The Intuitionists is a collaborative artist project inspired by Colson Whitehead's 1999 novel of the same name—a work of speculative fiction that explores the relationships between progress, technology, and difference. The exhibition considers how the collection, the database, and the aggregate serve as complementary models for the organization of information and objects in flux. Deploying an innovative and idiosyncratic selection process that matches the phrases from a single paragraph of Whitehead's book to keywords that organize The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program database (e.g. “autobiographical,” “geometric,” “historical,” “consumer culture,” etc.), the artists Heather Hart, Steffani Jemison, and Jina Valentine have invited over sixty members of the Viewing Program to submit artworks responding to a word or phrase from the novel. Each item in the exhibition is hung according to the sequence determined by Whitehead's text. The Lab gallery features a collaboration by Hart, Jemison, and Valentine, also inspired by their chosen paragraph from the novel, using its words and letters to form an interpretive drawing.

The artists in The Intuitionist are: Shaun Acton, Valerio Berruti, A.J. Bocchino, Dana Boussard, Hannah Burr, Maria Bussman, Enrique Chagoya, Joyce Chan, Catalina Chervin, Hannah Cole, Kenny Cole, Vincent Colvin, Hollis Cooper, Cui Fei, Gabriel Delgado, Wendy DesChene, Asya Dodina and Slava Polishchuk, Debra Drexler, Derek Dunlop, Elisabeth Eberle, Lisa Endriss, Rodney Ewing, Tory Fair, Douglas Florian, Nicholas Fraser, Carl Fudge, Brett Goodroad, Barry Gray, Stephen Grossman, Nathan Haenlein, Patrick Earl Hammie, Skowmon Hastanan, HENSE, Elizabeth Hoak-Doering, Cynthia Ona Innis, Tatiana Istomina, Hedwige Jacobs, Chiaki Kamikawa, Manfred Kirschner, Kimia Kline, Nicholas Knight, Kang Joo Lee, Kate Tessa Lee, Cynthia Lin, Hung Liu, Maess, Mario Marzan, Linn Meyers, Nyeema Morgan, Paul Morrison, Seamus Liam O'Brien, Alison Owen, Jenny Perlin, Mel Prest, Jo Ann Rothschild, Anna Schachte, Fausto Sevila, Jill Shoffiet, Thomas Slaughter, Chris Spinelli, Karen Tam, Caroline Tavelli-Abar, Scott Teplin, Jen Urso, Kris Van Dessel, Kara Walker, and Margaret Withers.

Organized by Heather Hart, Steffani Jemison, and Jina Valentine. Curated by Lisa Sigal, Open Sessions Curator.

The Intuitionists is made possible by the support of The Evelyn Toll Family Foundation and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

CATALOGUE
Read Drawing Papers 116: The Intuitionists.
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Image: Nyeema Morgan, Like It Is: Prelude, 2014. Variable. Courtesy of the artist.