Julie Ault and Martin Beck’s exhibition Information investigates the production of poverty within the U.S. Based on government data referring to poverty measures over the last 40 years as well as the increasing income gap, Information focuses on systemic parameters for what constitutes poverty as a socio-economic standing, principally the “poverty line.” The poverty line is a concrete, abstract, and symbolic parameter or dividing device that points to governmental debates and policies relevant to economic divisions in American society.

Information takes the form of a large scale mural, inserting into Storefront’s exhibition space a visual landscape that layers aesthetic and political representations. Ault and Beck’s precise data collection and analysis speaks of an artistic strategy that exhibits an acute conceptual rigor; its minimalist aesthetics, however, is also theatrical in the sense that it makes the viewer’s position in relation to the work a key element of its visualization.

Julie Ault and Martin Beck are artists and authors based in New York City. Their collaborations include the exhibition Outdoor Systems, indoor distribution (2000), the book project Critical Condition (2003), designs for exhibitions at ICP, New York, and Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna. In 2005, their co-curated exhibition Mirage was on view at Alexander and Bonin Gallery in New York. Ault and Beck also work individually; their individual shows include Ault’s Power Up: Sister Corita and Donald Moffett, Interlocking (1997 & 2000) and Beck’s an Exhibit viewed played populated (2003).