East Meets West: "Folk" and Fantasy from the Coasts

May 12 - July 29, 2001

"East Meets West: 'Folk' and Fantasy from the Coasts" showcased three artists from Philadelphia (Joy Feasley, Jim Houser, and Clare Rojas) and three artists from San Francisco (Chris Johanson, Scott Hewicker, and Margaret Kilgallen) who work in a folk and fantasy aesthetic. The works in the exhibition were influenced by folk art — art created outside the confines of art schools, galleries, and museums. "East Meets West" is not an exhibition of contemporary folk art — thus "folk" is set off in quotation marks in the title. It featured artists who have cultivated highly personalized styles and a handmade aesthetic that stands in relief to our mediated age of slick computer-originated imagery, and to certain trends in contemporary art. The vocabulary of the "East Meets West" artists is informed by a range of artistic influences including contemporary Indian and 19th-century American sign painting, 1960s psychedelia, science book illustration, kitsch, children's art, comics, and thrift store painting. Work includes painting and drawing (both on traditional surfaces and on ICA's walls), as well as installation and sculpture.

Curator: Guest Curator Alex Baker, formerly ICA's Associate Curator.

Support for "East Meets West: 'Folk' and Fantasy from the Coasts" has been provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation Inc., Samuel S. Fels Fund, and the Advisory Board, friends, members of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the University of Pennsylvania. In Kind Support: Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz. (Information complete as of April 23, 2001)


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