Concept Foreign Garments New York, Cute Fucking Gay New York, Caramelize Fry Glaze New York, Capital Franchise Gains New York, and twenty others—these are all variations on the name of the New York-based artist collective CFGNY, whose members include Daniel Chew, Ten Izu, and Tin Nguyen.
But what does that mean when the name is so polymorphous that it nearly becomes illegible? It is no accident that CFGNY drew on the No Name Painting Association (无名画会, Wuming) for their recent exhibition at Amant, Puddles into Pond. Active during the Cultural Revolution, Wuming was a loose group of artists in Beijing who gathered after work to paint landscapes together—without charter or membership, operating in the margins of a political culture that demanded art serve the state. To have named themselves would have been dangerous; “No Name” was the only honest account of years spent gathering without declaration. CFGNY, by contrast, multiplies names until any single one becomes insufficient, or even unnecessary.
What links CFGNY to Wuming is not a shared politics of anonymity, but the sustained act of gathering. The relationship precedes the name; the name becomes its residue—or its refusal. Like Wuming, whose members shared a ritual of painting meetups stolen between work shifts and duties, CFGNY also recognizes in uncertainty the grounds for coming together. Gathering, for both, is the condition that makes the work possible. "Political uncertainty and a murky future," they note, "can drive a group to come together around a generative activity aimed at interpersonal connection. As the years pass, we have been forced to recognize our own interdependence,” and in that interdependence, "a way of affirming purpose and enjoyment of life.” To gather is to make something; the relationship and the work are mutually constitutive.
The exhibition Puddles into Pond makes this interdependence into structure. In Landscape Composition (2026), thirteen friends from CFGNY's network were each invited to visit the studio individually, contributing one ceramic disk to the installation. Displayed on open-frame pedestals of unfinished wood with reflective glass tops, the disks float at varying heights, making up what CFGNY describes as a "social landscape.” Walking up Fuzzy Bridge (2026), a wooden structure draped in brown faux fur that bisects the installation, one enters and sees this dynamic shared terrain from within: the disks in constant dialogue—in the glass below, in the shifting reflection above.
In the adjacent gallery, System (Five Times) (2026) shifts the question from the shape of interdependence to its workings. Five water clocks, each taking a distinct form, ranging from a cardboard mannequin to a vinyl tote bag, keep their own time at different speeds while drawing from and returning water to a single suspended tank. Each clock is a kind of self-portrait; the system relies on each part to remain itself.
What stands out in CFGNY's collective approach is how little it distinguishes artistic collaboration from everyday life. "In the studio, we plan together, work together, eat together. Outside the studio, we share friendships, networks, resources. We still have our separate lives"—these constitute a form of association no existing structure has authorized, one in which each participant still retains agency. The private, the proximate, and the unremarkable link CFGNY's gathering to Wuming's, even across vastly different conditions. As queer artists and racial minorities, CFGNY are, in their words, "no strangers to deciding what's worth committing to outside of a normative system." The collective is one such commitment.
Where Wuming's namelessness was the residue of necessity, CFGNY's name multiplies until it, too, escapes definition. They write, "CFGNY is not just a name or entity, but an intentional line of inquiry that has morphed over the years as a living project." The name stays open. Inexhaustible. Or as they say simply, “There are infinite ways to collaborate.”
CFGNY: Puddles into Pond is on view at Amant (315 Maujer, New York) from March 19 to August 16, 2026.
