For the first time, the Institute of Contemporary Art, in Boston, has asked an artist to curate an exhibition that draws from its permanent collection. The inaugural artist, Taylor Davis, is a Boston-based painter and sculptor, as well as a professor at both the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Bard College. Davis’s exhibition takes its title from the first chapter of Creativity and Taoism, philosopher Chang Chung-yuan’s 1963 book about the Eastern concept of elevated consciousness. Works that Davis has chosen to be part of this show include Françoise Grossen’s 1971 rope sculpture Inchworm, James Welling’s 1998 print Inlet, and a 1979 Cindy Sherman photograph. Davis has also selected choice pieces from outside the permanent collection, including a drawing by Conny Purtill and a poem by Fanny Howe. —Jensen Davis