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Hand/Thrown Studio to host holiday market featuring artists, ceramicists
ABC Channel 8 News
Dec 2, 2024
Make your holiday shopping easier with handmade products from local artists and ceramicists at the Hand/Thrown Holiday Market hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art.
VCU honored for supporting employment opportunities for students with disabilities
VCU News
Dec 2, 2024
Among campus operations where ACE-IT in College students have worked are RecWell – 22 have been employed there, including one who was honored as employee of the month – as well as VCU Libraries, the Institute for Contemporary Art, the Police Department and the Child Development Center.
ICA panel explores Black identity and design through ‘Dear Mazie’ exhibit
Richmond Free Press
Dec 2, 2024
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University explored the intersection of Black identity and architectural design on Nov. 15 in a panel discussion about its "Dear Mazie" exhibition, honoring Amaza Lee Meredith, the first known Black woman architect during the Jim Crow era.
VCUArts Studio Magazine Fall 2024
VCUArts
Dec 2, 2024
See Executive Director Jessica Bell Brown (page 6), Joe Seipel (page 28-31), and Dear Mazie, (page 52-57)
Art institute series celebrates DIY musicians
Commonwealth Times
Nov 15, 2024
“No Input” is a musical series in which the ICA invites local musicians from spaces in Richmond’s do-it-yourself scene to perform sets adapted to the ICA’s unique architecture, according to the ICA website.
Notes from the Underground
Style Weekly
Nov 15, 2024
While OSB’s two-year run is over, its legacy lives on. This Friday, Luse will bring a little DIY to the ICA with “No Input,” a new series of free experimental music performances. Instead of curating the acts herself, Luse is handing the reins to a different programmer each night.
Election 2024: Museums Serving as Voting Sites Are Also Presenting Exhibitions of Elizabeth Catlett, Tyler Mitchell, and Other African American Artists
Culture Type
Nov 15, 2024
Additional museums serving as polling sites include, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and the Institute for Contemporary at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. These are just a few examples of museums participating in this year’s election. The American Alliance of Museums encourages programming around voter engagement and provides museums with guidelines for nonpartisan activities.
Results from the 3rd annual RESONATE Podcast Festival Pitch Party announced
VPM
Nov 15, 2024
This year’s festival sold out in record time. It was held from Oct. 25-26 at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU with a full schedule of workshops from skilled producers, a special live podcast performance and the opportunity to get private pitch feedback from industry veterans.
Carrie Mae Weems’ ‘Contested Sites of Memory’ Sparks Dialogue On Monuments, Memory, And Racial Healing
Essence
Nov 4, 2024
Held at the Institute of Contemporary Art and produced by Shore Art Advisory, she masterfully blends live music, spoken word, and video works to tackle the nuanced dialogue around monuments, memory, and racial healing.
Of Time and Remembrance
Richmond Magazine
Nov 1, 2024
Weems visited Richmond earlier in October. The event was a collaboration with social justice and equity organizations, the Emerson Collective and E Pluribus Unum. She spoke with EPU’s director, Scott Hutcheson, at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and presented “Contested Sites of Memory,” a multimedia lecture with performance and music, at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Listen to trailers from the finalists of RESONATE’s 2024 Pitch Party
VPM
Oct 21, 2024
The third annual RESONATE Podcast Festival takes place from Oct. 25-26 at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU with a full schedule of workshops from skilled producers, a special live podcast performance and the opportunity to get private pitch feedback from industry veterans. Tickets to this year’s festival are sold out.
Where to See Art and Music in Richmond
AFAR
Oct 18, 2024
The RVA First Fridays art walk is the ideal opportunity to get a feel for the city’s artistic talent while soaking up the youthful energy of the creative community. It’s held on the first Friday of each month in the downtown Arts District, conveniently close to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), which is regularly ranked among the country’s top art schools, and its ultra-modern Institute for Contemporary Art.
Embracing Togetherness
Style Weekly
Oct 18, 2024
Even the founder of the Resonate podcast festival, Chioke I’Anson, was surprised when tickets to the upcoming event, only in its third year, sold out just hours after becoming available.
People to Watch in the Arts
Style Weekly
Oct 11, 2024
At the busiest intersection in downtown Richmond lie the two most pressing challenges – and greatest opportunities – for Carmenita Higginbotham. As dean of VCU’s School of the Arts, Higginbotham has been overseeing the integration of the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) into her school, a process that was finalized in July.
Sold-out RESONATE Podcast Festival draws storytellers to Richmond on Oct. 25-26
VCU News
Oct 11, 2024
More than 350 professional and aspiring podcasters will convene in downtown Richmond this month for two days of career development programming at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Student Podcast Day on Oct. 24 provides industry insights for newcomers
VCU News
Oct 9, 2024
The free, half-day event at the ICA at VCU targets graduate and undergraduate students curious about a career in podcast production.
Bodies of Work
Style Weekly
Oct 7, 2024
Loie Hollowell’s retrospective explores sexuality and spirituality through her abstract body landscapes at the ICA.
River City Roundup
Richmond Magazine
Sep 30, 2024
Artist Carrie Mae Weems discusses the role of the arts in healing painful histories at 11 a.m. on Oct. 2 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, followed at 6 p.m. by a multimedia performance at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Black futures of Amaza Lee Meredith, trailblazing modernist architect
The Washington Post
Sep 26, 2024
"Dear Mazie,” comes at a time when Meredith is beginning to garner more attention: Art critic Jessica Lynne in 2020 wrote a beautiful, meditative essay on Meredith for Southern Cultures, and last year scholar Jacqueline Taylor published a biography on her. Solange detailed her interest in a book project on the architect in a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “Dear Mazie,” goes a step further, linking Meredith’s revolutionary legacy to a new generation of contemporary artists, securing space for her in history and into the future."
A Dazzling Longing
Style Weekly
Sep 23, 2024
"Officially presented by Operatika, a performance collective founded by Mbowe, “Arias of Seduction” made its world premiere on Sept. 15 in Montreal, Canada, where Mbowe is based. Now, the production—a self-funded project, with its future performances dependent on Kickstarter contributions—is making its United States debut at the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art..."
Jessica Bell Brown to Lead Institute For Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond
Culture Type
Sep 17, 2024
"The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University appointed Jessica Bell Brown its next executive director. ICA at VCU opened its doors in 2018. In less than a decade, the young institution has established itself as a dynamic space with a formidable contemporary art program engaging with local and regional figures as well as some of the most interesting national and international artists on the horizon."
ICA at VCU’s ‘Dear Mazie’ spotlights the work of Amaza Lee Meredith
Richmond Free Press
Sep 13, 2024
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University’s latest exhibition, “Dear Mazie,” features art inspired by the life and work of Amaza Lee Meredith, a Lynchburg native who was an artist and a Virginia State University educator. Photo by Regina H. Boone
A Perfect Design
Style Weekly
Sep 11, 2024
"“Dear Mazie,” an art exhibition inspired by groundbreaking architect Amaza Lee Meredith, opens at the ICA."
Brown named executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Richmond Free Press
Sep 4, 2024
"Renowned curator Jessica Bell Brown has been tapped to lead the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University as its new executive director."
Architecture and design exhibitions opening this fall that can’t be missed
The Architect's Newspaper
Sep 4, 2024
The group exhibition Dear Mazie is inspired by the life and work of Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), a pioneering artist and educator who became the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States. Dear Mazie is meant to be more than just an exhibition—it’s a letter of sorts, a conversation that continues the legacy of Amaza Lee Meredith in her hometown of Charlottesville.
Richmond art institute showcases three new fall exhibitions
Commonwealth Times
Sep 4, 2024
"The Institute for Contemporary Art is showcasing three brand new exhibitions in the Fall 2024 season: “Dear Mazie,” curated by Amber Esseiva; Loie Hollowell’s “Space Between, A Survey of Ten Years;” and Caitlin Cherry’s “Eigengrau,” according to the ICA’s press release."
