Zoe Strauss: Ten Years in the New York Times, Art in America, and ArtForum

Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in late 2011, received media attention from New York Times, Art in America, and Artforum.

In the New York Times, Karen Rosenberg wrote about the origins of the exhibition: "In 2001 the artist Zoe Strauss came up with an unusual idea for an exhibition. It would take place under an elevated section of Interstate 95, in her home city, Philadelphia, and would consist of photographs mounted on the columns that supported the highway. It would be a recurring event, appearing yearly over a decade. It would be free and open to the public, with photocopies of the exhibited works available for purchase for $5 each. And it would take the form of 'an epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life,' in Ms. Strauss's words. That series, 'I-95,' is at the core of Zoe Strauss: Ten Years, an engaging, parameter-expanding exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and on billboards around the city." Read more >

"The way Strauss composes her pictures—her head-on vantage point, straightforward framing and focus on telling architectural details—connects her to the history of street photography," said Jean Dykstra in Art in America. Read more >

The exhibition was also chosen as a "Critics' Pick" in Artforum, for which Megan Heuer wrote that "Strauss' stated ambition as an artist is 'to create an epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life,' and the much-abused word epic truly animates this project, invoking Homer but also modernist echoes such as James Joyce and Bertolt Brecht." Read more >