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March 25, 2009
Nicholas Baume, Jen Mergel, and Lawrence Weschler Tara Donovan Exh. cat. Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and Monacelli Press, 2008. 160 pp.; 99 color ills. Cloth $45.00 (9781580932134)

Exhibition schedule: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Boston, October 10, 2008–January 4, 2009; Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, February 7–May 11, 2009; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, June 19–September 13, 2009; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, October 10, 2009–January 16, 2010

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Tara Donovan, Untitled (Styrofoam Cups) (2004/2008). Styrofoam cups and glue. Courtesy of PaceWildenstein. Photo: Dennis Cowley.

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In her recent career survey organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, Tara Donovan creates ethereal, environmental sculptures out of such banal, everyday objects as toothpicks, Scotch tape, Mylar, and plastic cups. Working with one material at a time, and testing the range of its physical properties, Donovan subverts the utilitarian function of an object through a process of accumulation. In the seventeen works on view from the past decade, she stacks, piles,...