Virginia Jaramillo Access for Visitors Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
Access from the South Elevator (Marisol Entrance)
You are on the second floor of the MCA, in the atrium. With the elevator behind you, there is a hallway extending in front of you. To the left, at an 11 o’clock direction, there is the Visitor Experience desk for this floor. There are stanchions in front of that desk directly in front of you, about 25 feet away. Further to your left, about 10 feet away, there are two large red chairs. To your right, at about a 2 o’clock direction, there is a coat check. There is a pathway to the rest of this floor that leads between the stanchions and coat check, at a 1 o’clock direction, for about 50 feet. On your far right, at around a 4 o’clock direction, there is a stairwell and a small exhibition called Trade Windings: De-Lineating the American Tropics.
The atrium has very high ceilings and lots of natural light, with two floors of windows covering the front of the building, which is to your right. Halfway down the hallway on this floor, a longer hallway intersects the space in a perpendicular direction, extending to the left. Overall, this area of the MCA is shaped like a capital T: the short hallway is the top of the letter, and the longer hallway is the stem of the letter. If you follow the pathway to the right of the Visitor Experience stanchions, there will be a floor mat where these hallways meet. To the right of that mat, there are revolving doors that lead out to large stairs and onto the street, at the front of the building. Reaching this mat, you will be at the center of this floor.
The Second Floor from Its Center Point
When reaching the floor mat, having approached from the elevator, there will be a freestanding metal sign about 10 feet away in a 10 o’clock direction. This sign advertises the MCA Store and stands at the intersection where these hallways meet.
If you proceed past this sign, continuing in the same hallway as the elevator, there is a large art installation to the left and the MCA Store to the right. Otherwise, turning 90 degrees to the left when reaching the sign, you will face the length of the second hallway. This longer hallway, which resembles the stem of the uppercase letter T, leads to two exhibitions and a common area. In the center of this hallway, at around 10-foot intervals, there are five low, soft benches in splotchy abstract shapes. These benches are arranged in a straight line down the middle of the hallway. The first bench is around 30 feet from the metal sign.
On the left side of the hallway, there is the exhibition Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection, which has multiple videos playing sounds. To the right, there is the exhibition Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence. If you continue straight past those two exhibitions, to the end of this hallway, there are two double doors and a space called the Commons. The Commons has seating, all-gender and accessible bathrooms, and an art installation.
Reaching Exhibitions on the Second Floor
To reach the entrance of Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence, you can follow the benches in the middle of the hallway. The exhibition Arthur Jafa: Works from the MCA Collection has a video outside playing an interview with the artist; when you are in front of that video, which you can hear, you will also be in front of the Virginia Jaramillo exhibition across the hall from it. This location is at the third bench down the hallway.
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence has two components on the outside of the exhibition: introductory text, and a long line that references one of the paintings in the exhibition. The text is directly in front of you when standing with your back to the Arthur Jafa interview. To the right of that text, around a 2 o’clock direction, a very long and tall hot pink line extends across the wall. This line runs from the floor, scooping upward from a low angle, all the way to the ceiling two or three floors above this one, turning and bending in a meandering shape. This line is painted in a way that it looks as though it disappears into the building, rather than ending.
Introduction to the Exhibition
The wall text in this hallway reads as follows:
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence is the first retrospective and largest monographic exhibition to date of the work of Virginia Jaramillo (b. 1939, El Paso, TX; lives in Hampton Bays, NY). Drawing on a longstanding study of physics, science fiction, ancient mythologies, and modernist design, Jaramillo’s practice, in her words, “seeks to translate into visual terms the mental structural patterns we all superimpose on our world.”
Organized chronologically, the exhibition examines how Jaramillo grounds her abstract works in the line—a fundamental element of image-making and a consistent focus in her production across time and shifts in material. For Jaramillo, the line functions as a means of opening space rather than dividing it: it can elicit emotional responses, reference ideas, embody energy, and reflect on the passing of time. Principle of Equivalence traces Jaramillo’s consideration of these ideas across her career, foregrounding her commitment to abstraction as an exercise in artistic and social freedom.
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence was originally organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and curated by Erin Dziedzic, Director of Curatorial Affairs. The MCA’s presentation is organized by René Morales, former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.
Lead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, and R. H. Defares. Major support is provided by the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation and Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of the Wagner Foundation. Generous support is provided by Hales Gallery and Pace Gallery. This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists.
Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence has a total of four rooms inside the exhibition. The entrance, leading to the first room, is to the immediate left of the introductory text, at a 10 o’clock direction from the benches in the center of the hallway. If proceeding past that entrance, there is another doorway for the exit on the same side of the hallway, which leads from the last room in this exhibition.