Close to Home

Close to home, but just a little bit off. The artists in this exhibition transformed domestic objects into lumpy, gooey, and nebulous things. They coaxed commonplace items out of their usual settings and allowed them to exceed their bounds, to overflow or to dissipate. Their uncanny works may have reminded viewers of a familiar everyday world, while at the same time remaining strange and distant. The unruly creations aimed to surprise us, poking and prodding at parts of ourselves—privacy, intimacy, sexuality—that we thought were adequately protected. Their forays into the personal hinted a little too close to home.

"Close to Home" was the eleventh exhibition in the Incubation Series, a student-led initiative that fosters new ways of making, exhibiting, and seeing art. Founded in 2015, the Series is a collaboration between students in the Fine Arts and History of Art graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania. The Series showcases the work of MFA students in focused and conceptually rigorous exhibitions, while also offering an opportunity for art history graduate students to expand their curatorial practices. Each academic year, the Incubation Series team produces several exhibitions throughout Philadelphia’s thriving art scene, allowing participants to build gallery relationships, engage with peers outside of campus, and test exhibition strategies. "Close to Home" was co-curated by Jeff Katzin and Emily Leifer.