Ability Imaginary: Against the Productive Subject at Pratt Institute

August 3 – September 18, 2026 All Day

Pratt Institute, Steuben Gallery, Steuben Street, 1st Floor, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205.

Image detail of a ceramic installation, consisting of hand-sized morsels of pink glazed ceramic made by squeezing clay so that the finger marks of hand making are visible. Each piece is suspended intentionally at different heights from the ceiling with maroon colored thread.
Nawon Kim, Another Body, Dimensions variable, 2026. Installation of 160 ceramic hand sculptures

Summer hours: Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. (Aug 3–Aug 21) 
Regular hours: Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, September 10, 5 –7 p.m.

Participating Artists

Pratt’s School of Art Dean, Jorge Oliver, invites you to Ability Imaginary: Against the Productive Subject,  an exhibition of the work of School of Art and School of Architecture students and recent alumni that engages with the many forms of disability and presents expansive approaches to the meaning of access. This is the fifth collective School of Art exhibition to showcase the work of students and alumni exploring identity in their work and is co-curated by Pratt alum, Rachel Vera Steinberg (BFA Fine Arts, Drawing ‘08) and artist and writer, Avram Finkelstein. 

In collaboration with the Pratt Department of Exhibitions and the Department of Fine Arts, Ability Imaginary: Against the Productive Self is on view until Sept. 18. We hope you will spend time with the exceptional work of our students and alumni, which spans painting, sculpture, performance, photography, film, installation, printmaking and collage and that you will be inspired by this years exhibition, as it invokes the experience and realities of various disabilities, forging channels of understanding outside of the realm of the visible and troubles assumptions about disability’s representation by examining that which goes under-discussed in what defines one who is able.

We thank our partners in this year’s presentation, the Office of Engagement, Culture and Community, Alumni Relations, Pratt Presents, the Learning/Access Center and Pratt Communications and Marketing. Thank you for your support and we look forward to the ways this exhibition will bring our community together to experience art and share ideas this fall. 

This is the fifth annual School of Art student exhibition in partnership with Pratt’s Department of Exhibitions to pose questions about the formation of cultural identity. Last year’s exhibition, Exquisite Relations featured artists from the LGBTQIA+ community. In 2024, Pieces of You, Pieces of Me, gave a platform to students who identify with the Black, African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Hispanic, Afro-Latinx, Black Hispanic, or Black Latinx experience. In 2023, elsewhere, within here presented students who identify with Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, or Asian American identities, experiences, regions, or diasporas. In 2022, the inaugural exhibition in this series, Corpus: Landscapes and Memories of External Sprouting, focused on artwork by students who identify with the Hispanic/Latinx community. 

The School of Art includes students in Art and Design Education, Creative Arts Therapy, Creative Enterprise Leadership, Digital Arts, Film/Video, Fine Arts, Photography, AOS Graphic Design, Illustration, Game Design and Interactive Media, and AAS Graphic Design/Illustration.

Questions? Contact School of Art Assistant to the Dean, Ciara Stack, cstack30@pratt.edu.

The Curators

Rachel Vera Steinberg is the Curator & Director of Exhibitions at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn. Her work explores cultural mythologies, science fiction, the role of technology in society, and systemic equity. Previously, she was the Director of SOHO20 Artists and the Assistant Director of NURTUREart. She has curated exhibitions locally and internationally, which have been written about in The New York Times, ArtReview, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. After completing her BFA in Fine Arts from Pratt, she earned an MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College.

Avram Finkelstein is an artist, writer, and founding member of the Silence=Death and Gran Fury collectives. His work has shown at MoMA, the Whitney, the Met, the Brooklyn Museum, and many other venues. He has written for BOMB and frieze and has been interviewed for The New York Times, NPR, Slate, and other publications. His book, After Silence: A History of AIDS Through its Images was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Nonfiction. 

Pratt Institute provides the creative leaders of tomorrow the professional knowledge and experience to make a better world. A world-class and internationally ranked college with programs in art, design, architecture, liberal arts and sciences, and information studies, Pratt offers nearly 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.