First museum exhibition of multidisciplinary artist and designer Virgil Abloh features two decades of work in fashion, painting, sculpture, music, and design

(Boston, MA—April 6, 2021) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech,” the first museum exhibition devoted to the work of the multidisciplinary artist and designer Virgil Abloh (b. 1980, Rockford, IL), opening to the public on July 3 (Member Preview Days begin July 1; more details at icaboston.org). The Founder and Creative Director of Off-White™ and current Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear, Abloh is known for his work in music, visual art, philanthropy, and the fields of design. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and set in an immersive space designed by Rem Koolhaas’s renowned architecture firm OMA*AMO, the exhibition will offer an in-depth look at defining highlights of Abloh’s career, including signature clothing collections from his stand-alone fashion brand Off-White™, video documentation of iconic fashion shows, distinctive furniture, graphic design work, and collaborative projects with other artists. The exhibition comprises nearly 70 works, including two new works that will be on view for the first time in the Boston presentation. On view July 3 through September 26, 2021, Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” is organized by Michael Darling, former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at MCA Chicago. The exhibition is designed by Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the research and design studio of OMA. The ICA’s presentation is coordinated by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator.

“We are all so excited to welcome Virgil Abloh and his explosive creativity to Boston. Audiences and Abloh fans will be immersed in his art and fashion and the multiplicity of references to history, architecture, street and skatewear that Virgil deftly uses to redefine and shape 21st-century culture and design,” said Jill Medvedow, the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Director.

“Abloh’s creativity is unstoppable and wildly innovative. He made his mark by celebrating the spirit of streetwear culture while also appropriating and altering high culture to create something exciting and new. This foundational work spurred creative pursuits in every artistic medium and with countless collaborators. ‘Figures of Speech’ guides visitors through signature moments in the past twenty years of Abloh’s creative life, presenting a range of projects and collaborations that reflect his ability to channel far-reaching influences—from Caravaggio and Mies van der Rohe to skateboarding and 1980s graffiti—into his own unique approach,” said Ruth Erickson, the ICA’s Mannion Family Curator.

The exhibition offers an unprecedented survey of Abloh’s creative work over nearly two decades and pulls back the curtain on his process. Prototypes are presented alongside finished artworks, product designs, and fashion to reveal his myriad inspirations—from centuries-old paintings to commonplace signage at construction sites. Running throughout the exhibition is an emphasis on dialogue, which Abloh creates through his inventive use of language and quotation marks, turning the objects he designs and the people who wear his clothing into “figures of speech.”

The ICA will premiere four new works in its presentation of “Figures of Speech” including a large-scale sculpture “Frontin’” (2021) that takes the shape of a half-pipe skate ramp to consider this formative built and social space on Abloh, and “Toolbox” (2019), an inventive mash-up of a Louis Vuitton trunk with a c. 1980s boom box, complete with colorful graffiti and rabbit ear antennas. The museum will also include Abloh’s celebrated Louis Vuitton fall 2021 menswear line, presented as a video work made through the collaboration with numerous artists including Saul Williams, Kai Isiah Jamal, and Wu Tsang. Filled with spoken word, performance, music, and movement, this tremendous collection reflects Abloh at the height of his interdisciplinary creativity. His work in fashion will be presented in a newly conceived environment within the exhibition, designed by Abloh and Samir Bantal of AMO.

Abloh’s expansive creative vision will extend beyond the ICA through a new series of artworks created for the exhibition advertising campaign (see image above). “The announcement of my exhibition at the ICA/Boston offers a unique view inside the operating system of my art practice. Figurative and literal sentiments are explored at the same time, as evident by the exhibition artwork itself,” said Abloh.

Exhibition highlights

Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” features five galleries that chronicle the different pillars of the artist’s work in fashion, music, art, furniture, and graphic design. Setting the tone for visitors as they enter the exhibition, the museum’s elevator shaft will feature “PSA” (2019), an 18-foot-long flag that reads, “QUESTION EVERYTHING”.