Active Listening: Style Weekly
Style Weekly
Sep 4, 2024
The explosion of interest in Chioke I’Anson’s Resonate festival is only one indication that Richmond has become a hotbed of podcast production.
Jessica Bell Brown named executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
VCU News
Sep 4, 2024
"Brown, who serves as curator and head of contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, will start at the ICA in October."
MURRMUR: Blurs and Senses at the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond
Burnaway Mag
Jul 15, 2024
"This show is a reminder that the desire to understand is reasonable, but shouldn’t always be satiated. The charm and power of the exhibition is that it doesn’t make a case or shore up an argument. There is no thesis or singular thread. Subsequently, connections between the works feel relational, fragile. There is room for curiosity, miscommunication, and skepticism. Rather than reading the room like I would read a well-formulated paper, viewing the work feels like taking part in a whispered game of telephone; the story morphs and grows with each retelling."
Traces of Ecstasy: A Conversation with Curator KJ Abudu
Sugarcane Mag
Jul 11, 2024
"By staging the Traces of Ecstasy Pavilion at that site in Lagos and modifying it for American audiences at the ICA in Virginia, Abudu queries the contemporary conditions of the postcolonial world with a keen critique of the ideological legitimacy of the nation-state in and beyond Africa. "
(BITTER) SWEET VIRGINIA, Navigating Monuments in the Cradle of the Confederacy
Artillery Mag
Jul 10, 2024
But aren’t the arts usually the arbiters and harbingers of greater societal change? If you want to understand where the world is going, I often say, look to the artists who are communicating with us, the institutions who are elevating them, and the money propping up said institutions, whether for craven financial gain or not. Like history itself, it’s all quite messy, and the most we can hope for is an honest effort at doing better, even on a small scale. I think that if Richmond continues to let their arts sector lead the way, then the city is bound for a long-overdue redemption.
ICA Reopens This Friday with Powerful New Exhibitions Highlighting Women’s Private Spaces
RVA Mag
Sep 4, 2024
After a summer-long closure and with a new executive director Jessica Bell Brown at the helm, the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University is set to reopen its doors this Friday, September 6th, from 6 to 9 p.m. The reopening marks the premiere of three new exhibitions that delve deeply into the private spaces occupied by women, all through the lens of accomplished women artists.
Columbia University School of the Arts: Patrice Renee Washington ’14 Explores Identity Through Ceramics
Columbia University School of the Arts
Jul 9, 2024
Visual Arts alumna Patrice Renee Washington ’14 is presenting Tendril, a profound solo exhibition that explores identity through sculpture and ceramics. Hosted at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, the exhibition runs through July 14, 2024.
Richmond, Va: This Creative Capital City Deserves A Lot More Attention
CNN
Jul 9, 2024
Richmond is No. 1 on the list thanks to rich arts, culture and history, plus a great food and beverage scene.
Patrice Renee Washington: Review
ArtForum
May 1, 2024
"Weaving together references to Black culture and heritage, art history, and the deep traditions of sculpture, Patrice Renee Washington’s exhibition “Tendril” creates a liberatory space in which to reflect on representation and Black futures. The artist’s ceramic work, like the show’s namesake form, reaches away from the anchor of its roots and into new territories. Delicate, thin, and young—but imbued with a powerful life force—a tendril is an eternal futurity."
The Art of Introducing Yourself
Style Weekly
Jan 3, 2024
Sina Khani has advice for budding filmmakers: Just do it. “As an artist, you may have an idea to express,” says the Iranian-born director, 24, a graduate student in his first year at Virginia Commonwealth University. “But you have to practice and do short films on your own, with no budget, even if only to see if the ideas you have in mind also work for an audience.”
‘The experience of giving birth is so abstract and intense’: Loie Hollowell on the challenge of painting pregnancy
Apr 29, 2024
The artist’s survey at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum tracks the formal language she developed to depict an essential process in life—one that, historically, has been rarely depicted.
The Killing in the Consulate
Apr 11, 2024
On Oct. 2, 2018, Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to obtain documents related to his upcoming marriage. He was never seen in public again. Khashoggi, then a columnist for The Washington Post, was ambushed and strangled by a Saudi assassination squad. His body was dismembered and disposed of in a way that’s never been publicly revealed.
From Lagos to RVA
Style Weekly
Mar 28, 2024
A bit of Africa has taken up residence at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. On display through June 9 in the ICA’s first floor gallery is “Traces of Ecstasy,” an adaptation of an exhibition from the Lagos Biennial, which took place in early February. Through video, sculpture, textiles, sound and other mediums, the exhibition investigates Nigeria’s postcolonial legacy and the theme of refuge.
Preservation Instincts
Style Weekly
Mar 26, 2024
Murmur is one of those words that sounds like what it means. It’s hard to dream up a better word for under-the-breath grumbling or a crowd’s hushed whisper as it ripples through an auditorium. You can’t catch the words in or the exact meaning of a murmur, but you feel it — a general sense of derision, wonder, or surprise.
Taking Root
Style Weekly
Mar 22, 2024
After the Civil War, it was common for formerly enslaved people to grow watermelons on their own land and sell them as a cash crop. For many African Americans, the watermelon became a symbol of self-reliance and liberation. In reaction, white Southerners who were threatened by their loss of dominance turned the watermelon into a cultural caricature to depict Black people as lazy, childlike and unclean. This racist trope gained such popularity that the original meaning of the watermelon as a political symbol in America was obscured.
ICA exhibit explores race, class and gender
Richmond Free Press
Mar 21, 2024
Artist Patrice Renee Washington isn’t interested in mainstreaming her creative talents to fit into the white-dominated spaces of the commercial art world. Instead, she focuses on exploring the roots behind racial identity. She’s the artist behind “Tendril,” a solo exhibition of her works at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU (ICA at VCU).
Going to Pot
Style Weekly
Mar 20, 2024
For the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, bringing the world’s largest ceramics conference to Richmond has been half a decade in the making.
Press Play
Richmond Magazine
Feb 28, 2024
Podcasts continue to surge as purveyors of everything from current headlines to comedic entertainment. According to the Pew Research Center, listenership in the U.S. has increased over the last decade, with a June 2023 report noting that 42% of Americans ages 12 and older had listened to a podcast in the past month. In 2013, that average was a mere 12%.
Celebrating Herstory
Style Weekly
Feb 22, 2024
With local musicians, vendors, food and more, For the Fem in You’s “Black AF – A Celebration of Herstory” commemorates Black History Month.
“Black AF – A Black Herstory Celebration” to take stage at the VCU ICA Sunday
RVA Hub
Feb 21, 2024
This vibrant event plans to honor and commemorate the rich tapestry of Black history and culture through live performances, captivating African dancers, Black-owned businesses, and a tantalizing array of Vegan Soul Food.
ICA debuts exhibition challenging colonialism in Africa
Axios Richmond
Feb 16, 2024
VCU's Institute for Contemporary Art's spring season kicks off Friday with works that imagine a world in which Africa had never been colonized.
New exhibits open at the ICA for spring
RIC Today
Feb 15, 2024
Mark your calendar for this Friday, Feb. 16 — that’s when the Spring 2024 season starts at the Institute for Contemporary Art. Richmonders can explore three new exhibitions starting at a free community event that evening.
Stuff to do: Deb 16-18
Style Weekly
Feb 15, 2024
There’s a new opening at the ICA that involves an adaptation of a pavilion and exhibition project premiering at the Lagos Biennial in February.
ICA at VCU announces the second iteration of its research programme MURRMUR
Stir Pad
Feb 13, 2024
After its intriguing debut, the programme returns with a second exhibition titled Blurs and Senses, investigating the act of scavenging and collecting.
