Opening January 17 at ICA Philadelphia, Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses marks the first in-depth museum survey of multidisciplinary artist Carl Cheng. Encompassing more than 60 works as well as archival materials on view throughout both floors of the ICA, the exhibition brings together six decades of Cheng’s prescient, genre-defying work which operates at the intersection of identity, technology, and ecology. Nature Never Loses highlights the innovative and interdisciplinary nature of Cheng’s practice — one which has been largely excluded from art historical narratives to date. The show animates the arc of the artist’s career through a multidisciplinary, ephemeral, process-based, and interactive presentation.
Cheng first developed his practice in Southern California in the 1960s amid political unrest, an interdisciplinary art scene, a booming post-war aerospace industry, and the rapid development of the region’s landscape. Over the last 60 years, he has created an ever-evolving body of work that incorporates a variety of materials and media, engages with environmental change, investigates the relevance of art institutions to the public, and scrutinizes the role of technology in society — topics that are increasingly urgent in our contemporary moment.
While Cheng originally gained recognition for his photographic sculptures, his inventive lexicon includes the creation of “art tools” employed in the production of artworks, “nature machines” that anticipate an artificial world shaped by humans, and site-specific interventions aimed at engaging broad audiences. His work has consistently probed questions of natural agency and the extractive impact of humans on the environment. These investigations are tied to his unique approach to technology as an artistic tool and his critique of neoliberal notions of progress that undergird both the art market and the tech industry.
On view at ICA Philadelphia through April 6, Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is curated by Alex Klein, Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin; with Denise Ryner, Andrea B. Laporte Curator; as ICA’s receiving curator. Klein previously served as Senior Curator at ICA and has worked closely with Cheng over the last four years, meticulously distilling the artist’s vast oeuvre and archival material into a survey that includes documentation of rarely seen past installations and public artworks. The exhibition premiered at The Contemporary Austin and will be presented throughout North America and Europe following its presentation at ICA.
To learn more, visit icaphila.org.
