The More Things Change March 17, 2011

'The More Things Change' samples from SFMOMA's collection to present an extraordinary range of works made since 2000, offering a selective survey of the art of the last ten years and a thematic and psychological portrait of the decade. The exhibition -- an unprecedented collaboration among all five curatorial departments at the museum -- showcases works by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Tacita Dean, Paul Graham, Shahzia Sikander, Amy Sillman, Peter Wegner, and Pae White, among many others. Complementing the collection-based presentation is Stephanie Syjuco's 'Shadow Shop,' an in-gallery emporium of local artists' merchandise that explores alternative models of distribution. The exhibition itself will continuously change, with a varying array of works on view; from this gathering of diverse forms and voices, common themes emerge: fragmentation, fragility, entropy, metamorphosis, reconfiguration. Revealing the museum's collection as a seismograph of shifts in contemporary culture, 'The More Things Change' considers how the past persists in the present, and how art engages with the world at large.