Patrice Renee Washington: Tendril
Art Plugged
Jan 24, 2024
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU (ICA at VCU) is pleased to announce Tendril, a solo exhibition presenting primarily ceramic works by artist Patrice Renee Washington.
Taking a Breath
Style Weekly
Dec 20, 2023
Paul Chan’s “Breathers” offers tongue in cheek critiques of our current political and social moment at the ICA.
River City Roundup: Oct. 30, 2023
Richmond Magazine
Oct 30, 2023
Resonate returns for a second year to the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Nov. 3-4.
ARTIST MORGAN BASSICHIS TALKS ABOUT THEIR LITTLE DITTIES
RVA Magazine
Oct 12, 2023
As of September 1, the Institute of Contemporary Art has been hosting More Little Ditties, a video installation by Morgan Bassichis. It remains until January 4, 2024. Christian Detres sat down with the artist to discuss their collection and how it relates to everything from the collective trauma of COVID-19, to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.
ICA at VCU to be moved into VCU School of the Arts
VCUNews
Sep 13, 2023
The partnership will build on the close and collaborative relationship that VCUarts and the ICA have enjoyed for years, while maintaining the ICA's deep commitment to community engagement.
The Common Prize for Art and Education
e-flux Education
Aug 21, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) is pleased to announce The Common Prize for Art and Education, a new annual award recognizing artists, collectives, curators, educators and writers whose work centers on contemporary art as a site of learning.
RESONATE Podcast Festival returns November 3-4
VPM
Aug 21, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University has announced the second annual RESONATE Podcast Festival, taking place November 3-4.
“So it appears” at the ICA: Art and politics deftly fused
Two Coats of Paint
Jul 10, 2023
Contributed by Jason Stopa / An international survey at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University explores how contemporary artists use abstraction to encode otherwise invisible realities: climate change, political strife, and inequalities of all stripes. Some are household names, others still emerging.
An investigative ‘MURRMUR’ into art and publishing resounds in the ICA at VCU
STIR Pad
Jul 5, 2023
Learning is rarely a linear journey. The process of reading, for instance, traces a rather haphazard route, encompassing unintentional detours of misreading, re-reading, or not comprehending what one is reading at all, contradicting its popular interpretation of having an undeviating graph.
So it appears at ICA VCU
Burnaway
Jun 16, 2023
Slender glyphs in black gouache, ink, and pen on two hundred sheets of paper compose a grid in an airy gallery filled with natural light. The suggested movement and weight of the shapes defy the rigid structure as I look up at the expanse of the wall.
ICA at the VCU launches annual $20,000 “Common Prize for Art and Education”
RVA Hub
Jun 14, 2023
Beginning in the fall of 2024, the ICA at VCU will present a new annual award recognizing artists, collectives, curators, educators and writers whose work centers on contemporary art as a site of learning.
The ICA announces a Common Prize to honor arts education.
Style Weekly
Jun 12, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art announced on Monday that, thanks to a new $500,000 gift, it will begin awarding an annual arts prize starting in the Fall of 2024.
Dive into the enigmatic world of “So it appears”: Contemporary African art on display at VCU’s ICA
On Art
Jun 9, 2023
“So It Appears” is on view at the Virginia Commonwealth University Museum of Contemporary Art (ICA at VCU) from February 24 through July 16, 2023. Occupying multiple spaces and galleries in the ICA at VCU building, this group exhibition brings together more than nineteen artists from around the world to explore the vast horizons of abstract art.
Open Source RVA: A Conversation with Dominic Willsdon
Open Source RVA
Jun 2, 2023
Don Harrison welcomes the executive director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Institute for Contemporary Art, Dominic Willsdon. The associate professor of arts education talks about the ICA's first five years as Richmond's modern art showplace, and what the future holds for the institution, which consistently programs challenging artists and installations, and spurs debate.
Start Making Sense
Richmond Magazine
Apr 20, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU is turning 5, and you’re invited to the party | Images courtesy ICA at VCU
ICA AT VCU CELEBRATES 5 YEARS OF CHALLENGING THE CONVERSATION
RVA Magazine
Apr 19, 2023
Friday, April 21st is the 5th anniversary of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU). Designed by Steven Holl Architects, this iconic arts center has evolved into a creative hub for Richmond, Virginia, showcasing cutting-edge exhibitions, performances, films, and special programs that challenge and inspire.
A monumental tribute to Jamal Khashoggi unveiled in his home state of Virginia
The Art Newspaper
Apr 18, 2023
Artist Navine G. Dossos created a towering, kaleidoscopic mural in tribute to the assassinated journalist at Richmond's Institute for Contemporary Art.
ICA’S ‘TEST PATTERN’ SERIES WELCOMES THE EVOCATIVE HOLLAND ANDREWS
RVA Magazine
Mar 29, 2023
Holland Andrews is a genderfluid vocalist, composer, and performance artist, whose work focuses on the abstraction of operatic and extended-technique voice to build cathartic and dissonant soundscapes. On Friday, April 7, they will perform at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU as part of the ICA’s ongoing Test Pattern performance series.
IRANIAN-BORN ARTIST SADAF H NAVA TO PERFORM AT ICA, VCU IN SPRING OPENING EXHIBITION
RVA Mag
Feb 19, 2023
On Friday February 24, Sadaf will perform at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, as part of the spring opening of the exhibition So it appears. Here she talks with ICA Curator of Performance David Riley about her influences and the process behind her elaborate multimedia performances.
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU’s bevy of spring exhibitions run the gamut
RVA Hub
Mar 6, 2023
An international group exhibition studying abstraction and a monumental new public artwork By Navine G. Dossos for ICA's iconic facade kick off the 2023 spring season.
Check out this kinetic sculpture at ICA
Axios Richmond
Mar 2, 2023
It turns out there's something kind of mesmerizing about watching two rings of tape spinning in perpetual motion.
So it appears – Canvas
Canvas
Feb 24, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) is pleased to present So it appears, an exhibition featuring nineteen artists from around the world whose works appear inscrutable at first glance—but upon closer examination, tangible, acutely urgent narratives begin to emerge
So it appears – Group Show
Contemporary And
Feb 24, 2023
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) presents So it appears, an exhibition featuring nineteen artists from around the world whose works appear inscrutable at first glance—but upon closer examination, tangible, acutely urgent narratives begin to emerge.
A Comfy Place to Hang
Style Weekly
Feb 20, 2023
“Misread Unread Read Re-Read Misread Unread Re-Read” — or MURRMUR — is described as a work that “expands how we think about reading, publishing, and distributing art, books, and ideas.”
River City Roundup Jan 30th
Richmond Magazine
Jan 30, 2023
Cairo-based music multihyphenate Nadah el Shazly brings her stylings to the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU on Friday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m.
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU to host podcast festival in Richmond
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Aug 22, 2022
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU will host its first RESONATE Podcast Festival this fall on Oct. 14-15. The festival will include workshops with industry leaders in the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, a live podcast pitch competition, one-on-one consultations and exhibitions as well as performances featuring Sharon Mashihi of Appearances and Nick van der Kolk of Love + Radio.
Material Qualities of Sound: Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste Interviewed by Jareh Das
BOMB
Jun 9, 2022
Toussaint-Baptiste’s current exhibition, Set It Off, addresses affective and relational possibilities of sound through the perspectives of minimalism and a resistance to predetermined representations of Black American experiences by favoring instead abstract visual and sonic expressions of Blackness.
The Best Shows to See in the US This June
Frieze
Jun 1, 2022
For his first institutional solo show in the US, ‘Forgotten, Nudes, Landscapes’ at ICA VCU, Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah presents a series of newly commissioned, large-scale canvases. In the first gallery, Red Valley and Ten Nudes and a Landscape (both 2021) depict hazy, magma-like landscapes onto which the silhouettes of various figures – dancing, reclining – have been lightly superimposed.
