Curated by Ruth Erickson with Jessica Hong and Kathrinne Duffy

Although the title of Dion’s first major US museum survey might imply a certain waywardness, in fact few artists can match the concentrated single-mindedness of his intrepid, polymorphously curious three-decade-long practice. Yes, Dion’s hands-on critiques of the protocols of cultural institutions—assays of the ideologies that shape collection and display, just as they shape our larger senses of history, value, and meaning—are often framed within a wry mode of address that would seem to subordinate the artist to the eclecticisms of his “specimens.” But Dion’s default mode is a sense of wonder at the realms of both nature and culture, and any “misadventures” onto which his works might lead are carefully designed to emphasize the wild variety of the world’s often overlooked astonishments. In addition to a new interactive sculpture-cum-salon titled The Time Chamber, this exhibition presents a wide range of Dion’s sculptures, installations, photographs, drawings, and ephemera and is accompanied by an extensive catalogue.

— Jeffrey Kastner