Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

Get our monthly newsletter in your inbox for the latest on cultural events, ideas, conversations, and grantmaking news in Philadelphia and beyond.

Main page contents

Planning for Strange Currencies

Moore College of Art & Design
Mexico City-based artists Eduardo Abaroa and Yoshua Okón speak with Philadelphia artists participating in Citywide on Trolley Day, November 2013. Photograph by Jaime Alvarez.
Mexico City-based artists Eduardo Abaroa and Yoshua Okón speak with Philadelphia artists participating in Citywide on Trolley Day, November 2013. Photograph by Jaime Alvarez.

This exhibition will critically re-examine the emergence and development of unorthodox, artist-driven, and collective artistic practices in Mexico City in the 1990s, and the pivotal role that alternative art spaces played, and continue to play, in shaping the city's contemporary art landscape and legacy. Unlike other investigations of art in Mexico City in the 1990s—often object-centric, market-driven, and framed from an outsider's point of view—this exhibition, curated by Kaytie Johnson, is conceived with the direct input of artists affiliated with these spaces, all of which encouraged self-critique, experimentation, social interaction, and discussion around projects that linked art and everyday life. Planning activities will include on-the-ground research in Mexico City, reviewing primary source material, and interviewing participants. Johnson and her team will also convene members of Philadelphia's vibrant artist-run spaces to explore opportunities for collaboration and off-site programs during the exhibition's run, which is slated for 2015.

uestions of ractice
Luis Felipe Ortega, “Los Cuerpos Dóciles (macetones),” from the series “The docile bodies,” 1995-97, chromogenic photograph. Courtesy of The Galleries at Moore. 
Interview

Inside The Galleries at Moore: Q&A with Director and Chief Curator Kaytie Johnson

Read More
Recipient
Moore College of Art & Design

Moore College of Art & Design

Established in 1848, Moore College of Art & Design is the first and only visual arts college historically for women in the US. In 2020, Moore opened admission to non-binary, transgender, and gender-fluid students. In addition to its BFA and graduate studies programs, it houses The Galleries at Moore, which offer free exhibitions and programming that explore contemporary art and ideas. The Galleries have featured a number of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions dedicated to significant women artists and designers, including Janet Biggs, Dara Birnbaum, Adrian Piper, and the Guerrilla Girls. 

More info
Explore Connections
Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita, 2022 Pew Fellows.

Fellow to Fellow: Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita on Meaning in Materiality 
Interview Practice & Process
Pew Fellows Maia Chao and James Maurelle. Photos by Neal Santos.

Fellow to Fellow: Artists Maia Chao and James Maurelle on Artistic Origins and Why They’ve Made Philadelphia Home
Interview Practice & Process
The Barnes Foundation, Returning to Before, performed as part of William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision exhibition, choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. Photo by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive.
Choreographer Brendan Fernandes on Dance in Museums
Video Site-Specific Performance
Terence Nance, film still from Swimming in Your Skin Again, 2014. Courtesy of Terence Nance.
Artist Terence Nance on Presenting Film in a Gallery Space
Video Cross-Disciplinary Practices
The Barnes Foundation, Returning to Before, performed as part of William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision exhibition, choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. Photo by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive.
How Dance Converges with Sculpture in Barnes Foundation Exhibition
Video Site-Specific Performance
Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo

Fellow to Fellow: Artists Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo on Art Created from Memory and Cultural Identity
Interview Social & Community-Based Practices
Maeng Wookjae, Secret Forest, 2019; porcelain, gold, paper, wire frame, elastic band, light, sound; 110" x 67" x 67". Photo courtesy of Korea Ceramic Foundation.
The Shape of Time: Korean Art After 1989
Project Grant Exhibitions & Public Interpretation
TOWN, 2022, Theatre Horizon, Norristown, PA. Photo by John C. Hawthorne.
Building a Sense of Belonging through Community-Centered Theater
Essay Social & Community-Based Practices