ICA Chief Curator Ingrid Schaffner’s keynote talk, “Jason Rhoades, American Artist” (September 18, 2013), gave visitors to the opening celebration of Jason Rhoades, Four Roads a detailed, warm, and often funny look at the prolific and audacious sculptor Jason Rhoades. The talk traced his life from a friendly boy in rural California raising Chester White pigs for his 4-H project, through his development as an artist (with reference to the work of Paul McCarthy, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, among others), to his premature death in 2006. In addition to giving the standing-room-only crowd new ways to interact with this often provocative work, Schaffner revealed how the pieces in ICA’s show—as well as the many others made throughout his life—fit into the “one work” Rhoades saw all his art as being. Enthusiastically introduced by Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Executive Director Paula Marincola, whose organization was a major funder of the show, Schaffner ended the talk by reading a list of names of the many people from near and far who contributed to the exhibition, inviting them to stand and be recognized. At the public reception that followed the talk, visitors viewed the work, sat (without their shoes) under the lights in Untitled (from My Madinah: In pursuit of my ermitage…), and enjoyed music and refreshments on the terrace under the stars.
Sep 18, 2013, 6:30PM
Opening and Walkthrough: Fall 2013

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