P. Staff's current exhibition at David Zwirner in New York transforms the gallery's Upper East Side townhouse into a haunting, body-centric experience. The show features a new video titled *Penetration* (2025), split across three floors, depicting a person with a laser beamed at their bare stomach, alongside sculptures with wood spikes under latex drapes and ambient sounds of a beating heart. The installation evokes a dread of having a body, with jaundiced yellow window films and disjointed sensory elements creating an uncomfortable, dysphoric atmosphere.
This exhibition matters because it marks P. Staff's first show with David Zwirner and their debut with any New York gallery, following a highly debated contribution to the 2024 Whitney Biennial. By turning a mega-gallery space into a corporeal, unnerving environment, Staff challenges the typical experience of viewing expensive art, forcing audiences to confront their own physicality. The show also continues Staff's exploration of "trans poetics" without making overt political statements, offering a rare, ambitious artistic statement in a city where such risks have become uncommon.