New York’s Studio Museum in Harlem Names Its First-Ever Curator-at-Large
ARTnews
May 27, 2022
New York’s Studio Museum in Harlem has hired Amber Esseiva to be its first-ever curator-at-large. Esseiva is currently a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Imprints of the Patriarchy
Richmond Magazine
May 27, 2022
Works by Latina artists challenge social structure at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Virginia Opera, Richmond Symphony announce plans for Loving v. Virginia opera
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 17, 2022
The opera, along with the Richmond Symphony, announced Monday that it has co-commissioned “Loving v. Virginia,” an operatic retelling of the groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court case centered on the interracial marriage of Mildred and Richard Loving.
Marriage Story
Style Weekly
May 17, 2022
Virginia Opera and Richmond Symphony plan a 'Loving' opera.
Gideon Appah’s Fascination With the Fragmented Body
Frieze
May 17, 2022
At the Institute of Contemporary Art Virginia Commonwealth University, the artist cobbles together filmic and digital imagery to form spiritual beings
Virginia Opera & Richmond Symphony to World Premiere ‘Loving v. Virginia’ in 2024-25
Opera Wire
May 17, 2022
Virginia Opera & Richmond Symphony to World Premiere ‘Loving v. Virginia’ in 2024-25
The Long Game
Style Weekly
Apr 19, 2022
Season two of "Black Space Matters" features Black-led green spaces.
Amber Esseiva: Shaping Institutional Identity Through Exhibitions And Cultural Programming
Art Plugged
Apr 15, 2022
Recently, I caught up with Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University Curator Amber Esseiva during her recent curated exhibition “Forgotten, Nudes, landscapes” with celebrated Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah, an artist shaking up the art world with Accra’s Gallery 1957.
Where Inspiration Strikes
Virginia Living
Mar 25, 2022
A new exhibit at The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) explores the move from external to internal subject matter.
TV or not TV? With hybrid performance series “Test Pattern,” the ICA goes public.
Style Weekly
Mar 23, 2022
With hybrid performance series "Test Pattern," the ICA goes public.
School is In: Luis Camnitzer’s “A Museum is a School” goes up at the ICA
Style Weekly
Mar 22, 2022
Luis Camnitzer’s “A Museum is a School” goes up at the ICA.
Gideon Appah Explores Ghanian Cultural Memory at The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Widewalls
Mar 1, 2022
In his latest body of works titled Forgotten, Nudes, Landscapes, currently on view at The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Appah explores the Ghanaian cinema culture.
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste: Bass is Touch
Contemporary And
Feb 22, 2022
In his exhibition Set It Off, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste investigates the relationship between sound, Black cultural traditions, and the body
Interview: Ghanaian Painter Gideon Appah Goes On A Journey Of Rediscovery
Something Curated
Feb 8, 2022
Comprised of paintings, drawings and mixed media ephemera, Accra-based Ghanaian painter Gideon Appah’s latest body of work chronicles the cycle of cultural memory through a series of portraits featuring figures illustrious and forgotten.
The Road to Accra
Richmond Magazine
Jan 21, 2022
Gideon Appah's cinematic paintings make their U.S. debut.
The Virginia museum spotlighting overlooked histories & perspectives
The Art Newspaper
Jan 21, 2022
In a trio of current and upcoming exhibitions, the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University will showcase prints, paintings and a sonic environment that champion underrepresented narratives.
What the Soil Knows: Dineo Seshee Bopape at ICA VCU
Art in America
Jan 21, 2022
The ICA at VCU in Richmond presents the South African artist's projected drawings, videos, and sculptures commemorating violent histories.
Installation View – Ibrahim Ahmed: It Will Always Come Back to You
ContemporaryAnd
Aug 27, 2021
The exhibition features a large new ICA-commissioned sculpture and a selection of textile-based sculpture, painting, and photo collages produced by Ibrahim Ahmed since 2013, delving into themes related to colonization, power structures, cultural interactions, and the fluidity of identity.
Kandis Williams Unearths the History of U.S. Extractive Labour
Frieze
Jun 16, 2021
At the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, the artist presents a site-responsive project that looks at the fraught history of post-slavery labour practices across the Virginia countryside.
Gently Erotic Photo Collages That Explore Migration and Masculinity
AnOther
Aug 9, 2021
Ibrahim Ahmed’s new solo exhibition at the ICA includes the Giza-born artist’s photo-collage series about his self-release from limits of male performativity.
Artist Ibrahim Ahmed explores colonialism and identity in US solo exhibition
Arab News
Aug 3, 2021
The show features a thematic selection of Ahmed’s work from 2013 to 2020, produced using a variety of media, including primarily textile-based sculpture, painting and photo collage exploring issues related to migration, colonialism and the Global South.
Can Ebony L. Haynes’s New David Zwirner Offshoot Actually Make the Art World Slow Down? She’s Banking on It
Artnet
Jun 8, 2021
The highly anticipated downtown New York space will debut in October with a solo show of work by artist Kandis Williams.
Ibrahim Ahmed: It Will Always Come Back to You
ContemporaryAnd
Jul 20, 2021
The first solo museum exhibition of Cairo-based artist Ibrahim Ahmed, It Will Always Come Back to You presents a thematic selection of his work from 2013 to 2020 in a variety of media, including primarily textile-based sculpture, painting, and photo collage. The exhibition also features a new large sculpture commissioned by the ICA.
OP-ED: The Public Shouldn’t Have to Pay to Be Members of Museums. That’s Why We’re Abolishing the Fees at Our Institution.
Artnet
May 4, 2021
The Public Shouldn’t Have to Pay to Be Members of Museums. That’s Why We’re Abolishing the Fees at Our Institution.
Collage and (In)Visible Histories: Kandis Williams at ICA VCU
Burnaway
Apr 1, 2021
In her newly commissioned, site-responsive installation A Field at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA VCU), Williams explores the entrenched narrative of agricultural labor, horticulture, and Blackness.
Lost and Found
Style Weekly
Mar 16, 2021
Harold Mendez explores place, memory and identity in “Let Us Gather.”
Virginia’s VPM and ICA at VCU partner on Community Media Center in Richmond
Current
Mar 8, 2021
Novice and advanced Virginia-based podcasters alike can now build their skills through the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, a free and public recording studio and workspace co-sponsored by Richmond’s VPM and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Meet Artist Kandis Williams, Whose Poetic Work Has a Sharp, Cerebral, and Radically Political Edge
Artnet
Mar 5, 2021
At the center of Kandis Williams’s first solo institutional show, “A Field,” on view at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art through August 1, a full-sized greenhouse is shrouded in sculptures of exotic plants. Inside, the artist’s 2020 video, Annexation Tango, depicts a dancer’s body floating over aerial shots of Virginia farms and California forest fires. Superimposing a dance born in the spiritual traditions of enslaved Africans over two sites that have been respectively tilled and extinguished by incarcerated people, the seemingly disparate footage illustrates a recurring theme in Williams’s recent bodies of work: the enduring link between the cultivation of plant life in the New World and forced labor.
Rise of the Pod
Richmond Magazine
Feb 1, 2021
The new VPM + ICA Community Media Center provides resources to support the growing local podcast scene.
Richmond urban farmer planting seeds across the community to end food insecurity
WRIC
Dec 18, 2020
According to Feeding America, one in ten people are going hungry in the commonwealth. Duron Chavis, founder of The Happily Natural Day, the nonprofit responsible for creating the garden beds, is ready to help.
