The paintings, prints, and sculptures on view collectively evoke the visual languages of iconic 1960s art movements, particularly Minimalism and Op art, incorporating geometric configurations, unadorned ephemera, and bold, often monochromatic color palettes. Featured Op art painters, like Bridget Riley, render linear, illusionary designs to confound viewers’ perceptions, while Minimalist-inspired sculptors Tony Feher and Mario Navarro reduce their creations to everyday items to underscore their aesthetic qualities. Artists Sadie Benning and Kendell Carter reimagine these now-canonical styles, employing abstract forms and impersonal objects to investigate their capacity to reflect identity, including race, gender, and sexuality. Attesting to the power of color, line, and shape, the exhibition demonstrates that the simplest artworks can bear the greatest meanings, from explorations of self and society to interrogations of art histories.
Group exhibition
'No Simple Matter'
Drawn from the SCAD Museum of Art Permanent Collection, No Simple Matter groups modern and contemporary artworks with seemingly straightforward compositions and humble materials to reveal their complex underpinnings. Exhibiting a mastery of restraint, the artists divest from excessive modes of expression to show the beauty in austerity and elicit new interpretations and experiences with art.
Drawn from the SCAD Museum of Art Permanent Collection, No Simple Matter groups modern and contemporary artworks with seemingly straightforward compositions and humble materials to reveal their complex underpinnings. Exhibiting a mastery of restraint, the artists divest from excessive modes of expression to show the beauty in austerity and elicit new interpretations and experiences with art.
Install Views
Programs and events
NEW TIME Reception: SCAD Museum of Art fall exhibitions opening
This event has been moved to an earlier start time of 10am.
Credits
No Simple Matter is organized by SCAD Museum of Art assistant curator Haley Clouser.
