The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston

10/27/2023

How do we understand the Caribbean and the traces of complex histories that remain?

María Magdalena Campos-Pons combines Yoruba spears, Chinese and African stools, and discs of sugar in varying stages of refinement to create a field of spears, calling back to sugar cane plantations that relied on the labor of enslaved people of African descent and later Chinese indentured servants in Cuba. The different tones of the sugar refer to the stratified racial categorizations that demarcate Cuban society.

See "Sugar/Bittersweet" on view now in "Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today" at the ICA! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/ofLhbBA

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Sugar/Bittersweet, 2010. Installation view, Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

10/26/2023

Celebrate the Day of the Dead with our community partner VROCC and the ICA in East Boston this Sunday! Check out a presentation of altars created by local artists and community members at the ICA Watershed, enjoy a parade to Central Square Park, and dance to live music and entertainment at the festival!

Get details → https://loom.ly/UChdP7c

10/25/2023

Big news: ICA director Jill Medvedow will step down in December 2024, after 25 years of groundbreaking leadership. Jill has transformed the ICA into an anchor institution in Boston, and one of the leading centers for artistic experimentation and contemporary culture in the country. Working with staff, artists, teachers, students, and community partners, she has integrated new art and ideas into the heart of our communities, bridged the connection between contemporary art and civic life, and in doing so, forever changed the landscape for contemporary art and culture in the city of Boston.

We look forward to celebrating her vision over the coming year through the museum’s exhibitions, performances, events, and programs.

Photo by Liza Voll

10/24/2023

“In order to tell the truth, you need to invent what might be missing from the archive, to collapse time, to concern yourself with issues of scale, to formally move things around in a way that reveals something more true than fact.” –Simone Leigh

Look back on our breathtaking “Simone Leigh” exhibition (opening soon at the Hirshhorn!) by bringing home the catalogue, available at the ICA Store! Keep reading about it in Colossal → https://loom.ly/L9FIF9U

Spanning two decades of work, the 372-page book accompanies Leigh's first major museum survey and the 2022 Venice Biennale.

10/23/2023

We’ve got you covered this year for Halloweekend plans! From an unforgettable Halloween Ball to spooky short films to spooktacular events for all ages, you won’t have to wonder what you’re doing this weekend!

Check out our full list of haunted happenings → https://loom.ly/9ho-Fco

Photo by Ally Schmaling

10/20/2023

Calling all teens! Be here AND be scared! Next week, come out for a frightful Friday night where teens take over the museum! Enjoy art making, performances, a dance party, and more!

Get free tickets → https://loom.ly/0Vg1xEY

Photo by Lauren Miller

10/19/2023

Things are getting inch-resting in our galleries! In this 1971 rope sculpture “Inchworm,” fiber artist Francoise Grossen explores the weight of rope and its relationship to gravity, taking inspiration from natural forms.

Contemplate "Inchworm," which artist and curator Taylor Davis also likens to a body, in “Taylor Davis Selects: Invisible Ground of Sympathy,” now on view! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/DNR9mAU

Françoise Grossen, Inchworm, 1971. Industrial cotton piping cord, approximately 2 x 20 x 13 feet (61 x 609.8 x 396.3 cm). Gift of the artist, in honor of Jenelle Porter. Photo by Charles Mayer Photography. © Françoise Grossen

10/18/2023

"I'm always thinking about tension. How do you take the palette of a sunset and sour it just a little?" — Tammy Nguyen

Hear more from the artist, whose stunning solo exhibition is on view right now in our galleries, in The Art Newspaper → https://loom.ly/X5ALBGQ

Tammy Nguyen discusses her exhibition at ICA Boston, which takes on the legacy of transcendentalism through the lens of the Vietnam War

10/17/2023

Want more insight into our newest exhibition “Forecast Form”? Drop in for our first guided tour this Sunday! Challenge your perspectives on the Caribbean, and deepen your understanding of the exhibition through guided close looking and discussion.

Catch free guided tours on select Sunday afternoons throughout the run of the exhibition. Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/2QdNLoo

Photo by Meg Elkinton

10/16/2023

Can you be-leaf it? 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize artist Venetia Dale casts domestic objects out of pewter, paying homage to fragments of daily life. Created as a response to pandemic-induced stress and isolation within households, “Thresholds of Care: kitchen windows (sisters)” poignantly presents overlapping windows of foliage cast from Dale and her sister’s live and dead houseplants — using declining houseplants as a signal for disruptions of care within the domestic sphere.

