Arcadia University Art Gallery Presents “Tables of Contents: Ray Johnson Objects” Sept 6-Oct. 16
Glenside, PA—Aug. 26, 2011—Arcadia University Art Gallery presents an exhibition, “Tables of Contents: Ray Johnson Objects, starting on Sept. 6 through Oct. 16 in the Arcadia University Art Gallery in the Spruance Fine Art Center. Arcadia University is located at 450 S. Easton Road, Glenside, Pa.
“Tables of Contents: Ray Johnson Objects” is an exhibition exploring the contents of 13 cardboard boxes given to New York-based collage artist Robert Warner in 1990 by Ray Johnson (1927-1995) along with a sampling of the two artists’ correspondence and a selection of other works.
The exhibition is adapted from a project originally presented at Esopus Space (New York, NY) and is being supported at Arcadia by a series of public events (details to be announced). It offers visitors rare and intimate access to the collage-based, associative processes of a legendary figure often identified as the founder of mail art.
Described in 1965 by New York Times critic Grace Glueck as the city's “most famous unknown artist,” Johnson attended Black Mountain College in the late 1940s and went on to cultivate an innovative practice that included the production of prototypical examples of Pop art, Fluxus-oriented performance, and the extensive postal-based networks of the New York Correspondence School before his 1995 suicide.
Warner did not begin to archive the contents of the boxes until after Johnson’s death, a process that continues as an integral component of this exhibition. Arranged on a variety of tables sourced from the campus, the myriad found objects—including hundreds of envelopes that Johnson addressed but never posted and an entire mail-art exhibition presented at the Western Illinois University Art Gallery in the 1970s—are presented in a way that allows visitors to explore for themselves the web of references and puns connecting words, people, and things that informed Johnson's work as well as the production of his exquisite collages, a selection of which are also included.
For more information and gallery hours call 215-572-2131, or visit www.arcadia.edu/gallery.
Media Contact: Donna Whitlock, Arcadia University, 215-572-2969, whitlock@arcadia.edu, or gallery@arcadia.edu
About Arcadia University: Arcadia University is a top-ranked private university in metropolitan Philadelphia and a national leader in study abroad and international education. Arcadia University promises a distinctively global, integrative and personal learning experience that prepares students to contribute and prosper in a diverse and dynamic world. The 2010 Open Doors report ranks Arcadia University No. 1 in the nation among regional universities in the percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad. U.S. News & World Report ranks Arcadia University among the top regional universities in the North, as one of the top study abroad programs in the nation, and a “Top Up-and-Coming” school. The Physical Therapy program is ranked seventh in the nation.
