Are We There Yet?

After years of whooping it up in the Arts District followed by a nomadic, pop-up hiatus during the pandemic, the A+D Museum has returned to the middle of town. The new space’s inaugural exhibition, aptly titled We Are Here: Imagining Space in the 21st Century and curated by design technologist Laure Michelon, is a cerebral mix of media artists, architects, and designers. Minstrels of the Anthropocene, so to speak. At the opening in mid-January, clusters of monochromatically clad gallerygoers, young and old, sipped red wine under a large projection by Robert Pietrusko. Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular brought color to the party with sartorial blocks of ochre and citrine. Flat screens display digital pieces by Jenny Rodenhouse and Alice Bucknell that grapple with intersections of data and ecology. The wire management is impeccable for a scrappy show in a former retail outfit.

Wall text stakes out ambitious territory: “The artworks and installations within this exhibition are more than just objects or media presentations, they are testament to our adapt…