A Language For Intimacy

June 29–August 30, 2020

A digital exhibition exploring concepts of intimacy in light of the social distancing efforts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the politics of intimacy.

Abrons Arts Center and Boston Center for the Arts present A Language for Intimacy.

A Language for Intimacy will feature new and existing works in performance, sound, photography, sculpture, video, and drawing, from a group of nine artists, alongside written responses from nine fellow art writers. The works and corresponding texts consider expressions of intimacy through language, the body, collaboration and community, and material and space. This exhibition explores these concepts of intimacy in light of the social distancing efforts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, while also speaking to the politics of intimacy, from the racial health disparities the virus has exposed to the mass protests that have galvanized a global anti-racist movement to end state violence against black bodies.

The exhibition includes artworks by Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Tomás Díaz Cedeño, Jesse Chun, Sougwen Chung, Rachel Devorah, Jesse Draxler, DonChristian Jones, Sophie Kahn, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste; and texts by Erica N. Cardwell, Amanda Contrada, Noah Dillon, Ladi’Sasha Jones, Danilo Machado, Shanekia McIntosh, Amelia Rina, Mebrak Tareke, and Claire Voon.

Public Programming

8/7 at 1 PM: Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and Ladi'Sasha Jones in conversation. Available on Instagram Live via the Abrons Arts Center (@abronsartscenter) and the Boston Center for the Arts (@boscenterforarts) accounts.

8/14: Public Assistants takes over Abrons Instagram account with DonChristian Jones.

8/21: Artist-writer pair Jesse Chun and danilo machado in conversation. Available on Instagram Live via the Abrons Arts Center (@abronsartscenter) and the Boston Center for the Arts (@boscenterforarts) accounts.

ABOUT

Amanda Contrada is a Brooklyn-based curator, producer, and project manager working in art and music. She has produced exhibitions including Rammellzee: Racing for Thunder and Bjarne Melgaard’s The Casual Pleasure of Disappointment at Red Bull Arts New York as well as curating and overseeing contemporary art performances and installations at cultural events including Material Art Fair and MUTEK, among others.

Terence Trouillot is a freelance art writer and editor. He is a contributing editor at BOMB Magazine and has written about contemporary art and visual culture for magazines including BOMB Magazine, Artforum, Art in America, art-agenda, artcritical, The Brooklyn Rail, The Village Voice, Arts.Black, Artnet News, and Eye on Design, among others. He lives and works in New York City.

FUNDING

This exhibition is made possible by additional support from the Laundromat Project and Topical Cream & Alice Longyu Gao.