“The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) presents Beth Lipman: Collective Elegy, a major midcareer survey that assesses the remarkable achievements of the renowned contemporary artist. From sumptuous displays of excess, including provocative installations comprising hundreds of individual glass elements, to poetic and contemplative works in glass, metal, clay, video, and photography, the works on view are ethereal meditations on time and mortality and simultaneously sobering indictments of our contemporary consumer culture and its impact on the planet.

Lipman’s monumental Laid (Time-) Table with Cycads forms the centerpiece of the exhibition. Melding landscape and tablescape through representations of prehistoric plant life bursting forth through a table laden with goblets, bowls of fruit, books, textiles, and other cultural markers, the work evokes the interdependence and tension between humanity and the natural world.” —  Museum of Arts and Design

“For more than twenty years, Beth has built on the still-life tradition, illustrating the ability of objects to signify wealth, class, and identity. She further critiques Western society’s capitalist values and the environmental consequences of unfettered consumption,” said Samantha De Tillio, MAD’s curator of collections. “A new project, House Album, investigates the subjectivity of history and the necessity of including a wider range of voices in its telling; a topic of particular importance in 2020.”

Installation views of Beth Lipman: Collective Elegy at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Photos by Jenna Bascom. Courtesy the Museum of Arts and Design.

Beth Lipman: Collective Elegy is curated by Samantha De Tillio, MAD’s curator of collections.

Opening in conjunction with Collective Elegy, New York City’s Nohra Haime Gallery presents EVERY LAST THING, the first solo exhibition of Lipman’s work at the gallery, through January 16, 2021.