Toward the Texture of Knowing

“Like a live wire, the subject channels what’s going on around it in the process of its own self-composition. Formed by the coagulation of intensities, surfaces, sensations, perceptions, and expressions, it’s a thing composed of encounters and the spaces and events it traverses or inhabits.”
-Kathleen Stewart from Ordinary Affects

The contemporary artists included in this exhibition adopt Stewart’s charge to pay attention to being alive. They have engaged in slow and intentional examination of everyday points of contact—encounters with people, with emotion, with time, and with the world—as sites of curiosity and impact. The resulting works of art are unified by the use of skins, surfaces, screens, and other literalized contact zones as a point of departure for artistic inquiry into the human condition. The exhibition includes work by Felix Gonzales-Torres, Ragen Moss, Rachel Rose, Christina Ramberg, and others. It was organized in collaboration with Marquette University’s Department of Philosophy.

“Toward the Texture of Knowing” is made possible through generous support from Presenting Sponsor the Lacey Sadoff Foundation.

Image: Rachel Rose, American, b. 1986. Lake Valley, 2016, high-definition video (color, sound); 8:25 min., collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, A. W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2018.2