It's fitting that the Broad's first new exhibition of 2017—a year in which global trade deals could crumble and "globalist" has become a slur—dives into the anxiety-inducing systems that connect the globalized world.
"Oracle" pulls more than 30 works from the Broad's collection with an aesthetic emphasis on busy, massive works of photography, painting and mixed media. You'll find pieces from the likes of El Anatsui, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Mark Bradford, Mike Kelley, Jenny Holzer and more.
The exhibition's title refers to the concept of an oracle machine, a theoretical black box to solve a complex problem in a single action. But you don't need to wrap your head around computational theories to understand the show's content: an examination of global commerce, citizen uprisings and cultural values that manage to pull in works inspired by everything from The Price is Right to an Amazon warehouse.
"Oracle" is by no means dour or dystopian, but rather methodical and systematic. There's something oddly soothing about Mark Bradford's overlaid city grids and El Anatsui's repetition of liquor labels; they bring order to what can otherwise seem like large-scale chaos.
The size of some of the works on display is mesmerizing, particularly Julie Mehretu's "Cairo," a 24-foot-long canvas that's inked with architectural illustrations of Cairo and a visual representation of the turbulent sands of change—a mostly monochromatic depiction that demands closer inspection. The same can be said for many of the wall-spanning works in the first-floor gallery spaces; they're impressive by sheer scale alone, but works like Mark Bradford's "Boreas" or Andreas Gurksy's "Amazon" reveal themselves upon closer inspection.
Photograph: Michael Juliano
"Oracle" is free and runs from April 29 through September 3 at the Broad—after which the ticketed "Infinity Mirrors" exhibition will arrive.
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