In Conversation with Lauren van Haaften-Schick on ‘Canceled’ Exhibitions

Last Thursday I visited the Albright College Freedman Gallery for a conversation with curator and writer, Lauren van Haaften-Schick. We discussed her exhibition, Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures, and the reasons why institutions and artists canceled exhibitions, and what transpired after. At times, as with Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc or with Christoph Büchel’s battle against Mass MoCA, the legal documents and writing become, in the words of van Haaften-Schick, ‘alternative manifestations and productive failures.’ At times, law interjects in and constricts the production of culture. At other times, it becomes the artist’s best friend. In the words of Frank Stella, “what you see is what you see.”

It’s a great exhibition featuring a good list of projects and artists. And there’s also an accompanying catalogue. Here’s a link to the intro essay.

A huge thanks to Albright’s curator, Erin Riley-Lopez, for putting all of this together.