Maintenance Artist

After motherhood disrupted her art career, Mierle Laderman Ukeles issued a radical manifesto declaring childcare and housework as performance art. Entering the male-dominated 1960s avant-garde, she challenged art’s scorn for maintenance and care. Expanding her vision, Ukeles collaborated with overlooked museum workers and, in 1977, became artist-in-residence at NYC Sanitation, honoring essential labor. Using newly digitized archives, MAINTENANCE ARTIST traces her transformation of maintenance into a powerful force in contemporary art.