Image courtesy of MASS MoCA
Studio Art MFA alumna Adriana Corral (2013) is exhibiting her work in the group exhibition Suffering From Realness opening on April 13, 2019 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. The exhibition, curated by 2018 Viewpoint lecturer Denise Markonish, explores the politics of representation — and the ways in which artists use the body to grasp at and re-center the “aura of realness” in an age of uncertainty. The title for the exhibition is borrowed from the song “Ni**as in Paris” by Jay-Z and Kanye West in which West raps: “Doctors say I’m the illest / ‘Cause I’m suffering from realness.” This prophetic lyric ended up signaling the musician’s spiraling ego, over-the-top public behavior, and mental health issues. But the phrase also begs the question, “What exactly is realness?”
Suffering From Realness features work from Aziz+Cucher, Cassils, Corral, Joey Fauerso, Jeffrey Gibson, Hayv Kahraman, Jennifer Karady, Titus Kaphar, Robert Longo, Christopher Mir, MPA, Wangechi Mutu, Allison Schulnik, Keith Sklar, Robert Taplin, and Vincent Valdez. To mark the opening of the exhibition on April 13, Corral and San Antonio artist Vincent Valdez will lead a procession of their sculpture Requiem, a "larger-than life cast of an American eagle, accompanied by parading musicians — recalling a New Orleans-style jazz funeral." An artist talk with Corral and Valdez will follow.
Suffering From Realness will be on view at MASS MoCA from April 13, 2019 - January 1, 2020.