Postconceptualism: The Malleable Object at the Stamp Gallery

Image: Meg Mitchell, detail of Space is Language is Space, wood and urethane, 2010

Postconceptualism: The Malleable Object
Curated by Mark Cameron Boyd
Opening at the Stamp Gallery in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union-Center for Campus Life
University of Maryland, College Park

Exhibition: March 7 – April 8, 2011
Opening Reception: March 10, 2011 6-9pm
Panel Discussion with the Curator and Artists: March 17, 2011 starting at 6:30pm

“As originally posited in the 1960’s, Conceptual Art focused attention on the idea behind the art object and questioned the traditional role of that object as the conveyer of meaning.  Subsequently, those theories cast doubt upon the necessity of materiality itself as conceptual artists "de-materialized" the art object and began to produce time-based and ephemeral artworks.  Although total dematerialization never occurred, the art object became flexible – malleable – and that malleability, coupled with semiotics and process, has resulted in the postconceptual object…”

“Postconceptualism: The Malleable Object explores the work of nine artists who individually extend and expand upon the theories and ideas of Conceptual Art in unique ways.  As postconceptual artists, the selected artists approach the art object as the “always already” signifier it never ceased being.  Yet they use process to circumvent aesthetics, approach perception through deciphering, reconfigure commodity through intention and convert data into form… “
--Mark Cameron Boyd, Curatorial Statement, January 2011

The Stamp Gallery is located on the first floor of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union-Center for Campus Life, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The gallery is free and open to the public Mondays-Thursdays 10:00am – 8:00pm; Fridays 10:00am – 6:00am, and Saturdays 11:00am – 5:00pm.  For more information visit the gallery’s website http://thestamp.umd.edu/gallery/ or call (301) 314-8493