James Benning and Sharon Lockhart: Over Time, Chapter I

Separated by a generation, American artists James Benning (b. 1942), a Milwaukee native, and Sharon Lockhart (b. 1964) often cite each other’s films as an influence on their own work. This exhibition, which will evolve in two installations over the course of a year, reveals connection points between their practices.

The first installation, on view from September 6, 2019, to March 1, 2020, pairs works by each artist with a collaborative project. Benning has made a career of investigating the structure of film itself, often experimenting with duration and sound. His One Way Boogie Woogie (2012) examines eighteen industrial landscapes across the city of Milwaukee. Lockhart elevates ordinary moments and often engages with communities in the creation of long-term projects. For Podwórka (2009), Lockhart collaborated with children across the Polish city of Lódz, who turned the otherwise empty courtyards of their apartment blocks into makeshift playgrounds. Both films underline the act of slow observation and the evolving urban landscape.