The Met Breuer, New York
September 2019
September 18, 2018–March 31, 2019
For the last fifty years, artists have explored the hidden operations of power and the symbiotic suspicion between the government and its citizens that haunts western democracies. Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy is the first major exhibition to tackle this perennially provocative topic. It traces the simultaneous development of two kinds of art about conspiracy.
The first half of the exhibition comprises works by artists who hew the public record, uncovering hidden webs of deceit—from the shell corporations used by New York's largest private landlord to interconnected networks encompassing politicians, businessmen, and arms dealers. In the second part, other artists dive headlong into the fever dreams of the disaffected, creating fantastical works that nevertheless uncover uncomfortable truths in an age of information overload and weakened trust in institutions.
Featuring seventy works by thirty artists in media ranging from painting and sculpture to photography, video, and installation art, and from 1969 to 2016, Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy presents an alternate history of postwar and contemporary art that is also an archaeology of our troubled times. The exhibition features works from artists including Sarah Charlesworth, Hans Haacke, Rachel Harrison, Jenny Holzer, Mike Kelley, Mark Lombardi, Cady Noland, Trevor Paglen, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, and Sue Williams.
Exhibition Catalogue