SF/Arts Curator Insight

The ICA has landed in "The Cube," a sleek, slightly absurd, glass box that is part of the famous brown Bank of America flagship tower in downtown SF. In a deal that saves on rent and doubles exhibition space, the institute launched three shows, but still needs to grow into its new location. The glass, unfinished concrete, and steel setting betrays its cold corporate origins; sizable works feel stranded, dwarfed by the roughness of the space, and disconnected from one another. Located in the basement, "The Poetics of Dimensions" (apt title to inaugurate a new location), is a collection of works by international artists that repurpose industrial detritus into weavings, paintings, sculptures, and installations. While the objects and the practices that produced them remain provocative, something —possibly the ambience, perhaps the wall text contextualization, feels overly weighty. Maybe it's the massive skyscraper looming above.