State of the Art 2020

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art begins the new decade with the opening of the Momentary and the debut of State of the Art 2020 at both locations with free admissions. This new exhibition continues the journey launched in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now (2014), and our curators traveled once again to find and feature artists working in communities around the country.

Lauren Haynes, curator of visual arts at the Momentary and curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges, is leading State of the Art 2020, along with Alejo Benedetti, associate curator of contemporary art, Crystal Bridges and Allison Glenn, associate curator of contemporary art, Crystal Bridges. The team visited studios across the country, resulting in the selection of a diverse group of 61 artists, from varied backgrounds and at different points in their careers.

The 61 individuals in State of the Art 2020 represent a cross-section of artists working today and their artwork will be organized into thematic sections including world-building: creating real and fictional spaces; sense of place: investigating ideas of home, family, immigration, and more; mapping: connections to and relationships with landscapes and power, and temporality: the concept of time and how we perceive it.​ 

More than 100 artworks will be featured in State of the Art 2020 — most created in the last three years. A number of artists are making site specific works in response to the interior architecture of both spaces as well as the histories of this region. At both the Momentary and Crystal Bridges, artwork will include paintings, sculpture, photography, video, performance, and mixed media.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: Su Su, Darwin, 2018