Crossroads: 1945–Now

For Crossroads: 1945–Now, an ambitious reinstallation of the postwar and contemporary galleries at Carnegie Museum of Art, I worked closely with Eric Crosby, the Richard Armstrong Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and curatorial assistant Hannah Turpin, on the development, design, and production of all didactic texts and object labels for the galleries as well as the printed guide.

The overarching theme of the reinstall was simple: How is artistic decision-making influenced by the world we live in? Organized as a sequence of chapters that range from abstract and dreamlike to experimental and politically charged, I collaborated with staff in curatorial and education to develop stories that unfold across decades, mediums, and movements. By weaving in relevant contextual information—identity politics, the AIDs crisis, gender equality, social justice—we were able to write clear and incisive narratives that didn’t presuppose an intimate knowledge of art history on the part of the visitor. This new approach was also representative of an ongoing effort to remove art speak from our gallery texts, which has slowly but steadily helped make the museum a more welcoming and inclusive space.

Crossroads takes its title from Bruce Conner’s 1976 film, a hypnotic collage of atomic bomb blasts at Bikini Atoll. The exhibition includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Keith Haring, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, Pope.L, and Cindy Sherman among many others.