Early work
Abloh got his start in fashion with a t-shirt. In the early 2000s, his fledgling designs caught the attention of Kanye West’s creative team, and West was so impressed that he invited Abloh to join his inner circle. Over the next decade, Abloh witnessed experiments in fashion and concert merchandise design. He also completed an internship at the Italian fashion house Fendi and, in 2012, was ready to go out on his own. Abloh returned to graphic t-shirts, designing clothing with streetwear brand Hood by Air and later his own brand Pyrex Vision, which featured mass-produced sweatshirts and plaid shirts onto which he screenprinted “Pyrex,” (the glassware used in home drug labs) “23,” (Michael Jordan’s basketball number) and images of a painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio. These references allude to stereotypical ways disadvantaged youth can overcome their hardships: by selling drugs or becoming a famous athlete. The video “A Team with No Sport” (2012) helped to promote the launch of Pyrex Vision and included members of the then-emerging rap collective A$AP Mob. Abloh’s early work was inspired by sports uniforms and hip-hop and skateboarder fashion, as well as provocative images and graphics found in contemporary art. It shows the first signs of his subversive interest in taking something basic—even boring—and injecting it with new meaning, and then sending it out into the world to be seen again in a fresh way.

Fashion
Abloh’s first fashion brand, Pyrex Vision, was based on a limited template of screen-printed store-bought shirts, shorts, and sweatshirts. A year later, in 2013, Abloh signaled the expanded scope of his ambition, launching the clothing brand Off-White™, establishing a studio in Milan—the fashion capital of the world—and showing his work at the prestigious design showcase Paris Fashion Week. Nearly every Off-White™ collection investigates a theme, tackling class, race, history, gender, and other established rules of fashion and society. His architecture background and interest in the urban fabric also come into play in patterns and graphics derived from roads, signage, buildings, uniforms, and many other commonplace items. This gallery presents a dynamic display of Abloh’s work in fashion, leading visitors from some of his earliest forays in fashion to highlights from Off-White™ and Louis Vuitton seasons. Bracketing this display is video documentation of select fashion shows, elements from his innovative scenography, and such signature objects as “FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY,” (2018) Abloh’s re-imagination of Louis Vuitton’s classic Keepall bag, and Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh™ for Beyoncé (2018), an Off-White™ dress Abloh designed for Beyoncé’s 2018 Vogue cover photo shoot (though it was not published in the magazine) that combines a traditional flowing silhouette with Abloh’s signature black-and-white diagonal stripes.

Music
This section captures Abloh’s collaborations with stars such as Kanye West, Jay-Z, and A$AP Rocky, among others, and his prodigious work as a DJ and in the music industry. As with his work in fashion, Abloh connects with subcultures and offers alternatives to the status quo in his work with music, performing wide-ranging DJ sets at venues and festivals around the world. Parallel to his work on Off-White™, he has constructed a comprehensive visual approach to branding his work, drawing not only on his skill in graphic design, but also on his experience working for West’s creative company. There, he oversaw the creation of concert merchandise, album packaging, and stage designs for West as well as other musicians in his orbit. The work “IN HIS IMAGE” (A TRIBUTE TO YEEZUS) (2019) is a large-scale version of Kanye West’s sixth album, Yeezus (2013), which features album art designed by Abloh. The new version pays homage to the Grammy-nominated album and the graphic clarity of its design. The packaging reveals Abloh’s modernist architectural sensibility: only the necessary elements are retained, reducing the packaging to a single red sticker that keeps the CD’s jewel box closed and displays the album’s name. Other works bring elements of Abloh’s performances into the gallery, including the 14-minute sound piece First Person (2019) that features spoken word sound-tracks Abloh often curates to play before his Off-White™ runway shows, and the text-based video In Other Words (2017) often projected behind Abloh during his concerts.

