About the Exhibition
Inserts appeared as a supplement to the The New York Times on Sunday, May 22, 1988, in some papers distributed in Lower Manhattan and the Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Group Material brings together contradictory visual objects in order to investigate a theme. Through a strategy of precise and innovative exhibition design, Group Material demonstrates how art is dependent on a social context for its meaning. Group Material seeks to bring the supposed neutrality of the established art space and practice into serious question. By placing fine art next to mass-produced consumer images and historical artifacts, Group Material is asking, “How is culture made and who is it made for?”
Group Material, founded in 1979, is an organization of artists dedicated to the creation, exhibition, and distribution of art that increases social awareness. Their decision to work with the Public Art Fund to distribute Inserts in the Sunday Times was motivated by an interest in questioning perceived notions of what art is and where it should be seen, and the belief that innovative contemporary art should be available to a larger group than the “initiated” audiences of the gallery and the museum.
Location
Photo Gallery
Featured Artists
Group Material (Artists include: Mike Glier, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Carrie Mae Weems, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Nancy Spero, Nancy Linn, Hans Haacke, Richard Prince, and Louise Lawler)
Project organized by Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres for Group Material.