The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seator

May 12 - July 29, 2001


James Casebere, Two Tunnels from Left (H), 1998. Dye destruction print mounted on aluminum, 48" x 62". Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. © James Casebere.
This exhibition brought together the work of two artists who have different but complementary concerns with architecture.

Casebere is known for his photographs of small-scale, tabletop models which suggest disconcerting, archetypal spaces reminiscent of prisons, monasteries, tunnels, and factories. Seator recreates architectural forms of existing offices and building facades which, lifted out of context, produce a similar sense of dislocation. He has, for example, reconstructed a downtown Los Angeles check cashing store and transplanted it to the upscale setting of the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills.

Seator's commission for this show reconstructed an ice cream parlor, part of an airport terminal, and a corner of the Addison Gallery. Casebere created and exhibited two new models loosely based on the interiors of classroom buildings at Phillips Academy, from which he also produced several large-scale photographic works, including some of the largest work he has ever made.


Glen Seator, detail of Friendly's from Places for Balanced Sculptures, 2000. Steel, plywood, sheetrock, carpet, vinyl wall covering, and wood standard finish. Fabrication by Hans Accola and John Sirois. Courtesy Addison Gallery of American Art. © Glen Seator

Catalog published by Addison Gallery, Phillips Academy. Essays by Anthony Vidler and Mark Wigley. Curator: Adam Weinberg, Director, Addison Gallery, Phillips Academy.

The exhibition "The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seator" has been organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. The exhibition has been funded in part by generous gifts from the Ames Charitable Trust, John and Louise MacMillan and the Liberman Foundation. Support for this exhibition at the ICA, at the University of Pennsylvania, has generously been provided by Leonard A. Lauder and Lynne R. Honickman. Additional support has been provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Advisory Board, friends, members of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of April 23, 2001)


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