Michelle Grabner: I Work From Home

I Work From Home, Michelle Grabner’s first comprehensive solo museum exhibition, presents her studio work as part of a varied and committed practice that also encompasses artistic collaborations, critical writing, teaching, and curating. While these activities are typically separated, and placed in hierarchy, Grabner models a productively holistic approach to creative work. All of Grabner’s activities are driven by distinctive values and ideas; working outside of dominant systems, working tirelessly, working across platforms and towards community.
This exhibition will feature a range of Grabner’s paintings, prints, video works, and sculptures, which investigate concepts of work, labor, and the aesthetics and social-dynamics of the domestic sphere. Collaborative mobile sculptures made by Grabner and her husband Brad Killam (often formed with Grabner’s paintings used as material or building blocks), will animate the space, questioning the paintings’ status as discrete works, physical objects, or embodiments of ideas. Artist Gaylen Gerber will produce a backdrop for one of the gallery walls, a practice he has established in order to subtly highlight the infrastructure of display while also suggesting a symbiotic relationship of artwork/object and platform/ground.
MOCA Cleveland will also be hosting a full-scale replica of The Suburban, is an artist-run project space founded in 1999 by Grabner and Killam, situated between the artists’ home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Programmed by Grabner, this architectural twin will feature four installations over the course of the exhibition, with works by Karl Haendel, Mike Smith, Amanda Ross-Ho, and Jessica Jackson Hutchins.