The exhibition at the ICA Miami will present the entire suite of Saar’s room-sized installations for the first time since she began making them more than thirty years ago. Betye Saar is curated by Stephanie Seidel who is working closely with the artist to reconstitute fifteen interrelated, individual rooms created between 1980 and 1998, that reflect the artist’s interest in spirituality, ritual, and race. The exhibition will not only reconstruct Saar’s important installations, but will also serve as the occasion for them to be properly documented for the first time. The exhibition catalogue will feature photographs of every installation accompanied by exhaustive inventories detailing the components of each one. Because Saar recycles objects in her work, borrowing from one installation to make another, the inventories will be crucial for future scholarship and exhibition.
Betye Saar
“The Warhol Foundation aims to support the full range of artistic activity in America—from exhibitions at major museums to neighborhood projects by artist collectives. Arts writers, through the range and specialization of their individual interests, touch upon all of this activity—illuminating and interrogating it and bringing it into conversation with the public. Support for artists is not complete without support for the circulation and serious consideration of their ideas. The Arts Writers Grant program keeps artists at the center of cultural dialogue and debate—in our opinion, right where they belong.”
Joel Wachs, President