Black gaze
This section presents Abloh’s fashion and artworks that reflect on Black cultural experiences in the United States. With the 2013 launch of Off-White™ in Milan, Abloh challenged the elite fashion industry’s long-standing exclusion of Black talent. Abloh marketed Off-White™ prominently on social media, appealing to a younger, more diverse generation of consumers. Off-White™ campaigns have celebrated Black artists, athletes, and musicians, providing a platform and affirming their identity as creators in their own right. In 2018, Abloh assumed the role of Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, becoming one of the few Black designers to helm a major Parisian fashion house. He now uses his high-profile platform to forge a more inclusive vision for high fashion. Highlights include selected photographs from striking advertising campaigns as well as recent sculptures by Abloh. “AS IMPOSSIBLE” (2019), a ladder sculpted from blue foam and too fragile to ascend, serves a symbol of Abloh’s improbable rise and the serious challenges faced by people of color in most industries. Another work, a neon sign titled “You’re Obviously in the Wrong Place” (2015/19), originally welcomed attendees to the Off-White™ Fall/Winter 2016 runway show, referencing a line from the film Pretty Woman (1990) where a woman is dismissed by a snobbish saleswoman at a high-end clothing store.

Design
For Abloh, design is as much about the process as it is about the final product, which he achieves by asking questions and prototyping. Picking apart established norms in art and design including materials and imagery, he upends expectations to call critical attention to our surroundings. The transparency inherent to his method nods to his training in both architecture and engineering, and his admiration for modernist German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whose buildings make their structures and functions readily apparent. This section surveys Abloh’s expansive design practice, including forays into architecture, furniture, painting, sculpture, and shoes. A series of Abloh’s concrete benches and chairs titled Efflorescence (2019) anchor the gallery along with the towering sculpture Dorm Room (2019) built from prototype furniture with rugs Abloh created in a 2018–2019 collaboration with global housewares retailer IKEA. “AN ARRAY OF AIR” (2019) features unreleased shoes from Abloh’s collaborations with Nike in various stages of prototyping. Abloh’s designs for Nike used collaged elements, transparent materials, self-referential labels, tabs, and zip ties to emphasize the shoes’ construction, inviting people to take a second look at these iconic sneakers. These prototypes offer a behind-the-scenes view of Abloh’s design process, which involves working through many concepts and iterations of a project before reaching the final result.

ICA Digital Guide on Bloomberg Connects

Hear from Virgil Abloh, go behind the scenes, and explore his exclusive line of products for the ICA, on our free digital guide on Bloomberg Connects. Available free by searching “Bloomberg Connects” on the App Store or Google Play.

Virgil Abloh pop-up store: “Church & State”

A special Virgil Abloh pop-up store called “Church & State” accompanies the exhibition. It will feature a variety of products designed by Abloh, including a line of exhibition-specific apparel, as well as limited-edition pieces from Abloh’s Off-White™ brand produced exclusively for the ICA. Abloh and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the research and design studio of renowned architecture firm OMA, have completely reimagined the concept and design of the store for the ICA, transforming the museum’s Bank of America Art Lab on the first floor.

Exhibition catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 512-page monograph. Produced in close collaboration with the artist, the catalogue uses Abloh’s signature “question everything” approach to explore his creativity in a three-books-in-one format. The museum section offers an overview of Abloh’s multidisciplinary work by exhibition curator Michael Darling, and features essays and interviews with key voices in art, fashion, design, and architecture, including Taiye Selasi, Lou Stoppard, Michael Rock, Samir Bantal, Rem Koolhaas, and Anja Aronowsky Cronberg. In the archives section, more than 1700 images culled from the artist’s personal files reveal the remarkable breadth of his influences and interests. Statements from peers in the creative community, including George Condo, Jenny Holzer, Michele Lamy, Heron Preston, and Anna Wintour, attest to Abloh’s rich collaborations and wide-ranging network. An illustrated index section cross references plate and archive images according to categories established by Abloh for his unique practice. Designed by OK-RM and Playlab, the volume is published by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and DelMonico Books-Prestel.

ICA Teens X OJ Slaughter: “Breaking Cycles”

Jul 3 to Sep 26, 2021

The ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Mediatheque will feature a presentation co-developed with Boston-based artist OJ Slaughter. As part of a larger photography project for Virgil Abloh’s pop-up store “Church & State,” Slaughter collaborated with ICA teens on an editorial fashion shoot inspired by Abloh’s work and his theme of “breaking the rules.”

About the ICA

Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.


Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” is organized by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition tour is made possible by Kenneth C. Griffin.

The exhibition is curated by Michael Darling, former the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator at MCA Chicago, and is designed by Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the research and design studio of OMA. The ICA’s presentation is coordinated by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator.

