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The Arts Intel Report

Mary McCartney: Embrace

Mary McCartney, Snog, 1999.

Nov 16 – Dec 23, 2023
515 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011

In the warm light of a Chelsea townhouse turned gallery, visitors hug old friends, shake hands with new acquaintances, and brush shoulders with strangers. The pandemic feels like a a bad dream or a distant memory, and whatever human connection we slip back into is taken for granted. Mary McCartney (yes, that McCartney) makes sure we stop and celebrate. On the walls, her photographs tell a story of human touch—a couple “snogging” against a brick wall, another wrapped around each another at a concert. Some images playfully hint at embraces left off-camera; for instance, a woman hailing a cab home at dawn. This show is the third in a series pulled from McCartney’s vast archive. —Clara Molot