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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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Food Activation by Tsohil Bhatia x Red Flower Collective at NADA House
Sep
21
2:00 PM14:00
Events, Openings

Food Activation by Tsohil Bhatia x Red Flower Collective at NADA House

Tsohil Bhatia in the kitchen at Fire Island Artist Residency, 2024. Photo by Sunny Leerasanthanah.

Food Activation by Tsohil Bhatia x Red Flower Collective
at NADA House on Governors Island

Saturday, September 21, 2024 from 2–4 pm
Nolan Park House 17, Governors Island
Accessible by ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn
See directions to Nolan Park here, and ferry info here.

REGISTER

Please join us for a special food-based activation by Tsohil Bhatia for Red Flower Collective, a communal eating and research collective of which they are a co-founder. The event is hosted by the New Art Dealers Alliance as part of the programming for NADA House, where CUE presents a new sculptural work by Bhatia, Untitled (Rano) in conjunction with their solo exhibition This Fire That Warms You.

The menu for the event will consist of aloo kachori, dahi bhalla papdi chaat, and masala peanut chaat. Come try it all! Food will be available until it runs out.

Red Flower Collective collaborates with artists, chefs, and curiosities-in-residence, and affirms queer and diasporic identities as they manifest themselves through food. The collective explores the kitchen as a forum in which to receive generational knowledge, and prioritizes the recipes derived from this research.

The event is free and all are welcome (donations are appreciated and support the work of Red Flower Collective). Bhatia’s sculpture, Untitled (Rano), will be on view at NADA House through October 27th, with public hours Friday–Sunday, 11 am–5 pm. No registration is required to attend either the event or public hours.

Register for updates via Luma here. (Please note that registration does not guarantee food—come early to ensure it’s still available!)

Read more about the work at NADA House here. To learn more about the artist’s solo exhibition at CUE, mentored by Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), see here.

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on worried notes at Montez Press Radio
Mar
30
5:00 PM17:00
Openings

on worried notes at Montez Press Radio

Tune into Montez Press Radio for a live broadcast with artist Keli Safia Maksud and artist, filmmaker, and writer Christian Nyampeta. Maksud and Nyampeta will discuss ideas embedded in worried notes, Maksud’s recent solo exhibition at CUE, and expand on themes of national identity and the formation of postcolonial Africa through the lens of music and cinema.

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Opening Reception: "الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory"
Mar
23
6:00 PM18:00
Events, Openings

Opening Reception: "الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory"

Join us in the gallery on Thursday, March 23rd for the opening reception of الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory, a group exhibition presenting works by Zeinab Saab, Kiki Salem, Nailah Taman, and Zeina Zeitoun. The exhibition is curated by Noel Maghathe with mentorship from Sara Raza.

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Opening Reception for James Maurelle: On-Site
Sep
17
6:00 PM18:00
Events, Openings

Opening Reception for James Maurelle: On-Site

Please join us for the opening reception for On-Site, a solo exhibition by James Maurelle, curated and mentored by Odili Donald Odita. The exhibition consists of sculptures and prints crafted from materials such as wood, metal, and found objects that weld form and function with Black cultural histories. Through a formal engagement with a vernacular derived from Black American traditions of making and African woodworking traditions, the work celebrates methods of defiance and achievement in the face of oppressive systems and structures, speaking to what Odita refers to as “the poetics of Black people and the Black experience.”

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Opening Reception for Gathering Evidence: Santo Domingo & New York City
Jul
24
4:00 PM16:00
Events, Openings

Opening Reception for Gathering Evidence: Santo Domingo & New York City

Please join us for the opening reception for Gathering Evidence: Santo Domingo & New York City, a solo exhibition by Lizania Cruz, curated and mentored by Guadalupe Maravilla. A maximum of 50 people will be admitted at a time. No appointment is necessary, but we do appreciate RSVPs. There may be a wait to enter if the gallery is at full capacity.

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Closing Reception for In Longing 
Jul
14
5:00 PM17:00
Openings

Closing Reception for In Longing 

Please join us for a closing reception for In Longing, a group exhibition featuring artists Alison Chen, SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY, Raymond Pinto, Marie Ségolène, and Xirin, curated by Anna Cahn and mentored by Legacy Russell. A maximum of 50 people will be admitted at a time. No appointment is necessary, but we do appreciate RSVPs. There may be a wait to enter if the gallery is at full capacity.

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Opening Reception with Miatta Kawinzi and Ronny Quevedo
Apr
10
2:00 PM14:00
Openings

Opening Reception with Miatta Kawinzi and Ronny Quevedo

Please join us for an opening reception with artist Miatta Kawinzi and curator-mentor Ronny Quevedo in conjunction with Kawinzi’s solo exhibition, Soft is Strong. Visitors can make appointments for 30-minute slots to view the exhibition, pick up a catalogue, and speak with the artist and curator-mentor. A maximum of 8 people will be admitted at a time.

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