Out of Sight!: Art of the Senses

Art of the Senses brings together contemporary works of art that actively engage with how our bodies meet the wider world through the five basic senses. The artists in this exhibition have created experiences that incorporate viewers into the creative process, inviting them to become fully immersed in art that must be smelled, tasted, heard, and felt. The exhibition will feature historical and contemporary works to illustrate the many ways artists have steadily challenged the almost exclusive association of art with visual experience through performance, sound, and interactive and installation-based practices over the past four decades.

Many of the most important highlights from the late twentieth century by artists such as Lucas Samaras, Nam June Paik, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres will provide a historical framework for more recent artworks. Art of the Senses focuses on the state of interaction as a tool consciously used by artists to engage with audiences. The intimacy of these artworks appeals to the senses—we feel, taste, smell, or hear each of them on a highly personal level—while it also renegotiates the terms of spectatorship and the relationship between contemporary art and everyday life.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.