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May 15, 2025 - SAN DIEGO - New on View: Memories of an American Past is the latest in an intermittent series of installations featuring work from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s (MCASD) permanent collection. These are presented with a themed approach to engage visitors and curated by Kathryn Kanjo, David C. Copley Executive Director and CEO.
Highlighting two notable installations by Vito Acconci and Gary Simmons, the most recent iteration of New of View evokes memories of an American past and makes allusions to labor, play, war and peace. Also on view are works by Amy Adler, Terry Allen, Sadie Barnette, Rafael Canogar, Allan Sekula, and William E. Jones.
Acconci’s Instant House (1980) is displayed at MCASD for the first time since its recent presentation at The Broad in Los Angeles. Acconci’s interactive sculpture, assembled from multiple cloth flags, combines youthful memories, playhouses and park swings into an adult meditation on global politics. Simmons’ massive blackboard drawing, Gazebo, hangs nearby, nearly erased from view, isolated and haunting. View a video of the work in action at Bloomberg Connects App or via our Digital Guide.
New on View Works
Vito Acconci, United States, 1940-2017
Instant House, 1980
flags, wood, springs, ropes, and pulleys
Instant House, created in 1980, blends aspects of domesticity and ideology into a critique of Cold War isolationism. The walls of the “house” are covered in flags. United States flags line the interior and are visible when the sculpture lays flat on the gallery floor. When the interactive sculpture is activated by someone sitting on the central swing, the walls lift to form a shelter with an exterior cloaked in red Soviet flags. The sitter, or dweller, both constructs and deconstructs the house, suggesting the role of the individual in upholding political ideologies.
Amy Adler, United States, born 1966
Location (Playground No. 5), 2014
oil pastel on canvas
Amy Adler’s work moves fluidly between drawing, photography, and film to create a sense of the uncanny. In the mid-1990s, she became known for her photographs of drawings, which often suggested cinematic sequencing. More recently Adler attended film school at the University of Southern California, receiving an MFA in 2011. Ambiguity abounds in this outsized drawing. Unexpectedly rendered in oil pastel on canvas, rather than paper, it is based on a photograph taken while the artist was scouting film locations. The playground setting continues Adler’s longtime exploration of themes of childhood. Here, the isolated and unpopulated play structure suggests an evocative, perhaps ominous narrative.
Terry Allen, United States, born 1943
The First Day (Back In The World), 1983
mixed media
Episodic fragments of texts—poems titled “Morning,” “Afternoon,” and “Evening”—mark time and organize Terry Allen’s wall-bound tableaux, The First Day (Back In the World). Framed photographs, paintings, and found objects recount a narrative of loss and memory—disparate elements that reflect specific traumas. In this way, Allen’s installation serves as a memorial to the lost youth of US soldiers in Vietnam and the trauma caused by the lasting conflict there.
Sadie Barnette, United States, born 1984
Untitled (Agitator Index), 2018
collage and aerosol paint on archival pigment prints, mounted to Plexiglas (unique)
In a cross-generational creation, Sadie Barnette enlarges and embellishes pages from her father’s FBI file with crafting materials from her youth—glittery paper and neon-pink paint. The FBI tracked Rodney Barnette’s involvement with the Black Panthers, labeling him as an “agitator.” Her monumental scrapbooking highlights the connection between individual experience and larger social histories. By reworking the withheld material, Barnette confounds ideas of censorship and privacy.
Rafael Canogar, United States, born 1935
Cordón de policía (Police Barricade), from the series, The Earth, 1969
lithograph
In the 1960s, Spanish artist Rafael Canogar began incorporating found press images into his work. Unlike Pop artists who cite mass media to comment on consumerism, Canogar highlighted the global social upheavals of the time. The Earth series, created at Tamarind Lithography Workshop, underscores themes related to worldwide conflict and violence—highlighting aspects related to the Franco regime, the Vietnam War, and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
Allan Sekula, United States, 1951–2013
Untitled Slide Sequence, 1972/2011
twenty-five archival grayscale pigment prints
In his art, Allan Sekula frequently focuses on spaces of labor. Untitled Slide Sequence depicts workers exiting General Dynamics Convair Division Aerospace Factory. In 1972, Convair was the leading employer in San Diego, second only to the military. This iterative sequence of twenty-five pictures evokes the measured regularity of the assembly line, even as it captures the figures in a transitional space between work and home. The sequence offers a more complex picture than any single image could, incorporating a sense of the workers’ environment and cultural milieu as well as a specific historical moment of the military-industrial complex.
Gary Simmons, United States, born 1964
Gazebo, 1997
paint and chalk on panel
Gary Simmons transforms familiar imagery into nostalgic, dreamlike visions. He creates through erasure, using chalk that he gesturally sweeps away with erasers and his own body. Simmons addresses how vernacular images have been imbued with the dynamics of race and class throughout history. Within the United States, the gazebo could be thought of as a site of civic and public life. However, for many Black people, this quaint image might instead be a reminder of a history of exclusion, where only some have been permitted access.
William E. Jones, United States, born 1962
Artist and filmmaker William E. Jones mines historical archives to reveal hidden or overlooked narratives. Jones, who studied photography at Yale, extends the American documentary tradition with his own images of neglected aspects of Southern California towns. Weathered, repurposed, and often abandoned, the locales in The Golden State series evoke nostalgia for an evolving culture.
On view in the Carolyn and Jack M. Farris Gallery
Here is the image Dropbox for the Farris Gallery New on View.
Also on View:
An Artful Life: A Tribute to Matthew C. Strauss (through August 3, 2025)
Yan Pei-Ming: A Burial in Shanghai (through January 4, 2026)
ABOUT MCASD - The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is the region’s foremost forum devoted to the exploration and presentation of the art of today. Open since 1941, we welcome all audiences to reflect on their lives, communities, and the ever-changing world through the powerful prism of contemporary art. We showcase an internationally recognized collection. MCASD’s dynamic exhibition schedule features a vast array of media in an unprecedented variety of spaces, along with a growing dedication to community experiences and public programs. As a cultural hub, MCASD seeks to catalyze conversation in our region. www.mcasd.org
VISIT: MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St, La Jolla, 92037
MEDIA CONTACT: TR/PR | Toni Robin | tr@trprsandiego.com, 858.483.3918