Petah Coyne
dal 23/10/2008 al 12/12/2008
Segnalato da
23/10/2008
Petah Coyne
Galerie Lelong, New York
The exhibition presents 14 striking new sculptures in "Vermilion Fog", an exhibition divided into two parts - Dante's Inferno and Unforgiven, allusions to literature and film that loosely frame the works by themes of loss, chaos, and redemption. The artist known for her use of diverse materials in large works whose grace and fragility belie their immense weight and arduous process.
Galerie Lelong presents 14 striking new sculptures by Petah Coyne in Vermilion Fog,
an exhibition divided into two parts--Dante's Inferno and Unforgiven, allusions
to literature and film that loosely frame the works by themes of loss, chaos, and
redemption. Vermilion Fog is a monumental exhibition for the artist known for her
use of diverse materials in large works whose grace and fragility belie their immense
weight and arduous process. Vermilion Fog opens to the public on Friday, October
24 from 6 to 8 pm, and the artist will be present.
The 20-year career of Petah Coyne has been one of constant and pervasive
reinvention--the
reinvention of her own working practices, of unconventional materials and their
innate characteristics, of the delineations of figuration and abstraction. Coyne's
alchemic sensibilities have led her to adopt and interweave disparate and seemingly
inflexible materials such as tree roots, sand, human hair, scrap metal, silk flowers,
Velcro, religious statuary, and taxidermy. The labor-intensive works that result
are both obsessively precise and wildly untamed. After all of her hoarding, hoisting,
piling, wrestling, and encasing, Coyne's creation is imbued with a restless energy
that develops a life of its own.
Coyne incorporates past practices and makes a sweeping, audacious leap forward in
Vermilion Fog, a significant exhibition for the artist. The narrative, hinted at
in her previous sculptures, takes a more discernable form in the exhibition. Suspended
in the air, sprawled on the floor, or winding skyward, the works appear frozen in
time, halted. Tendrils dangling below or reaching out from the dense forms suggest
decay, growth, and rebellion. In Dante's Inferno, Coyne creates a haunting and alluring
netherworld, with large, undulating masses of wax-dipped flowers, velvet, and branches
in dark, saturated colors. The 11-foot Untitled #1180 (Beatrice), the centerpiece
of Dante's Inferno, is a towering, perilous creature with whole taxidermy birds
engulfed in its grasp.
Stillness prevails in Unforgiven, where lush, rounded compositions of pale flowers
and white doves represent a spiritual refuge. The artist envisions these suspended
figures as souls ascending and descending, passing through the room. Exquisite,
intricate gates of wax, flowers, and steel keep viewers at a distance from the works,
emphasizing the sanctity of the space. Unforgiven is a moving finale for the exhibition
from Coyne, whose themes of regeneration and renewal echo her own persistence and
ingenuity as an artist.
Concurrently with Vermilion Fog, Petah Coyne's works can be seen in three museum
exhibitions: 21: Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York; Damaged
Romanticism:
A Mirror of Modern Emotion at the Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston; and
Time/Frame,
Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Her work will be
on view in the Art Museum of Western Virginia's new building for their permanent
collection, opening this fall. Petah Coyne is represented in numerous other museum
collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American
Art; Nasher Museum of Art; Corcoran Gallery of Art; High Museum of Art; and Museum
of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki.
A catalogue featuring the works in Vermilion Fog and texts by Ann Wilson Lloyd and
Leslie Scalapino is available, published by Charta Books and Galerie Lelong.
Opening reception: Friday, October 24, 6 to 8 pm
Galerie Lelong
528 West 26th Street - New York
Hours: Tues - Sat, 10 am - 6 pm
Free admission