Rashid Johnson, Plateaus (detail) (2014). Installation view, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France. Photo by Marc Domage.
The newly opened Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond, Virginia, presents two exhibitions featuring leading international contemporary artists. Provocations: Rashid Johnson and Hedges, Edges, Dirt explore socially and culturally specific issues in nuanced ways.
Provocations: Rashid Johnson
Now through July 7
To launch the ICA’s annual commission series Provocations, Rashid Johnson has created “Monument,” a large-scale work that responds to the soaring expanse of the ICA’s top-floor space. Johnson’s pyramid-like tower is activated by a weekly performance by musicians, poets, dj’s, yogis and others. Continuing motifs from recent projects, Johnson has filled the steel structure with a selection of plants, shea butter sculptures, books, textiles and video. “Monument” is his first project designed to spark collaboration with other artists, and his first major solo project in the American South.
Hedges, Edges, Dirt
Now through January 6
Hedges, Edges, Dirt presents new and recent work by Abbas Akhavan, Jonathas de Andrade, David Hartt, Julianne Swartz and Pascale Marthine Tayou. Each shows a single project or body of work that explores how we relate to our surroundings and to each other, when rooted in place or in transition. Through a range of approaches and perspectives, these artists ask: What does it mean to perceive ourselves and others as native or non-native, as welcome guests or invasive species? How do we navigate tangible and intangible boundaries? How do expressions of power, dominance and vulnerability permeate our experience?
The ICA is free and open to the public, Tuesday through Sunday. For information, visit icavcu.org/art/now.
