Constructivism was an art movement beginning in early twentieth-century Russia, around the October Revolution. The term applied to the activities of artists, architects, designers, writers, poets, and others who sought to advance a new society by integrating social life, art, and action.

Neo-Constructivism: Art, Architecture & Activism examines the Constructivist impulse today in the work of 20 contemporary artists from New Jersey, New York, Miami, Canada, and Australia. The time and the places of Neo-Constructivism are radically different from the historical movement. What motivates the more recent impulse is a question explored in this exhibition.

Some artists are not content simply to decorate society; they use their work to contribute to the social imagination—such as proposing public projects for urban development—or to test political norms. Others mix up the distinction between purely aesthetic and utilitarian objects, creating artwork that actually works and is useful, such as works from craft and industrial design. Still others reduce art and architecture to two-dimensional geometric abstraction, relying on shape, color, and line as elemental building blocks.

Neo-Constructivism is on view at two sites: the New Jersey School of Architecture Gallery at NJIT and the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University, Newark. Artists in the show are Clare Firth-Smith, Matthew Gosser, Richard Greaves & Mario Del Curto, Karen Guancione, Heather Hart, Noah Loesberg, Maria Adelaida Lopez, Caitlin Masley, Narciso Montero, Cyrilla Mozenter, Boris Petropavlovsky, Jenny Polak, Nebojsa Shoba Seric, Robin Sherin, Charlee Swanson, Kati Vilim, Anker West, Troy West, and Emma Wilcox.

Neo-Constructivism was inspired by the many decades of progressive, community-based work by Troy West, and his more recent collaborations with his son Anker West.


This exhibition was organized by Anonda Bell and Jorge Daniel Veneciano in collaboration with Matthew Gosser.