MASS MoCA never runs short of interesting works of art on a grand scale. This summer is no exception—a long list of exhibitions comes to the museum’s tremendous spaces. Among them, you’ll find preliminary drawings of the first two chapters of painter George Cochran’s graphic novel Long Time Gone, which he’s creating with his daughter Fiamma. This is Killing Me features work that reflects the anxieties of the creative process from artists Whitney Bedford, Karl Haendel, Andrew Kuo, Sean Landers, Kalup Linzy, Shana Lutker, Marco Rios and Joe Zane. Cribs—one in place, another escaping out a window—form the centerpiece of Matt Bua’s CRIBS.
The galleries are so full-up that much more space would be required for a full rundown, but two exhibits in particular stand out. First is Guy Ben-Ner’s unusual series of videos featuring the artist and his young children. The videos combine DIY home-movie ambience with a sophisticated sense of contest, borrowing influences from early film and grand literature like Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe.
The second standout is called The Nanjing Particles, by artist Simon Starling. Though the work (some of which is pictured) is multi-layered and deeply conceptual—Starling created millionfold sculptural enlargements of silver particles from a 19th-century photograph of Chinese workers brought to North Adams to break a strike, and had them polished by workers in China—the results are compelling objects that resemble enormous particles of mercury.
All summer, MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, (413) MoCA111.