Toward the Light

Doron Langberg (detail)

Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center
Organized with Stephen Truax
October 28 – November 1, 2025

David Zwirner
519 West 19th Street, New York

David Zwirner is pleased to present Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center, a group exhibition to benefit the Ali Forney Center, organized in collaboration with Stephen Truax. 

The exhibition will open on Tuesday, October 28, with a reception from 6 to 8 PM celebrating the artists and the organization, and will remain on view through Saturday, November 1, at David Zwirner’s 519 West 19th Street location.

Toward the Light will raise vital funds to support the Ali Forney Center’s mission to protect LGBTQ+ youth from homelessness in New York City. The exhibition will feature new and recent works by leading contemporary artists, including Marina Adams, Dike Blair, Ross Bleckner, Matt Bollinger, Katherine Bradford, Joe Bradley, Andrew Brischler, Anthony Cudahy, Marlene Dumas, Marcel Dzama, Suzan Frecon, Brett Goodroad, Jake Grewal, Jenna Gribbon, Jim Hodges, Jenny Holzer, Scott Kahn, Field Kallop, Doron Langberg, Julie Mehretu, Ken Gun Min, Sean Nash, Brandon Ndife, Liz Nielsen, Ludovic Nkoth, Marco Pariani, Nicolas Party, Julia Rommel, Ilana Savdie, Sean Scully, Peter Shear, Arlene Shechet, Laurie Simmons, Ryan Sullivan, Wolfgang Tillmans, James Welling, and Stanley Whitney, among others.

Founded in 2002 in memory of Ali Forney—a gender-nonconforming youth who was rejected by their family, lived on the streets of New York City, and was tragically murdered in 1997—the Ali Forney Center is now the nation’s largest provider of services to LGBTQ+ young people experiencing homelessness. Each year, the Center provides housing, meals, and life-saving support to more than 2,200 youth. With a waiting list already exceeding 200 people, the organization anticipates a 20% increase in demand for services this year, even as it faces the potential loss of significant government funding. Benefit initiatives like Toward the Light are therefore more essential than ever to protect the city’s most vulnerable queer and transgender youth.

This exhibition marks the third annual fundraiser for the Ali Forney Center. In 2023, the artist Doron Langberg organized a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s, inviting friends including Hernan Bas, Felipe Baeza, Anthony Cudahy, Nash Glynn, Jenna Gribbon, and Salman Toor to contribute works alongside their own. In 2024, Langberg entrusted the organization of the sale to Stephen Truax, who assembled works by Katherine Bradford, Chris Martin, Justin Liam O’Brien, Ilana Savdie, Salman Toor, and Langberg.

The exhibition title is taken from the following excerpt of the 1946 poem, “The Fish,” by Elizabeth Bishop: