In Plain Sight

This group exhibition engages artists whose work addresses narratives, communities, and histories that are typically hidden or invisible in our public space (both conceptually and literally defined). The presenting artists approach the exhibition’s theme from a range of directions, varying across all media as well as aesthetic and conceptual contexts. Works encompass deliberately activist endeavors and direct documentation; the unpacking of individual histories excluded due to race, ethnicity, or class; explorations of coded language for protection, secrecy, or both; the illumination of invisible or covert systems of labor, exploitation, and capitalist control; and translation through surreal, oblique, or fantastical frameworks.

The exhibition expands into the entire museum, including interstitial/transitional spaces, and activates external sites through programs, performances, and community partnerships. Site becomes a material through which what we have heretofore considered the complete, authoritative story is expanded and retold.

Participating artists: Sadie Barnette (US, born 1984), Sanford Biggers (US, born 1970), Andrea Bowers (US, born 1965), Tom Burr (US, born 1963), Fiona Connor (New Zealand, born 1981), william cordova (Peru, born 1971), Beatriz Cortez (El Salvador, born 1970), Hayv Kahraman (Iraq, born 1981), Nicole Miller (US, born 1982), Alison O’Daniel (US, born 1979), Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica, born 1981), Mika Rottenberg (Argentina, born 1976), A.L. Steiner (US, born 1967), Oscar Tuazon (US, born 1975)

Read the full press release here.

Related programs

Saturday, December 14, 2pm
Curator Tour: Shamim M. Momin
Henry Senior Curator Shamim M. Momin provides an overview of the themes, spatial arrangements, and cultural contexts within In Plain Sight.

Tuesday, February 18, 2pm 
Talk: Oscar López Rivera
In conjunction with Oscar Tuazon’s Water School installation, Puerto Rican activist, artist, and former political prisoner Oscar López Rivera speaks on what resistance and resilience mean in the context of Puerto Rico’s history with debt, colonialism, and climate change.

Thursday, February 20, 7pm
Performance: Alison O’Daniel
Alison O’Daniel directs a performance featuring trumpeters paired with ASL performers in an exploration of sonic and visual communication practices that is in dialogue with her video installation, The Tuba Thieves.

Coming up in spring 2020
In April, Fiona Connor and Hayv Kahraman will participate in the Henry’s Gurvich Artist Residency Program, which facilitates opportunities for artists to enhance and explore their creative processes through sustained and mutually engaging community partnerships. Connor’s residency includes a community archive event, in which Connor will partner with neighborhood organizations to make silicon molds of doors and community boards in celebration of local gathering places. Kahraman’s residency includes an original performance of local contortionists who, in moving through the museum’s spaces, will enliven themes of postcolonial and hybrid identities that are central to Kahraman’s work. Additional spring programs include partnerships with the University of Washington’s Labor Archives, the Seattle Public Library, and Northwest Film Forum. Visit henryart.org later this winter for program details or subscribe to the Henry’s e-newsletter.