CONCORD — The Concord Museum is currently hosting “Mark Dion: Eccentric Collectors Like Us,” an exhibition running through March 7 that challenges conventional notions of art and collecting. The show highlights the work of Mark Dion, an artist known for blending natural history, conservation, and found objects into installations that explore the intersection of science, history, and culture.
Dion, 65, who grew up in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts, is described as an "anti-artist" who defies traditional expectations. Rather than creating polished works detached from the everyday world, he embraces its disorder and imperfections by sourcing materials from flea markets, yard sales, and other overlooked places. His approach has been compared to mixing Linnaean taxonomy with the sensibility of a reality TV auction, focusing on the act of collecting and classifying rather than striving for conventional aesthetic ideals.
The Concord exhibition unfolds in three parts. One section recreates a conservation laboratory that Dion calls the “front lines in the war against entropy.” This space reflects the ongoing efforts museums undertake to preserve artifacts and resist decay. Another segment features selections from the museum’s permanent collection—items that have rarely been displayed because they do not fit the institution’s usual narratives. Among these are an 1879 dog license and a notably unattractive 19th-century portrait of an unidentified man, both donated by Cummings E. Davis, the museum’s founder and a figure whose legacy permeates the show.
The final section emphasizes classification and containment, comprising dozens of boxes filled with various objects. Visitors are invited to open and examine each one, participating directly in Dion’s examination of collecting as a personal and cultural practice.
Dion was present in Concord for the opening earlier this month and expressed enthusiasm for exhibiting in Massachusetts. “I’m always extra excited to work in Massachusetts,” he said, acknowledging the influence of his local upbringing on his artistic perspective.
The exhibition follows Dion’s previous notable regional projects, including his 2017 show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, “Mark Dion: Misadventures of a 21st-Century Naturalist,” and his installation “The Undisciplined Collector” at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum, which similarly explore themes of natural history, collection, and display.
“Mark Dion: Eccentric Collectors Like Us” invites visitors to reconsider the boundaries between art, science, and the everyday, offering a layered reflection on how objects accumulate meaning through collection and conservation.