Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art Presents COME HERE ARCHITEKT, THE HIGHWAY MEN and More in 2013-14

Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art Presents COME HERE ARCHITEKT, THE HIGHWAY MEN, & More.

Come Here Architekt
October 4- November 16
Opening reception October 4, 6-11 p.m.

Simply put, Jan Ruhtenberg is the greatest architect of you've never heard about. His accomplishments are astonishing: an apprentice and colleague of Mies van der Rohe during his most significant projects; a close confidant of Philip Johnson who helped introduce modernism to America; a man who escaped Nazi Germany to design projects for Herman Miller, Greta Garbo, Nelson Rockefeller and the Swedish Royal Family.

However, as Jan approached the pinnacle of his profession, he was outed as a gay man in conservative 1950's America. Jan's commissions disappeared and he all but vanished from the history of modern architecture.

With two years in the making, this exhibition begins a process of reintroducing the world to one of its great architects and designers. Curated by Vess von Ruhtenberg and Jeremy Efroymson.

This exhibit is made possible by The Efroymson Family Fund and The Haddad Family Foundation.

All our programs and exhibitions are supported through grants from The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant), The Efroymson Family Fund, Halstead Architects, KEJ Foundation, the Indianapolis Foundation, The Tracy Haddad Foundation, The Netherleigh Fund, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, the Murphy Arts L.L.C., Penrod Foundation, and Big Car Art + Design.

Sweater and Short Shorts-Sitcoms

The fall always brings new the seasons of our favorite sitcoms. The sitcom over the decades has transformed America culturally, and in turn other cultures and countries have adopted them. To kick it off we are giving you a little sample of what happens to our sitcoms when they travel overseas, then back, and the pilot of an un-aired sitcom directed by Bob Odenkirk.

October 7th at Bluebeard, 653 Virginia Avenue, bring a blanket, perhaps a sweater and join us outdoors at 10 p.m. Admission is free.

The Pity Card- (Unaired TV Pilot featuring Zach Galifianakis)-Directed by Bob Odenkirk (USA, 12:29 min)

The Celebration, Husbands and Wives, The Office (BBC Version); are all sitcoms that Bob Odenkirk liked and tried to steal something from. "Having said that," says Odenkirk, "I just wanted to make some TV that I could watch without cringing, or feeling like I was being yelled at by the TV. The TV yells at me. It doesn't tell me to kill strangers or wash my hands over and over, it just yells "LOOK AT ME, I'M BEING FUNNY! AREN'T I?!!" And I usually yell back (in my head) "Nope, No, you're not."

Okusama Wa Majo (Bewitched in Tokoyo)- Re-subtitled by Daniel Handler, Dan Kennedy, Rich Bloomquist, Scott Jacobson, and Jason Reich (Malaysia 2004, 27 min)

My Wife's a Witch is the bluntly titled Japanese remake ofBewitched. The last surviving copy was sent to writers from The Daily Show for interpretive re-imagining of the subtitles. As always, no offense whatsoever is intended by the writers towards the actors, Japan, witches, lesbians, small persons or any other group.

Cheng Zhang De Fan Nao (Growing Pains) - Rutherford Chang (China/USA 2012, 24:15 min)
A reinterpretation of the iconic American sitcom Growing Painsthrough the voices of the post-80s Chinese generation who grew up watching the show, one of the very first Western programs aired on Chinese television

And watch squids being born.

December at iMOCA The Highwaymen and Toyin Odutola

The Highwaymen, also referred to as the Florida Highwaymen, are a group of 26 African American landscape artists in Florida. Self-taught and self-mentoring, they created a body of work of over 200,000 paintings, despite facing many racial and cultural barriers. Mostly from the Fort Piercearea, they painted landscapes and made a living selling them door-to-door to businesses and individuals throughout Florida from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. They also peddled their work from the trunks of their cars along the eastern coastal roads (A1A and US 1).

For over 50 years The Highwaymen created large numbers of relatively inexpensive landscape paintings using construction materials rather than traditional art supplies. As no galleries would accept their work, they sold them in towns and cities and along roadsides throughout Florida, often still wet, out of the trunks of their cars. Their success and longevity is remarkable considering they began their career in the racially unsettled and violent times of the 50s in Florida and amid the social conditions of the Jim Crow South where the stirrings of the civil rights movement were only just beginning. They have been called "The Last Great American Art Movement of the 20th century".

Text Turned To Flesh,Toyin Odutola

The work of 28-year-old Nigerian-born artist Toyin Odutola may literally be black portraiture with ballpoint pen ink, but speaking figuratively, her work speaks volumes. Addressing issues of identity, race, and nationhood, her art resonates strongly with her audiences.

Since graduating from CCA, Odutola has had two solo shows at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, and was featured as one of Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" art and design stars.

The talented and down-to-earth artist credits much of her success to friend and mentor, Hank Willis Thomas.

For many artists, heritage and identity are always (at least) subconsciously present in their work, but for Odutola, it's a guiding force.

The artist's most recent work, exhibited in My Country Has No Name at Jack Shainman Gallery (May 16 to June 29, 2013), directly addressed issues of heritage and identity.

"Inquiries began on the subject of what I considered myself," explains Odutola. She posted about the experience on her Tumblr blog: "An African American artist? A Nigerian artist? An African Woman artist? These questions followed with how I saw the subjects I portrayed: Why I portrayed them specifically? What that meant? And so forth."

Coming soon
10.04.13 > Come Here Architekt: Jan Ruhtenberg
10.04.13 > Garfield Park Arts Center at the Project Gallery
10.07.13 > Sweaters and Short Shorts: Sitcoms at Bluebeard at 10 p.m.
10.26/27.13 > Jean Rollin Film Fest
11.08.13 > Contemporary Arts Party at the Eiteljorg Museum/$15
12.06.13 > The Highwaymen
02.07.14 > The Empire Never Ended