The Pleasure of Obvious Problems

Artspace is proud to present The Pleasure of Obvious Problems, curated by Brian Butler, the first survey exhibition of the work of Californian artist Meg Cranston.

The exhibition includes a selection of Cranston’s work in sculpture, performance and mixed media installation, as well new works created especially for the exhibition.

The exhibition title reflects Cranston’s theory about art.

“Art makes abstract concepts tangible. It makes problems, love or death or power or whatever it is, it makes those issues visible. The best art makes complex ideas obvious. That’s the pleasure of art’.

Meg Cranston’s work has been shown internationally since 1990. Museum exhibitions and performances include: Museum for Contemporary Art, Seigen; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf; Haus der Kunst, Munich; P.S.1, New York; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz; The New Museum, New York; The Whitney Museum, New York, and Open ‘93: Emergency, Aperto in the 1993 Venice Biennale.

In conjunction with the exhibition at Artspace, Meg Cranston was the Artist in Residence at Elam School of Fine Arts (Elam), National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries at The University of Auckland from 16 July until 17 August 2007. The Elam Residency Project was generously supported by arts patron Jenny Gibbs.

The exhibition toured to Dunedin Public Art Gallery (1 December 2007 - 31 March 2008).

The substantial full colour catalogue Hot Pants in a Cold Cold World including installation images and texts by Nico Israel, Carole Ann Klonarides, Tirdad Zolghadr and writing by the artist is available from Artspace.