Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
winter exhibitions
ICA IS FREE FOR EVERYONE!*
Opening Reception · thurs jan 15 @ 6-8pm · free and open to the public
Exhibition Walkthroughs · thurs jan 15 @ 5pm · members only · join on-site
DIRT ON DELIGHT: IMPULSES THAT FORM CLAY
Through June 21, 2009
Walkthrough with curators Ingrid Schaffner and Jenelle Porter
"Dirt on Delight" presents significant work in clay by 22 artists spanning four generations: Ann Agee, Robert Arneson, Kathy Butterly, Nicole Cherubini, Lucio Fontana, Viola Frey, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jane Irish, Jeffry Mitchell, Ron Nagle, George Ohr, Ken Price, Sterling Ruby, Adrian Saxe, Beverly Semmes, Arlene Shechet, Rudolf Staffel, Paul Swenbeck, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Peter Voulkos, Beatrice Wood, and Betty Woodman. Ranging from modestly sized pots to large sculptures, these objects cross a spectrum of conventional delineations between fine art, craft, and outsider practices. Collectively they suggest that clay appeals to basic impulses, starting with the delight of building form, coupled with the anxiety of completion.
JOSHUA MOSLEY: dread
Through March 29, 2009
Walkthrough with artist Joshua Mosley and curator Jenelle Porter
Joshua Mosley named his most recent installation dread after photographer Eadweard Muybridge's motion study sequence of a dog titled "Dread" walking. Made over a two-year period, dread is composed of five bronze sculptures, and a six-minute, black-and-white, animated video that combines computer and stop-motion animation, as well as the artist's own music and dialogue. dread follows its protagonists, philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Blaise Pascal, on something of a nature walk. They encounter flora and fauna, and engage in conversation about existence, God, and nature; in the end, they encounter Dread.
TOUCH SENSITIVE: ANTHONY CAMPUZANO
Through March 29, 2009
Walkthrough with artist Anthony Campuzano and curator Kate Kraczon
Known for his use of found language, Philadelphia-based artist Anthony Campuzano activates texts from a variety of sources—newspaper headlines, Wikipedia entries, the covers of paperback novels, trivial cultural events, pop songs, common clichés—in drawings that couple intense color with the tangible presence of the artist's hand. Dubbing his practice "abstract journalism," Campuzano's work wavers between cynicism and celebration over the visual excesses of language. As sentences dip and dodge through his compositions, the act of reading alternately slows or quickens, sometimes lines are reread, sometimes skipped. Regardless of the route taken, the performance of the text becomes central.
ODILI DONALD ODITA: THIRD SPACE
Continues through December 6, 2009
Equally informed by television test band patterns, African textiles, Op art, and digital technology, Odili Donald Odita's vast multicolored wall paintings speak to a contemporary experience of dislocation and decenteredness. Third Space, a symphony of irregularly shaped, fractured planes in 115 shades of housepaint, takes full advantage of the Ramp's soaring, sloping architecture.
* Free admission to the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania for the public is sponsored by the Glenn R. Fuhrman (W87/WG88) Fund.
Visit online at www.icaphila.org