This symposium explores art in the 1990s from a variety of different perspectives. Held in connection to the exhibition "Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s" at UMMA, it features 8 internationally renowned scholars, curators, and artists.

As was the case in the 1980s, contemporary art in the 1990s continued to diversify itself in terms of medium, materiality, and concept. And, like before, many artists concerned themselves with “identity,” the social and libidinal construction of what was formerly called the “subject.” But even more intensely than before, artists began to engage with digital technologies, including photography, video, computers, and the Internet; and through these media, a new fluidity, immersiveness, and interest in the world and politics entered art. In addition, the art world globalized during the 1990s, its conversation growing to include a variety of perspectives that previously had not been heard.

Symposium participants have been selected to represent the diversity and range of art in the 1990s. They will include both those who came of age in the 1990s as well as those whose professional careers took root amidst the struggles over multiculturalism, freedom of expression, and personal choice in the 1980s. Accordingly, this symposium is intended to historicize the visual art of the 1990s by placing it within a longue durée of multiple, overlapping filaments whose implications are only just being realized today.