About the Artist

Matt Bua lives in Brooklyn, New York, and also has land he is cultivating in Catskill, New York. He loves to work collaboratively with friends and artists to build artwork like that shown in Kidspace with Jesse Bercowetz, Carrie Dashow, Ward Shelley, and Lisa Marie Ludwig. This team of artists has created unusual sculptures and video projects shown all over the nation. With his main collaborator, Jesse, the two have used found objects to build a clubhouse for Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, New York; a large model naval ship for the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and a mini-museum for Governor's Island, New York.

CRIBS: An installation by Matt Bua with special project by Jesse Bercowetz

March 21–September 7, 2009

The installation in Kidspace's new gallery on the second floor of MASS MoCA's Building 10—CRIBS—features an overloaded crib by Brooklyn based artist Matt Bua. This gigantic crib is complete with hanging mobiles, recorded "lullabies," and the bars that contain the infant. Surrounding the crib is an outro-spective purging of the artist's pack-ratted material possessions—random detritus combed from the street, lost gloves, found paintings, vacation slides, many guitars rescued from the streets of New York—all organized into presented collections.

…To CRIBBAGE is a piece of the crib climbing out of the second story window of the Kidspace gallery, to escape the chaos of the cluttered future that encroaches on it. The crib must breech the gallery walls and pour it self down to the museum's entrance below. This structure can be entered here, outside the museum, to experience the collaborative "building game" Bua calls Architectural Cribbage and in which he encourages others to start constructing their small scale visionary spaces.

Public hours for KIDSPACE are:

  • March 21–May 31: Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. throughout the school year. Additional weekday hours will be held during Spring Break (April 13–17) and on Memorial Day (May 25).
  • June 1–27: Everyday except Tuesdays from 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
  • June 27–September 7: Everyday from 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.; art classes typically held from 9:00–10:30 a.m.

CRIBS TO CRIBLICIOUSDOME*

Kidspace @ 107 Main

Kidspace has a satellite space at 107 Main Street in North Adams. Students from the North Berkshire School Union (Savoy Florida and Clarksburg, MA) will work with Matt Bua this spring to create installation pieces for this space as part of CRIBLICIOUSDOME, an off-shoot of CRIBS.

Visitors to Kidspace at MASS MoCA are invited to visit the 107 Main Gallery and add their junk-itecture sculptures to the installation. Also, please visit the other storefront galleries in North Adams as part of the Down Street Art Festival in collaboration with the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Students from MCLA will be in the 107 Main Gallery to help you include your project in CRIBLICIOUSDOME.

*CRIBLICIOUSDOME (n): a cool space designed by crib rugrats a.k.a. kids and artist Matt Bua

Hours (June 25–October 18):
Wednesday–Saturday: noon–6:00 p.m.
Sunday: noon–4:00 p.m.
Closed Monday & Tuesday