Montclair Art Museum Exhibition Nominated for AICA-USA Award

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - March 6, 2015 - PRLog -- Earlier this week, the United Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA) announced the nominees for its 2014 awards, which honor exhibitions, performances, writers, and blogs. The Montclair Art Museum’s exhibition Robert Smithson’s New Jersey, on view February 24–June 22, 2014, was named among the nominees for Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally. This is the first time MAM has been nominated for an AICA award.

This groundbreaking show focuses on Robert Smithson (1938-1973), a pioneer of earthworks and native son of New Jersey. Featured together in an exhibition for the first time, Smithson’s sculptures, works on paper, photographs, and other conceptual art rooted in his time spent in the Garden State form a coherent body of work and sheds important light on his artistic practice. This is the first exhibition in which all four of the New Jersey Nonsites, indoor earthworks for which various unorthodox materials at that time—limestone, concrete, and rocks—were brought out of their usual environment into a gallery and arranged in bin-like containers, were shown together. The exhibition was organized by Phyllis Tuchman, Guest Curator and Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator.

Over 400 AICA member will vote to determine first and second places winners, which will be announced in April.