Jorge Pardo: House

The Museum of Contemporary Art presents the first comprehensive U.S. museum exhibition of Jorge Pardo. As Pardo's work generally assumes the form of recognizable objects such as furniture, stretched paintings, or habitable structures, he is often considered one of the leading artists to cross the boundaries of art, design, and architecture. Although many of these objects are fully functional as furniture or architecture, their function actually is more complex. Pardo investigates what constitutes an aesthetic experience. In particular, he speculates on what separates an art experience from an everyday experience, especially when the environment that he has created looks very similar to objects and spaces viewers encounter in their daily life.

Reassembling works for a mid-career survey provided challenges as Pardo created most of his work for installations at galleries, museums, or specific locations. His projects and groupings of works embodied a particular course of exploration and inquiry into the aesthetic experience that Pardo pursued at the time they were created. The gallery space or site established the framework that influenced the viewer's response. In most cases, these installations were dismantled after the exhibition and the individual objects were dispersed to collectors and museums. Some collectors use these works as functioning furniture. Other collectors and museums present these objects as art works to be looked at, but not touched.

As context plays an essential role in the presentation of his work, Pardo was invited to create a new context that would provide the conceptual framework for this exhibition. Jorge Pardo: House adopts the premise of a "home", which is at once familiar and in the museum context, disarming. By transforming the museum into a house and treating its galleries as rooms, Pardo's works could be reassembled according to their apparent use in the appropriate location. Pardo also designed the exhibition's floor plan, which provides no defined path through the exhibition and in certain areas opens up the vista into several spaces at once. The exhibition also extends beyond the museum itself to encompass site-specific projects around the world. These projects are presented as large-scale photomurals, which create a disorienting space for viewers and run through the gallery like a filmstrip.

Jorge Pardo: House is sponsored by U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, and Christie's.

The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and curated by Bonnie Clearwater. It also will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland in Fall 2008; other venues to be announced. An illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition.

Jorge Pardo: House