Major support for the Boston presentation of Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” is provided by Encore Boston Harbor and Boston Seaport by WS Development.

  

Support is provided by Northern Trust

Neiman Marcus is the Lead Education Partner of Teen Programs associated with Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”

Additional support is generously provided by Kathleen McDonough and Edward Berman, Kate and Chuck Brizius, Stephanie and John Connaughton, Karen Swett Conway and Brian Conway, Jean-François and Nathalie Ducrest, Audrey and James Foster, Jodi and Hal Hess, Marina Kalb and David Feinberg, Kristen and Kent Lucken, David and Leslie Puth, and Mark and Marie Schwartz.

Báez’s immersive sculptural installation will be accompanied with a project by Boston-based artist Stephen Hamilton

(Boston, MA—April 5, 2021) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) will open the next season of the Watershed, its project space in East Boston, with a new, monumental sculpture by acclaimed New York-based artist Firelei Báez (b. 1981, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic). In her largest sculptural installation to date, the artist reimagines ancient ruins as though the sea had receded from the Watershed floor to reveal the archeology of human history in the Caribbean. Accompanied by an undulating blue expanse overhead—evoking both water and the night sky—this immersive sculptural installation includes a soundscape created from recordings of Boston Harbor and the Caribbean, featuring sounds of the sea and maritime bustling, as well as personal stories of migration. In addition, a large-scale mural created by the artist for the Watershed—featuring a seascape populated by Ciguapa, a mythological creature from Dominican folklore—creates a multi-textured viewer experience. These elements weave together various histories and stories, setting the stage for visitors to be transported into new realms. Opening to the public on July 3 (Member Preview Days begin July 1; more details at icaboston.org), Báez’s sculpture and mural will be accompanied by an art project by Boston-based artist Stephen Hamilton in the Watershed’s Harbor Room. On view July 3 to September 6, 2021, Firelei Báez is organized by Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator.

“The Watershed’s location—in a working shipyard and as a trade site and point of entry and home for immigrants over decades—provides a pivotal point of reference for the work. Her installation will invite visitors to walk through passageways, travel through time, and experience the many streams of influence and interconnectedness that the artist conjures,” said Medvedow.

“Báez’s visual references draw from a wide variety of sources in the past, and are reconfigured to explore new possibilities in the present. Her site-specific installation at the Watershed combines her interests in various diasporic narratives—African, European, Caribbean—to cast cultural and regional histories into an imaginative realm,” said Respini.

Báez’s architectural sculpture is adapted from the Sans-Souci Palace in Milot, Haiti, built between 1810 and 1813 for the revolutionary leader and first King of Haiti, Henri Christophe I. The Haitian Revolution, led by self-liberated enslaved people against the French colonial government, was an early precursor to the abolition movements of the United States. Once a space of splendor, since an 1842 earthquake, the castle has been an archeological ruin. At the Watershed, Báez reimagines these ruins emerging from Boston Harbor’s sea floor. She embeds Sans-Souci within the geological layers of Boston, where histories of revolution and independence are integral, including often overlooked related narratives from non-European locations.

Báez’s intricately painted architectural surfaces include symbols of healing and resistance as well as sea growths native to Caribbean waters. Originally trained as a painter, Báez is an expert of trompe l’oeil. She considers all of her work, even the sculpture at the Watershed, to belong to the illusionistic realm of painting. The work could be considered a hybrid, where the illusion of a painting and physicality of a sculpture meet. The patterning of the sculpture’s surface is drawn largely from West African indigo printing appropriated from enslaved peoples in the 17th-century American South. American indigo was a driving force in the early national economy, and one of the primary trade goods shipped from colonial-era Boston. This material became intrinsically woven into early American decorative and utilitarian textiles—a symbol of “true blue” Americana. Báez’s sculpture points to the centuries-long exchange of ideas and influence between Europe, the African continent, and the Americas.

ICA Digital Guide on Bloomberg Connects 

See artist Firelei Báez at work on this monumental installation on the new ICA Digital Guide on Bloomberg Connects. Available free by searching “Bloomberg Connects” on the App Store or Google Play. 