Take a closer look! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/f7TRwO0

Venetia Dale, Thresholds of Care: kitchen windows (sisters), 2023. Installation view, 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

10/15/2023

Have you seen our newest exhibition "Forecast Form" yet? Don't miss this “provocative and engaging visual experience”! (The Boston Globe)

Read the full review → https://loom.ly/5_SMfgc

An exhibition of contemporary Caribbean art offers glimpses into the region’s complexities.

10/14/2023

Happy Birthday to Cicely Carew, one of our 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize artists! A multidisciplinary artist, Carew’s vibrant work embraces radical joy and liberation. We wish your birthday is as bright and jubilant as your artwork!

See her work now on view at the ICA → https://loom.ly/f7TRwO0

Photo by Meg Elkinton

10/13/2023

Calling all teen fashionistas! Next week, join the Teen Exhibitions Program for a night celebrating style, in collaboration with Boston Caribbean Fashion Week. Check out workshops led by fashion professionals, create your own upcycled looks, and connect with experts working in all things beauty, culture, fashion, and style.

Walk, walk, fashion, baby! Get free tickets → https://loom.ly/jJZ13T0

Photo by Lauren Miller

10/11/2023

Happy National Coming Out Day! On this day, we celebrate having the power and privilege of being our most authentic selves.

For her 1994 collection “Tokyo Love”, Nan Goldin documents the lives of young people in Tokyo, celebrating her subjects’ fluid sexuality and gender identities during a period of government censorship. “Noa Dressing for the Venus Show at Sh**un Club” portrays two performers backstage helping each other into their ensembles, highlighting the q***r kinship and care between them in this simple yet tender interaction.

See this work, now on view in our third floor lobby! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/J_9DdXA

Nan Goldin, Noa Dressing for the Venus Show at Sh**un Club, Tokyo, 1994. Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome), 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm). Gift of Joan Sonnabend. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery. Photo by Charles Mayer Photography. © 2016 Nan Goldin

10/10/2023

How do Ralph Waldo Emerson and South Vietnam’s first president intersect? Tammy Nguyen brings them together to explore how political power interplays with Romantic notions of landscape, depicting former president Ngô Đình Diệm speaking with an unidentified U.S. politician. Their bodies collapse into craggy mountains and are engulfed by wild foliage and animals, reiterating the ideas of landscape and political power as fundamentally interrelated.

Take a closer look in person! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/6V1V56I

Tammy Nguyen, Ngô Đình Diệm, 2023. Watercolor, vinyl paint, ink, screen printing ink, pastel, and metal leaf on paper stretched over panel. 100 x 60 inches (254 x 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. Photo by Dan Bradica. © Tammy Nguyen

10/08/2023

In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, the ICA is offering free admission to all tomorrow! Get a first look at our newest exhibition "Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s—Today," and make shadow puppets with us in our Art Lab.

Advanced tickets are required and available now! Get tickets → https://loom.ly/g1Q4GwQ

Photo by Lauren Miller

10/06/2023

Next week, see the highly anticipated collaboration between soulful musician serpentwithfeet, MacArthur “genius” Wu Tsang, and evocative choreographer Raja Feather Kelly. “Heart of Brick” tenderly explores love and belonging within Q***r Black nightlife through electronic music and dance.

Get tickets → https://loom.ly/rwIszjg

Photo by Fabian Hammerl

10/05/2023

Now open! 🤩 Be among the first to see our new exhibition “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today.” Presenting work from 28 different artists, “Forecast Form” explores the Caribbean diaspora and its constant negotiation of identities and cultures — challenging conventional stereotypes of the region and seeking to redefine what it means to be Caribbean.

Celebrate the exhibition with us! Come out tonight for free DJ sets, spotlight talks, and dance lessons → https://loom.ly/MBU2BKs

Installation view, Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

10/04/2023

Congratulations to María Magdalena Campos-Pons for being named a 2023 MacArthur “genius” Fellow! We are honored to have her work in our collection (pictured) and in our galleries in “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today,” opening tomorrow!

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Classic Creole, 2003. Polaroid Polacolor Pro prints, nine parts, each 24 × 20 inches each (60.7 × 50.8 cm). Acquired through the generosity of Jodi and Hal Hess. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco. © María Magdalena Campos-Pons

10/03/2023

Trick or treat yourself to Boston’s most haunted happening this Halloweekend at the ICA! Hosted by legendary drag artist SAINT, the ICA’s Halloween Ball promises an unforgettable night(mare) at the museum full of dance, music, and performances.