Art of Growth and Power
Richmond Magazine
Dec 18, 2020
‘A Field’ at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU explores the resilience of plants and the human spirit
COLLAGE ON VIEW: “Fernanda Laguna: As Everybody”
Kolaj Magazine
Dec 11, 2020
“As Everybody” is a survey of work by Argentinian multimedia artist Fernanda Laguna, investigating her aesthetic, which draws on Surrealist legacies, and feminist activism.
Art, With A Side Of Food Justice, At Institute for Contemporary Art At Virginia Commonwealth University
Forbes
Oct 21, 2020
An art museum may seem like an odd place to advocate for “food justice,” but not to food justice activist Duron Chavis.
Fernanda Laguna presents “As Everybody” at Institute for Contemporary Art-Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Terremoto
Dec 11, 2020
Laguna’s first solo exhibition in the United States, "As Everybody" weaves together various facets of her practice as a painter, illustrator, sculptor, and filmmaker; novelist, poet, and editor; as well as activist, community worker, and curator of alternative art spaces.
“Black Space Matters” Exhibit Transforms Asphalt Lot into Garden
RVA Mag
Oct 21, 2020
The “Commonwealth” exhibit at VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art features work from 10 artists, including an outdoor garden installation by local activist Duron Chavis — which looks pretty amazing from an overhead view.
Many Voices, Different Rooms
Richmond Magazine
Sep 8, 2020
The ICA at VCU and VPM team up for a podcast catalytic creator.
A Resiliency Garden Blooms
VCU Exposure
Oct 21, 2020
Outside the Institute for Contemporary Art, raised beds, murals, plants and flora have turned a gray parking lot into a field of color — and a place to explore deeper issues.
Ellsworth Kelly Award Goes to ICA at VCU
ARTnews
Oct 9, 2020
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has granted this year’s $40,000 Ellsworth Kelly Award to the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. The award will support the ICA’s two-year-long collaboration with filmmaker, photographer, and writer dana washington-queen for a new multimedia work focused on labor and the Black body.
La Argentina Fernanda Laguna Exhibe “As Everybody”
Arte Al Día
Oct 21, 2020
En el Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo de la Virginia Commonwealth University, Laguna presenta en “As Everybody” (Como todos) obras de arte tanto visuales como escritas.
PHOTOS: “Resiliency Garden” at ICA
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Sep 8, 2020
“Resiliency Garden,” a project by activist and educator Duron Chavis, is being constructed outside the VCU Institute of Contemporary Art along Belvidere Street Mon., Aug. 31, 2020. It is part of the “Commonwealth” exhibit opening on Sept. 12.
In memoriam: Bill Royall, former vice rector of the VCU Board of Visitors and longtime VCU benefactor
VCU News
Jul 6, 2020
William “Bill” A. Royall Jr., former vice rector of the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors and benefactor to all facets of the university, died Thursday.
Artists and COVID-19 | ICA director remains hopeful for the future
The Commonwealth Times
Apr 26, 2020
Life has changed for everyone as a result of COVID-19. (...)
25 Best Architecture Firms in New York, NY (Updated April 2020)
Architizer
Apr 18, 2020
(...) Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, a bold composition of cantilever volumes housing gallery spaces and exhibition halls in Richmond, VA. (...)
Class of 2020: Passion for education and art help Lisa Winn Bryan fulfill a longtime dream
VCU News
Apr 13, 2020
Decades after she aspired to study art at VCU, the School of Education doctoral student is poised to graduate from the university. (...)
ARTnews in Brief: P.P.O.W. to Represent Guadalupe Maravilla—and More from April 10, 2020
ARTnews
Apr 10, 2020
The New York–based gallery P.P.O.W. announced that it will now represent the artist Guadalupe Maravilla, who splits his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Richmond, Virginia, where is an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. (...)
ICA named top 10 best new museum by USA Today
The Commonwealth Times
Mar 10, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art was named a top-10 “Best New Museum” by USA Today in a list released Feb. 28 ranking museums that have opened during the last two years.
Investigating Site: Corin Hewitt Interviewed by Joshua Simon
BOMB
Mar 10, 2020
Corin Hewitt’s installations create spaces for convening and for narrating biography, language, and encounter. We met to discuss two of his exhibitions: Shadows Are To Shade at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond, Virginia, in 2019; and A Parrot in Parallel Proposes, currently on view at Motel in New York City. (...)
ICA at VCU named among best new museums in USA Today’s 10Best
CBS 6
Feb 28, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University has been named one of the best new museums by the USA TODAY 10 Best Readers' Choice. (...)
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU voted one of USA Today’s top 10 new museums
VCU News
Feb 28, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University has been named a top 10 best new museum by the USA TODAY 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards. (...)
The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis
Art & Education
Feb 12, 2020
Xenogenesis presents a cross-section of The Otolith Group’s works from 2011 to 2018. Part fiction, part documentary, these films and installations address contemporary global issues: how humans have shaped the natural world; what “we” have inherited from colonialism; the unresolved histories of global Asian and African diasporas; and how “we” are changing in response to new technologies. (...)
The Smooch: Our annual Valentine’s issue where we show love to some of our favorite people, places and things in Richmond.
Style Weekly
Feb 11, 2020
(...) Previously, catching up with Michelle Parrish to give the restaurateur and caterer a smooch required a trip to 2833 R St. on Church Hill. (...)
Brief But Spectacular: Paul Rucker
PBS
Feb 7, 2020
Paul Rucker is a visual artist, composer, and musician. From 2017 until the present, Rucker has been embedded at the ICA as an iCubed Fellow where he has piloted a series of career development programs for Richmond-based creatives.
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2019
Culture Type
Feb 6, 2020
(...) Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) in Richmond adds new members artist Adam Pendleton and curator Adrienne Edwards to advisory board. (...)
‘Disease Thrower’: Found objects form a narrative
The Commonwealth Times
Feb 5, 2020
The importance of storytelling can come in different forms to any narrator, such as sculptures, drawings and performances. (...)
Great Force
Art Papers
Jan 29, 2020
The press preview was wrapping up. Journalists, community organizers, and artists were assembled at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. (...)
ICA Exhibit Explores Trauma of Migration and Illness Through Sculpture and Sound
VPM News
Jan 28, 2020
The latest installment in the Institute for Contemporary Art’s Provocations series, Disease Thrower, explores the connection between illness and traumas of migration. (...)
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU nominated by USA Today for ‘Best New Museums’
NBC12
Jan 27, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at VCU has been nominated by a panel of judges for USA Today’s ‘Best New Museums’. (...)
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU nominated as one of USA Today’s best new museums
VCU News
Jan 27, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University has been nominated in USA Today’s 2020 10Best Readers' Choice travel awards. (...)
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU nominated for Best New Museum in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice contest
Richmond Times Dispatch
Jan 22, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University is one of 20 new museums nominated for Best New Museum in USA Today's 10Best Readers’ Choice contest. (...)
ICA Nominated for USAToday’s “10 Best New Museums” Readers Choice
Style Weekly
Jan 22, 2020
The Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond has been nominated for USA Today's “10Best” Readers’ Choice award in the Best New Museum category. (...)
New year, new exhibits: a preview to Richmond’s upcoming and current art exhibits
The Commonwealth Times
Jan 14, 2020
(...) Following the “Great Force” exhibit that left at the beginning of this month, comes the Institute for Contemporary Art’s newest exhibition, titled “Otolith Group: The Xenogenesis,” which explores the history of colonial and race relations. (...)
Which Emerging Artist Dominated 2019? 12 Art-World Players Share Their Thoughts
Artnet News
Dec 21, 2019
There is never any shortage of cutting-edge work by rising art stars to get your fill of, and this year was no exception. (...)
In Richmond, Tracing the “Great Force” of American Racism
Hyperallergic
Dec 19, 2019
Taking a cue from James Baldwin, an exhibition considers the way that American racism moves forward — from the arrival of the first ship carrying enslaved Africans to the insidious ways it has trickled through the capillaries of American culture. (...)
