Better Homes
April 22–July 22, 2013
SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, New York
Hours: Thursday–Monday 11am–6pm
T 718 361 1750
info [at] sculpture-center.org
Artists: Jonathas de Andrade, Neïl Beloufa, Keith Edmier, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Robert Gober, Tamar Guimarães, Anthea Hamilton, E’wao Kagoshima, Yuki Kimura, KwieKulik, Paulina Olowska, Kirsten Pieroth, Josephine Pryde, Carissa Rodriguez, Martha Rosler, and Güneş Terkol
Better Homes
Better Homes brings together a group of artists who examine the construction of the interior through design and homemaking from critical perspectives. As the notion of home shifted in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and interior space was being redefined and redecorated according to the aspirations of modernity, the interior became integral to the construction of the subject. Interiors were an extension of identity, representing gender, fashion, and class, and re-establishing what constituted the private and the public. Now, in the 21st century, interior design has been professionalized and packaged for the mass market. With the proliferation of department stores and publications instructing consumers on how to make the best dinners, living rooms, and lifestyles, how has the notion of domestic space, and all it encapsulates, been redefined in contemporary culture? What are the impacts of shifting ideas of family, identity, politics and consumerism in the private realm? Touching on the history of the interior to its present iterations, the artists in the exhibition examine displays of domesticity, as constructed through spaces and things.
Better Homes is curated by Ruba Katrib, SculptureCenter Curator. The exhibition is accompanied by a full color publication with a text by Katrib and a contribution by poet Ariana Reines.
Public programs:
SC Evenings: Better Homes Publication Launch
Wednesday, May 8, 6pm
SC Conversations: Craig Willse
Tuesday, May 21, 7pm
Craig Willse is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at George Mason University and lives in Washington, DC. He has recently edited the publication Beyond Biopolitics: Essays on the Governance of Life and Death (2011) and contributed to Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage (2010).
SC Conversations: Allison Arieff
Tuesday, June 18, 7pm
Allison Arieff is Content Strategist for the urban planning and policy think tank SPUR, and is a contributing columnist for The New York Times. Previously she was the editor in chief of Dwell magazine.
SC Conversations: Penny Sparke
Tuesday, July 2, 7pm
Penny Sparke is a Professor of Design History and a Pro Vice-Chancellor at Kingston University, London. Her books include The Modern Interior (2008) and Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Decoration (2005).
Better Homes is made possible in part with support from Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Japan Foundation, New York and SAHA, Istanbul.
About SculptureCenter
Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit arts institution in Long Island City, New York, dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture. SculptureCenter commissions new works and presents exhibitions by emerging and established national and international artists. Our programs identify new talent, explore the conceptual, aesthetic and material concerns of contemporary sculpture, and encourage independent vision.
SculptureCenter’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York State Council on the Arts; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Goldman Sachs; A G Foundation; the Ken and Judith Joy Family Foundation; the Kraus Family Foundation; the Lambent Foundation fund of the Tides Foundation; the Joan Mitchell Foundation; the New York Community Trust; the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the A. Woodner Fund; and contributions from our Board of Trustees and many generous individuals.
For media inquires, please contact:
Adam Abdalla / Andrea Walsh
Nadine Johnson & Associates
adam [at] nadinejohnson.com / andrea [at] nadinejohnson.com
T 212 228 5555
