NADA Curated by Katie A. Pfohl

NADA is pleased to present ASSEMBLY, an online exhibition curated by Katie A. Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The seventh edition of NADA Curated brings together 25 artworks from NADA’s international community, live on newartdealers.org through August 31st.

Assembly refers both to a gathering of people and a grouping of objects or materials. At its core is a common purpose: bringing together different people and divergent elements, from unexpected combinations of artistic materials to the organization of disparate individuals into a political movement. 

This NADA Curated online exhibition includes twenty-five artists who reflect on assembly’s deep roots in art history and connection to vanguard political thought. At a moment when our ability to assemble is being tested globally, these artists help us envision new ways of coming together, of holding multiple truths, and of finding unexpected sources of connection. 

These artists show us that assembly—paradoxically—often requires disassembly: old ideas, materials, and concepts, reassembled into something new.  Through their art, they rethink the logic of industry and capitalism, reconstruct a renewed relationship to community and ancestry, and reconsider our connection to land and the environment. Drawing together a global range of artists, this online exhibition spans many different geographies and contexts to itself function as a kind of assembly: a gathering of artistic voices to help guide our future thinking. 

As we face a moment of great political, ideological, and social division, these artistic explorations of the notion of assembly—from the factory line to the protest line—give shape to our next moves.