9 Artists
October 24, 2013–February 16, 2014
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403
T +1 612 375 7600
The Walker Art Center presents 9 Artists, an international, multigenerational group exhibition that considers the changing role of the artist in contemporary culture. Bringing together the expansive practices of some of the most provocative and engaged artists working today—Yael Bartana, Liam Gillick, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Renzo Martens, Bjarne Melgaard, Nástio Mosquito, Hito Steyerl, and Danh Vo—the show examines ways that they negotiate the complicities and contradictions of living in an ever more complex and networked world.
Rarely considered together, they each use their own backgrounds or identities as material, frequently in antagonistic or subversive ways. Featuring some 40 works, both past and new, 9 Artists includes a range of sculpture, drawing, installation, video, and ephemera.
The accompanying catalog, designed by the Walker’s award-winning design studio and available at the Walker Shop, places artists contributions in the context of broader contemporary practice. Each artist has a 16-page section exploring some aspect of their work, and often produced in collaboration with other artists, writers and designers, such as Karl Holmqvist, Phùng Vo, Galit Eilat, Vic Pereiró, Brendan Dugan of An Art Service, and Federica Bueti. The contributions are accompanied by a 32-page compendium of works, and the curator’s essay, which considers the artists’ various approaches.
9 Artists is curated by Bartholomew Ryan, Assistant Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center. Following the Walker’s presentation, the show will travel to MIT List Visual Arts Center.
Related events/live webcasts
A robust series of events surrounds the opening, including:
–A lecture on gentrification (Renzo Martens and the Institute for Human Activities)—live webcast
–A dedication of Tombstone for Phùng Vo (2010), a work in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (singer Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu and Danh Vo)—live webcast
–A conversation with Natascha Sadr Haghighian
–A dialogue between two of contemporary art’s preeminent artists who write (Liam Gillick and Hito Steyerl)—live webcast
–New performance projects by Nástio Mosquito and Natascha Sadr Haghighian
–A conversation on the problem of intimacy (Bjarne Melgaard)
Details here.
Acknowledgements
9 Artists is organized by the Walker Art Center.
Major support for the exhibition is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is generously provided by Lisa and Pat Denzer and Audrey and Zygi Wilf.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of Walker Art Center publications. Additional support is provided by Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Galerie Buchholz, and Marian Goodman Gallery.
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