Stephen Hamilton
Jul 3 to Sep 6, 2021
The Watershed’s Harbor Room will feature a presentation co-developed with Boston-based artist and educator Stephen Hamilton that highlights the generations-long tradition of indigo dyeing in West Africa too often ignored in the accounting of early American history. Considering Baez’s sculptural work that includes references to erased histories of the African diaspora from the West, Hamilton will bring these histories to life once again through words, images, and textiles. On display will be his painting Owners of the Earth (2020), a richly layered mixed-media work that refers to traditional artforms and philosophies from the Yoruba people in West Africa, accompanied by a description of the unrecognized historical contributions of West Africa to indigo use in the Americas, and educational materials depicting indigo dying techniques that the artist adopted during his research in southwestern Nigeria.

“A flexible space for gathering and education projects, the Harbor Room highlights artists from our community and features projects in response to our location and focused themes at the Watershed. Hamilton’s research, writing, and art seek to reclaim artistic knowledge lost during the transatlantic slave trade. For his paintings, he deploys a distinctive mixture of both Black American and traditional West African traditions, resulting in a unique and striking combination that feels both historical and contemporary at the same time,” said Monica Garza, the ICA’s Charlotte Wagner Director of Education.

Artist biographies

Firelei Báez
Firelei Báez was born in 1981 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitian descent. Her upbringing between Hispaniola’s two countries, which have a longstanding history of tension predicated on ethnic difference, informs her concerns with the politics of place and heritage. She currently lives and works in New York City.

Báez received a BFA from the Cooper Union’s School of Art before receiving her MFA from Hunter College in New York. She is shortlisted for Artes Mundi 9 in 2021. In 2019, the artist’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Mennello Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the Modern Window at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She was featured in the 2018 Berlin Biennale, Prospect.3: Notes for Now (2014), Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial (2013), and El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files (2011). Her major 2015 solo exhibition Bloodlines was organized by the Pérez Art Museum Miami and travelled to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Báez is the recipient of many awards, including most recently the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2020), the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), the Soros Arts Fellowship (2019), the United States Artists Fellowship (2019), the College Art Association Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work (2018), the Future Generation Art Prize (2017), the Chiaro Award (2016), and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2011). The artist’s work is represented in important collections worldwide, including ICA/Boston, the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Pérez Art Museum Miami, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (Durham) Spelman College Museum of Fine Art (Atlanta), New Orleans Museum of Art, and Kemper Art Museum (St. Louis).

Stephen Hamilton
Boston-based artist and educator Stephen Hamilton incorporates both Western and non-Western artmaking techniques to create portraits of his contemporaries. As a Black American trained in traditional West African artforms, he recognizes his weaving, dyeing, and woodcarving as ritualized acts. These processes reclaim ancestral knowledge dissociated from Africans in the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade. Hamilton’s labor-intensive process to portray his living subjects with beauty, honor, and dignity also counters negative representations of Black Americans.

Hamilton completed his studies at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and will soon pursue graduate work at Harvard University’s African and African American Studies Department. He also studied at the Nike Centre for Art and Culture at Osogbo, Nigeria in 2015–16 through an international artist residency award from Arts Connect International. Since 2018, he has served as an assistant professor of illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a senior instructor at the school’s Artward Bound program, a college-access initiative for high school students. Hamilton’s work has been exhibited in venues including Boston City Hall, The Museum of The National Center of Afro-American Artists, the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Nubian Square, and Medicine Wheel Productions. His work can be found in the collections of the ICA/Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

About the Watershed

On July 4, 2018, the ICA opened to the public its new ICA Watershed expanding artistic and educational programming on both sides of Boston Harbor—the Seaport and East Boston. Located in the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina, the ICA Watershed transformed a 15,000-square-foot, formerly condemned space into a vast and welcoming space to see and experience large-scale art. The Watershed builds upon the extraordinary momentum achieved by the museum since opening its visionary waterfront building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in 2006. Admission to the Watershed—central to the museum’s vision for art and civic life—is free for all. The Watershed opened its inaugural year with an immersive installation by Diana Thater and its second year, 2019, with the U.S. premiere of John Akomfrah’s Purple. The Watershed was closed to the public in 2020 to support the city and state in their efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. During the pandemic, the site has been used as a food distribution site to address a direct need within the East Boston community, which has experienced one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in Boston.

