Press Release Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

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Art as Social Force Exhibition It's Your Party, Cry If You Want To JONATHAN HOROWITZ HILLARY CLINTON IS A PERSON TOO (2008)

On view through January 1, 2017

Detroit, MI and New York, NY – September 26, 2016 – The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is pleased to announce the addition of Jonathan Horowitz’s sculpture, Hillary Clinton is a Person Too (2008), to its recently opened exhibition, Art as Social Force Exhibition: It's Your Party, Cry If You Want To. The work will be unveiled at MOCAD’s Mobile Homestead in partnership with Gavin Brown's enterprise.

The presentation of Horowitz’s work comes in anticipation of the 2016 presidential election, similar to its preliminary reveal in the artist’s 2008 solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise (Obama ’08). Inspired by a 1970’s Mother’s Day ﬁgurine, Horowitz crafted his own version as a nod to Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.

“We are excited to share this sculpture with Detroit,” says MOCAD Director Elysia Borowy-Reeder. “It not only exempliﬁes the spirit of the museum’s Mobile Homestead project, but the importance of active debate and political participation in our city.”

While politically ambiguous, the sculpture pushes viewers to question many of the issues today’s presidential candidates face; for example, this election’s overt sexism. The presence of gender bias in our culture has brought us to a crossroads this election: Hillary Clinton has again become a ﬁgure both viliﬁed and championed by the electorate. Where does this leave us?

"It’s usually the powerless that have to ask to be recognized as human beings, which can be demeaning,” says Horowitz. “Ironically, Hillary, who is decidedly not powerless, has had to do similar things to seem more likable.”

“Detroit is central to both candidates’ rhetoric about the US job market,” says Gavin Brown of Gavin Brown’s enterprise. “It is the ideal backdrop for an artwork so entwined in our nation’s socioeconomic conversation.”

The project and exhibition will be on view through January 1, 2017.

About Jonathan Horowitz Since the early 1990s, Jonathan Horowitz has made art that combines the imagery and ambivalence of Pop art with the engaged criticality of conceptualism. Often based in both popular commercial and art historical sources, his work in video, sculpture, painting and photography examines the deep-seated links between consumerism and political consciousness, as well as the political silences of postwar art. Recent painting projects have explored the personal psychology of mark making, at times, prominently employing the hands of others. Solo exhibitions include Occupy Greenwich (Brant Foundation, 2016); Your Land/My Land: Election '12, presented concurrently at seven museums across the US (from the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles to the New Museum, New York, 2012); Minimalist Works from the Holocaust Museum (Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland, 2010-11); Apocalypto Now (Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2009); and the retrospective exhibition, And/Or, (P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 2009). Horowitz lives and works in New York.

About MOCAD’s Mobile Homestead Inspired by Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead, MOCAD has embarked on a multi-year examination of artists who seek to create participatory and socially transformative art. Known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among art making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism, and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art form.

About Art as Social Force Exhibition: It's Your Party, Cry If You Want To Don’t Swap Horses in the Middle of the Stream, In your Heart you Know He’s Right, and Not Just Peanuts. Are these titles of country songs or campaign slogans? If you guessed campaign slogans you're correct! But who won these elections and who lost? Find out this fall when we celebrate the winners and losers alike with It's Your Party, an exhibition of presidential campaign memorabilia drawn from the vast collection of Morry "The Button Man" Greener. Campaign posters, bumper stickers, pennants, and other ephemera from elections past and present will ﬁll the Mobile Homestead. In the garage we'll be screening election related ﬁlms and historical debates and broadcasting the live coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign. Join us for debate and election night parties where you are welcome to commiserate or celebrate with your friends and neighbors.

The Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead is commissioned by Artangel in association with MOCAD, LUMA Foundation and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts with the generous support of the Artangel International Circle. Support for the Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead is provided by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Support for Hillary Clinton is a Person Too has been provided by Gavin Brown’s enterprise.

About Art as Social Force Inspired by Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead, MOCAD has embarked on a multi-year examination of artists who seek to establish participatory and socially transformative art. Known primarily as social practice, its practitioners freely blur the lines among art making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism, and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art that often ﬂourishes outside the gallery and museum system.

PRESS CONTACTS:

MOCAD Elysia Borowy-Reeder: [email protected]

Cultural Counsel Adam Abdalla: [email protected] Erin Pinover: [email protected]

MOCAD Support

Exhibition programming support is generously provided by the Taubman Foundation.

MOCAD Operations are supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Masco Corporation Foundation, Erb Family Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Erb Family Foundation approved unrestricted operating support for 38 cultural and arts organizations, including larger organizations that have had historical significance to the family and other organizations that are essential elements of a strong core central City and vibrant neighborhoods.

Exhibition programming support for Ragnar Kjartansson's Woman in E is generously provided by the Taubman Foundation and From Ethan and Gretchen Davidson . Additional funding for programming and educational initiatives is provided by the Edith S. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation.

DETROIT CITY funding is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Kayne Foundation (Ric & Suzanne Kayne and Jenni, Maggie & Saree) .

Detroit Speaks funding is provided by the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

DEPE Space funding is provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

MOCAD Capital support is provided by Midtown Detroit, Inc., and the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs.

MOCAD's 201 6 202 1 Strategic Planning Initiative is funded in part by a generous grant from the Kresge Foundation.

MOCAD would like to thank our Leadership Circle (Jennifer and David Fischer, Linda Dresner and Ed Levy, Marsha and Jeffrey Miro, Roz and Scott Jacobson, Danialle and Peter Karmanos, Sonia and Keith Pomeroy, Sandy Seligman and Gil Glassberg, and, Julie Reyes Taubman and Robert Taubman) for making these programs possible: Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead, Lectures, Poetry, Performance Art, Exhibitions, Film, DEPE Space, Music, Family Day, Public Programming, Education, Literature, and Museum Operations. Stay connected!

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The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is an innovative addition to Detroit's vibrant Midtown neighborhood, and functions as a hub for the exploration of emerging ideas in the contemporary arts. As a non collecting institution, MOCAD is responsive to the cultural content of our time, fueling crucial dialogue, collaboration, and public engagement. The Museum is located between the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Wayne State University, and the College for Creative Studies. The cavernous 22,000 square foot building, a former auto dealership, has been simply renovated to maintain its raw historic character. MOCAD’s ambitious series of former auto dealership, has been simply renovated to maintain its raw historic character. MOCAD’s ambitious series of public programs includes lectures, musical performances, films, literary readings and educational activities for area youth. Mobile Homestead, by late artist Mike Kelley, is a permanent art work located on the grounds of the museum. It is both a public sculpture and a private, personal construction – based on the artist's childhood home on Palmer Road in Westland. The ground floor serves as a community event space by and for a diverse public, as Kelley intended. MOCAD is generously supported by individual members, private and corporate foundations, and government agencies. More information can be found at mocadetroit.org.