Group Therapy

Centering on interactive projects and immersive installations, Group Therapy convenes works by twelve international contemporary artists that comment on and/or adapt strategies of alternative medicine, psychotherapy, and the wellness industry. The exhibition serves as a platform for public programs led by artist-practitioners, transforming the Museum into a unique kind of free “clinic” in which visitors may engage in therapeutic processes in the experimental context afforded by art. In so doing, Group Therapy reflects on the museum’s role in society and on art’s function within and beyond its walls. Should art be edifying (curative), unsettling (an irritant), speculative (a catalyst)? Is it a placebo or are art’s transformative effects real?

The exhibition begins with works that diagnose social pathologies such as racism, sexism, and political tribalism that affect individual health and in turn fuel the ongoing growth of the wellness and self-help industries. Projects that focus on identification with archetypal characters and symbolic self-narration follow, taking the visitor from observer to participant in voluntary “treatments” based on psychoanalysis and divination. The final passage engages visitors in sensory experiences and visualizations that plug into ancient forms of knowledge and deeper, interconnected consciousness. All in all, the exhibition—like therapy—provides a space in which to analyze the conditions of the present, to question habitual ways of being, and to try new possibilities without prescribing any definitive solutions.

Participating Artists: Wynne Greenwood / Maryam Jafri / Joachim Koester / Liz Magic Laser / Leigh Ledare / Marcos Lutyens / Cindy Mochizuki / Shana Moulton / Pedro Reyes / Ann Leda Shapiro / Kandis Williams / Lauryn Youden