Ellen Harvey - the Museum of Failure

From her earliest experiments with painting old-master landscapes as graffiti on the streets of New York, to her recent project The Alien’s Guide to the Ruins of Washington, DC (2013) at the Corcoran in Washington, DC, Ellen Harvey (born 1967) has applied her unique and humorous perspective to unpacking the history of art and aesthetics. Taking its title from the ongoing project featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, a rear-illuminated wall of plexiglass mirrors in ornate frames, The Museum of Failure is the first major retrospective publication on the artist’s work, looking at each of her major projects and bodies of work of the past 20 years. Harvey’s practice incorporates painting, photography, video, installation and public participation to examine our expectations about art and cultural production, their proper contexts and what constitutes appropriate engagement, all with a disarming charm. The book includes a new text on the artist by curator Henriette Huldisch and an in-depth interview with the artist by curator Adam Budak.