Tickets are now available! Reserve your spot → https://loom.ly/2HQkqvc

Photo by Ally Schmaling

10/02/2023

Congratulations to Jill Medvedow! This past weekend, the ICA's Ellen Matilda Poss Director was inducted as a 2022 member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences!

World leaders in the arts and sciences, business, philanthropy, and public affairs, academy members explore challenges facing society, identify solutions, and promote nonpartisan recommendations that advance the public good. Explore the class of 2022--> https://loom.ly/_4UdL9I

10/02/2023

In "Shot Heard ‘Round the World," a newly produced panoramic, four-panel painting, Tammy Nguyen juxtaposes scenes of the US-backed land-reform program in South Vietnam with militiamen from the American Revolution. Unified by the (literal) common ground of American ideals of liberation, these two contrasting settings examine Romantic idealism clashing with histories of imperialism and intervention and how they intersect with conceptions of land and nature.

Explore these rich details up close. Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/6V1V56I

Tammy Nguyen, Shot Heard ‘Round the World, 2023. Installation view, Tammy Nguyen, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

09/29/2023

Are you too hot to handle or too cool for school? Heat up the dance floor next week at First Fridays: Fire + Ice with dueling DJ sets from DJ Evaredy and Bobby Bangers, or keep it cool with friendly icebreakers, multi-faceted clay creations, and contemporary art!

Tickets are going fast! Reserve your spot → https://loom.ly/eEPpE8g

Photo by George Annan

09/28/2023

Opening in one week! “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today” presents work from 28 artists with cultural or geographical ties to the Caribbean region. Challenging conventional tropes about the region, “Forecast Form” reveals new ways of understanding the Caribbean as a place defined not by geography, language, or ethnicity, but by constant exchange, displacement, and movement.

Learn more → https://loom.ly/5VE8-fs

Teresita Fernández, Manigua (Mirror), 2023. Solid charcoal, black sand, and mixed media on aluminum panel. 91 × 225 × 2 inches (231.1 × 571.5 × 5.1 cm). Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. Photo by Daniel Kukla. © Teresita Fernández

09/27/2023

This is your last chance to revisit our enchanting exhibition “María Berrío: The Children’s Crusade” virtually! Relive the magic of her large-scale watercolor collages from your screen on Vortic Art.

This virtual exhibition closes tomorrow! Check it out → https://loom.ly/PQdmwys

09/26/2023

What's behind the artwork? Hear 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize artists Cicely Carew, Venetia Dale, and Yu-Wen Wu speak about art and life in Boston as visual artists in a FREE public conversation this Thursday.

The first 10 people in line receive a free copy of "100 Years of Creativity" courtesy of Phaidon.com.

Tickets are free and available now, first-come first-served! Reserve your spot → https://loom.ly/HANk_4I

Photo by Tyler Noctyrn, Adam Krauth, Edward Boches

09/25/2023

Next Saturday, make way for Rabbit! Bring your family to Play Date, and meet artist and author Jo Ham, decorate your own Rabbit print, pick up exclusive HAM X ICA collaborations, enjoy interactive musical storytelling, and more! Be hare or be square!

Families visit for free! Reserve your spot → https://loom.ly/4JjvRzw

09/24/2023

Explore Tammy Nguyen’s “dizzyingly bottomless” and “enrapturingly beautiful” works at her solo exhibition at the ICA, now on view!

Read the full feature from The Boston Globe → https://loom.ly/EE7w3kU

The Connecticut artist’s first solo exhibition, at the ICA, explores the frictions of past and present.

09/22/2023

Fall arrives tomorrow! Are you ready?

Artist Tammy Nguyen depicts Demeter, the Ancient Greek goddess of agriculture, growth, and harvest, emerging from a mountainous peak, entwined with the earth. An important figure throughout Greco-Roman belief systems, Demeter serves to represent the autumnal season, further underscoring Nguyen’s exploration of Romantic writer Ralph Waldo Emerson’s pantheistic ideas that God is reflected throughout nature.

Explore these rich details up close. Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/6V1V56I

Tammy Nguyen, Demeter, the Goddess of Harvest (detail), 2023. Watercolor, vinyl paint, ink, screen printing ink, pastel, and metal leaf on paper stretched over panel. 100 x 60 inches (254 x 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. Photo by Dan Bradica. © Tammy Nguyen

09/20/2023

Reveal your allegiances between fire and ice next month at First Fridays! (Ice)block out your calendars for this elemental extravaganza on October 6, and come decked out in fiery reds or an ice-cold ‘fit!

