To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood
October 6, 2022–February 26, 2023
Childhood, a subject of universal significance and personal experience, provides a compelling framework for understanding the past and imagining the future. To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood investigates the influence of children and childhood on visual artists from the early 20th century to today. Featuring 40 artists—including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Francis Alÿs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jordan Casteel, Paul Klee, Glenn Ligon, Oscar Murillo, Faith Ringgold, and Deborah Roberts—To Begin Again is comprised of over 75 artworks, including painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, and over 20 works made by young people. The six thematic sections of To Begin Again explore how artists have grappled with timely issues of self-expression, creativity, power, care, labor, and learning through their engagement with childhood. Using unique exhibition design and didactics and accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, the exhibition thoughtfully fosters intergenerational exchange and learning. Organized by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Senior Curator, with Jeffrey De Blois, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.
Barbara Kruger
November 3, 2022–January 21, 2024
For over 40 years, Barbara Kruger has been a critical observer of contemporary culture. In the early 1980s, Kruger perfected a signature style of words and images extracted from mass media and recomposed into memorable, graphic artworks. Kruger’s prodigious works have come to represent debates on women’s rights, identity, consumerism, and capitalism and have occupied a range of media and spaces. Since the 1990s, Kruger has also created large-scale installations of her text-based art. Continuing in this vein, Kruger premieres a brand-new work for the ICA that speaks to contemporary social and political dynamics. Organized by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Senior Curator.
Taylor Davis—Invisible Ground of Sympathy
ICA Collection
January 31, 2023–January 7, 2024
Invisible Ground of Sympathy is organized by Boston-based artist Taylor Davis, the first time an artist has been invited to curate an exhibition drawn primarily from the ICA’s permanent collection. In her artwork, Davis explores the relationship between object and viewer, often through precise manipulations of form. Considering themes of precarity, wonder, violence, and beauty, and situating the viewer at the center of the exhibition, Davis presents a personal take on the complexity of making sense of the present. Organized by Taylor Davis, guest curator, with Jeffrey De Blois, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.
María Berrío
February 13–August 6, 2023
New York–based artist María Berrío crafts her large-scale paintings through a unique, meticulous process of collaging torn pieces of Japanese paper with watercolor to create riveting, magical scenes. Spurred by contemporary social and political realities, the artist lists poetry, folklore, and the realms of magic as her sources of inspiration to imagine alternative views of present-day realities, especially those faced by migrants, women, and children. This exhibition will present a selection of new and existing works from Berrío’s series The Children’s Crusade, begun in 2022. Her new paintings continue her enduring interest in relations between humans and nature, depicting her child protagonists in commune, conflict, or uncertain relation with nature and animals. Organized by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Senior Curator.
