Exhibition
Public Sculptures
14 Jun 2021 – 15 Aug 2021
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Wednesday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 10:00 – 18:00
Black Cube
Public Sculptures is a solo show scattered throughout the city by Brooklyn-based artist Adam Milner presented by Black Cube, the nomadic contemporary art museum.
About
Black Cube, the nomadic contemporary art museum, is pleased to announce Public Sculptures, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Adam Milner. Curator Cortney Lane Stell describes the show as a counter-exhibition, as it takes an uncommon, pluralistic structure that embraces multiple sites and multiple audiences. As opposed to traditional exhibitions that are commonly framed as a singular concept at a fixed location, Milner’s counter-exhibition embraces plurality and dispersal with thirteen sculptures presented across New York City at thirteen sites, including a bodega, a friend’s SUV, and a thrift store.
Unlike conventional exhibitions where artworks are displayed within the sterility of the gallery, Milner’s intimately scaled artworks become part of their respective environments: Boyfriend’s Childhood Sword, a glass replica of a sword which the artist's ex-boyfriend had trained with as a child, pierces the top of a tree stump at Green-Wood Cemetery. My New Earring!, an oversized pearl earring made of plaster, steel, oil paint, and glue, dangles from a rearview mirror of a friend’s 2003 Honda CR-V. Another work sits quietly at a corner bodega, just above the bananas and potatoes and beneath the air fresheners. As a whole, the exhibition reimagines what encountering––and sharing––art in public space can look like. The exhibition title, Public Sculptures, turns the common associations of public art on its head. In place of the routine large, permanent, and masculine objects in plazas and parks, Milner’s public sculptures turn attention toward small, romantic gestures of care, trust, and empathy. This counter-exhibition offers a publicly accessible art experience that meets audiences in spaces they already visit, and creates a network of other sites engaged with the project.
“Often the language around my work is somewhat soft and romantic. It felt kind of bold to say, ‘Public Sculptures.’ To call these delicate arrangements ‘sculptures’ in the first place probably challenges some conventional thoughts around what sculpture typically is,” said Adam Milner.
In navigating this exhibition, visitors may discover the sculptures in passing, locate them during public hours via the exhibition’s website, or schedule a rendezvous with the site’s host (e.g., sending a text message in order to see an artwork on a dog named Oh Papa). Ranging in scale and material, the sculptures were produced within the artist’s home studio and in collaboration with friends, relating to the blurring of public and private space which Milner's work often engages. In its entirety, Public Sculptures reveals Milner’s deep interest in personal exchanges and willingness to unveil vulnerabilities.
“To share my strange sculptures with my neighbors and have them engage or accept them feels a bit like love. They all wanted to watch over an odd little object, to care for it and spend some time with it, to share it with their audience, community, or customers. This is something from another world almost, since things like this usually go straight into galleries or museums and then into collector’s homes or into storage, they seldom see the light of day like this,” said Milner.
Public Sculptures is on view June 14 through August 15, 2021. For a checklist of the artworks and a map of the participating locations, visit publicsculptures.net.
About the Artist:
Adam Milner (b. 1988) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Milner draws upon personal exchanges with people, things and institutions, to examine systems of intimacy, value and power. The artist's work reveals boundaries and involves a process of negotiation and exchange, often approaching materials and spaces that are off limits; Milner has created an experimental film aboard a cruise ship hosted by the app Grindr, collaborated with material engineers at NASA to use rare moon concrete technology, and intervened in the archives of Andy Warhol. Milner has exhibited at The Mattress Factory, The Warhol, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Aspen Art Museum, and Casa Maauad, among other institutions. Milner received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University (2017) and is a participant of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018). Milner is a 2019 Black Cube Artist Fellow.
About Black Cube :
Black Cube is a nonprofit, nomadic art museum headquartered in Denver, Colorado. By operating outside of traditional museum confines, Black Cube endeavors to reach diverse audiences across the globe while supporting artists’ sustainability. At its core, Black Cube stimulates the public realm with ambitious, experimental, and engaging contemporary art that seeks to inspire. To advance its mission, Black Cube offers an artist fellowship, exhibitions, and public programming focused on sustaining artists’ careers and forming meaningful relationships with audiences. Since 2015, Black Cube has worked closely with over 100 artists and produced nomadic exhibitions regionally, nationally, and internationally—from small Colorado mining towns to the world stage of the Venice Biennale. Black Cube was founded by philanthropist, Laura Merage, and is supported by the David and Laura Merage Foundation. Learn more at blackcube.art, or engage with us on Facebook and Instagram (@black_cube_nomadic_museum).