In cultural theorist Lauren Berlant’s consideration of intimacy, the inwardness of the intimate is “met by a corresponding publicness.” This intersection of private and public is critical to their call for us to rethink intimacy as part of a broader social context, challenging the customary understanding of intimacy being attached to hegemonic ideals of love, desire, and belonging. From conventional perspectives, intimacy is tacit and should remain unproblematic—which, as Berlant argues, can rarely make sense of things that do not fit. 

This exhibition brings together five artists whose examinations of intimacy align with Berlant’s perceptions—each demonstrating it to be full of complexity, underscored by ambivalences and vulnerabilities that give space to non-normative perspectives.

More information can be found here.