Disruption!

Visit the Museum for a midday ArtBreak with Curatorial Assistant Hina Zaidi as she introduces Disruption!, an exhibition that examines how artists challenge expectations, question established norms, and expand ideas of what art is and what art can do. Drawing from works in the Museum’s permanent collection, Zaidi explores how disruption operates across media, from visual experimentation to acts of resistance, inviting viewers to look beyond the surface and engage more deeply with meaning, context, and perspective.

Through works by artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Ray K. Metzker, Glenn Kaino, M. Claudia Bernardi, Khaled Hourani, Alison Saar, Islam Aly, and Michelle Erickson, the exhibition highlights disruption as both a visual strategy and a conceptual framework. Rather than offering definitive answers, these works pose critical questions, connecting past and present moments of challenge, protest, and reexamination, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own assumptions and role within a broader social landscape.

Image caption: Glenn Kaino (born 1972), Bridge (Section 1 of 6), 2014, fiberglass, steel wire, and gold paint, 28 × 36 in. (71.1 × 91.4 cm). Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; Purchase with funds provided by members and friends of the Collectors Circle for Contemporary Art, AFI.6.2016