ART: 21
Episode 4: Paradox
Legion Arts and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art have teamed up to present free local screenings of the new season of this acclaimed PBS series. Each episode lasts an hour. The final episode of the series (shown at the Museum of Art) showcases five artists who, through uniquely different styles of work, address and respond to contradiction, conflict and ambiguity, and examine the relationship between mystery and meaning in art.

Mark Bradford uses signage and advertisements scavenged from the street to create wall-sized collages which respond to the impromptu networks that emerge within a city, such as underground economies, immigrant communities, or the use of abandoned public space. In his films, Bradford captures and documents the cultural, political and racial conditions of an urban environment. Catherine Sullivan’s anxiety inducing films and live performances reveal the degree to which everyday gestures and emotional states are scripted and performed, questioning the border between innate and learned behavior. Influenced by the work of artists such as Mark Rothko and his own love of jazz and bebop, Robert Ryman is well-known for his work with white paint on square forms, which reveals the nuances of the surface. His paintings are characterized by their subtlety, as they explore the distinction between art as an object or surface, sculpture or painting, and emphasize the role that perception and context play in creating an aesthetic experience. Collaborators Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla draw inspiration from their belief that art can function as a catalyst for social change, and their works  — which include sculpture, video documentation and public installations — often solicit active participation and critical responses from their viewers. They approach visual art as a set of experiments that test whether concepts such as authorship, nationality, borders, and democracy adequately describe today’s increasingly global society.
Thu Nov 8 | 7 pm
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art | Cedar Rapids
Free | donations welcome

See all four episodes of Art:21: Romance Oct 18 at CSPS; Protest Oct 25 at the Museum of Art; Ecology Nov 1 at CSPS; and Paradox Nov 8 at the Museum of Art.

Ticket info
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Visit the official PBS Art:21 Web site
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