Emerge Selections 2023

Mar 14, 2023 - Mar 22, 2023

Green 5-panel privacy screen with painted geometric floral shapes in orange, yellow, blue, and dark greens.

Still image of black typed words partially obstructed by abstract shapes.

Two still images from color video and 3D animation of a brown building with dark brown stairs.

About the Exhibition

The MCA’s Emerge group consists of donors who support the museum’s acquisition and education programs. Every year, this group selects and collectively funds the purchase of one major work by an artist not currently represented in the MCA Collection.

Emerge members cast their final votes in March 2023 to determine which of these artworks will be added to the MCA Collection.

About the Artists

This year, in collaboration with the MCA curatorial team, Emerge members proposed works by Kamrooz Aram (b. 1978, Shiraz, Iran; lives in Brooklyn, New York), Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians; b. 1984, Ferndale, WA; lives in Hudson, NY), and Jacolby Satterwhite (b. 1986, Columbia, SC; lives in Brooklyn, NY), for consideration.

Engaging the complicated relationship between Modernism and ornament, Kamrooz Aram’s sculptures set out to renegotiate the art historical hierarchy that values fine art over ornamental art forms. Sky Hopinka layers imagery, sound, and text to create his own cinematic language, which he expresses in short and feature-length films that center the perspectives of Indigenous people. Jacolby Satterwhite uses a range of animation and video software to produce fantastical digital landscapes that explore themes of memory, desire, and personal and public mythologies.