Wear and Tear

“Wear and Tear” is an exhibition of 15 artists, curated by Boston and Brooklyn-based artist Ximi Chen, presented at the Bowery Art Collective in Metuchen, NJ.

The title of this exhibition is inspired by a conversation on near-imperceptible ways we exist in the world. On an intimate scale, we can be understood through dusty photographs, distressed toys, marked walls, and pillow stains. We must be sensitive to see these changes and guess at what caused them. Beyond us, others can be understood through marks on the skin, hazes on the window glass, bark beetle trails, and oddly targeted questions.

It expands beyond who stained the couch. If we speak of wear and tear on a grander material scale, we can take a look at industrial detritus. Waste tells us more about the way things were used and cared for than a photograph of their original condition. It tells us the way waste and residue reintegrate with surrounding systems, how nature overtakes, and what capital prioritizes. How long do things remain abandoned? When does it become a landmark among locals? And when is it reconstructed or repurposed?

At the same time that wear is a portrait, we begin to become the wear itself. It is nearly impossible to separate ourselves from the wear. Even if we are not home, dust will settle, and an onlooker will know you’ve been absent for a long time. The opposite is true: if your floors are too clean, an onlooker may think you’re a little neurotic. We become defined through wear. Wear and tear is mark-making. We are an inevitably generative bunch.

The works exhibited here are inputs from artists, dialogues that may frankly address wear and tear, but also works that expand the scope of the theme. Each piece here today is important for understanding the topic. The experience and conversations would not be the same without them, and without you, the viewer, for the perspective you bring and the conversations you generate when we part.

Reception: 7PM - 9PM, 8/28/2025