Opening on September 13, 2019, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) will present the first major institutional exhibition of Philadelphia-based artist Michelle Lopez. Michelle Lopez: Ballast & Barricades (on view through May 10, 2020) employs a fragmented architectural language to critique systems of power and consumption through a large site-specific installation that builds a decrepit cityscape both reduced to and suspended by rubble. Marking her most ambitious work to date, the presentation builds on Lopez’s previous body of work House of Cards (2018), weaving together earlier works with new pieces that formally allude to protest, human migration, ecological crises, and the ongoing impact of rampant gentrification. The resulting installation presents a sculptural terrain that harbors political discord, teetering on the brink of collapse.