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