Group Therapy

Centering on participatory projects and major installations, Group Therapy brings together artworks in a range of media by an international roster of artists and serves as a platform for a full slate of public programs. The exhibition addresses themes of healing and self-care, comprising works that comment on and/or adapt strategies of alternative medicine, psychotherapy, and wellness practices. Projects that focus on social and communal experiences feature prominently and transform the Frye Art Museum into a unique free “clinic” in which artists or their intermediaries engage visitors in therapeutic processes. Approaching therapy not only as a curative endeavor, but as a “potentiator” of human possibilities, these projects variously attend to the individual mind-body, and prescribe collective catharsis, connection, and empowerment.

Tracing an arc from neurosis to release, the exhibition begins with works that diagnose social pathologies like racism, sexism, and political tribalism that can manifest as personal anxieties and compulsions, and in turn fuel the ongoing growth of the wellness and self-help industries. Projects that focus on identification and self-narration follow, taking the visitor from observer to participant in a range of (completely voluntary) “treatments” related to psychoanalysis, divination, and somatic techniques. The final passage engages visitors in sensory experiences and visualizations that plug into embodied forms of knowledge and deeper, interconnected consciousness.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website