Michelle Lopez: Ballast & Barricades
On view through May 10, 2020
Institute of Contemporary Art/University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
www.icaphila.org
Site-Specific Installation “Ballast & Barricades” Reduces a City to Ruin in Artist’s Most Ambitious Work to Date
The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) presents the first major institutional exhibition of Philadelphia-based artist Michelle Lopez. “Michelle Lopez: Ballast & Barricades” employs a fragmented architectural language to critique systems of power and consumption through a large, site-specific installation that builds a decrepit cityscape both reduced to and suspended by rubble. Marking her most ambitious work-to-date, the presentation builds on Lopez’s previous body of work “House of Cards” (2018), weaving together earlier works with new pieces that formally allude to protest, human migration, ecological crises, and the ongoing impact of rampant gentrification. The resulting installation presents a sculptural terrain that harbors political discord, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Image: Michelle Lopez, ink drawings on paper for “Ballast & Barricades”, 2018-2019, 14 x 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
