ICA exhibits take visitors to the yard and the darker undercurrents of home
By Brandon Baker for Penn Today
July 11, 2024
From July 13 to Dec. 1, the Institute of Contemporary Art presents dual exhibitions: “Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard,” a group exhibition that explores artwork created in or for yards; and “Johanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies,” the first U.S. solo exhibition of Polish artist and photographer Johanna Piotrowska, evoking questions about care, violence, and the relationship between gender and power inside domestic spaces. The exhibitions will kick off with an opening celebration on Friday, July 12.
“This season at ICA, we present two exhibitions that push boundaries on conventional thinking–one on techniques in photography, the other on notions of ‘yard art,’” says Zoë Ryan, the Daniel W. Dietrich, II director of the ICA. “They each bring to the fore underrecognized artists across nontraditional mediums, featuring bold, exuberant new work that drives ideas of collaboration, experimentation, and learning that are at the heart of all that we do here at the ICA.”
“Where I Learned to Look” is guest curated by artist and art historian Josh T. Franco and organized by ICA curators Hallie Ringle and Denise Ryner. Franco’s interest in yard art began as an academic one while finishing his Ph.D., but also stems from lived experience: His grandfather, though he never called himself a “yard artist,” would salvage objects and create sculptural vignettes in his free time. His grandfather was particularly fond of a cowboys-themed area he created through stencil forms.