Scott Burton: Shape Shift / Brendan Fernandes: In Two

On view now through February 2, 2025, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents two new exhibitions, Scott Burton: Shape Shift and Brendan Fernandes: In Two.

Scott Burton: Shape Shift examines the legacy of Scott Burton (1939–1989), whose multidisciplinary practice anticipated many strategies of contemporary art. As the most comprehensive exhibition of Burton’s work ever mounted in the United States, Shape Shift underscores the breadth of the artist’s vision. By the time of his death at the age of 50 from AIDS-related complications, Burton had functioned as a sculptor, public artist, performance artist, choreographer, art critic, and exhibition curator. 

The survey spans nearly 40 sculptures, over 70 photographs, drawings, ephemera, and the only known video of his performance work. Most archival materials are on loan from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Archives, which maintains the Scott Burton Papers, its largest single-artist holding.

“During Burton’s life, the impact of his work and its connection to his gay identity were rarely discussed. Today, many only know him for his public art,” says Cara Starke, Executive Director of the Pulitzer. “We aim to present a fuller picture of this influential artist.”

Organized by independent curator Jess Wilcox, with Heather Alexis Smith, Assistant Curator at the Pulitzer, the exhibition uncovers lesser-known aspects of Burton’s work. “We hope to show how his early performances are key to understanding the democratic intent behind his public sculptures,” says Wilcox.

The Pulitzer is excited to share other institutional engagements with Burton’s legacy. Through March 24, 2025, SculptureCenter in Queens, New York, presents Álvaro Urbano, featuring a choreographed sculptural interpretation of a rescued Burton public artwork.

Brendan Fernandes: In Two is a site-specific installation by Chicago-based artist Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Kenya), featuring sculptures and performances inspired by the work of Scott Burton. Organized in conjunction with Scott Burton: Shape Shift, the project highlights Burton’s influence on contemporary artists, particularly in exploring duality and queer identity. 

Fernandes, who identifies as multinational and queer, has written a set of four choreographic scores taking the furniture sculptures of the late Scott Burton as an affective backdrop from which to explore the duality of display and concealment in gay cruising culture. Scott Burton  pursued these and related ideas in his own work. Fernandes integrates specific gestures—flip the wrist, clasp arm to the breast—from Burton’s choreographic notes for Individual Behavior Tableaux, which are on display for the first time in history.

A set of soft sculptures designed by Fernandes compliment and contrast with the hard materials of the Burton works. Dancers engage with the curtains installed in the upper and lower levels of the main gallery, and a set of pillows are used as props during performances.

Jess Wilcox, organizer of Shape Shift and co-organizer of In Two, notes that, “While the movement of Fernandes’ improvisational sensual choreography could not feel more distinct than Burton’s early controlled, slow, alienating proscenium tableaux performances, both directly engage with queer signaling. In Two has greater affinity with Burton’s more accessible later public furniture sculptures and environments that explored notions of invitation, touch, coupling, and coded meaning, while using sculptural means to shape human movements through space.”

“In Two is like a duet between Scott Burton and me. I am choreographing a kind of call and response between the dancers in movement and the sculpture that leads me deeper into ideas I’m interested in: two becoming one, one becoming two, and the invisible and visible in queerness,” says Brendan Fernandes.

The curtains and pillow sculptures in In Two were made in collaboration with Fernandes and The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, where Burton produced Window Curtains in 1978. A companion set of curtains and pillows by Fernandes are on view at The Fabric Workshop as part of their exhibition Soft/Cover, later this year through late 2025.

The project is organized by Kristin Fleischmann Brewer, Deputy Director, Public Engagement and independent curator Jess Wilcox for the Pulitzer.