Between Fall 2018 and Spring 2019, Mayer was part of the curatorial team for an exhibition at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation done in collaboration with Hunter College, City University of New York. Part of a graduate Curatorial Practicum course taught by Distinguished Professor Dr. Emily Braun, Robert Rauschenberg: Night Shades and Phantoms, 1991 was mounted in the spring of 2019 at the Foundation’s New York headquarters. It was the first exhibition devoted exclusively to the two related metal paintings series, Night Shades and Phantoms (both 1991), and is accompanied by a catalogue, also available digitally.

Mayer and the cohort determined the criteria for developing the checklist, selecting from Night Shades and Phantoms in the Foundation’s holdings. They conducted new research on both series in the Foundation archives, identifying the source imagery from Rauschenberg’s own black and white photographs. The team also examined the artworks with conservators to understand the artist’s materials and techniques. Working with staff from the Foundation, they designed the installation and wrote the accompanying didactics.

Taking advantage of the unique setting—a 18th century townhouse turned Mission for orphans turned Rauschenberg’s home and studio in New York— the exhibition spread across three rooms and multiple floors. The former Chapel space, with its ample light and high ceilings, acted as the venue for the highly reflective Phantoms, while the neighboring gallery housed the umbrous Night Shades. Archival photographs from Rauschenberg’s travels filled the hallways between floors, guiding guests upstairs to a final room wherein the series were juxtaposed.

Mayer acted as a course assistant to Dr. Braun for this curatorial practicum, assisting with additional research and administration throughout the planning and installation process. She further led weekly exhibition tours throughout the exhibition’s run. Her catalogue essay. “Looking Also Happens in Time: Memory Traces in Robert Rauschenberg's Night Shades and Phantoms,” explores the way the metal paintings’ shifting, reflective surfaces denied the indexicality of Rauschenberg’s photography and instead depicted the contingent nature of human memory.