with a focus on storytelling. Through intentional visual narratives, we aim to highlight the people working behind the scenes–producers, chefs, baristas, front of house, back of house and beyond.

About the Chefs

Annie Faye Cheng is a cook and writer based in Queens, NYC. She currently works as a whole-animal butcher. Learn more about her work at @achg.kitchen and www.anniefayecheng.com.

Srishti Jain is a Californian-Indian author, recipe-developer, and pastry chef. Her first cookbook, Make It Plant Based!, was released by Artisan in Spring 2025, and focuses on the produce-forward nature of Indian and Californian cooking. She is known for her supper clubs and pop-ups in San Francisco, New York, London, and beyond, as well as her work as a chef at various New York restaurants. She lives in New York with her fluffy black cat, Clam.

Shauna Saneinejad is the culinary producer and food artist behind Joon Eats, focused on connecting cultures and communities through dinners and edible tablescapes for both brands and individuals. She has collaborated with Diane von Furstenberg, J. Crew, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, MAC Cosmetics, Care of Chan, and more. Her personal project, Joon Dinner, tells the story of the brand’s beginnings and purpose. Her German-Jewish grandfather (on her mother’s side) taught her how to make pickles. Her Iranian-Muslim grandmother (on her father’s side) made torshi (Iranian mixed pickles). Both embraced the merging of families—and their pickling styles merge in Joon Eats’ Persian Pickles. Joon Eats’ goal is to remind diners that we have the capacity to live together, from all origins, when given the opportunity to learn from one another.

Graphic Design: Yuha Lotus Cho

Related Exhibition
To learn more about What’s Left in the Remaking, a group exhibition and a benefit with NYC-based alumni artists and mentors of CUE, see here. 

Support
Drinks for this event are generously donated by Drink Dio, Mai Vino, Màkku, De Soi and Less Than 0.5%.

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