On The Wall: Contemporary Wallpaper [exhibition: Feb. -Sep. 2003]

No longer the Muzak of the decorative arts world, wallpaper has lately fallen back into fashion. Though once derided by Modernists and Minimalists alike for its loud co-option of architectural space, the potential of wallpaper as an environmental medium can now be appreciated again. (One might speculate on the influence that a certain lifestyle magazine has had on this trend.) In On the Wall, an exhibition that originated at the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art and traveled to The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, 39 contemporary artists contributed wallpaper works, some newly created for the show. Included are works by John Baldessari, Nicole Eisenman, General Idea, Robert Gober, Rodney Graham, Renée Green, Jenny Holzer, Jim Isermann, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Virgil Marti, Takashi Murakami, Paul Noble, Jorge Pardo, Matthew Ritchie, Kiki Smith, Do-Ho Suh, Rosemarie Trockel and Andy Warhol, among others. This catalogue features reproductions of the artist-designed wallpapers, related essays and an overview of the medium's history as an art form.