Irene Calderoni, a junior curator at the foundation, said: "All of Adel's works engage the visitor with a strong emotional reaction — that's what he does.
Having never been there, I don't know, but there is a vague sense in which his works engage memories of the American landscape, especially from childhood.
The most compelling works engage our voyeuristic instincts: Diane Arbus's photograph of naked, overweight retirees matter-of-factly posed in their cabin at a nudist camp, for example, or Larry Clark's exploitative yet irresistible photograph of teenagers having sex.
Inviting this unique kind of viewer participation to the masses, these artists and their works engage a wider audience while critiquing and reflecting society.
"While the artists' works engage the hard truths of a country defined by constant departure and deemed 'a disappearing nation,' they equally offer restorative narratives of why their homeland is loved," says the curator.
Thomas' works engage in a fashion discussion with Malick Sidibé's stylized studios shots and Hank Willis Thomas' appropriated Look Natural, an ad of black women posing from Jet magazine.
