December 1, 2002

Susan Leopold: Mixed-Up Worlds Is Next at Kidspace at MASS MoCA

Exhibition runs February 13, 2003 - September 5, 2003

(North Adams, Mass.) With sculptures using mirrors, photographs, and angled walls to fracture spaces, Susan Leopold's work addresses human perception and how memories affect our interaction with space. Susan Leopold: Mixed-Up Worlds, a solo exhibition of her sculptures and installations, will open at Kidspace at MASS MoCA on February 13, 2003.

Susan Leopold: Mixed-Up Worlds will include eleven works created between 1989 and 2002. Leopold gained fame in the mid-1980s for her boxes outfitted with fish-eye lenses. These boxes allowed magical views of tiny models of city streets, grungy apartment interiors, and indoor swimming pools.

Leopold's current works also feature windows to the inside, but now the boxes have been fragmented, elongated, and opened to accommodate the collaging of images and patterns found in architectural environments. Leopold takes a fresh and innovative approach to creating the illusion of space, using elements of sculpture, painting, collage, and digital technology. These elegant architectural structures offer a portal through which the viewer peers into familiar worlds such as schools, motels, and bathrooms. Since the viewer's presence becomes part of the visual illusion, each piece presents a unique optical and "maze-like" experience.

In addition to sculpture, the exhibition presents two large installations. Waterway, originally housed at the Franklin Street Subway Station in Manhattan, offers a view into a seductively gloomy underground maze - a subway station that is more like a house of mirrors, where the viewer wonders which way is out. Motel Scenes provides views of a motel room on different scales. Suitcases containing miniature motel scenes are displayed within a full-sized motel room. Motel Hallucinations, an interactive video installation, appears next to the life-sized room, offering the opportunity for visitors to alter the space. Two photo-collage drawings are included in the exhibition as well.

A 1982 graduate of New York's School of the Visual Arts, Leopold is currently working on her master's degree in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has received numerous awards and residencies from such organizations as the MacDowell Colony, YADDO, and the Ragdale Foundation. Most recently, Leopold completed the Wampler Visiting Artist Professorship at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. Her extensive exhibition record includes recent solo exhibitions at the John Weber Gallery, New York, and The Sawhill Gallery at James Madison University. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the New York Fellowship for the Arts and the Indo-American Fellowship, which allowed her to travel to India where, for 10 months, she studied traditional Indian miniature paintings. Leopold's work is displayed in permanent collections nationwide as well as in public mural projects throughout New York City. Her work is also on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.

This winter and spring Kidspace will continue its partnership with Savoy, Clarksburg, and Florida, Masssachusetts elementary schools. Students and teachers in grades pre-K through 8 will visit Mixed-Up Worlds and participate in interdisciplinary programming at Kidspace and in their classrooms. Curriculum materials, educational resources, and programs have been developed by Kidspace staff to complement the exhibition. Students from Conte Middle School in North Adams will continue to participate in a weekly after-school program focusing on Kidspace exhibitions. Also, students from Greylock, Brayton, and Sullivan Schools will participate in the Kidspace Three Museum Semester as part of this expansion of the Kidspace program, visiting the Williams College Museum of Art, Clark Art Institute, and MASS MoCA galleries in the winter and spring.

Kidspace at MASS MoCA is a joint program of the Williams College Museum of Art, the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, and MASS MoCA. Additional funding has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency), the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the Cherkis family, and the Brownrigg Charitable Trust in memory of Lynn Laitman.

During the school year, Kidspace public hours are Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 P.M., and Thursdays, 3 to 5 P.M., plus holiday hours. Family programs will be held during the school mid-winter recess (February 17 - 21, 2003) at Kidspace, MASS MoCA, Williams College Museum of Art, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. At each museum, visitors can explore the theme of architecture, whether in artists' renditions or in actual architectural settings. Additional public hours are planned for the summer. Please call Kidspace at (413) 664-4481 x8131 for more details on hours, programs, and exhibitions. Admission to Kidspace is free.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

MASS MoCA 1040 MASS MoCA Way North Adams, MA 01247 413.MOCA.111 www.massmoca.org

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org