Art in America, Now

Art in America: Now is by far the most in-depth exhibition of American contemporary art to be presented in Shanghai. The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai enables an expanded display of photographic, video and painting installations that will feature 36 works from the most renowned American contemporary artists. Of those included are two site specific works that realize the uniqueness of MoCA's venue. Nam June Paik, a pioneer of new media art, is represented here with TV Garden (1974, 2007), whose installation bears a particularly strong resonance in MoCA's exhibition halls, which was converted from a botanical garden. This is the first occasion Paik, who passed away in early 2006, will be exhibited in China. San Francisco-based street artist Barry McGee will, likewise, create a site-specific work exclusively for MoCA's, conveying the vibrancy and boundary-crossing of contemporary American art. Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002) installation and Kara Walker's subversive silhouette environment that manipulate and generate symbolic orders old and new. Works by Glenn Ligon, Jack Pierson, Paul Pfeiffer, Adam Cvijanovic, and Kelley Walker engage in a similar kind of play with the language and signs of American culture. Roger Welch's Drive In: Second Feature (1983), with a full-size model of a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado fashioned from twigs, and Tom Sachs's Knoll Area (1996), a DIY ("Do-it-Yourself") rendering of modernist furniture out of telephone books, comprise an homage as well as send-up of forms of Americana. Tom Friedman's Big Step (2007) consists of a magnified Giacometti-esque figure made out of garbage bags. Art in America: Now presents diverse strategies in contemporary photography, from the critical documentary eyes of Laura McPhee, Tim Davis, and Miles Coolidge to the conceptual contrivances of Nikki S. Lee, Luis Gispert, and Charlie White and various claims on representation expressed in photographs by Justine Kurland, Katy Grannan, Anthony Lepore, and Sharon Core. Current trends in painting will be seen in works by Dana Schutz, Kristin Baker, Kehinde Wiley, Jules de Balincourt, and Barnaby Furnas. Jonathan Horowitz and Paul Chan represent a crop of artists engaging political content in works committed to social issues past and present, shown along with their elders Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, and Cady Noland. Erick Swenson's Ne Plus Ultra (2005), an enigmatic ersatz decomposing buck head, taps into the troubled imagination that fuels all of the works on view. Led by Director, Thomas Krens and Senior Curator, Susan Davidson both of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in addition to Elizabeth Kennedy, Curator of the Collection, Terra Foundation for American Art; and Nancy Mowll Mathews and Eugenie Prendergast Senior Curator of 19th-and 20th-Century Art, Williams College Museum of Art, Art in America: Now is an exhibition that explores the vibrancy and diversity of a young but rich culture that is anything but static. MoCA Shanghai provides an ideal location for an exhibition that creates a dialog amongst two distinct and dynamic cultures.

Curators: Susan Davidson Helen Hsu

Artists： Kara Walker Justine Kurland Erick Swenson Laura McPhee Dana Schutz Kehinde Wiley Luis Gispert Charlie White Paul Pfeiffer Nikki S. Lee Katy Grannan Anthony Lepore Sharon Core Nam June Paik Roger Welch Tom Sachs Tim Davis Miles Coolidge Adam Cvijanovic Kristin Baker Barnaby Furnas Tom Friedman Jack Pierson Barry McGee Felix Gonzalez-Torres Cady Noland Jules de Balincourt Glenn Ligon Paul Chan Jonathan Horowitz Kelley Walker David Hammons Matthew Barney

Art in America, Now
Kuratoren: Susan Davidson, Helen Hsu

mit Kara Walker, Justine Kurland, Erick Swenson, Laura McPhee, Dana Schutz, Kehinde Wiley, Luis Gispert, Charlie White, Paul Pfeiffer, Nikki S. Lee, Katy Grannan, Anthony Lepore, Sharon Core, Nam June Paik, Roger Welch, Tom Sachs, Tim Davis, Miles Coolidge, Adam Cvijanovic, Kristin Baker, Barnaby Furnas, Tom Friedman, Jack Pierson, Barry McGee, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Cady Noland, Jules de Balincourt, Glenn Ligon, Paul Chan, Jonathan Horowitz, Kelley Walker, David Hammons, Matthew Barney