LOS ANGELES Hauser and Wirth While both iterations have followed immense tragedy—9/11 and then the Palisades and Eaton fires—what Hammons attunes us to is not the instance of tragedy itself, but the infinitely combinatory and socially contingent conditions that inform the spaces we occupy.
LOS ANGELES Hauser & Wirth The enigmatic press release for Hammons’s recent exhibition contains only the words “This exhibition is dedicated to / Ornette / Coleman / Harmolodic Thinker / David Hammons,” superimposed over a freeform drawing of squiggled, wavering horizontal and vertical lines. The press release not only set the tone for this sprawling, theatrical show, it also manifested Hammons’s total control over the display and public presentation of his work within the context of one of the world’s most powerful galleries.
NEW YORK Mnuchin Gallery Over the decades, David Hammons’s aesthetic originality has maintained relevance through his oblique use of materials and subtle manner of transmitting meaning through seemingly incongruous, yet fertile combinations of objets trouvés. There are many examples, ranging from rock and hair sculptures to vibrantly lyrical Kool-Aid paintings and his rugged use of black rubber, fabric, concrete, and steel, not to mention his snowballs and paintings concealed by tarpaulins.
New York Playing on and with consumer waste…see the full review in September’s magazine.
Los Angeles Art + Practice As far as symbolism is concerned, certain materials arrive ready-made, freighted with meaning. The protean sculptor/dancer Senga Nengudi, a major influence on Los Angeles’s African American art scene of the ’70s and ’80s, employs a material whose sole function is to be in contact with the female body.
Fashioned from rubbish and recycled materials, Abigail DeVille’s sculptures refuse their role as art objects. Instead, her assemblages of repurposed items revel in excess and the casual circumstance of the everyday. Recognizing the potential of cast-off things to tell stories and enunciate other histories, DeVille proposes an alternative, social purpose for sculpture (often combined with
Betye Saar was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2018. For a full list of Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, click here. For nearly 70 years, Betye Saar has created prints, collages, and assemblages that transform the cast-off and forgotten into powerful explorations of African American history and identity, the politics of race and gender,
A rejection of politicized subject matter in favor of abstract, autonomous, and independent-object sculpture is the key to unlocking the art of Seattle-based sculptor Cris Bruch. In 1991, Bruch made a clean break with his performance-based installations and object-conglomerations addressing social issues.
Independent curator and critic Hou Hanru embodies the new globalism of the contemporary art world. Born and educated in China, he has been based in Paris since 1990. While architectural projects have a special significance for him, his shows also explore the opposition between tradition and modernity in novel ways, and present a unique vision
The first joke a baby gets is always the same: mild alarm followed quickly by extravagant reassurance. The baby laughs rapturously at the absurdity of being afraid. When we grown-up babies enjoy our more or less sophisticated derivatives of peek-a-boo, what is funny is still the idea that we were about to be frightened or
