This fall, the Henry celebrates its ninetieth anniversary with the first museum-wide exhibition of the contemporary collection, featuring over fifty artworks by an international roster of artists, in media ranging from video installation to photography and from sculpture to drawing. The artworks included in this exhibition entered the collection within the last twenty years, a period of growth marked by a reaffirmation of the Henry's commitment to holding space for contemporary art and ideas in the cultural geography of Seattle.
The artworks in this exhibition explore conditions and events of contemporary social and cultural life through the lens of time and place. They engage places encountered and remembered, real and imagined: from the streets of protest to a reconstructed war zone in Vietnam, from the space of the anthropological museum to the rooms of a gay bathhouse, from domestic interiors to colonized landscapes. The works address personal memories and collective histories and the political forces that shape them. They evoke place as both a physical site and as a condition of being—a psychological interior marked by qualities of belonging, longing, or displacement.
This exhibition includes artworks by: Vito Acconci (U.S., 1940 ‑ 2017), Lewis Baltz (U.S., 1945 ‑ 2014), Uta Barth (Germany, born 1958), Walead Beshty (U.S., born Great Britain 1976), Katinka Bock (France, born Germany 1976), Raymond Boisjoly (Canada, born 1981), Miguel Calderón (Mexico, born 1971), Dorothy Cross (Ireland, born 1956), Lili Dujourie (Belgium, born 1941), Sam Durant (U.S., born 1961), Shannon Ebner (U.S., born 1971), Joan Fontcuberta (Spain, born 1955), Nan Goldin (U.S., born 1953), Jon Haddock (U.S., born 1960), David Hartt (Canada, born 1967), Gary Hill (U.S., born 1951), Eirik Johnson (U.S., born 1974), Igor Kopystiansky (U.S., born Russia 1954), Svetlana Kopystiansky (U.S., born Russia 1950), An-My Lê (U.S., born Vietnam 1960), Annette Lemieux (U.S., born 1957), Sharon Lockhart (U.S., born 1964), Richard Long (England, born 1945), Euan Macdonald (U.S., born Scotland 1965), Kris Martin (Belgium, born 1972), Gordon Matta-Clark (U.S., 1943 ‑ 1978), Ana Mendieta (U.S., born Cuba 1948 ‑ 1985), Jeffry Mitchell (U.S., born 1958), Tracey Moffatt (U.S., born Australia 1960), Shirin Neshat (U.S., born Iran 1957), Kori Newkirk (U.S., born 1970), Jack Pierson (U.S., born 1960), Gerhard Richter (Germany, born 1932), Amanda Ross-Ho (U.S., born 1975), Allan Sekula (U.S., 1951 ‑ 2013), Julius Shulman (U.S., 1910 ‑ 2009), Buster Simpson (U.S., born 1942), Lorna Simpson (U.S., born 1960), Eve Sussman/Angela Christlieb (U.S., born 1961)/(Austria, born Germany 1965), Ron Terada (Canada, born 1969), Mungo Thomson (U.S., born 1969), Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thailand, born Argentina 1961), Juan Uslé (Spain, born 1954), Rodrigo Valenzuela (U.S., born Chile 1982), Bill Viola (U.S., born 1951), Andy Warhol (U.S., 1928 ‑ 1987), Fred Wilson (U.S., born 1954), lauren woods (U.S., born 1979), and the ACT UP Art Box [Ross Bleckner (U.S., born 1949), Louise Bourgeois (U.S., France 1911 ‑ 2010), Mike Kelley (U.S., 1954 ‑ 2012), Simon Leung (U.S., born 1964), Lorna Simpson (U.S., born 1960), Kiki Smith (U.S., born Germany 1954), and Nancy Spero (U.S., 1926 ‑ 2009)].