Tourist in Your Own Town: Art Adventures
Richmond Mag
Nov 25, 2019
Next up is the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. You’ve probably driven by Steven Holl’s iconic and futuristic building, but have you been inside yet? (...)
‘Touch of Elegance’ opera spotlights abstract beauty, heritage at ICA
The Commonwealth Times
Nov 19, 2019
The first act of Richard Kennedy’s opera, “Touch of Elegance,” which premiered at the Institute for Contemporary Art on Saturday, included a statement of the performance as “opera that’s centered on blackness, queerness, and doing the most.” (...)
A Double Dose of Soul
Richmond Magazine
Nov 19, 2019
One year after opening her converted 572-square-foot brick eatery in Church Hill North, Soul N’ Vinegar owner Michelle Parrish was approached about a second venture, this time inside the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, the $41 million gallery with continually rotating art exhibitions that opened in April of 2018. (...)
Graphic design panel shares insight in industry, representation
The Commonwealth Times
Nov 19, 2019
The art of graphic design is more than what meets the eye. It can be layered with different meanings and interpretations with unknown themes of personal identity. (...)
ICA at VCU announces café partnership with Soul N’ Vinegar
VCU News
Nov 19, 2019
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University is partnering with Soul N’ Vinegar, run by chef Michelle Parrish, to operate its cafe.
Week in Review
Hyperallergic
Nov 15, 2019
Paul Rucker and Nontsikelelo Mutiti were named inaugural fellows at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. (...)
Soul N’ Vinegar restaurant in Church Hill opens outpost in ICA at VCU
Richmond Times Dispatch
Nov 13, 2019
Soul N' Vinegar - the year-and-a-half old grab-and-go Church Hill restaurant - has opened a second location inside the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. (...)
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU announces inaugural ICA Research Fellows and two staff promotions
Art Daily
Nov 13, 2019
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University announced the creation of a Research Fellows program and two staff promotions, which together will enhance the scope and capacity of the ICA’s programming. (...)
ICA exhibit promotes healing, dialogue regarding immigration and illness
The Commonwealth Times
Nov 12, 2019
Towering cream-colored sculptures, massive glimmering gongs, sequin-encrusted embroidery and lavender walls traced with silver lines paint a rich scene featuring found objects and vibrant cultural patterns. (...)
Virginia Commonwealth University’s ICA Announces Research Fellows and Staff Promotions
Artforum
Nov 12, 2019
The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) announced today its inaugural research fellows, Paul Rucker and Nontsikelelo Mutiti, and the promotion of two staff members. (...)
ARTnews in Brief: Four U.S. Museums Acquire Works from Souls Grown Deep—and More from November 15, 2019
ARTnews
Nov 11, 2019
The Institute [for] Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has named its inaugural research fellows: artists Paul Rucker and Nontsikelelo Mutiti. (...)
The ICA’s newest exhibition looks at migration, illness and anxieties of the undocumented
VCU News
Nov 6, 2019
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University will open its annual Provocations series with an overnight ceremony in which participants can sonically “bathe” in the sounds of a healing gong. (...)
Celebrating gender nonconformity through wigs and music
The Commonwealth Times
Nov 5, 2019
The opening room of the Institute for Contemporary Art was filled with people in colorful tinsel wigs swaying to the DJ’s electric beats while clips of music videos were projected overhead. (...)
Touch of Elegance by Richard Kennedy
Caldera Magazine
Nov 4, 2019
Touch of Elegance is a new operetta from experimental librettist and multi-disciplinary artist Richard Kennedy. (...)
Controlled by History: ICA’s Great Force Examines Race in the United States
RVA Mag
Oct 10, 2019
Great Force, a group exhibition at VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art, focuses on the way our complex history continues to affect race relations in 21st century America. (...)
ICA’s newest exhibit digs deep into race and inequality
The Commonwealth Times
Oct 8, 2019
Throughout the exhibition’s two levels, the 24 artists depict portrayals and stories of contemporary African Americans with comparisons to slavery and institutionalized racism. (...)
New ICA exhibit, ‘Great Force,’ to include late Free Press founder
Richmond Free Press
Oct 4, 2019
The power of white culture versus black resistance is at the heart of a major art show opening this week at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art. (...)
Great Force
Art & Education
Oct 4, 2019
"History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. (...)
The ICA’s ‘Great Force’ opens tonight at First Friday
The Commonwealth Times
Oct 4, 2019
The Institute for Contemporary Art’s newest exhibition, Great Force, will open tonight at its First Friday celebration. (...)
Arts alum is blurring historical lines with ‘Great Force’
VCU News
Oct 2, 2019
Lines. Our world is full of them. They govern our lives and shape how we feel. There is a sharp line between right and wrong, between left and right. (...)
Historical Presence: A new exhibit exploring race at the ICA at VCU is garnering national attention
Style Weekly
Sep 24, 2019
Richmond audiences might recognize artists such as Glenn Ligon, whose “A Small Band” (2015) featuring the neon words “blues blood bruise” hangs prominently in the atrium of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (...)
Don’t Miss These Art Shows and Events This Fall
The New York Times
Sep 12, 2019
GREAT FORCE Commissions and recent work by 21 artists, including Tomashi Jackson and Sable Elyse Smith, confront race in America across a variety of media. (...)
Air-Conditioning Included: Four Museum Shows That Don’t Require SPF
Cultured Mag
Sep 9, 2019
In my humble opinion the curators at the ICA at Virginia Commonwealth University have been killing it for a while, but Corin Hewitt’s domestically inclined show “Shadows Are to Shade” busts the doors off. (...)
Sympathetic Resonance: Corin Hewitt at the ICA, Richmond
Burnaway
Jul 23, 2019
The term sympathetic resonance describes a phenomenon in string instruments: pluck a string of one note, and a string with harmonic likeness vibrates in sympathy. (...)
Shadows of History
Richmond Magazine
Jul 9, 2019
Ever been curious about the ground beneath your feet? Or wondered about the people who used to live in your home or walk across your land? (...)
Waiting for Change: A Richmond artist plays with notions of space at home and the ICA
Style Weekly
Jun 25, 2019
Before taking in Corin Hewitt's compelling new exhibition, it helps to understand the notion of parafiction. (...)
ICA VCU Adds Adam Pendleton, Adrienne Edwards to Advisory Board
ARTNEWS
Mar 6, 2019
Artist Adam Pendleton and curator Adrienne Edwards will join the advisory board for the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. The new additions to the board come three months into Dominic Willsdon’s tenure as director of the museum.
New ICA exhibits engage audiences in reimagined spaces
Commonwealth Times
Feb 15, 2019
“In immersive experiences in the galleries, these artists offer compelling critiques of our present moment and also visions for other possible futures,” ICA Chief Curator Stephanie Smith said, “which they’re exploring with generosity and with clarity.”
Spring exhibitions at the ICA address social conditions through art made by women
Style Weekly
Feb 12, 2019
Avatars, representations of blackness, the Shaker community, Alice Coltrane's jazz and income-based fashion. These are just a few themes explored in the spring exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art, pairing work by Los Angeles-based Cauleen Smith, who was trained in film, with art by Belgrade, Yugoslavia-born Irene Haiduk, who now lives in New York City, and artwork by Martine Syms, another LA artist.
Rashid Johnson’s “Monument”
Art Agenda
Feb 12, 2019
Half a mile from the Lee memorial, on the top floor of the ICA, Rashid Johnson’s exhibition “Monument” confronts the state of monuments, questioning collective consciousness and whose stories are granted visibility. The show couldn’t be more timely, as the American South is debating the legacy and future of its Confederate monuments, many of which were erected long after the end of the Civil War and well into the twentieth century.
