The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

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November 24, 2019 to October 4, 2020 | Opatrny Gallery, Sound Gallery

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here

The work of Zoë Sheehan Saldaña tends to hide in plain sight. Even her most elaborate undertakings, such as a reverse-engineered “Strike Anywhere” match or a hand-woven terrycloth towel, masquerade as objects you might toss away thoughtlessly, or stick in a drawer and forget. Underneath these acts of artistic camouflage lies a deep well of conviction, a drive to take full responsibility for things. For her exhibition at The Aldrich - the artist’s largest to date - Sheehan has refused the usual support that a museum offers. She will personally oversee every aspect of the project, down to making paint by hand and applying it to the gallery walls. Deceptively neutral in appearance, the space will be populated by about fifty of her beguiling handmade artifacts. The exhibition is an extended meditation on self-reliance: the instinct to escape the anxious, sometimes hysterical tenor of contemporary life. It will be accompanied by a publication with an essay by the exhibition’s curator, Glenn Adamson.



Video

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here

An Interview with Zoë Sheehan Saldaña by the Aldrich Teen Fellows

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Funders

Generous support for Zoë Sheehan Saldaña: There Must Be Some Way Out of Hereis provided by Kathleen O’Grady, The O’Grady Foundation, The Coby Foundation, and The PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Award Program.


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Fluid Meaning: Zoë Sheehan Saldaña’s Hand Sanitizer Bridges an Understanding of Conceptual Art, Observer

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here evokes a sense of urgency and taps into our current yearning for survival.

New Aldrich Exhibit Explores the Concept of Safe Spaces, The Ridgefield Press

“Safe space” is a loaded term these days yet artist Zoë Sheehan Saldaña astutely mines this concept in all its paradoxes to create an exhibition that explores ideas of safe spaces and self-reliance.

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here, Artforum

Titled “There Must Be Some Way Out of Here,” Sheehan’s exhibition prods at the relationship between artisanal craft and industrial production, and posits that the pairing might be uniquely American at heart.

Zoë Sheehan Saldaña and Glenn Adamson in Conversation, Sculpture Magazine

“There Must Be Some Way Out of Here,” on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum consists of some 50 handmade objects—“artistic camouflage,” as the museum puts it—that appear to be ordinary items one might find in any home.



Top image: Zoe