Read Me! Text in Art
December 9 – February 24
Opening reception, Saturday, December 8, 7-9 p.m.
Included in this exhibition are works by artists that picture words, letters or written text. Contemporary urban life is wrapped in language. From the negotiation of public space to the forms of our innermost thoughts, words shape the world. While theories of Western art have occasionally sent language to the sidelines of aesthetic pleasure, the vast history of art—from illuminated texts to silk rugs; from calligraphy to conceptual art—has held a central place for the well-wrought word. The artists assembled for this group exhibition wield words as content and form, making visual statements that can be nonsensical or serious, activist or frivolous, and sometimes all of these at once. Speaking through videos, drawings, paintings, collage, textiles, and photographs, these works ask the viewer to “Read Me.” Artists include Lisa Anne Auerbach, Andrea Bowers, Shannon Ebner, Dustin Ericksen, Charles Gaines, Alexandra Grant, Vishal Jugdeo, Glenn Ligon, Ken Lum, Lucas Michael, My Barbarian, Jack Pierson, Glynnis Reed, Guan Rong, Emily Roysdon, Lara Schnitger, Stephanie Taylor, and Mark Titchner. Malik Gaines, curator. On view in the Caldwell Gallery.