#ExhibitionsWeLove

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, our staff is sharing their most beloved exhibitions from our archives:

Group Material Inserts, Various artists, 1988

Some of my favorite Public Art Fund projects took place in the late 1980's and early 1990's—a time when many artists in New York often worked together as activists to make social and political issues visible. In 1988, Public Art Fund produced a little known project entitled "Inserts" and organized by Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres for Group Material. The project incorporated a series of drawings by Mike Glier, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Carrie Mae Weems, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Nancy Spero, Nancy Linn, Hans Haacke, Richard Prince, and Louise Lawler, in an insert in The New York Times on Sunday, May 22, 1988. The newspaper interventions were distributed throughout Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and together the rarely seen images question the context of how and where art can reach the public, bringing poignant and thought-provoking artworks to the front doors of New Yorkers. Check out the images—they are fantastic!

-Andria, Associate Curator