SculptureCenter presents Leopards in the Temple
January 10th – March 30th, 2010
Opening: Sunday, January 10, 2010
Artist Walkthrough: 3pm
Opening Reception: 5-7pm
SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
+1.718.361.1750
Participating Artists: Lothar Baumgarten, Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Nina Canell, Latifa Echakhch, Aleana Egan, Patrick Hill, Nina Hoffmann, Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder (DAS INSTITUT), Lucas Knipscher, Kitty Kraus, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Lucy Skaer, Kathrin Sonntag.Curated by Fionn Meade.
Media contact: Nickolas Roudané, press@sculpture-center.org
SculptureCenter is pleased to present Leopards in the Temple.
Leopards in the Temple is a parable by Franz Kafka that reads as follows:
“Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.”
The group exhibition of the same name focuses on moments of metamorphosis, paradox, and formal adjacency, borrowing from the parable an ability to promote multiple readings of succinct forms and extraordinary occurrences. Protean moments where materials elide, transform, and overlay take place in the work of Lothar Baumgarten, Nina Canell, Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, and Kitty Kraus, while the rules of image production are triangulated and problematized in the painting configurations of Patrick Hill, Lucas Knipscher, and Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder’s DAS INSTITUT. Kathrin Sonntag and Nina Hoffmann (working in collaboration) and the collaborative duo João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva present slide and film projections that explore the uncanny through acts of magnetism, doubling, and transference. And sculpture is framed and distributed as an effaced and often fictional artifact in the work of Latifa Echakhch, Aleana Egan, and Lucy Skaer. Gathering together an international group of artists, the works in this exhibition share an extra-linguistic interest in moments of translation and a resistance to fixed forms.
Leopards in the Temple offers an unusual opportunity for New York audiences to experience the work of a number of increasingly prominent European artists, including 2009 Turner Prize Nominee Lucy Skaer, João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, who together represented Portugal at the most recent Venice Biennale, Nina Canell, the winner of this year’s Bâloise Art Prize at Art Basel 40 | Statements, along with Kathrin Sonntag, recipient of the 2009 Swiss Art Award and Kitty Kraus, recipient of the 2008 Blauorange Prize. The exhibition represents the first New York exhibition for a number of the participating artists.
To read more, click here to view the full press release.
As a complement to the exhibition, SculptureCenter and Anthology Film Archives will present screenings with Nashashibi/Skaer, an ongoing collaboration between artists Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer, on Monday, January 18, 2010, at 7:30 PM and João Maria Gusamão and Pedro Paiva on March 8, 2010, at 7:30 PM at Anthology Film Archives.
About SculptureCenter Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture. SculptureCenter commissions new work and presents exhibits by emerging and established, national and international artists. In 2001, SculptureCenter purchased a former trolley repair shop in Long Island City, Queens. This facility, designed by artist/designer Maya Lin, includes 6,000 square feet of interior exhibition space, offices, and outdoor exhibition space.
SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
www.sculpture-center.org
+1.718.361.1750
