Figure-Ground
Image: Brooke Johannesen, In the bath, 2023.
Curated By Alex Klein
Exhibition Dates: November 10-19, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday November 10th, 2022, 7-10 pm
About
ICOSA Collective is proud to present Figure-Ground, a juried group exhibition curated by Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin.
A note from the curator: “Figure-Ground is a reference to how perception anchors our understanding of the world around us. The distinction between a foreground and a background informs what is privileged, and ultimately how objects and images are interpreted. Through a variety of media and subject matter, many of the artists in the show confound our expectations of material states and probe the boundaries between abstraction and representation. While “figure” and “ground” may be understood as a literal way to organize a space, or to build a picture, it is also a metaphor. The juried exhibition brings together 14 artists working in a variety of media and addressing diverse subject matter. The artists were selected from amongst a pool of 310 individual applicants and almost 3,000 entries that were submitted in response to ICOSA’s open call.”
Artists
Sarah Benson (Austin, TX) , Sonya Berg (Austin, TX), Bryan Florentin (Dallas, TX), Stephanie Germosen (Richmond, VA), Grayson Hunt (Austin, TX), Jamie Mirabella (Brooklyn, NY), Brooke Johannesen (New York, NY), David Morrison (Norman, OK), Phillip Robinson (St. Louis, MO), Emma Rossoff (Austin, TX), Mai Snow (Austin, TX), Simone Thornton (Austin, TX) , William Warden (Houston, TX), and Sophie White (Philadelphia, PA)
About the Curator
Alex Klein is the Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin where she works alongside the curatorial team to shape the exhibition program at the Jones Center and steward the sculpture park at Laguna Gloria. Prior to her current role she was the Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (ICA). During her eleven years at ICA she originated numerous exhibitions, publications, public programs, and online initiatives with artists including Linda Goode Bryant, Anne Graff, Barbara Kasten, Michelle Lopez, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Sondra Perry, Suki Seokyeong Kang, and Trevor Shimizu. Previously she held positions in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hillman Photography Initiative, the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California (USC), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
