This exhibition features the work of artists who bring 21st-century urgency to 19th-century principles of virtue through work and craftsmanship. Inspired in part by developments that stem back as far as the Industrial Revolution, the presentation examines contemporary cultures obsession with authenticity, the hand-crafted, and the politics of manufacturing and labor. Works in the exhibition date from the late 1980s to the present, a period in which artists turned from industrial fabrication and a seamless aesthetic to hand-made or “do-it-yourself” sensibilities.

Labour and Wait is organized by Julie Joyce, Curator of Contemporary Art, and features artists/artist collaboratives from Europe, South America, and the United States, many which are under-represented in museums on the West Coast. Artists include Tonico Lemos Auad, Andrea Bowers, Colin Darke, Wim Delvoye, Theaster Gates, Dewar and Gicquel, Fischli and Weiss, Tim Hawkinson, Josiah McElheny, Grayson Perry, Mika Rottenberg, Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler, Allison Smith, Ricky Swallow, David Thorpe, and Jane Wilbraham.