Picture Thing

Image (thumbnail and above): Anouk Kruithof, Façade, 2014, inkjet prints, plexiglass, polystyrene, cellophane foil, bricks, 55.5 x 43.3 x 39.4 inches, courtesy of the artist and Boetzelaer | Nispen.


Opening Reception: Picture/Thing

Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 5:00pm
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Main Gallery

FREE!

Curated by Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky and Professor of Art Jeffrey Schiff.

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 29, 2015 from 5pm to 6:30pm; Talk by the curators, plus artists Kendall Baker and Jon Kessler, at 5:30pm.

Picture/Thing presents ten artists—Kendall Baker, Isidro Blasco, Rachel Harrison '89, Leslie Hewitt, Jon Kessler, Anouk Kruithof, Marlo Pascual, Mariah Robertson, Erin Shirreff, and Letha Wilson—who make hybrid objects that challenge the limits of photography and sculpture at a time when the definitions of the two media continue to evolve. These artists take varying approaches to material, technology, and presentation, expanding and redrawing the traditional perimeters of both. Defying photography’s specificity as a “window onto the world,” some prioritize the materiality of the photograph over the actual image, while others migrate the graphic flatness of the photograph into the full dimensionality of the sculptural realm. Undoubtedly a response to the immateriality and infinite reproducibility of digital technology, the surveyed works insist on both the physical presence and uniqueness associated with sculpture, and the indexical relationship to the physical world exemplified by photography, resulting in a new formulation: a picture/thing.

CFA Arts Administration Intern Chloe Jones ’15 talks with Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky about the Picture/Thing exhibition on the Center for the Arts blog here.

On display from Thursday, January 29 through Sunday, March 1, 2015.

Gallery open Tuesday through Sunday from Noon to 5pm.

Picture/Thing is organized by Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts with support from the Department of Art and Art History and the Office of Academic Affairs.

Image (homepage): Rachel Harrison, AA, 2010, wood, bubble wrap, cardboard, acrylic, tennis shirt, A/V cart, DVD player, speakers, projector, extension cord, five hair rollers, pack of gum, ear plugs, American Apparel video, color/sound (2009), 80 x 70 x 70 inches, Video 18:00 mins (looped), courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York.