dianna molzan: material witness

Material Witness presents 30 of today’s most compelling and innovative artists employing non-traditional materials and processes. Squid ink, Coca-Cola, ostrich eggs, anointing oil, lipstick, discarded metal, and animal hides are several of the preformed, natural, and unnatural mediums incorporated into three-dimensional works that expand upon the storied legacy of assemblage—a critical approach to artmaking that was first formalized in the 1961 exhibition The Art of Assemblage at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

With echoes of land art, Arte Povera, abject art, and readymades these artists employ industrial waste, organic detritus, and mass-produced commodities to explore formal, environmental, political, and social concerns. Found objects in various entropic states provide the backbone for many of these works, illuminating cycles of consumption, decay, and renewal.

Material Witness spans 23 galleries across the museum’s three floors and presents individual artist rooms as well as group presentations connecting artists who share similar materials and motives. For many of these artists, Material Witness represents their first exhibition in our nation’s capital or at the Rubell Museum.