Suchitra Mattai
By Ben Davis
If you could look directly into the curatorial zeitgeist in the United States, what would you see? It occurs to me that one way to think about that question is to look at which artists are being shown simultaneously in temporary shows at museums across the country.
I’ve spent the last few weeks sifting through the exhibition programs of 200 U.S. museums, trying to discover the names that recur most. It’s near impossible to be totally comprehensive, and the exercise involves plenty of subjectivity on my part when it comes to measuring importance. Because I’m most interested in breadth of influence, I don’t make any distinctions between bigger and smaller institutions. I rank career retrospectives highly, followed by solo exhibitions, special commissions, biennial appearances, and then inclusions in thematic group shows.
Despite the inevitable limitations of the exercise, it felt worthwhile to me. It makes visible the status of artists whose influence I might otherwise not have noticed. I decided to highlight 5 because it seemed like there was the clearest case to be made for them as concentrating attention.
What do the results suggest about the curatorial zeitgeist? Museums right now continue to be very focused on elevating minority voices—this is probably the central theme here. A rhetoric of community engagement and historical education dominates. Notably, neither traditional painting-on-canvas nor new media are central here; these artists mainly lean towards installation and sculpture, working with materials that have symbolic connections to community and tradition.
Suchitra Mattai
The Guyanese American artist (b. 1973) regularly works in fabric—indeed, one of her signature materials is cut-up saris. As for subject matter, she draws on her family’s history as part of the South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean, as with her recent show at ICA San Francisco with included a vibrant colorful sculptural recreation of her grandparents’ home.
“I’m really interested in the role of memory in unravelling and reimagining colonial narratives…,” Mattai explained in a lecture for the University of Colorado, Boulder art and architecture department in 2021. “I am interested in giving voice to those whose voices were quieted in the past, and those whose voices are currently quieted, such as women and people of color. I look a lot to the past, and consider my work to be both narrative and autobiographical.”
EXHIBITIONS:
—“she walked in reverse and found their songs” at the ICA San Francisco, closed September 15, 2024
—“Suchitra Mattai: Myth From Matter” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., through January 12, 2025
—”Suchitra Mattai: Bodies and Souls” at the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida, through March 15, 2025
GROUP SHOWS:
—”Prospect 2024” at the MCA San Diego, through September 22, 2024
—“The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean” at the Americas Society, New York, through December 14, 2024