LOUISVILLE, KY.- New works by photographer Elena Dorfman commissioned by 21c Museum are on view for the first time in the exhibition, Pleasure Park: The Horses. The photographic portraits of thoroughbreds were taken in the studio—outside the context of either the race track or the horse farm—provoking a fresh look at these familiar animals. Pleasure Park: The Horses marks the third exhibition of Dorfman’s photographs organized by 21c Museum; previous exhibitions were Still Lovers and Fandomania. Dorfman’s work is in the permanent collection of SFMOMA and 21c Museum and her Fandomania series was featured in a photo portfolio in The New York Times. Pleasure Park: The Horses is currently on view in the restaurant of 21c Museum Hotel, Proof on Main, and will run through March 2010.

21c Museum is North America's first museum dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art of the 21st century. The 9,000-square-foot Museum is part of the 21c Museum Hotel, located in Louisville's art and theater district. The exhibitions and installations of 21c Museum weave into the fabric of the hotel and the surrounding streetscape, with works of art filtering into both public space and unexpected places. There is no hierarchical demarcation between the areas of the Museum and the other public spaces of 21c. Works of art appear in elevators, public restrooms, sunken courtyards, hallways, the walls and corners of the Proof on Main restaurant and bar, and on the floor, windowpanes, roof, and the city sidewalk. The 21c Museum– which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – features permanent installations and special exhibitions of works by both emerging and recognized artists, including Bill Viola, Tony Oursler, Andres Serrano, Sam Taylor-Wood, David Levinthal, Yinka Shonibare, Judy Fox, Chuck Close, Alfredo Jaar, and Kara Walker.

Original commissions by 21c Museum include permanent installations: an untitled work by Werner Reiterer, the artist’s first permanent public sculpture in the U.S.; “In the Absence of Voyeurism 6 & 7” by artist and surgeon Sean Bidic; artist and MacArthur Fellow Ned Kahn’s “Cloud Rings”; and an untitled work by Ivan Navarro, the artist’s only commission for a public space.

The 21c Museum Hotel is designed by Deborah Berke & Partners Architects. The structure combines five 19th-century buildings to create a four story facility that houses the 21c Museum and the Proof on Main restaurant on its ground floor, as well as 90 hotel rooms on its upper stories.