Set Pieces restages objects and art works from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Organized by guest curator Virgil Marti, a Philadelphia-based artist, the selection of 75 objects taps treasures from the museum’s storage spanning three centuries. Reflecting the artist’s own immersive sculptural environments that often cross art and décor, Marti draws especially on European and American decorative arts and sculpture. The installation is informed by favorite films (such as Citizen Kane and Last Year at Marienbad) and those cinematic moments that highlight the unique capability of film to stitch together random incidents. The result is series of tableaux and mash-ups of objects that might not otherwise meet outside this unconventional display of art objects and objets d’art.

Marti has been invited by ICA to act as Katherine Stein Sachs (CW’69) and Keith L. Sachs (W’67) Guest Curator. The artist is working closely with Joseph J. Rishel, Philadelphia Museum of Art Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Ingrid Schaffner, ICA senior curator, to select works from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Last CallElegy for an ExhibitionAlluding to a Human PresenceLook!Hall of MirrorsSleeping PrincessWeird but Useful StuffMouse Tooth Marks and Other Adventures in ConservationCobra on WoodPieces of Set Pieces