Daniel Arsham
Davide Balliano
Matthias Bitzer
Martin Boyce
Pablo Bronstein
Ross Chisholm
Joseph Cornell
Marcel Duchamp
Laurent Grasso
Marine Hugonnier
Louise Lawler
Benoit Maire
David Maljkovic
Rita McBride
Christopher Orr
Pietro Roccasalva
Markus Schinwald
Claudia Wieser
Laurent Grasso
Group show
curated by Laurent Grasso
Daniel Arsham, Davide Balliano, Matthias Bitzer, Martin Boyce, Pablo Bronstein, Ross Chisholm, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Laurent Grasso, Marine Hugonnier, Louise Lawler, Benoît Maire, David Maljkovic, Rita McBride, Christopher Orr, Pietro Roccasalva, Markus Schinwald and Claudia Wieser
Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to announce memories of the future, a group exhibition curated by gallery artist Laurent Grasso. The exhibition will be on view from June 25 through July 30. The opening will take place on Thursday, June 24 from 6-8pm.
The word "temporal" is defined as "of or relating to the sequence of a particular time." Laurent Grasso's own work, such as the series of what appear to be 16th century paintings and drawings, Studies Into the Past, uses the conceptual notion of shifting temporalities and multiple temporalities existing simultaneously to create a surreal suspension in time. With this as the starting point for memories of the future, Grasso has assembled an impressive and diverse group of artists working across multiple media whose oeuvres he feels share similar conceptual concerns. These artists make reference to particular places or timeframes that are brought forward (or backward) to the present day, forcing viewers to question traditional notions of time as it exists in a rigid, linear sequence.
Works from the 20th century masters Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell give the exhibition both a literal and figurative historical context. Duchamp's photographs of accumulated dust are documents of an artwork where the raw material is time. Cornell's rare, early collages and "sand tray" box bring together imagery and found objects from historical source material – sand in this case as a metaphor for a universal symbol marking the passage of time.
Artists Rita McBride and Louise Lawler, whose works investigate the transportable nature of architectural space, are also featured in the exhibition. McBride's White Elephant sculpture suggests HVAC ductwork from an imaginary building, but is crafted in copper, a material too precious to be used for such a banal industrial application. Lawler's photograph of a Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition has multiple layers of temporal disjunction – not only does Lawler take a specific place out of its temporal context, but this same theme is at the heart of Matta-Clark's work as well.
Artists such as Davide Balliano and Claudia Wieser have created works on paper that manipulate imagery of classical sculpture and spaces through the insertion of contemporary gestures that force the viewer to move rapidly through the art historical timeline. Present-day manipulation of found material that seems to date back as far as the 18th century is incorporated into the work of Marine Hugonnier and Markus Schwinwald in the medium of collage and painting.
The abstraction of time and space, in some cases subtle, in others overt, is a common concern of all of the artists in memories of the future: Daniel Arsham, Davide Balliano, Matthias Bitzer, Martin Boyce, Pablo Bronstein, Ross Chisholm, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Laurent Grasso, Marine Hugonnier, Louise Lawler, Benoît Maire, David Maljkovic, Rita McBride, Christopher Orr, Pietro Roccasalva, Markus Schinwald and Claudia Wieser.
Image: Matthias Bitzer
Laurent Grasso will have his first solo show with the gallery September 10 through October 23, 2010.
Please contact Maureen Bray at the gallery (212.239.1181) or maureen@skny.com for more information.
Opening Thursday, June 24 from 6-8pm.
Sean Kelly
528 West 29th Street New York NY 10001
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11am until 6pm and Saturday from 10am until 6pm. Summer hours begin in July and are Monday through Friday, from 10am until 5pm.