Laughing Out Loud

Humor is culturally specific and nuanced. It’s hard to pin down – but like love, we know it when we feel it. While the fourteen artists inLaughing Out Loud make various kinds of art, they have been selected for this exhibition because of their shared investigation into how funny functions in narrative content and in technical execution. Humor in art can subvert meta-narratives and make us think, while also invoking an involuntary and cathartic laugh.

The artists in Laughing Out Loud use humor through conceptual, formal, and material incongruity in their work. This serves to invert and expose power dynamics through absurd pairings and combinations. The resulting artwork is subversive, weird, brave, and brilliant. Humor is disarming, and can pack a punch of social commentary and rebellion against conventions. Laughter enables viewers to gives themselves over to the art, even if just for a moment of psychological vulnerability and aesthetic experience.

Participating Artists:

Nadine Beauharnois
Todd Bienvenu
Caroline Chandler
Ari Eshoo
Seth Kaufman
Christina Kelly
Jen Nista
Archie Rand
Kameelah Rasheed
Michael Scoggins
Emilie Selden
Petra Gupta Valentova
Daniel Wiener
Crys Yin