Mark Dion: Misadventures of a 21st-Century Naturalist

Since the early 1990s, Mark Dion (b. 1961, New Bedford, MA) has forged a unique, interdisciplinary practice by shadowing and appropriating scientific methodologies. Mark Dion: Misadventures of a 21st-Century Naturalist is the American artist’s first U.S. survey and examines 30 years of his pioneering inquiries into how we collect, interpret, and display nature. His celebrated digs, brimming curiosity cabinets, charismatic sculptures, and participatory public projects offer novel approaches to questioning institutional power and its connections to the control and representation of the natural world. Organized by method (fieldwork, excavation, and cultivation), the exhibition traces Dion’s research-intensive work across media, time, and place, bringing together more than 20 of the artist’s most significant artworks and offering a rare look across his influential practice and distinctive material vocabulary. A scholarly publication will accompany the survey.

This exhibition is organized by Ruth Erickson, Associate Curator, with Jessica Hong, Curatorial Associate.