Building Future Worlds: In Conversation with Cauleen Smith
BURNAWAY
Feb 7, 2019
In advance of the opening of Give It or Leave It at the Markel Center at the VCU Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond on February 16, I spoke with Smith about her recent work. Our conversation was conducted in writing in January 2019 and has been edited for publication.
Exploring the ICA: Richmond’s Institute for Contemporary Art strives to create a permanent impression through temporary exhibits
Virginia Living
Jan 23, 2019
The ICA, which opened its doors in April, has a big mission. It aspires to be an anchor for Richmond’s booming arts scene and an internationally known cultural driver for the region.
New ICA exhibits capture essence of fall, engage art lovers
The Commonwealth Times
Oct 23, 2018
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU simultaneously opened “Hedges, Edges, Dirt” and the first installment of its “Provocations” series, “Monument” Oct. 17. The exhibitions explore cultural history and modern issues, including immigration and urbanization.
(BITTER) SWEET VIRGINIA: Navigating Monuments in the Cradle of the Confederacy
Artillery Mag
Oct 16, 2018
(BITTER) SWEET VIRGINIA: Navigating Monuments in the Cradle of the Confederacy
Two new exhibits at the ICA encourage different audiences to stop by and participate
Style Weekly
Oct 12, 2018
"...a group exhibition that straddles truth and fiction, politics and beauty, and notions of belonging and displacement."
ICA Gets In Your Ear for Music Networking Series
Richmond BizSense
Oct 9, 2018
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU this month launched its own version of In Your Ear Studios’ Shockoe Sessions, the 2½ -year-old, invite-only concert series that blends business networking with live music performances.
Q&A: Dominic Willsdon
Richmond Magazine
Oct 2, 2018
The curator and educator takes the helm at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU Dec. 1
New Director Emphasizes ICA’s International Role
The Commonwealth Times
Sep 25, 2018
Dominic Willsdon’s first impression of Richmond was strong — one of scenic walks along the James River and visits to Carytown’s iconic bookstore, Chop Suey, places he considers just as valuable to visual culture as art galleries.
Dominic Willsdon was named executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University
Hyperallergic
Sep 6, 2018
Associate Editor Jasmine Weber included news of Dominic’s appointment in Hyperallergic’s Art Movements column, a weekly roundup of art world news. This column is also emailed out as a weekly newsletter.
VCU’s ICA Names its New Director
ArtNet News
Sep 6, 2018
Dominic Willsdon appointed executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Dominic Willsdon to lead Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art
ArtForum
Sep 6, 2018
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University announced today that Dominic Willsdon has been named its new executive director.
Dominic Willsdon appointed executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
ArtDaily.Org
Sep 6, 2018
Dominic Willsdon appointed executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Institute for Contemporary Art Names New Director
Style Weekly
Sep 6, 2018
Virginia Commonwealth University has named Dominic Willsdon as the new executive director of its Institute for Contemporary Art.
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU Announces New Director
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Sep 6, 2018
The non-collecting art museum at Virginia Commonwealth University has announced Dominic Willsdon as its new executive director.
Smart Luxury: Richmond, VA
Sherman Travel
Aug 22, 2018
Despite having just 200,000 residents, Virginia’s capital, Richmond, feels like anything but a small town these days. With a sparkling new contemporary art museum, one of the most buzzed-about hotels in the country, a thriving art scene, and a spate of notable restaurants, this energetic southern town is the perfect place for a high-culture weekend.
How Does Art Propel People to Talk to One Another?
Smithsonian
Aug 6, 2018
Located in Richmond, Virginia, the ICA seeks to push visual boundaries and above all else, spark meaningful dialogue among community members with different backgrounds and viewpoints. Its mission is not only to showcase the vast range of art that is being made today, but to respond to the immediacy of political and social change.
Provocative Art Highlights KKK’s Impact on America Today
News21
Jul 18, 2018
Paul Rucker doesn’t shy away from the controversy surrounding his KKK-themed art exhibit. In fact, he hopes his work will spark a national conversation on institutional racism. Some of the most striking pieces of the exhibit, called “Storm in the Time of Shelter,” are now on display in Richmond, Virginia, and include hand-sewn Klan robes, created from all types of materials and patterns, which range from vivid African Tribal print to pink camo.
‘Say Her Name:’ The Sandra Bland Documentary and the Power of Speaking Out
RVAmag
Jul 19, 2018
“’Say Her Name’, in it of itself is a declaration to make sure that women, especially women of color, who are victims of police brutality that their voices and their memories are not forgotten.”
The Mending Project at ICA brings people together over stitches and art
Style Weekly
Jul 10, 2018
"Sometimes you feel like you might have met someone in another life," Hutchinson says. "It happens a lot here. It's like having dinner with someone. You are instantly connected."
‘Sandra Still Speaks’: The ICA at VCU screens a film about Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who died in jail three days after being arrested in 2015
Richmond Magazine
Jul 10, 2018
Nearly three years after her sister's death, Shante Needham still thinks of Sandra Bland every day. The world knows Bland as another unarmed African-American who died at the hands of police or while in police custody. But Needham knew Bland — still knows her — in a wholly different, very personal way.
Declaration, A Group Exhibition
The Brooklyn Rail
Jun 5, 2018
As the title suggests, Declaration, the inaugural exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Richmond’s first institution dedicated solely to contemporary art, is a statement about its mission as a socially engaged agora, primed to respond to today’s issues.
Why Richmond Could Be the Country’s Next Must-visit Art Destination
Travel + Leisure
Jun 5, 2018
With its striking design courtesy of Steven Holl Architects, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art is not your average collegiate gallery. Its debut this spring has given art and architecture buffs new cause to visit the institute’s hometown.
Paul Rucker Makes Colorful Klan Robes to Fight Racism
Art in America
Jun 1, 2018
Baltimore-based, multi-media artist Paul Rucker is on a mission. With “Storm in the Time of Shelter,” his installation at the newly opened Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond, VA, he aims to show the Ku Klux Klan is not a shameful relic from a distant, racist past, but a harmful force that still has a systemic impact on US society and institutions.
Economic and cultural change Philanthropy-supported arts have a big impact throughout Virginia
Virginia Business Magazine
May 30, 2018
On the northeastern edge of Virginia Commonwealth University’s downtown Richmond campus stands a gleaming, seemingly impossibly angular, zinc- and glass-fronted building that is itself as much a piece of art as the works contained within it.
Mending the Social Fabric: Richmond’s New Institute for Contemporary Art
Art in America
May 9, 2018
On a second-floor balcony of the new Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, a forty-foot-long signage-sculpture proclaims a message of inclusivity: “You belong here.”
In Richmond, a dramatic new structure is unlike any other in town
The Washington Post
May 8, 2018
Even if you don’t recognize the hallmarks of architect Steven Holl’s style, you could probably identify his new Markel Center on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. It is a glass- and zinc-clad structure that plays subtle games with boxes and angled forms, presenting a dramatic trapezoid of frosted glass to announce its entrance and atrium space.
Glass welcomes the Institute for Contemporary Art – a major contemporary space in Richmond, Virginia
Glass
May 8, 2018
THE recent opening of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond marks an important moment for the city. The striking, silver-hued building, with its titanium-zinc and etched-glass exterior, is the first significant arts institution in the region to be committed to the display of contemporary art.
Steven Holl Architects’ Game-Changing New Arts Building for Virginia Commonwealth University
Architectural Record
May 8, 2018
The new Markel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in Richmond anchors its busy corner site at the edge of campus like an urban-scaled sculpture, its cool, pre-weathered titanium zinc and etched glass acting in concert to form a building that, in certain light, appears monolithic.
