One is the loneliest number presents emerging artist duos based in Philadelphia and elsewhere that work in a variety of media—from graphic design to video to sculpture—highlighting a collective mode that has historical precedents but is also increasingly present in contemporary practice. This spectrum of approaches to art-making extends beyond materials and into the collaborative methods artists have developed in their ongoing partnerships. This exhibition features the five collaboratives Lucas Ajemian and Julien Bismuth; Davis, Cherubini; Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib; Nick Mauss and Ken Okiishi; and Megawords. One is the loneliest number is on view in ICA’s second floor-gallery, mezzanine, and adjacent staff kitchen.
As friends (Ajemian and Bismuth; Davis, Cherubini; Megawords) or couples (Hironaka and Suib; Mauss and Okiishi), each artist pair has learned to work together over the years in an ever-evolving practice. Sometimes this process has been an organic extension of a relationship already established, a conversation that began to manifest in objects or speculative projects. Other pairs found the process of working together to be a negotiation, one that came to require less effort or compromise over time, but that continues to develop with each new project or piece.
