Dates:
Location:
Center Gallery, Focus GallerySelected Works
Western Pass, 1990, oil with silverleaf on wood, ceramics on canvas by Hung Liu, American, born China, 1948–2021. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.53. Courtesy Nancy Hoffman Gallery.
Untitled, 1992 (detail), paper on altered book with polished pebbles in a lacquered birch and glass case, by Ann Hamilton, American, born 1956. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, archival collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. 2018.10.139. Courtesy of Ann Hamilton Studio.
Loves Me, Loves Me Not, 1997, wool carpet and brass “petals” on jute backing by Yukinori Yanagi, Japanese, born 1959. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation, 2018.10.430. ©️ YANAGI STUDIO
Quotation from Chairman Mao, 2001. Chinese ink calligraphy on paper by Xu Bing, Chinese, born 1955. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, with a grant from the Freeman Foundation Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative, 2006.10.1. ©Xu Bing Studio
This is a poetic statement. Identify theelements that construct the poem. From the series "The Assignment Books,” 2011, by Luis Camnitzer. Born 1931. Brass plaque with mixed media. Dimensions variable. Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © 2022 Luis Camnitzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The Anthropophagic Effect, Garment no.3, 2019, mixed media with cotton, brass grommets, nylon thread, artificial sinew, dried pear gourds, glass and plastic beads, nylon ribbon on canvas, by Jeffrey Gibson, American, born 1972. ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.63. © Jeffrey Gibson
About
This exhibition examines the critical and creative functions of language in global contemporary art from the 1980s to the present. While language has been fundamental to art-making and human expression from antiquity to the present, its ability to unpack meaning, challenge conventions, and explore hybrid identities is now more relevant than ever. Drawing on the Museum’s permanent collection and highlighting several recent acquisitions, the exhibition provides vibrant examples for how the use of language is embedded in art and its encounter. Turn of Phrase emphasizes language’s capacity for innovation, intervention, and disruption in rewriting artistic landscapes of the past four decades.
The exhibition was made possible by the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund and the Sylvia E. Ross Fund for the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College Museum of Art.
Read the exhibition object labels here.
Read the press release here.
Press
,” Art New England, May 2023
,” Portland Press Herald, March 26, 2023
,” ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Orient, February 3, 2023
artdaily.com, December 15, 2022