Ruffneck Constructivists, a group exhibition curated by artist Kara Walker brings together eleven international artists in order to define a contemporary manifesto of urban architecture and change.

The term « Ruffneck Constructivists » is Walker’s intentional recasting of « Russian Constructivists. » Viewing F.T. Marinetti’s 1909 Futurist Manifesto as a precursor to hip hop artist The Notorious B.I.G.’s Machine Gun Funk, the phrase « Ruffneck Constructivists » evokes thuggishness as an expression of abjection. Walker’s wordplay suggests a relationship between the works on view in the exhibition and the moment, a century ago, when art and architecture were remaking a modern world.

The exhibition features sculpture, photography, and video and focuses on structure and space as it is made and remade by policed bodies and identities. As Walker states, « it is my hope that the interaction between these very divergent works and methods could return a viewer to the questions of modernism, architecture, urbanism and the resistant bodies who reshape it. »

Artists: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Kendell Geers, Arthur Jafa, Jennie C. Jones, Kahlil Joseph, Deana Lawson, Rodney McMillian, William Pope.L, Tim Portlock, Lior Shvil, and Szymon Tomsia.

12  February 2014, 6:30-10pm : Opening

An exhibition walkthrough with artists and curators at 5pm. (ICA Members Only)

6:30-8pm Public Reception (Free for All)

8-10pm Celebrate with special guest DJ from Okayplayer (Free for All)

21 February 2014, 5pm: Kara Walker in conversation with Charles Bernstein

In conjunction with the Penn Humanities Forum on VIOLENCE

Kara Walker will engage in a lively conversation on her exhibition and many other topics with Penn?s Charles Bernstein, renowned poet and Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of Pennsylvania.

Location: Harrison Auditorium, Penn Museum, 3260 South Street

www.icaphila.org