Press release

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of the Infinite
June 22 – Oct. 14, 2012
This June, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston presents the first museum survey of Josiah McElheny. McElheny uses the ancient and labor intensive medium of glass to create objects of exceptional beauty and formal sophistication. An artist of diverse interests, McElheny draws on art history, politics, and astronomy to encode his glassworks with information, turning these exquisite objects into repositories of meaning. A mid-career survey of the artist’s work, Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of the Infinite traces the artist’s investigations into the representation of time and space, and in particular, the concept of infinity. McElheny’s interest in this subject can be seen in early works that deal with the problem of how to represent archeological time––using glass shards and fragments––up through his most recent explorations of the Big Bang and astronomical time. Organized by Helen Molesworth, the Barbara Lee Chief Curator of the ICA, Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of the Infinite features 21 works, including sculpture, installation, film, photography, performance and a new large-scale work which will make its debut at the museum.

Os Gêmeos
Aug. 1 – Nov. 25, 2012
The ICA presents the first solo U.S. exhibition of Brazilian street artists Os Gêmeos. Born Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, Os Gêmeos are identical twin brothers whose pseudonym translates to "the twins" in Portuguese. They first came to public attention with large-scale works created on the streets of their native São Paulo, a city whose social dynamics and vast urban landscape greatly influences their work. The ICA exhibition will include a selection of the artists’ paintings and sculptures, as well as a public mural outside the museum.  

Dianna Molzan
Aug. 1–Nov. 25, 2012
Dianna Molzan’s vibrant paintings alter our expectations of what painting can be. In her work, the very materials of painting—paint, canvas, and wooden stretcher bars—are dismantled and cast into relief. A painting’s canvas may be cut and turned into a woven grid, extend into space with sewn shapes, or gently unraveled into a soft web of draping lines. The history of painting threads through her work in color choices, the application of paint, and shaped canvas, though myriad visual influences are also invoked—from art pottery, Art Deco, Italian 1980s Memphis design, and the Arts and Crafts movement to Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell and Richard Tuttle. For her first solo museum show in Boston, Molzan will create an ensemble of all new works. Dianna Molzan is organized by ICA Senior Curator Jenelle Porter.

This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s
Nov. 16, 2012 – March 3, 2013
The art produced during the 1980s veered between radical and conservative, capricious and political, socially engaged and art historically aware. This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s provides viewers with an overview of the artistic production of these heady days, as well as impart the decade’s sense of political and aesthetic urgency by placing many of the decade’s competing factions in close proximity to one another. The exhibition is divided into four sections: “The End is Near” toggles between discourses of the end of painting, the end of the counter culture, and the end of history. In the “Democracy” section we see a renewed interest on the part of artists with working in the street, the burgeoning awareness of the importance of the mass media (particularly television) the rise of Central American artists and artists of color to increasing prominence, and the pervasive commitment to the political that shaped the period. The section titled “Gender Trouble” elaborates upon the implications of the 1970s feminist movement with work that expanded our sense of societal gender roles, and smuggled in new ideas about sexuality and figuration. Finally, there is a section called “Desire and Longing” in which artists working with appropriation techniques are presented in relation to the emergence of queer visibility brought on by the AIDS crisis. By crossing these wires the exhibition hopes to suggest that despite the claims of cynicism or overarching irony sometimes leveled at the work of this period, often what we find are artists struggling to articulate their wants, needs, and desires, in an increasingly commodified and seemingly impenetrable world. Organized by MCA Chicago, This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s is curated by Helen Molesworth, chief curator at the ICA.

Barry McGee
March 1 – May 19, 2013
This midcareer survey of influential San Francisco–based artist Barry McGee provides an opportunity to explore two decades of the artist’s formal and thematic development. McGee began sharing his work in the 1980s, not in a museum or gallery setting but on the streets of San Francisco, where he developed his skills as a graffiti artist, often using the tag name “Twist.” McGee uses a vocabulary drawn from comics, hobo art, sign painting, and graffiti to address a range of issues, from individual survival to social malaise to alternative forms of community. McGee’s extraordinary skill as a draughtsman and printmaker is balanced by an interest in pushing the boundaries of art: his work can be shockingly informal in the gallery and surprisingly elegant on the street. This chronological survey of McGee’s work from the 1990s to the present includes rarely seen early works on paper; reassembled works from key installations; a tower of video pieces; a massive three-dimensional cluster of drawings, paintings, and photographs; as well as other recent works. Coordinated for the ICA by ICA Senior Curator Jenelle Porter, Barry McGee is organized by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Image captions (from top to bottom):  Josiah McElheny, Czech Modernism Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely, 2005, Mirrored glass case with hand blown mirrored glass objects, 18 ½ x 56 ½ x 30 ½ inches (47 x 143.5 x 77.5 cm), Purchased through funds provided by Bridgitt and Bruce Evans, Kimberly and James Pallotta, Beth and Anthony Terrana, and Nancy B. Tieken in honor of Jill Medvedow, Courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.

About the ICA
An influential forum for multi-disciplinary arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art has been at the leading edge of art in Boston for 75 years. Like its iconic building on Boston's waterfront, the ICA offers new ways of engaging with the world around us. Its exhibitions and programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas.  The ICA, located at 100 Northern Avenue, is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 am - 5 pm; Thursday and Friday, 10 am - 9 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10 am - 5 pm.  Admission is $15 adults, $13 seniors and $10 students, and free for members and children 17 and under. ICA Free Admission for Youth is sponsored by State Street Corporation. Free admission on ICA Free Thursday Nights, 5 - 9 pm. Free admission for families at ICA Play Dates (2 adults + children 12 and under) on last Saturday of the month. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our Web site at www.icaboston.org.