The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh is presenting the 2018 Carnegie International
THIS FALL, THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART in Pittsburgh is presenting work by a compelling slate of artists from around the world. The artist list for the 57th edition of the Carnegie International was announced this week and the 32 artists and collectives include Ghanaian-born El Anatsui, Kenyan photographer Mimi Cherono Ng’ok, British painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Tavares Strachan of the Bahamas, and American artists Kevin Jerome Everson, Leslie Hewitt, and Kerry James Marshall.
Curated by Pittsburgh-born Ingrid Schaffner, the latest edition of the Carnegie International opens Oct. 13 and is on view through March 25, 2019. Her vision encourages visitors to “explore what it means to be ‘international’ at this moment in time, and to experience museum joy.”
The biennial-style exhibition has a history of presenting innovative and thought-provoking contemporary art projects. Artists often debut new work, produce site-specific installations, and organize live performances. The diverse programming is exhibited within the museum and experienced throughout the city.
Schaffner has assembled an all-female team to organize the forthcoming exhibition. Liz Park is serving as associate curator and Schaffner enlisted curator colleagues to take research trips with her to identify the participating artists. They traveled in pairs visiting destinations that were new to each of them. Her “thinking companions” were Magalí Arriola, Doryun Chong, Ruba Katrib, Carin Kuoni, and Bisi Silva. An independent curator, Silva is the founder/director of the Center for Contemporary Art in Lagos, Nigeria. A diverse roster has emerged from their efforts.
Tavares Strachan is a fascinating figure who is increasingly placing science at the center of his practice. After collaborating with Space X for years, he is the first artist-in-residence at the Allen Institute, the biomedical research organization established by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
Take Strachan, for example. He is a fascinating figure who is increasingly placing science at the center of his practice. After collaborating with Space X for years (through a grant from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art + Technology Lab), he is the first artist-in-residence at the Allen Institute, the biomedical research organization established by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
A conceptual artist who works in a variety of mediums, Strachan splits his time between New York City and Nassau, Bahamas. He represented the Bahamas in his native nation’s inaugural pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale. At Prospect.3 New Orleans (2014), he installed a floating barge on the Mississippi River with a neon sign reading “You Belong Here.” His exhibition “Travares Strachan: Always, Sometimes, Never” is on view at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle through April 18.
From left, Exhibition maker Koyo Kouoh. | Courtesy of CMOA; and artist Travares Strachan. | Photo by Andy Romer
THE FIRST CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL was inaugurated in 1896, one year after the first Venice Biennial. The months-long international exhibition is the oldest in North America and the second oldest in the world. The Carnegie International now occurs every four to five years. Schaffner “is approaching the next International as an encompassing research project, one that looks to artists who inspire an outward look as well as to past Carnegie Internationals.”
Schaffner “is approaching the next International as an encompassing research project, one that looks to artists who inspire an outward look as well as to past Carnegie Internationals.”
Marshall participated in the exhibition two decades ago. The Chicago-based artist introduced his Rythm Mastr comic series at the 1999/2000 Carnegie International. In addition to works contributed by the 32 participating artists, a number of special projects are central to the programming.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, Koyo Kouoh is an independent exhibition maker and founder of RAW Material Company, a center for art, knowledge and society. She is presenting “Dig Where You Stand.” After mining the museum’s collection, Kouoh will mount an exhibition within an exhibition designed to “reflect on the institution, its history, and colonialism.”
The Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection includes an archive of more than 80,000 photographs by Charles “Teenie” Harris (1908–1998), an African American photographer who documented Pittsburgh’s black community, capturing the city’s political history, everyday experiences, and key cultural moments from about 1935-1975. The Harris images will be utilized in the exhibition to “map” Pittsburgh through photography.
The museum said more details about the artists’s projects will be available in June. Meanwhile, advanced programming is already underway. Tam O’Shanter has been hosting a series of drawing sessions with the public. One such session was inspired by Pittsburgh-based artist Thaddeus Mosley, 92, who is participating in the 2018 Carnegie International. He makes wood sculptures and his jazz playlist was the inspiration for one of the drawing sessions.
Mosley told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about his work and motivations. He said his “three biggest influences are American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, Brancusi and African tribal art. The shapes and patterns he makes with chisels, gouges and a mallet create visual tension and rhythm as he strives to convey feelings of weight and space.” CT
Here is the list of featured artists:
Yuji Agematsu
El Anatsui
Art Labor with Joan Jonas
Huma Bhabha
Mel Bochner
Mimi Cherono Ng’ok
Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin
Sarah Crowner
Alex Da Corte
Tacita Dean
Jeremy Deller
Kevin Jerome Everson
Han Kang and IM Heung–soon
Leslie Hewitt
Saba Innab
Karen Kilimnik
Zoe Leonard
Kerry James Marshall
Park McArthur
Josiah McElheny with John Corbett and Jim Dempsey
Ulrike Müller
Thaddeus Mosley
The Otolith Group
Postcommodity
Jessi Reaves
Abel Rodriguez
Rachel Rose
Beverly Semmes
Dayanita Singh
Lucy Skaer
Tavares Strachan
Lynette Yiadom–Boakye
The Carnegie International runs Oct. 18, 2018-March 25, 2019, at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
FIND MORE about Kerry James Marshall’s inauguration of Rythm Mastr at 1999/2000 Carnegie International on Culture Type
TOP IMAGE: Exterior, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. | Courtesy CMOA