About the ICA

Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.


Firelei Báez is organized by Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator.

Free admission to the ICA Watershed is made possible by the generosity of Alan and Vivien Hassenfeld and the Hassenfeld Family Foundation.

The Boston Foundation welcomes you to the ICA Watershed. 

The Boston Foundation logo

The ICA Watershed is supported by Fund for the Arts, a public art program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, and Vertex.
 

NEFA logo

Vertex logo

Download PDF / Descargar PDF

Play your favorite music and let’s get moving with this interactive dance game. Invite a family member, friend, or neighbor to join you for a night of fun.

Reproduce tu música favorita y comienza a moverte con este juego de baile interactivo. Invita a un familiar, amigo o vecino a compartir contigo una noche de diversión.

Materials/Materiales:

Cut out cards icon.

Dance move cards
Tarjetas de pasos de baile

Music note icon.

Music of your choice
Música de tu preferencia

Action lines radiating out icon.

Feel-good vibes
Buena onda 

 

Instrustions/Instrucciones: 

  1. Cut or tear-off the included dance move cards.
  2. Place the cards in a cup, jar, or small container.
  3. Take turns choosing a card and dancing the move for others to guess. Visit www.anamasacote.com/dancecharades to learn about the dance moves.
  4. Bonus: Create a solo dance choreography by dancing the moves in the order that you pick them from the jar. Take a video of your moves and upload it to Tik Tok!
     
  1. Recorta o arranca las tarjetas de pasos de baile que se incluyen.
  2. Coloca las tarjetas en una taza, un frasco o un recipiente pequeño.
  3. Por turnos, cada participante elige una tarjeta e imita el paso de baile para que los demás adivinen cuál es. Visita www.anamasacote.com/dancecharades para aprender acerca de los pasos de baile.
  4. Extra: Crea una coreografía de un baile solista en el que sigas los pasos según el orden en que los saques del frasco. ¡Haz un vídeo de tus pasos y súbelo a Tik Tok!

Electric Slide

 

Running Man

 

Macarena

 

Nae Nae

 

Moonwalk

 

Gangnam Style

 

Twist

 

Chicken Dance

 

Single Ladies

 

Tootsie Roll

 

Vogue

 

Salsa

 

Cha Cha

 

Carlton

 

Grapevine

 

Robot

 

Merengue

 

Bachata

 

See more GIFs of dance demonstrations by visiting Ana’s website here: www.anamasacote.com/dancecharades

Ana Masacote is an award-winning Afro-Latin dance specialist who passionately believes that through dance, we can facilitate social change within communities. She has spread the salsa bug to more than 30 countries across “ve continents. Ana is the founder of Dance to Power, an online Afro-Latin dance academy startup, and former partner of internationally renowned Masacote Entertainment.

Ana Masacote es una galardonada especialista en danza afrolatina que cree con pasión que, a través de la danza, podemos facilitar el cambio social en las comunidades. Ha contagiado el entusiasmo por la salsa en más de 30 países a lo largo de cinco continentes. Ana es la fundadora de Dance to Power, una nueva academia de danza afrolatina en línea, y fue socia de Masacote Entertainment, una compañía de danza de renombre internacional.

 

Share your artwork on social media with #ICAartlab.

Visit www.anamasacote.com/dancecharades to learn about the dance moves.

Comparte tu obra de arte en las redes sociales con la etiqueta #ICAartlab.

Visita www.anamasacote.com/dancecharades para aprender acerca de los pasos de baile.

Download PDF

Download mask template

Are you ready to protect your community? Are you willing to !ght for justice? Show your super skills by making your own superhero mask!

This activity is adaptable for beginners to experts. Younger children may need assistance using scissors to cut cardboard/paper. Great for individuals, groups, and families to work on together at home.

Materials:

Icon of mask.

Mask template or a piece of paper, fabric, or cardboard (a cereal box works great!)

Icon of pencil

Pencil

Icon of scissors

Scissors

Roll of tape icon.

Tape or stapler

 

Icon of elastic string.

String or elastic band

Icon of beads, feather, and glue stick.

