James Hyde: Luminous Platforms and Relaxed Seating
February 18, 2006-April 30, 2006

SAN DIEGO—New York-based artist, James Hyde, is producing a compelling intervention in the San Diego Museum of Art's current exhibition of the contemporary collection as part of its critically acclaimed Contemporary Links series. Titled Luminous Platforms and Relaxed Seating, Hyde's three-part installation, running February 18 to April 30, 2006, is designed to reshape museum visitors' experience of the space created for the exhibition Tracking and Tracing: Contemporary Acquisitions 2000-2005. Hyde's intervention marks the fourth installment of the Contemporary Links series, which commissions artists to create new work based on works in SDMA's collection.

On view from December 17 to July 9, 2006, Tracking and Tracing tracks the evolution of SDMA's growing contemporary collection and acquisition strategies over the past five years. It brings together approximately 90 works in a wide range of media, which date from the 1960s to the present and represent a variety of artistic approaches. Through explanatory wall texts corresponding with these works, the exhibition narrates the recent history of the Museum's contemporary collection. It also draws out relationships between and across individual works, inviting the audience to track and trace connections between usually unrelated works as they walk through the galleries.

Hyde will alter the exhibition by adding three comfortable stations that invite resting, lounging, and reading. The largest station will be placed in the center of the space and is modeled on an informal living room with sheet steel chairs and illuminated coffee tables made of translucent Plexiglas. The other two stations consist of Styrofoam chairs covered with vinyl and an illuminated bookshelf. Each of the three stations will feature books and magazines on topics that correspond with the art on display.

Hyde's installation is unique in that it gives visitors a chance to experience the same exhibition in two different ways. By responding to his surrounding environment, Hyde creates works that relate to the space they are in, forming a continuation of that space and its objects. Visitors are encouraged to revisit Tracking and Tracing to see how Hyde's installation has changed the space and altered their previous experience there.

The inclusion of his installation in Tracking and Tracing also gives visitors the rare opportunity to see works from different Contemporary Links installments in the same exhibition space. Regina Frank's complete installation of Whiteness in Decay (2003) will be on view, as well as a selection of Shahzia Sikander's drawings from her installation Flip Flop (2004).

Born in Philadelphia in 1958, James Hyde is known for his imaginative use of materials, such as fresco on Styrofoam, paint in glass boxes, pigment on over-sized pillows or tiny wooden blocks, wall hangings made from beach chair webbing, and furniture-as-art of translucent plastics. He explores the experience of vision and observation through works that engage directly with the material basis of painting, resulting in approaches that are visually and imaginatively wide-ranging. His works can be found in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Denver Art Museum, among others.

The historic San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum's nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.

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