NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Arts and Design announced that Chief Curator David McFadden and Curator Lowery Stokes Sims will be honored by the United States branch of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA) for their work on the exhibition Dead or Alive. The exhibition was selected from over 100 finalists as an award winner in the category of Best Architecture and Design Shows. The AICA will award McFadden and Sims, as well as winners in 11 other categories, in a ceremony at Cooper Union on March 14, 2011.

For more than 25 years, the AICA has recognized the ambitious and creative endeavors of artists, curators, museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions through their annual awards ceremony. Awardees are nominated and selected by a panel of 400 active AICA-USA members for their work in conceptualizing and executing some of the most cutting-edge and thought-provoking exhibitions of the previous season. The 2009-2010 awards will be presented by renowned artists and previous AICA winners, including Chuck Close, Christo, and Martin Puryear. This year’s Nominating Committee included Eleanor Heartney (Chair), Marek Bartelik (AICA-USA President), Rachel Wolff (AICA-USA Vice-President), and Barbara MacAdam (AICA-USA Board) among others. Dead or Alive is among three exhibitions selected this year for an award in the Architecture and Design Show category, with the Museum of Modern Art awarded first place for its Bauhaus 1919-1933, and MAD and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, recognized with second place awards.

Dead or Alive, co-organized by McFadden and Sims, and on view at MAD from April 27–October 24, 2010, was developed as a continuation of MAD’s exploration of materials and the creative processes of contemporary artists. Picking up on themes first presented in MAD’s 2008 exhibition Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary–which featured contemporary works created from multiples of ordinary manufactured items–Dead or Alive explored the artistic potential of a variety of organic materials. The 30 artists featured in Dead or Alive masterfully transformed the remains of once-living flora and fauna to make pieces that inspired thoughtful consideration of the life cycle and art’s ability to give new life to inanimate materials.

“MAD’s exhibition programming is focused on providing visitors with an in-depth look into the techniques and processes used by a diverse set of artists. Dead or Alive provided a unique opportunity to illuminate artists’ abilities to rework raw and discarded materials into provocative new art objects,” said Holly Hotchner, the Museum’s Nanette L. Laitman Director. “We could not be more honored and excited that David and Lowery are being recognized by the AICA for their efforts in crafting such an extraordinary and quintessentially MAD exhibition.”