Art: Ilana Harris-Babou’s “Needy Machines”

From Candice Madey:

In Needy Machines, the appearance of fleshy and organic forms set within high-end design speaks to the tension between a culture that prescribes technology for any imperfection or ailment, and the lived, fallible experience of maintaining our physical selves. The work also continues Harris-Babou’s ongoing examination of the ways in which private enterprise benefits from the lack of adequate social welfare in America and the outsized influence of the wellness industry on notions of self.

Ilana Harris-Babou’s work is interdisciplinary, spanning sculpture, installation, and video. She currently has a solo exhibition at The Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York that explores childhood memories of her Central Brooklyn upbringing. She has exhibited throughout the US and Europe, with solo exhibitions at The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University (2023); Artspace New Haven (2022); Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art Chattanooga (2021); and she was included in the Istanbul Design Biennial, Turkey (2020) and The Whitney Biennial at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019). Group exhibitions include The Wellcome Collection, London, UK; California College of the Arts Wattis Institute, San Francisco; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield; SculptureCenter, New York, USA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA; The Queens Museum; New York, USA; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark; West Space, Melbourne, Australia; Gallery Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb, Croatia; and Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Harris-Babou lives and works in Brooklyn and Middletown, CT, and holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Yale University.

Needy Machines is currently on display at
Candice Madey Gallery
November 3 – December 16, 2023
Opening: Friday, November 3, 6 to 8pm
1 Rivington Street, New York