Jac Leirner
dal 14/4/2010 al 14/5/2010
Segnalato da
14/4/2010
Jac Leirner
Yvon Lambert, New York
Osso features works from 1994-2008 by the Brazilian artist. Leirner creates mixed media sculptures and installations using commonplace objects, collections of which have been fastidiously hoarded by the artist for years at a time. His works are deft and pragmatic representations of the continual exchange of ideas, information, money, and commercial commodities between nations and individuals.
Yvon Lambert New York is pleased to announce Osso, Jac Leirner’s first
exhibition at the gallery. Osso will feature works from 1994-2008 by the
Brazilian artist. The exhibition will open with a reception for the artist on
April 15 from 6-8pm and will be on view until May 15, 2010.
Leirner creates mixed media sculptures and installations using commonplace
objects, collections of which have been fastidiously hoarded by the artist for
years at a time. Her compulsive accumulation commonly focuses on items
deemed insignificant or lacking value: plastic shopping bags, cigarette boxes,
airline boarding passes and airsickness bags-all of which are designed to be
disposed of after their use. Leirner’s works are deft and pragmatic
representations of the continual exchange of ideas, information, money, and
commercial commodities between nations and individuals.
The artist’s use of materials and serialization has led to myriad art historical
comparisons including: Brancusi’s Endless Column; Fontana’s Spatial
Concepts; minimalism; Arte Povera; and Pop’s use of both advertising and the
everyday object. Leirner’s ideas are inherently Duchampian in her usage of banal materials, yet she breaks from
the Dadaist model by infusing the objects with a sense of culture and history. These items are no longer generic
and mass-produced, but recontextualized as relics of Leirner’s own journeys. While Duchamp often eschewed
the original function and context of his objects, for Leirner the items’ original symbolism is vital and marks—
both visually and temporally—the artist’s autobiographical experience.
While personal, Leirner’s choice of material also reflects common experiences and possessions: her cigarette
pack is like yours, as are the collections of business cards and shopping bags. Critics have oft described her
work as “poetic” due to the nostalgic nature of the collections, as well as the whimsical and romantic notion of
travel that is evoked. On display at Yvon Lambert will be a series of works titled Osso, from which the
exhibition title is drawn, comprised of shopping bags that Leirner has strategically altered to remove all traces of
branding or text. These “void bags” exist as artifacts of their previous form; many presented only as outlines of
the original plastic sack. To and From (Bohen) highlights the bureaucratic processes inherent to museums by
chronicling the incoming mail correspondence to the foundation. Leirner’s use of museum articles signifies the
global commercialization and commodification of works of art. The links between institutions in the artistic
community are emphasized, and the objects are displayed as physical manifestations of these connections.
Jac Leiner (born Brazil, 1961) lives and works in São Paulo. The artist was featured in the Venice Biennale in
1990 and 1997, as well as in Documenta IX. Leirner has been a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University as a guest
of the British Council, as well as Artist in Residence at both the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and the Walker
Art Centre in Minneapolis, MN. In 2001 the artist received a fine arts fellowship from the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Leirner’s work is featured in the permanent collection of the Museum of
Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; Tate, London;
and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC.
About Yvon Lambert:
Yvon Lambert opened Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris in 1967. The Collection Lambert in Avignon opened in 2000 with 350
works from Yvon Lambert’s personal collection and presents more than 1200 works today. Yvon Lambert New York was
founded in 2003 and in 2007 moved to its current location, designed by Richard Gluckman in collaboration with Thomas Zolli.
Image: Knotted Km, 2004. Cords, strips, gift wrapping bands, strings, brads, dimension variable
Please contact Geneva Jann-Lewis with any press inquiries
at Geneva@yvon-lambert.com
or 212-242-3611
Opening with a reception for the artist on April 15 from 6-8pm
Yvon Lambert
550 West 21st Street, New York USA
Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm