"Accumulation: A Study in Utility" at Abel Contemporary

Test installation
Mop XIX, 2017 by Melissa Dorn
Broom Studies, 2026 by Lois Bielefeld

Please join us at Abel Contemporary Gallery’s No. 5 project space for Accumulation: A Study in Utility by Lois Bielefeld and Melissa Dorn.

February 27 - April 19, 2026
Opening Reception Friday, February 27, 5 – 8 pm
Artist Talk with Melissa Dorn and Lois Bielefeld – Sunday, April 12, 2pm

There is a pesky side to being human: the endless war against debris, the daunting organization of it all, the relentless nature of domestic labor. Yet within this cycle live tools that span history and cultures—the broom and the mop. Melissa Dorn has been working with mops as subject and material since 2015. Lois Bielefeld has been working on various studies (brooms, chairs, and piles) since 2019. They have been in conversation about these ideas since 2016 and in this exhibit take these interactions further with an interactive, site-specific installation that interweaves both of their practices into something new. The experimental nature of gallery no. 5. offers these artists the unique opportunity to merge their individual works into a harmonious question—one that interrogates both the ongoing nature of domestic tasks and what an exhibition can be. Creating a new work that exists only through this collaboration Dorn and Bielefeld invite viewers to continue reorienting the work throughout the exhibition and become agents of chance.

524 East Main Street
Stoughton, WI 53589
Tuesday - Saturday
10 am - 5 pm
Sunday 11 am - 5 pm