Decoration supplies: markers, paint, sequins, feathers, glue, etc. 

   

Instructions:

Icon of mask shape with two X's on either side outlined on paper with pencil.

1.
If using the included mask template, move on to step 2. If designing your own mask, work with a buddy at home to measure the width of your face. Have your buddy hold up the piece of paper to your face and use a pencil to carefully make “X” marks on the paper at each of your temples. (Your temples are between your eyes and ears.) Sketch your mask and be sure the design reaches each “X” mark. 

 

Icon of mask outline with two X's on either side and X's in the eye holes on paper drawn with pencil.

2.
Measure the distance between your eyes to create the eye holes on your mask. Work with an adult to hold up your mask to your face and using a pencil, very gently and carefully, make an “X” mark near each of your eyes. You don’t want the pencil to go through the paper. Put the paper back down on your work surface and draw the design of the eye holes. 
 

Icon of mask outline and scissor cutting the shape.

3.
Using scissors, cut out the shape of the mask. To cut out the eye holes, work with an adult and use a pencil to poke holes through each “X” mark, then round out the eye holes using scissors. Once cut, put down the scissors, then hold up the mask to your face to test if you can see out of the eye holes. Modify if necessary. 
 

Icon of painted yellow and black mask with glue stick.

4.
To give your mask more details and to bring it to life, color and decorate your mask. For extra “air, use tape or glue to attach decorative materials that suit your superhero like sequins, feathers, dried leaves, tin foil, etc.
 

Icon of pink tape roll, yellow and black painted mask, and string.

5.
Attach ear loops. Measure the string or elastic band from your temple around the back of your ear, then cut two pieces at this length. Attach the string/elastic band by either poking a hole through the mask and tying o# the string, or taping or stapling the string ends to the mask. 

 

This activity was created by Sergio Salicio-Lupiañez, Visitor Assistant.

Share your art with friends and family and on social media with #ICAArtLab or email us at familyprograms@icaboston.org.

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Sometimes in turbulent and unpredictable times, we need role models who can remind us of our ability to overcome di!culties. Superheroes inspire us to become better versions of ourselves and remind us to help take care of each other. This activity encourages you to think about your own potential and how you can help solve issues in your community.

This activity is adaptable for beginners to experts and is great for individuals, groups, and families to work on together at home. 

Materials:

Paper, pencil, pen, and crayon icon.

Drawing supplies, like paper, pencil, colored pencils, markers, and/or crayons

Light bulb icon with light rays.

Your imagination!

Instructions:

 

1.

Using drawing supplies of your choice, dream up a superhero and design their costume.

Draw them in their costume and in action. Include as many details as you can think of.

 

 

2.

Create the story of your superhero. Draw and/or write about their story.
Answer some of these questions throughout your story:

What is their name?

What are their superpowers?

Where is their secret hideout?

What do they do to help their community? 

 

 

3.

Share your artwork on social media with #ICAartlab or email us your photos at familyprograms@icaboston.org.

You can also share a photo of someone who is a superhero to you!
Maybe your mom, dad, aunt, brother, friend, neighbor, etc.

There are many anonymous superheroes out there
and we want to give you a space to celebrate them! 

 

 

A crayon drawing of a characters in overalls, rainbow-colored hair, and a giant paintbrush.

ACRYLIC WOMAN

SUPERPOWER:
Everything she paints becomes real!

HIDEOUT:
Somewhere near the ICA

Acrylic Woman paints schools, hospitals, and daycare centers for the community. Lately, she has been painting masks, food, and art kits for families!

 

This activity was created by Sergio Salicio-Lupiañez, Visitor Assistant. 

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Let’s do some “gardening” together! What do you want to grow? Use your observation skills, your memories, or your imagination to create your own community garden bed. 

“Cultivemos” una huerta juntos. ¿Qué te gustaría cultivar? Usa tus habilidades de observación, tus recuerdos o la imaginación para crear tu propia huerta comunitaria.

Materials/Materiales:

You can use any materials you like, but here are some suggestions:
Puedes usar cualquier material que quieras, pero aquí tienes algunas sugerencias:

Icon of pencil

Colored pencils
Lápices de colores

Paint brush icon.

