Summer Breaks: Labor, Leisure, Lust

May 19 - August 5, 2016
Summer Breaks: Labor, Leisure, Lust

Arthur L. Werger, Venus, 1998, aquatint, 35½ x 23½", Collection of the Hite Art Institute

Summer Breaks

On View: May 19 - August 5, 2016
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 19th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Schneider Hall Galleries, Hite Art Institute
Department of Fine Arts, University of Louisville

This summer, the Hite Art Institute presents Summer Breaks: Labor, Leisure, Lust. Featuring prints from the permanent collection, this exhibition explores 20th Century depictions of American consumption in relation to traditional codes of viewership. Breaks—whether from work, to the beach, or into a good book—diverge from the quotidian into the unconventional and even the erotic. Yet as the prints in this exhibition reveal, such departures are only possible due to other forms of labor or exploitation. Summer Breaks demonstrates how popular motifs can be re-coded to break from or maintain dominant ideologies, distorting the line between who is at work and who is at play.

Summer Breaks was curated by Ashley Braunecker, Hunter Kissel, and Madison Sevilla as part of the Critical and Curatorial Studies methodologies seminar. 

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