“I try to take a broader view of how power is threaded through culture and how we are to one another, how we adore or abhor one another, how we caress or kiss or slap one another. Those have been concerns of mine.” —Barbara Kruger
Pioneering multimedia artist Barbara Kruger (b. 1945 in Newark, NJ) has questioned structures of power in mass media, capitalism, politics, and gender since the 1970s. Her distinctive visual language—bold text paired with found imagery—was shaped by her early career in graphic design. Through her practice, Kruger asks us to consider not only what we consume, but how the images and messages that surround us shape our perceptions, beliefs, and relationships, offering a timely reflection on how power operates through the media we encounter every day.
This exhibition marks the ICA’s premiere of Untitled (No Comment) (2020), a recent addition to the ICA Collection. In this dynamic, nine-minute video installation, Kruger brings together text, audio, video, memes, and other imagery drawn from internet and social media culture. Shifting rapidly between images, video clips, and text, the work mimics the experience of endlessly scrolling through online content, dissolving any clear sense of beginning or end. At a moment defined by mass digital consumption, short-form video, algorithmic feeds, and increasingly polarized political and cultural discourse, Untitled (No Comment) responds to the urgency of our present moment.
