Rosenberg & Co. is pleased to present A Different Medium, a historical group exhibition offering a selective survey of artists exploring media and methods beyond their usual purview.

What drives an artist to explore a different medium? In order to understand that larger question, it is important to realize that we as spectators, critics, and art historians usually confine artists to specific media. An artist is typically defined by the medium they most commonly work in, as well as their style and manner of expression.

Stringent categorization can be traced back to the fine art institutions of the late eighteenth century; painters were painters, sculptors were sculptors, and drawing was regarded as an auxiliary to more monumental art forms.

With the dawn of the twentieth century, artists began to challenge the hierarchy of medium. Cubists and Dadaists, such as Jean (Hans) Arp and Henri Laurens, implemented found materials in their works to analyze new concepts of abstraction. For other artists, such as Joseph Csaky, Agustin Cárdenas, and Bernard Meadows, progressions between two-dimensional and three-dimensional works were integral to the elaboration of their form and style. And for mixed- and multi-media artists, such as Beatrice Mandelman and Marcin Dudek, combining and interchanging media in their visual practice is a question of exploring materiality, defying academic categorization, and ultimately pushing the boundaries of what constitutes art.

A Different Medium explores the work of over twenty Modern and contemporary artists who have utilized various media in their creative process or as an avenue to further their primary focus. This show does not presume to be a complete review of the subject, given that there are hundreds of other examples throughout the ages. Rosenberg & Co. is pleased to present their survey and invite you to join the conversation.