The Facts
The MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will open "Uri Aran: Look How Hard They Work," the artist's first major institutional solo exhibition in the United States. Organized by chief curator Natalie Bell, the show gathers a new body of work including annotated panels blending line drawing and painting, welded sculptures resembling equations, bulbous forms in plasticene and foam, and a large accumulation of googly eyes elevated to the scale of an earthwork. Aran, who lives and works in New York, studied at Bezalel Academy and Cooper Union and holds an MFA from Columbia University. His work is held in public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, ICA Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, and RISD Museum.
The Signal
For collectors and curators, this exhibition marks a significant institutional validation of Aran's practice in the U.S., building on his international profile with recent institutional shows at Madre Museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples, and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. The show signals the growing curatorial interest in artists who repurpose everyday materials into intimate, character-driven works, blending sentimentality with criticality. Aran's ability to turn mundane objects—doodles, passport photos, googly eyes—into quasi-narrative forms positions him within a broader trend of post-minimalist sculpture and relational aesthetics, making this a key moment to observe his market trajectory and institutional reception.
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- Artists: Uri Aran
- People: Natalie Bell
- Galleries: Sadie Coles HQ
- Museums: MIT List Visual Arts Center, Madre Museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Kölnischer Kunstverein, South London Gallery, Kunsthalle Zürich, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, ICA Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, RISD Museum
- Locations: Cambridge, Massachusetts, New York, Naples, Dublin, Cologne, London, Zürich, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, Dallas, Providence
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