Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People

Mary Ellen Carroll, No. 9 (My Death is Pending…Because.) Night of Destruction with Fireworks Demolition Derby (production still), 2017. Video: color, sound, 9:27 minutes. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Michele Asselin. Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live About Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People is the first exhibition to survey the work of acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Mary Ellen Carroll. The exhibition focuses on a selection of key projects spanning over four decades and includes works exhibited for the first time. The exhibition charts the import and impact of Carroll’s exploration of some of the most urgent issues of our time, including environmentalism, architectural and technological infrastructure, immigration, and urban legislation, as well as the artist’s engagement with questions of sexuality, identity, and being. Organizers Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People is organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and curated by Rebecca Matalon, Senior Curator, with Yiran Chi, 2025-26 Rice Curatorial Fellow. Support Major Support for Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People is provided by Teiger Foundation with sustainability efforts guided by Rute Collaborative as part of Teiger Foundation’s Climate Action for Curators.Additional support is provided by N2 Stone Foundation, the Stolbun Family, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Frank Liu Jr. Foundation, Michael and Katie Russell, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. In-kind support is provided by Bellows Construction and Layher. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston exhibitions are made possible by the patrons, benefactors, and donors to CAMH’s Major Exhibition Fund, July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025: Anonymous, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Louise Jamail, Sissy and Denny Kempner, and Beverly and Howard Robinson. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Extended Description Mary Ellen Carroll: How To Talk Dirty and Influence People is the first exhibition to survey the work of acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Mary Ellen Carroll. The exhibition focuses on a selection of key projects spanning over four decades and includes works exhibited for the first time. The exhibition charts the import and impact of Carroll’s exploration of some of the most urgent issues of our time, including environmentalism, architectural and technological infrastructure, immigration, and urban legislation, as well as the artist’s engagement with questions of sexuality, identity, and being. Since the 1980s, Carroll has produced a heterogeneous body of work taking the form of performance, film, photography, writing, architecture, public art, and policy. Yet, the artist’s primary medium is the field of social relations that govern a given time and context. An inheritor of conceptua...