Tickets are now available and will go fast. Reserve your spot → https://loom.ly/eEPpE8g

Photo by George Annan

09/19/2023

ICA Foster Prize artist Venetia Dale creates sculptures that record everyday moments of domesticity, marrying pewter casting and fiberwork within her practice. She preserves fragments of daily life — including leftovers from her children’s meals and her sister’s wilting houseplants — and joins together unfinished found rugs and embroideries, recording lineages of caretaking, family, and the passage of time.

Explore her work up close in our "2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize" exhibition, now on view! Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/f7TRwO0

Venetia Dale, Venetia Dale, 2023–24. Installation view, 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

09/18/2023

Join us in wishing a happy birthday to the visionary artist Senga Nengudi! Known for her iconic anthropomorphic nylon mesh sculptures and installations, Nengudi stretches and manipulates the material, relating it to the elasticity and form of the human body.

“R.S.V.P. Reverie—‘B’ Suite” is on view at the ICA as part of “Taylor Davis Selects: Invisible Ground of Sympathy.” See it for yourself → https://loom.ly/1KEZDMQ

Senga Nengudi, R.S.V.P. Reverie – “B” Suite, 1977/2011. Nylon mesh, sand, and pole, 60 x 48 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm). Jeanne L. Wasserman Fund and General Acquisition Fund. Courtesy of Lévy Gorvy, New York and London; and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo by Mel Taing. © Senga Nengudi

09/16/2023

Thank you to everyone who came out to walk with Little Amal through East Boston last Saturday – and special shoutout to Veronica Robles and VROCC and ZUMIX for the incredible partnership and for celebrating with us all the way to the .

Little Amal's journey continues down the east coast and across the country in the coming weeks – 6,000 miles in more than 35 towns and cities, with more than a thousand artists and arts organizations – as she spreads her message of hope and solidarity for displaced people everywhere.

📷: Olivia Slaughter

09/15/2023

Did someone say giveaway? We are partnering with Phaidon.com for their 100th birthday to give away 10 copies of their *limited-edition* anniversary book, "100 Years of Creativity"! Featuring original additions from 100 living creatives, this exclusive edition is only available through their 100th anniversary giveaway.

The giveaway will take place in conjunction with our free The Artist’s Voice program on September 28. Stay tuned for details!

Photos courtesy of Phaidon

09/15/2023

Mark your calendars! The first museum survey dedicated to the richly layered work of Firelei Báez debuts next spring at the ICA! Showcasing nearly two decades of Báez's career, “Firelei Báez” will explore the complicated and often historically incomplete narratives surrounding the Atlantic basin.

Following its presentation at the ICA, this exhibition will go on to tour throughout North America to the Vancouver Art Gallery and Des Moines Art Center. Learn more → https://loom.ly/rOAfQw0

Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019. Installation view, Firelei Báez: A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), James Cohan, New York, 2019. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection. Image courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle. © Firelei Báez

09/14/2023

Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Tammy Nguyen presents a new series of interconnected works examining the relationship between people and nature, landscape, and wilderness, shaped by the transcendentalist writer’s ideas. Her portrait of Emerson incorporates both plant life from the American Northeast and tropical flora and acts as both a portrait and a landscape, with the figure and ground collapsing into each other, symbolically equating humans to nature.

Explore the lush details up close. Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/VKbhhEE

Tammy Nguyen, Ralph Waldo Emerson (detail), 2023. Watercolor, vinyl paint, ink, screen printing ink, pastel, and metal leaf on paper stretched over panel. 100 x 60 inches (254 x 152.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London. Photo by Dan Bradica. © Tammy Nguyen

09/13/2023

In her 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize presentation, Cicely Carew demonstrates a full exploration of painting, both on and off the canvas. Centering radical joy and liberation, her multi-layered works act to occupy and energize space with a whimsical vibrancy.

See her new body of work on view at the ICA. Plan your visit → https://loom.ly/f7TRwO0

Cicely Carew, Cicely Carew, 2023–24. Installation view, 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2023–24. Photo by Mel Taing.

09/12/2023

We had a great time last Friday celebrating Black Joy Day, complete with musical performances, free exhibitions, and good vibes, and it looks like you did too! Special thank you to Thaddeus Miles for partnering with us and special shoutout to Representative Ayanna Pressley and Conan Harris for coming out!