STUFF: INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF BURT AARON
May 12 - July 29, 2007
Opening Reception: May 11 from 6-10 PM

Download press photos here.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is proud to present STUFF: International Contemporary Art from the Collection of Burt Aaron. Featuring over 140 works by more than 75 artists, this show brings rarely seen work from a private collection to the public eye.

Dating from the 1960's and continuing to the present, the artwork in STUFF is decidedly of our time, with the earlier work establishing some of the ideas from which the more recent work has evolved. The art reflects the unpredictable nature of our global culture, and the lack of any single, dominant art movement. It is an idiosyncratic collection, with abstract, realist, pop, conceptual and expressionistic painting, sculpture, photography and installation pieces. Some of the artists are well known; others in mid-career and many are emerging on the national and international art scene.

Among this huge range of major art there is a multi-media installation piece by Rachael Harrison of New York that is about rituals, roles in cultures and identity. Former Detroiter, Peter Williams uses pop culture imagery in his paintings to explore political and social issues. Sergej Jensen of Germany is known for his formal paintings that are both abstract and animated, often as a result of the properties of the materials he uses. While Lee Lozano is deceased she is still celebrated as a counter culture heroine. Her early work on paper in the exhibition "It's Dink in Michigan," is from her 1960s pop art/sexual explorations. New Yorker Glen Seator did an installation replicating the street outside the Capp Street Gallery in San Francisco. His preparatory photographs, in the exhibition, document the landmarks of the location. The nexus of pop culture and formalism is key to Jay Heikes', of Minneapolis, text-based homage to a friend. He has loaned work from his collection to the following international venues, among other places; UCLA Hammer, Whitney Museum, New Museum (New York), Wexner Center for the Arts, Carnegie International, Walker Art Center, MCA Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Documenta, CAM Houston, Artpace San Antonio, Yale University Art Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, Mass Moca, Palm Beach Contemporary, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Des Moines Art Center, University of California at Berkley, York University Toronto Art Gallery, the Tate (upcoming), Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, Aldrich Museum, Foto Museum Winterthur, Miami Art Central, Walsall Museum (Great Britain), Centre of Contemporary Art Noisy-Le-Sec France, Davis Art Museum (Mass), Stiftung Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (upcoming) Prague Biennial (Expanded Painting 2007), Sao Paulo Biennial, ICA Philadelphia, Cranbrook Art Museum, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Bronx Art Museum, Berlin Biennial, Columbus Museum of Art, P.S. 1 New York, and others.

"One of the most fascinating aspects of the show is that it will appeal to both young collectors and artists," says John Corbin, co-curator. "The exhibit demonstrates that the experimental and dynamic nature of contemporary art can be mirrored by the patterns of contemporary collecting." According to Aaron, who has been collecting for over 16 years, he likes work that crosses a lot of cultural and physical borders. "I look for artists who are risk takers, where I instinctively feel they have a lot of potential. It is important to me that I see things happening in the world that are contained by ideas in the work."

A series of lectures, panel discussions, performances, musical events and film screenings will accompany the show. The exhibit opens May 11th, and continues through July 29, 2007.