BETTER HOMES to Celebrate Opening at SculptureCenter, 4/21

BETTER HOMES will celebrate its opening reception at SculptureCenter on Sunday, April 21, from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition runs April 22 through July 22, 2013.

Better Homes features the work of: 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 Güne? Terkol.

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.

Upcoming Public Programs:

SC Evenings: Better Homes Publication Launch
Wednesday, May 8, 6pm

The exhibition Better Homes is accompanied by a full color publication with a text by Ruba Katrib, SculptureCenter Curator and a contribution by poet Ariana Reines.

Austin House Visit
Saturday, May 18, 11AM-5PM

Join us on a guided tour of the Austin House, former home of Arthur Everett "Chick" Austin, an early exponent of modern art in the United States and Director of the Wadsworth Museum from 1927 to 1944.

The group will meet at SculptureCenter where Curator, Ruba Katrib will lead a walkthrough of Better Homes prior to the departure.

Transportation to and from the museum as well as lunch in downtown Hartford are included. General admission tickets are $175; Member tickets are $145. You may purchase tickets on our website.

SC Conversations: Craig Willse
Tuesday, May 21, 7pm

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

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).

SculptureCenter is located at 44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City, New York. Call 718.361.1750 or visit www.sculpture-center.org for more information.

Artwork: Tamar Guimarães, Canoas, 2010 (video still). Courtesy the artist and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo.