Past
ModA Curations Spring 2024 | March 14 - March 20
456 W Broadway, New York, NY 10012
Being human is complex, diverse, and ever-changing.
We feel, we think, we do. We are strong, we are soft. We are terrified, we are brave. We make sense of who we are in and with our worlds. We make our lives and live by what others have made. We map, with detail and
emotion, our everyday terrains. We pattern ourselves, yet are more than the sum of our parts.
Our exhibition aims to evoke the personal and shared in navigating human experiences. We put art into conversation with anthropology to call attention to the socio-cultural elements of our ways of being. The
artists are themselves ethnographers, demonstrating the importance of creation, documentation, and translation in their art as cultural text.
They navigate the interplay between our bodies and our surroundings, the relationship between nature and culture. They portray things as agents, grapple with the uncanny, and explore the potential for materiality to express the fabric of the human condition. They tackle identity in their craft, from femininity to blackness, and make place with diasporic living and displaced afterlives.
There is resistance, there is reclamation, there is reimagination. Together, our artists form an archive that challenges us to move beyond where we are to come closer.
Main Exhibition Hall: 1F + 2F
ModA Curations invited seven artists into the spotlight of New York City for the first time. This show brings together seven artists with distinct expertise, to shed light on underexposed voices from various cultures and artistic practices.
As you navigate through the works of Amalia Caputo, Phoebe Quin Kong, Juliana Correa, Zahra Mansoor, Alexander James, Ara Oshagan, and Claudia Koh, we invite you to immerse yourself fully in their interpretation of the theme "Being Human."
This exhibition serves as an anthropological exploration of contemporary art, inviting you to see, read, think, and feel deeply as you engage with the pieces on display. Through this curated collection, we aim for you to
discover echoes of your humanity reflected in the artistry and narratives presented. Join us on this journey of discovery and introspection.
Untapped, the Collection: 2F
Untapped, the Collection features artists on the rise, demonstrating how we are always becoming in their
artistry.
They explore being human with shape and form, playing with tensions between indulgence and decadence, the extravagant and the mundane. They experiment with tactile translation and make meaning with uncertainty. They examine what happens when instincts meet cultural realities and growth within parameters. They weave together fabric and figure, exploring pain, sensitivity, and destruction as inextricable.
Our emerging artists demonstrate the power of embracing plasticity in being human on their terms.
Art in the Field: B1
What happens when anthropology meets art?
Our ethnographers ask and answer this with their creative explorations in the field.
Art in the Field is our studio showcasing the fieldwork of two anthropologists, both hailing from Columbia University. One documents everyday presence and language learning in Inner Mongolia, sketching to express the details of their interlocutors’ lives, so that, even unidentifiable, they are seen. Another collects oral histories of graffiti writers in New York City to understand their making with urban spaces, and reading the unwritten from what is written.
Working at the intersection of art and anthropology, these two ethnographers bring to the forefront the power and possibilities of transdisciplinary.