The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, by Steven Holl Architects, Is Efficient, Yet Astonishing
Style Weekly
May 1, 2018
For decades the most animated things at West Broad and Belvidere have been the huge helium balloons that appear each December — cartoony and wafting — in the Christmas parade. But for the past year it's been as if one humongous, origamilike Mylar balloon has been lodged at the southwest corner of that busy intersection. That's no balloon, of course, but the titanium zinc-clad Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Art at the Markel Center. It opened April 21 after a seven-year gestation.
A New Contemporary Art Museum in Virginia Leads with Politics
Hyperallergic
Apr 24, 2018
Declaration, the first show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth Institute, foregrounds work dealing with social justice, belonging, and the erosion of time.
The Ethereal Glass Façades of Steven Holl Architects
Architizer
Apr 24, 2018
In their 40-plus years of practice, his firm, Steven Holl Architects, has gained a reputation as the masters of this immaterial material. They have devoted themselves to capturing light’s ephemeral qualities in their architecture, creating translucent glass façades that shift subtly throughout the day and illuminate their surroundings in the night.
Virginia Commonwealth University Debuts Their New Institute for Contemporary Art
Cultured Magazine
Apr 24, 2018
This spring, architecture and art convene in a striking 41,000-square-foot, three-story sculptural addition to Richmond’s downtown—privately funded with $41 million. Design connoisseurs would be well advised to make the two-hour trip from Washington, D.C. for the building alone.
Virginia University’s $41m Kunsthalle Aims to Bridge Town-Gown Divide
The Art Newspaper
Apr 20, 2018
A splashy new Institute for Contemporary Art is due to open on 21 April at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, whose graduate fine arts programmes are ranked among the best in the United States. The ICA, a non-collecting institution, will exhibit local and international art in a $41m zinc-clad building designed by Steven Holl Architects.
Inside the Institute for Contemporary Art Before Saturday’s Opening
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Apr 18, 2018
You’ve seen it rise at the corner of Broad and Belvidere streets, the shiny zinc-clad modern marvel that will house the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
You’re Going Where?: Richmond
Washington Post
Apr 18, 2018
A Virginia city stuck in the middle is full of superlatives, with noted architecture, natural wonders (white water inside its confines!) and thriving scenes involving food and the arts.
Can a University Art Museum Break Out of the Ivory Tower? A New Institute of Contemporary Art Proposes an Ambitious Vision in Virginia
artnet
Apr 17, 2018
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University opens this weekend in Richmond with ambitions no less lofty than these. The public university with 31,000 students and a highly-ranked art school hopes the $41 million Steven Holl-designed museum will propel it to international prominence.
Countdown to Launch
Style Weekly
Apr 10, 2018
Inside the busy preparation to open the city’s new architectural jewel, the Institute for Contemporary Art.
Institute for Contemporary Art opening ‘is a big deal’
Virginia Business
Mar 29, 2018
Joseph Seipel is elated about the publicity Virginia Commonwealth University’s new Institute for Contemporary Art has received in the U.S. and internationally. “It’s astounding,” says Seipel, ICA’s interim director. “This is a big deal in the world of creative art.”
Your First Look Inside the Institute for Contemporary Art
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Apr 1, 2018
The Institute for Contemporary Art sits on the corner of Belvidere and West Broad streets, like a silver-winged present, waiting to be opened.
New Contemporary Art Institute Reverberates in Richmond’s Historic Landscape
New York Times
Apr 1, 2018
On a street that once marked the boundary between black and white communities in Richmond, Va., a gleaming new Institute for Contemporary Art is set to open this spring with an exhibit called “Declaration” that will boldly confront pressing social issues in a city that was once the capital of the Confederacy.
Building Expectations
Richmond Mag
Apr 1, 2018
These area construction projects will have an impact on everything from the region’s cultural offerings to downtown commerce and our daily commute
Retired VCUarts dean appointed as new ICA Director
Commonwealth Times
Apr 1, 2018
Retired VCUarts Dean Joe Seipel will serve as Interim Director of the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) following Lisa Freiman stepping down from the position earlier this month.
The Coolest Things Opening in America in 2018
Thrillist
Apr 1, 2018
Don’t look now, but little Richmond, Virginia has the most anticipated art museum opening of 2018.
Interview: Joe Seipel
Style Weekly
Apr 1, 2018
The interim director of the ICA talks about his new gig.
‘I Don’t Really Collect Art. I Trade Art.’
The New York Times
Dec 19, 2017
Almost every morning, the architect Steven Holl wakes in his loftlike West Village apartment just before sunrise, climbs to an elevated platform by windows that offer a panoramic view of Manhattan, and paints. “Sometimes it’s a building I’m working on — they’re the concept drawings,” said Mr. Holl, 70. “Other times, it has nothing to do with any building. I just do what I feel.”
Art Movements
Hyperallergic - December 2017
Dec 15, 2017
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University promoted Amber Esseiva to assistant curator and appointed Enjoli Moon as adjunct assistant curator of film.
9 of the Most Beautiful Buildings Opening in 2018
Galerie Magazine - December 2017
Dec 22, 2017
Architect Steven Holl’s refined contemporary art gallery for Virginia Commonwealth University will open its doors on April 21 with a timely exhibition exploring themes of protest and social injustice.
Steven Holl’s Institute for Contemporary Art Comprises Sculptural Blocks of Zinc and Translucent Glass
dezeen - December 2017
Dec 21, 2017
The building comprises a series of irregularly shaped blocks that slot together. Translucent glass panels cover some of the surfaces, offering blurry views in – similar to the luminous Maggie’s Centre that Holl recently completed in London. Others are covered in panels of pre-weathered zinc, which complement the tone of the glass.
Steven Holl’s Institute for Contemporary Art in Virginia Readies for Spring 2018 Opening
designboom - December 2017
Dec 21, 2017
Steven Holl’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at VCU is set to open in Richmond, Virginia on April 21, 2018. The building, photographed here by Iwan Baan, will transform the historic Broad and Belvidere intersection, and serve as a gateway between the campus and the city of Richmond.
Next: 23 Art Curators to Watch Who Took on New Appointments in 2017
Culture Type - December 2017
Dec 27, 2017
In advance of opening its April 2018 opening, the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a new, non-collecting art institution in Richmond, Va., made changes to its curatorial team.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art Appoints Assistant Curators
ArtForum - December 2017
Dec 26, 2017
“We are thrilled to have Amber and Enjoli as part of our curatorial team,” said chief curator Stephanie Smith. “Both are dynamic, ambitious, and deeply collaborative thinkers who are poised to make major contributions to their fields.”
The 12 Most Anticipated Buildings of 2018
Architectural Digest - December 2017
Dec 22, 2017
The genius of Steven Holl’s design is that, while the architecture is masterfully uniform, the usage of its interior is anything but that. The ICA will be used as a cafe bar, a gallery space, a 240-seat auditorium for film screenings, performances, and lectures, as well as a fabrication workshop.
In Progress: Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU / Steven Holl Architects
Arch Daily - December 2017
Dec 19, 2017
“We designed the ICA to be a flexible, forward-looking instrument that will both illuminate and serve as a catalyst for the transformative possibilities of contemporary art,” said architect Steven Holl. “Like many contemporary artists working today, the ICA’s design does not draw distinctions between the visual and performing arts. The fluidity of the design allows for experimentation, and will encourage new ways to display and present art that will capitalize on the ingenuity and creativity apparent throughout the VCU campus.”
Our Complete Guide to the Biggest, Baddest, Boldest Museum Openings in 2018
Artnet News
Jan 3, 2018
The ICA is set to open in April with “Declaration,” an exhibition bringing together 30 artists whose work addresses a variety of social issues.
Best Arts and Culture of 2017
RVA Mag - 2017
Jan 3, 2018
"The ICA will put Richmond on the map for art for anyone who already didn’t realize what a thriving and vibrant arts community we have."