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Contact: Sarah Rehm MOCA 216.658.6938 [email protected]

MOCA Cleveland Announces Fall 2013 Exhibitions ’s First Comprehensive, Solo Show Opens November 1

CLEVELAND (November 1, 2013) – MOCA Cleveland will open its fall 2013 exhibitions on November 1 with -based artist Michelle Grabner’s first comprehensive solo museum show, and a survey of works from the past five years by Simon Evans, a British artist based in New York. The upcoming season’s exhibitions continue to call attention to important artists working today and explore their ways of working, providing visitors with in-depth presentations and rich experiences. Both exhibitions will include newly commissioned works, which continue to engage the architecture of MOCA Cleveland’s new building.

The 2014 exhibition programs are supported in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, HUGO BOSS, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Thompson Hine LLP, and Leadership Circle gifts from the Britton Fund, Agnes Gund, Scott Mueller, Joanne Cohen and Morris Wheeler, Margaret Cohen and Kevin Rahilly, Doreen and Dick Cahoon, Becky Dunn, Harriet and Victor Goldberg, Donna and Stewart Kohl, and Toby Devan Lewis. All MOCA Cleveland exhibitions and programs are presented with major support from The William Bingham Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Nesnadny + Schwartz, The Ohio Arts Council and the continuing support of the Museum’s Board of Directors, patrons, and members.

Michelle Grabner: I Work From Home (November 1, 2013–February 16, 2014) Organized by David Norr, Chief Curator The fall kicks off with Michelle Grabner’s first comprehensive solo museum exhibition, I Work From Home. The exhibition will survey Grabner’s paintings from 1993 to the present alongside an extensive selection of the artist’s photographs, video works, sculptures, and collaborations with other artists, which investigate themes of repetition, work, and the dynamics of domestic life. A particular focus of the exhibition is Grabner’s paintings, including her earliest representational works based on textile patterns from her domestic environment to her shift in focus on abstraction. MOCA Cleveland’s presentation comes at a moment when the artist is being widely recognized for her important contributions to the field, including her selection as a co-curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial.

An important feature of the exhibition is a replica of The Suburban, the eight-by-eight-foot project space that she and her husband and frequent collaborator, Brad Killam, have maintained next door to their home in Oak Park, Illinois since 1998. Over the years, this project space has hosted the work of over 200 artists, both emerging and internationally known, gaining an international reputation. For the exhibition, MOCA Cleveland will rebuild a replica of The Suburban in its Main Gallery to accommodate a series of projects and related programs. Artists featured will include Karl Haendel (November 1–26, 2013); Michael Smith (December 1- 31, 2013); Amanda Ross-Ho (January 5–22, 2014); and Jessica Jackson Hutchins (January 26– February 16, 2014). Additionally, Grabner and Killam will create a new hanging sculpture for the Museum’s Donna and Stewart Kohl Atrium as the second installment in the Museum’s annual Atrium Commission series.

“Michelle’s art will be very compelling for our audiences. They will see first-hand the discipline of her process, and the impressive results of more than 20 years of dedicated studio practice. This is an artist who has reshaped the Midwest art scene from her backyard, and she is the perfect example of how an artist can create space for production and dialog outside of typical art centers,” said Norr.

ARTIST BIO: Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, Wisconsin) lives and works in Oak Park, Illinois. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at PEREGRINEPROGRAM, Chicago; INOVA, The University of Wisconsin, ; Minus Space, Brooklyn; Ulrich Museum, Wichita; and University Galleries, Illinois State University. She has been included in group exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate St. Ives, UK; and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.

Simon Evans: Only Words Eaten by Experience (November 1, 2013–February 16, 2014) Organized by Rose Bouthillier, Assistant Curator Concurrently opening in the Toby Devan Lewis Gallery is an overview of the past five years of work by British artist Simon Evans, including text-based drawings, weavings, sculptures, and embroideries. This exhibition, titled Only Words Eaten by Experience, is Evans’s first solo show in the Midwest. The exhibition invites visitors into the mind of the artist as he tries to make sense of his world, offering glimpses of his humor and vulnerability.

Evans uses a meticulous process to assemble simple materials like paper scraps, scotch tape, pencil shavings, and white-out into diagrams, maps, and flowcharts that obsessively catalogue fragments of life and share confessional, often humorous, observations. The exhibition will be accompanied by a new text-based installation, titled Existing Models of Escape (2013), in the interior of the Museum’s Kohl Monumental Stair.

“Simon’s art is extremely personal and honest. His work explores the complexities of contemporary life and the ways we all cope with reality, relationships, and our own imperfect selves—which can be in turns beautiful, dark, pathetic and brave,” says Bouthillier.

ARTIST BIO: Simon Evans (b. 1972, , UK) lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg; Aspen Art Museum; White Columns, New York; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A travelling two-person exhibition featuring Evans and Öyvind Fahlström was held at Kunshtal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany.

Additional Information Michelle Grabner: I Work From Home and Simon Evans: Only Words Eaten by Experience will be on view from November 1, 2013 through February 16, 2014.

Admission for MOCA Cleveland members and children under 6 years old is free. General admission is $8; seniors 65+, $6; and students with valid ID, $5.

MOCA Cleveland’s hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm; open until 9 pm Thursdays; closed Mondays.

MOCA Cleveland, founded in 1968, is a leading force in Northeast Ohio’s cultural scene and is recognized nationally and internationally for its presentation of contemporary art and ideas. For more information on MOCA and all of its programming, visit www.MOCAcleveland.org or call 216-421-8671.

MOCA Cleveland · 11400 Euclid Avenue · Cleveland, OH 44106 · 216-421-8671

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