APPLE FACE at Mriya Gallery in Tribeca doesn’t revisit Surrealism—it repositions it for a reality that already feels distorted.

In a neighborhood that’s seen it all, it takes something sharp to cut through.

Opening in early April at Mriya Gallery, the group show drew a crowd that felt equal parts art world and downtown instinct—people who don’t just look, but read between the lines.

Featuring Kevin Kuenster, Miguel Bonilla, Jaques de Beaufort, Francesco Cipollone, Iain Andrews, and Kevin Draper, and curated by Aidana Bergali, the exhibition takes a familiar image and strips it of comfort.

A Tribeca Exhibition Rooted in Surrealism

You know the reference—René Magritte’s The Son of Man. The suited figure. The obscured face. The apple that blocks just enough to make you question everything.

At Mriya Gallery in Tribeca, APPLE FACE builds on that tension—pushing the familiar into something far less comfortable.

But here’s the shift: the apple isn’t hiding anything anymore.

It’s controlling it.

In APPLE FACE, that symbol mutates into something far more contemporary—less metaphor, more interface. A stand-in for the systems we live inside now: screens, filters, identities we construct, edit, and project in real time.

Surrealism, in this context, isn’t dreamlike. It’s operational.

Across painting, drawing, and sculpture, the work refuses to sit quietly in the past. Instead, it pushes into a present where reality is layered, unstable, and increasingly mediated. The line between what’s real and what’s rendered feels thinner than ever—and no one here seems particularly interested in restoring it.

What hits hardest is the duality. Each piece exists physically and digitally, forcing the question no one wants to answer directly: if something lives in both spaces, where does it actually exist?

Where Physical and Digital Reality Blur

And more importantly—who owns it?

That tension sits underneath everything. Not loud, not theatrical—but constant. A kind of low-grade friction that feels very now.

Why APPLE FACE Feels So Immediate

Tribeca has always had a way of absorbing ideas before the rest of the city catches up. APPLE FACE fits that pattern. It doesn’t explain itself. It doesn’t need to.

It just reflects the reality we’re already in.

APPLE FACE at Mriya Gallery in Tribeca ultimately doesn’t resolve the question—it sharpens it.

A reality where the surreal isn’t an escape.

It’s the baseline.