NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. is pleased to present Duck and Decorated Shed, a group exhibition curated by Katie Cercone. The exhibition features Emily Harris, Jessica M. Stoller, Lauren Kalman, MaryKate Maher, Gudmundur Thoroddsen, Matt Stone, Theresa Himmer, Narcissister, and Nida Abidi

NURTUREart is pleased to open the 2010-11 exhibition season with a show of “smoke and mirrors” – filled with teeth, candy, polyurethane, denim, glitter and optical delusions. Katie Cercone curates an aesthetically intoxicating dichotomy of works that probe the artificial and superficial, simultaneously investigating the meaning of extreme decadence and the means to an end. These artists push the raw material of popular culture to new and disturbing ends, focusing on the power of the spectacle and its underlying substance.

Learning from Las Vegas, where the dominant architecture is always of glitter, whether the shapes are obvious symbols of the delights awaiting within (a waterfowl restaurant in the shape of an enormous duck) or contain a deeper meaning through the intricate display of ornament (essentially a decorated shed). Cercone extracts the idea for this exhibition from the terms “Duck” and “Decorated Shed” which derive from two analytical catagories for viewing Las Vegas Strip, developed by a group of architecture students in 1968. Which is the vulgar embodiment of heightened symbolism, and which is the seductive decoy? Cercone asks the viewer to differentiate between the functionally integral and the ornamental facade.

Duck and Decorated Shed is a NURTUREart Emerging Curators’ Program Collaboration. Learn more about all of our programs and opportunities for emerging artists and curators at our website