Public art has undergone enormous expansion over the course of the past five decades. Once exclusively associated with monuments, murals, and memorials, public art now constitutes a rich, heterogeneous practice; its evolution represents a seismic shift in contemporary art and culture. While the liberation movements of the 1960's and 1970's were in full swing, many artists abandoned the studio in favor of working out of doors, in closer proximity both to urban and rural spaces and to the public sphere. During this time, emerging fields of artistic production such as Land Art and Conceptual Art came to dominate cultural discourse and radically shape the future of public art praxis.

Common Ground highlights this plurality, looking critically at the myriad approaches artists use to formulate a work of public art. What is on view in the gallery space is not public art per se, but rather the “art behind the art,” the sometimes lengthy and surprising proposal process. Before a public work is actualized, artists typically produce numerous drawings, collages, photographs, maquettes and texts. From formal letters of intent to detailed budgets, these are crucial to the eventual fabrication of their vision. Of course, these projects do not always reach fruition; some, in fact, remain hypothetical from the start. What this exhibition reveals is the contingent nature of the proposal process.

Whether theoretical or practical, wistfully improbable or barely possible, the work in Common Ground also represents a collective desire for art and artists to engage directly with public space and to bridge the gap between art and life. With much talk of the privatization of public space and of the need for social collaboration, Common Ground encourages viewers to reflect upon the endless possibilities of art entering the realm of public space.