MIAMI, FL.- A new survey of acclaimed artist Charles Gaines is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami as of this past November, tracing the evolution of the second half of his influential practice. Charles Gaines: 1992–2023 brings together for the first time more than 65 works from 1992 to the present day including two monumental works, one of which the artist is recreating for the first time in nearly two decades. Curated by Gean Moreno, ICA Miami’s Director of the Knight Foundation Art + Research Center, the exhibition is on view at ICA Miami to April 30, 2024.

Recognized as a pioneer of conceptual art, Gaines has been at the forefront of introducing language and systems into artistic production for decades. He is widely known for his use of translating mechanisms to convert images and documents into numerical structures, musical notation, and other sign systems. The ICA Miami exhibition highlights a pivotal shift in Gaines’s practice during the second half of his career, in which his work takes on even greater political and social dimension, incorporating materials abundant with preexisting cultural meaning. Among these are the Black Panthers’ manifesto as well as texts by Franz Kafka and Frantz Fanon, which have been channeled by the artist into complex formal and conceptual works. This radical approach has allowed Gaines to address the issues of race and identity politics in innovative ways that extend beyond representation. Simultaneously, Gaines began to combine different media, including video and sound, into his works.

The ICA Miami exhibition brings together for the first time a number of monumental works and series that demonstrate the evolution of Gaines’s approach to combining an array of materials–electronics, wood, acrylic, photographs–and transforming them into a distinct visual language. Among these is a monumental piece that is being recreated by Gaines for the first time in nearly twenty years: Greenhouse (2003–2023) is a massive 12 by 16-foot sculptural enclosure wherein simulated atmospheric conditions identified with climate change are conflated with data visualizations of recorded temperature changes across the globe from the 15th century to the present. Another large-scale work, Falling Rock (2000–2023) is a sculpture in which a 65-lb chunk of granite drops in a randomized and sudden fashion, creating unexpected outcomes for the viewer each time. The artist is recreating these major works specifically for the ICA Miami exhibition.

These pieces are presented alongside several standalone works including Airplane Crash Clock (1997– 2007), Manifestos (2008), Sky Box I (2011), Manifestos 2 (2013), Manifestos 3 (2018), and Manifestos 5 (2023). Several series are also highlighted in the exhibition: Night/Crimes (1994–1997); Submerged Text (1991–2004); Randomized Text: History of Stars (2006–2007); Explosion (2006–2020); String Theory: Rewriting Fanon (2010); Notes on Social Justice (2013–2021); Librettos: Manuel de Falla/Stokley Carmichael (2015–2020); Identity Politics (2018); Numbers and Faces: Multi-Racial/Ethnic Combinations (2019–2020); and Numbers and Trees (1975–2023).

“Charles Gaines is a pivotal figure in conceptual art, and this exhibition demonstrates his central role in global conversations about contemporary art,” said Alex Gartenfeld, ICA Miami Artistic Director. “This survey also builds upon our ongoing engagement with the artist, who inaugurated our new building in 2017 with a site-specific installation and has since presented a performance at the museum. We are thrilled to share his work once again with the Miami community in an even more expansive presentation.”

“This exhibition not only signifies the individual transformation of Gaines’s practice over the past several decades, but it also provides a throughline from the conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s to the conceptual artists of today,” said Moreno. “This rare examination of a three-decade long evolution offers a new perspective on an established artist and allows audiences a view into the complex relationship between innovation, social justice, and conceptualism that has characterized the second half of Gaines’s career.”