IN THE NEWS


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.

Feature: It Will Always Come Back To You at ICA VCU

Burnaway

Oct 13, 2021

Close Look: “Dineo Seshee Bopape: Ile aye, moya, là, ndokh…harmonic conversions…mm” at ICA VCU, Richmond

Burnaway

Oct 4, 2021

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,

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.

Richmond’s Institute for Contemporary Art Celebrates Third Anniversary

VPM

Jun 1, 2021

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. (...)

Photo of the I C A Pine Street Entrance. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.

Two trenches appear in a darkened room with blue shag carpeting

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’. (...)

The ICA at the Markel Center, at night with sign

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. (...)

The artist Corin Hewitt stands in front of his studio, which is fronted by a white door and white painted brick. Corin wears a blue shirt.

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? (...)

Sculpted hands reach for drawings and images against a stone backdrop

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. (...)

Double Headshot of new board members Adam Pendleton and Adrienne Edwards

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.

Cauleen Smith speaks to visitors during a media preview for Give It or Leave It on February 14, 2019

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.”

Cauleen Smith's

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

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.

Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It

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.

Galleries 2 and 3 at the ICA during the exhibition Hedges, Edges, Dirt in the fall of 2018

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.

Photo: Andrew Ringle

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.

Image of Hedges Edges Dirt Installation

‘It’s a great moment to be here’: New fall exhibits open at the ICA with free music, performances and special events

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Oct 16, 2018

Two exhibits open at the ICA on Wednesday, the first set of new exhibitions since the art museum at Virginia Commonwealth University opened in April: “Provocations: Rashid Johnson” featuring “Monument” in the top gallery and “Hedges, Edges, Dirt” with work from five artists in the first two floors.

Pascale Marthine Tayou, Plastic Tree, 2014-2015 branches, plastic bags Variable dimensions Exhibition view Art Basel Unlimited - Basel, Switzerland, 2015 Courtesy the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana Photo by Andrea Rossetti

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."

Performances in the ICA Auditorium

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.

Dominic Willsdon, Executive Director of the I C A

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

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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.

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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.

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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.

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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.

Headshot: Dominic Willsdon

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.

The Markel Center from the Pine Street Entrance. Photo: Iwan Baan.

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.

Headshot: Stephanie Smith

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.

Installation Shot from Paul Rucker Rewind Exhibit

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.

Graphic: Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland

‘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.”

Installation view, The Mending Project, partial view, Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond, Virginia, 2018. Photo: Terry Brown

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."

Graphic: Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland

‘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.

The Beverly W. Reynolds Gallery at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU

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.

Markel Center at night

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.

A detail of Paul Rucker's Storm in the Time of Shelter at the ICA at VCU

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.

The Beverly W. Reynolds Gallery at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU

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.

Belvidere

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.

Image of the I-C-A from Belvidere Street

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.

Aerial shot of the I-C-A

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 Markel Center from the west

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.

The ICA at the Markel Center, at night with sign

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.

Markel Center at night

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.

Markel Center at 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.

Markel Center at night

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.

The Royall Forum inside the Markel Center

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.

A collage of images of Richmond, VA

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.

Markel Center at night

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.

The ICA at the Markel Center

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.

Photo of the Reflecting Pool in the Thinking Field. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.”

Artist Lee Mingwei installing the Mending Project

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.

Photo of the Reflecting Pool in the Thinking Field. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.

Image of the I-C-A from Belvidere Street

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

Interim Director Joe Seipel

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.

Photo of the Reflecting Pool in the Thinking Field. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.

Interim Director Joe Seipel

Interview: Joe Seipel

Style Weekly

Apr 1, 2018

The interim director of the ICA talks about his new gig.

New Museums, Destinations and Openings Around the US in 2018

U.S. News - January 2018

Jan 3, 2018

Photograph of I C A architect Steven Holl. Photo by Liz Ligon.

‘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.”

Amber Esseiva and Enjoli Moon

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.

I C A Belvidere Entrance. Photo: Iwan Baan

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.

I C A Thinking Field. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.

Amber Esseiva and Enjoli Moon

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.

Amber Esseiva and Enjoli Moon

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.”

I C A Thinking Field. Photo by Iwan Baan

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.

I C A Belvidere Entrance. Photo: Iwan Baan

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.”

I C A Belvidere Entrance. Photo: Iwan Baan

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."