Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

February 8 to April 21, 2008

War and disaster have shaped the first years of the twenty-first century, both in the United States and throughout the world. On the Margins brings together a culturally diverse group of international artists whose work addresses contemporary social and political conditions through a wide spectrum of styles and media.

The exhibition aims in part at underscoring the contrast between the realities of disaster and how they are presented--what we see and what we don't see--through the lens of today's media. All of the works in the show were created in the last seven years. Collectively they investigate a range of aesthetic strategies that depict the ways in which war and conflict around the world impact--or fail to impact--our everyday life.

The exhibition is curated by Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, and will be accompanied by a full-color publication that includes essays by Eleanor Heartney and Paul Krainak.

Featured Artists
Adel Abidin, Laylah Ali, Paolo Canevari, Enrique Chagoya, Willie Cole, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Willie Doherty, Jane Hammond, Martha Rosler, Do-Ho Suh

Funding Credit
Support for On the Margins was provided by the Charles and Bunny Burson Art Fund and individual contributors to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Willie Cole, The Difference between Black and White, 2005-6. Shoes, wood, metal, screws, and staples, 85 x 16". Courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York. Photo: Jason Mandella.

Martha Rosler, Red and White Shades (Baghdad Burning), 2004. Photomontage, 20 x 24". Courtesy of Mitchell-Innes and Nash.

Laylah Ali, Untitled, 2000. Gouache on paper, 13 x 19". Private collection. Image courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York, copyright of the artist.