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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hosts Collector‘s Item magazine launch

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hosts the launch of Collector‘s Item magazine on August 15, a publication by Dutch artist Melvin Moti, an Artist-in-Residence at the Museum in 2010. This one-off magazine was conceptualized and designed by Melvin Moti, with additional contributions by artists Runa Islam and Douglas Ross.


Image Melvin Moti, 2010.

The magazine includes texts, drawings, and photography by the three artists, and investigates the extent to which the Gardner Museum’s conceptual approach can be found in other museums. Douglas Ross points to the very dominant presence of the collector and complex instructions for displaying the collection, as characteristics shared by the Gardner Museum and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The unusual transformation from a private collection to a public museum is the central focus of Runa Islam’s project on the Sir John Soane Museum in London.

Runa Islam lives and works in London.
Douglas Ross lives and works in New York City.
Melvin Moti lives and works in Rotterdam and Berlin.

Additionally, Moti’s film No Show (2004) will be on view from August 15–22 in the Gardner Museum’s exhibition Magic Moments: The Screen and The Eye, featuring films by nine Artists-in-Residence.

Purchasing information
Collector‘s Item is available in very limited quantities. For more information or to purchase a copy, please write to us at [email protected].

Organized by
Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Media contact
Michael Busack: T 1 617 278 5107 / [email protected]

This project is made possible in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston, MA
Hours: Wed–Mon, 11–5pm; Thurs until 9pm; Closed Tues
www.gardnermuseum.org