When: closing May 18, 2018
On the mezzanine level of the East Building, there are three "special installations" on display. Note: I'm not sure what the difference is between an exhibition and a special installation - please use the comment section if you can enlighten me!
Also, in this tucked away corner that you have to wander around to find, is a room where James Nares' Street is playing. So happy to see this again. I'm hoping it will be up permanently.
The first installation is Recent Acquisitions: Made in California. It's just what you'd expect: things the gallery has obtained recently made by California artists. I recognized Peter Voulkos' name from having seen the show of his work at the Renwick, but I didn't care much for the piece itself. I find it difficult to generalize about the works, but I'll say they all seemed like an assemblage of things. You could see the component parts of everything; they didn't mesh well into one work of art. I was left thinking, "meh."
More interesting, in my view, was the Saul Steinberg show. He worked for The New Yorker, but if you're looking for cartoons, you'll be disappointed. This is far more abstract stuff. The item I found most intriguing was a drawing of The Smithsonian. I'm not sure I quite understand how this is a picture of The Smithsonian (see photo below), but I did give it a close look.
Finally, what I thought was by far the best of the three was the "Kitchen Table Series" by Carrie Mae Weems. Photos of herself and others, sitting at a kitchen table are interspersed with text about a woman's relationship with her friends, her daughter and a man. It's very powerful; the text adds to the photograhy, and the photographs make the text that much more immediate.
Verdict: Carrie Mae Weems' photographs are the best of these installations - worth the trip up to the Mezzanine.
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