Watercolors
Acuarelas

Pen icon.

Markers
Marcadores

Paper icon.

Cut pieces of paper for collage + glue
Recortes de papel para hacer collage + pegamento

Instrustions/Instrucciones: 

Fill the garden bed with whatever you wish to grow! Here are some things to think about:

  1. What are you growing? Flowers? Food? Dreams? Giant robots?
  2. Is your garden bed filled with dirt or something else?
  3. Is anyone in there gardening?
  4. Maybe your garden is filled with a poem or story! 
     

Llena la huerta con todo lo que te gustaría cultivar. Estas son algunas cosas en las que pensar: 

  1. ¿Qué estás cultivando? ¿Flores? ¿Alimentos? ¿Sueños? ¿Robots gigantescos?
  2. ¿Está la huerta llena de tierra o de alguna otra cosa?
  3. ¿Hay alguien allí que esté cultivando?
  4. ¡Tal vez tu huerta contiene un poema o una historia! 

 

Coloful illustration of a carrot, crayons, a worm, and strawberries.

Colorful illustration of a raven, bee, and pizza.

Colorful illustration of a tomato, bee, snail, grass, and specks of dirt.

 

Alice Caldwell is an award-winning digital illustrator, multimedia artist, art educator, and big fan of water, both for drinking and swimming. Alice grew up mostly in Europe but now lives in Quincy, Massachusetts. She draws pictures, thinks about sea creatures, and believes art has the power to challenge systems and change lives.

Alice Caldwell es una ilustradora digital premiada, artista multimedia, educadora de arte y gran amante del agua, tanto para beber como para nadar. Alice creció principalmente en Europa, pero ahora vive en Quincy, Massachusetts. Dibuja imágenes, piensa en las criaturas marinas y cree que el arte tiene el poder de desafiar sistemas y cambiar vidas.

 

Share your artwork on social media with #ICAartlab.
 

Comparte tu obra de arte en las redes sociales con la etiqueta #ICAartlab.

(Boston, MA—March 5, 2021) New York-based artist Eva LeWitt (b. 1985, Spoleto, Italy) transforms the first floor of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) with the installation of a new, monumental hanging wall sculpture for the ICA’s Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall. Untitled (Mesh Circles) (2021) is made of bands of colorful coated mesh fabric whose shifting linear composition creates a number of interlocking circular forms. As Untitled’s crosshatched surface pattern and fields of color overlap and respond to ambient conditions of light, air, and movement, a shimmering moiré effect is produced, creating an uplifting experience that vibrates throughout the museum’s interior. LeWitt’s art wall installation will go on view on March 20, when the ICA reopens to the public (Member Appreciation Days begin March 18 and 19). Timed tickets will be available for members starting March 9 and for the general public on March 12 at icaboston.org. On view through October 23, 2022, Eva LeWitt is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Assistant Curator and Publications Manager.

“Eva LeWitt exhibits a uniquely personal mode of scale, color, and materials in her work, both intimate and grand, and we are delighted to share her vibrant wall sculpture, which will greet all our visitors when they arrive at the ICA,” said Jill Medvedow, the ICA’s Ellen Matilda Poss Director.

“LeWitt has a distinctive ability to make exuberant artworks out of everyday materials, often large wall-based sculptures of hanging geometric forms and waves of color. For Untitled (Mesh Circles), she combines lengths of fabric to great effect: an artwork that playfully responds to the museum’s unique architecture to truly enliven the space,” said De Blois.

The ICA’s Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall is dedicated to site-specific works by leading contemporary artists, commissioned annually. Located along the eastern interior wall of the museum’s glass-enclosed lobby, the Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall is the visitor’s first encounter with art upon entering the building.

About the artist

Eva LeWitt (b, 1985, Spoleto, Italy) lives and works in New York, NY. She is a graduate of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Recent exhibitions include The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; The Jewish Museum, New York; and JOAN, Los Angeles.

About the ICA

Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.


Organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Assistant Curator and Publications Manager.

Eva LeWitt is presented by Max Mara.

Max Mara logo

Additional support is provided by Jean-François and Nathalie Ducrest and Barbara H. Lloyd.