ICA Miami Sets Exhibitions for Art Basel Miami Beach
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) announced today that it will present a major solo exhibition dedicated to acclaimed video and performance artist Alex Bag during Art Basel Miami Beach 2015. On view in ICA Miami's Atrium Gallery, the show centers around one of Bag's key videos The Van (2001) and features a dramatic new site-specific installation created for the museum's current location in the landmark Moore Building in Miami's Design District. The exhibition will be on view concurrently with an exhibition dedicated to Shannon Ebner's photography, video, and sculpture in ICA's second floor galleries, including a new site-specific installation that transforms part of the gallery into a "black box." Curated by Deputy Director and Chief Curator Alex Gartenfeld, both exhibitions reflect the museum's ongoing commitment to providing a platform for the work of the most innovative and experimental artists practicing today.
On view beginning December 1, 2015, Alex Bag marks the first major U.S. presentation of the artist's work since 2009. Known for her satirical commentary on contemporary media culture, Bag appears under various guises as a character in many of her video works, offering social critique on such topics as fashion, television, advertising, and the art world. At ICA Miami The Van will be presented in the original customized Dodge vehicle where the video was performed and recorded, to be parked in the Atrium Gallery. Visitors will be able to sit in the leather and fake pink fur interior to view the film, which depicts Bag as three different fictional artists riding in a van with their gallerist and discussing the presentation of their work at an art fair.
Opening October 8, 2015, and on view concurrently with Alex Bag during Art Basel Miami Beach through January 17, 2016, Shannon Ebner includes a comprehensive presentation of photographs from the artist's ongoing series "Black Box Collision A," which isolates and documents the letter "A" from the vestiges of sign, advertisement, message, and other modes of visual communication. In response to the context of the Miami Design District, the exhibition highlights the artist's efforts to use her photography as an "anemic ad campaign," and also features artist books, sculpture, and a new video about the advertisements. As the first museum exhibition to survey Ebner's "Black Box Collision A" series, ICA Miami's presentation demonstrates the artist's efforts to build a catalogue of images, and to locate them at the intersection of the poetic, graphic, and photographic.
"The works of Alex Bag and Shannon Ebner advance contemporary media culture in ways that have only become more relevant to society over time. It is fascinating to see how they explore similar themes through vastly different methods and forms," said Alex Gartenfeld. "We look forward to showing the work of these groundbreaking artists side by side during Art Basel Miami Beach, and to debuting the new site-specific projects that they each have developed in response to their respective experiences in Miami."
About Alex Bag
Alex Bag has been a vanguard of video and performance art since the early 1990s. Major recent solo exhibitions have included the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The ?a?nia (Bathhouse) Centre for Contemporary Art, Gda?sk, Poland; Zaal de Unie, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; among others. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions at venues including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Centre d'art contemporain Saint-Geneve, Geneva; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; P.S. 1 Center for Contemporary Art, New York; and Pitti Immagine, Florence, Italy; among many others. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Alex Bag was born in New York in 1969 and lives in New Jersey. She received her BFA from Cooper Union.
About Shannon Ebner
Shannon Ebner is a photographer known for investigating the relationship between language and photography. Past solo exhibitions include Hammer Museum (2011), kaufmann repetto, Milan (2010) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City (2007). Selected group exhibitions include The Spectacular of Vernacular, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2011); the 6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010); Saints and Sinners, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham (2009); The 2008 Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2008); Learn to Read, Tate Modern, London (2007); Uncertain States of America: American Art in the 3rd Millennium, Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); The California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach (2006); The Plain of Heaven, Creative Time, New York (2005); and Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco. Shannon Ebner was born in Englewood, New Jersey in 1971 and lives and works in Los Angeles. She earned her BA from Bard College in 1993 and her MFA from Yale University in 2000 and she currently teaches at USC's Roski School of Fine Arts.
Exhibition Organization and Publication
Both Alex Bag and Shannon Ebner are organized by ICA Miami and curated by Deputy Director and Chief Curator Alex Gartenfeld. Shannon Ebner will be accompanied by a publication, due to be released in fall 2016. Designed by Julia Born, the catalogue features contributions from Alex Gartenfeld, Bruce Hainley, Laura Hoptman, and Eileen Myles.
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