Being a fan of Postmodern design, I became aware of artist Barbara Kasten through her Architectural Sites series - a photographic series of lobbies inside Postmodern buildings. Kasten has been practicing multiple disciplines of art from sculpture to photography over the past 50 years but has never had a major scale showing of her art until now. "Stages," now showing at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, is a comprehensive look at her work spanning the decades. Kasten, who is in her 70's and currently lives in Chicago, has also put together a site-specific video installation featuring the building's architecture with selected props — pyramid, cubes — that are projected onto and interact with the gallery walls. Accompanying the exhibit is an extensive program exploring her process, the Postmodernist aesthetic revival, and the work of a younger generation engaging with similar practices.

“Barbara Kasten: Stages” is on view through August 16, 2015 at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, 118 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA.

-TLB