Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor

Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection presents artworks that defy conventional museum display and collecting frameworks. By featuring works that have routinely been seen as “out of place” in major museums—because of the artist’s identity or their unorthodox approach to materials and subjects—the exhibition examines how artists can transform long-held cultural assumptions.

Out of Place showcases forty-four artists whose practices require a broader and more dynamic view of modern and contemporary art, including Louise Bourgeois, Beverly Buchanan, Chryssa, Thornton Dial, Helen Frankenthaler, Lourdes Grobet, Betye Saar, Judith Scott, Carolee Schneemann, Joan Snyder, and Emmi Whitehorse. Over half the works are on view for the first time, including key collection objects and new acquisitions, such as highlights from the recent Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift of art by Black artists of the American South, and a selection of American quilts.

The context in which a work of art is made and where it is encountered and presented frames our understanding of its importance. To exemplify this, Out of Place is organized around three themes: the role of museums and galleries; work made outside of the mainstream art world; and a focus on the domestic sphere that connects to feminist critiques of art hierarchies. 

Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection is curated by Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator, and Carmen Hermo, Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.

Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Starry Night Fund. Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the Helene Zucker Seeman Memorial Exhibition Fund.