Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington opens Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning
On the eve of the presidential election, the third iteration of MoCA Arlington’s biennial features 13 artists and 1 artist collective whose work can help us navigate and reimagine the future.
ARLINGTON, VA., September 11, 2024 – Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington is proud to announce the opening of Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning, the third iteration of the museum’s biennial exhibition series. Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning will run from September 28, 2024 through January 26, 2025, with Art After Hours, the opening celebration, taking place on Saturday, October 5 from 4pm-8pm.
The exhibition is organized by MoCA Arlington Curator of Exhibitions Blair Murphy and guest curator Jared Packard. Launched in 2019, Assembly highlights current material and conceptual trends among contemporary artists. Since 2022, the exhibition has had a national focus, showcasing artists from across the United States who are working at the forefront of contemporary art.
Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning includes artwork by Nyame O. Brown (Oakland, CA), Everything is Collective (Chicago, IL, Salt Lake City, UT, & Lubbock, Texas), Allegra Hangen (Omaha, NE and Mexico City, Mexico), Elisa Harkins (Tulsa, OK), Marnie Ellen Hertzler (Baltimore, MD), Jesús Hilario-Reyes (New York, NY and New Haven, CT), Cesar Lopez (Kansas City, MO), Jovencio de la Paz (Eugene, OR), Kenya (Robinson) (Gainesville, FL), Benjy Russell (Dowelltown, TN), Shelby Shadwell (Laramie, WY), Keith Tolch (Los Angeles, CA), Lily Xie (Philadelphia, PA), and X (Los Angeles, CA).
Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning opens on the eve of the presidential election, four miles from the center of Washington, DC. In this time of multiple, overlapping, and seemingly perpetual crises, and with that proximity in mind, the exhibition brings together artists whose work can help us grapple with our tumultuous present by offering strategies to navigate and reimagine the future.
The exhibition assembles thirteen artists and one artist collective hailing from 14 states who represent a range of art-making approaches including painting, drawing, film and video, sculpture, animation, and community organizing. While eclectic in their materials and processes, these artists are unified in creating work that contends with our unstable social and political climate. Throughout their varied practices, they interrogate prevailing cultural narratives, established power hierarchies, and under-considered histories.
“Horizon Scanning”, the exhibition’s subtitle, is an analytical, forecasting tool used by government agencies, futurists, and policy-makers to predict future threats and opportunities. This forecasting tool is typically employed by large institutions to uphold their own authority and maintain the status quo. Assembly 2024, on the other hand, borrows the term to argue that artists and their creative practices are integral to helping us collectively envision new futures and strategies to realize them.
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington Fall 2024 Exhibitions
September 28, 2024 – January 26, 2025
Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning
Curated by Blair Murphy and Jared Packard
Main Level and Lower Level Galleries
Featured artists: Nyame O. Brown (Oakland, CA), Everything is Collective (Chicago, IL, Salt Lake City, UT, & Lubbock, Texas), Allegra Hangen (Omaha, NE and Mexico City, Mexico), Elisa Harkins (Tulsa, OK), Marnie Ellen Hertzler (Baltimore, MD), Jesús Hilario-Reyes (New York, NY and New Haven, CT), Cesar Lopez (Kansas City, MO), Jovencio de la Paz (Eugene, OR), Kenya (Robinson) (Gainesville, FL), Benjy Russell (Dowelltown, TN), Shelby Shadwell (Laramie, WY), Keith Tolch (Los Angeles, CA), Lily Xie (Philadelphia, PA), and X (Los Angeles, CA)
Marisa Stratton: You Will Never Be Forgotten
Curated by Amanda Jirón-Murphy
Wyatt Resident Artists Gallery, Upper Level
Best in Class: MoCA Arlington Artist Instructors
Jenkins Community Gallery, Lower Level
Featured artists: Sarah Emily Balough, Jade Fiedtkou-Leonard, Jason Horowitz, Melanie Kehoss, Stephanie Lane, Molly McCracken, Lindsey Mueller, and Marisa Stratton
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
Reclining Liberty
Through September 28, 2025
Front Lawn
PROGRAMS
Art After Hours
Saturday, October 5, 4pm-8pm
Join MoCA Arlington to celebrate the opening of our new fall exhibitions! Inside the museum, view the new exhibitions, visit resident artist studios, and enjoy refreshments from the cash bar. Local artists and artisans will participate in a Made in Arlington Market on the museum’s front lawn.
