January 24—May 10, 2020

This exhibition offers the rare opportunity to examine the recent trajectories of Philadelphia-based artist Karyn Olivier’s investigation into scale and its relation to issues of inclusivity and acceptance.

The exhibition builds on several public projects and commissions created by the artist in recent years and continues to revise, rework, and expand on key works that examine the role of monuments and their relationship to civic space, representations of conflicts within history, and the ephemeral nature of collective gestures.

Works in this exhibition bring together two themes the artist has focused on in recent years: larger-than-life scale and the minute effluvia of individuals’ lives. A fully-functioning carousel for only one rider, a large car made entirely of discarded shoes, and a brick wall built using clothing wedged between the bricks as mortar, which evokes memories of laundry sites Olivier visited in Trinidad and carries overtones of refugee structures and traces of bodies, are among the works selected to be reimagined at ICA.

ICA is producing a catalog of the exhibition that will serve as the first overview monograph of the artist. The exhibition is organized by Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator Anthony Elms.