calendario eventi  :: 

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8/5/2014

Two exhibitions

Sean Kelly gallery, New York

Rebecca Horn
The Vertebrae Oracle

Sean Kelly announces The Vertebrae Oracle, an exhibition of new work by renowned German artist Rebecca Horn. This will be the artist’s first solo show in New York since her critically acclaimed Raven’s Gold Rush of 2011. An opening reception with the artist will take place Friday, May 9 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The Vertebrae Oracle will include a group of new sculptures and large-scale paintings on paper. As with much of Horn’s oeuvre, and particularly with the works in The Vertebrae Oracle, both nature and the passage of time are thematic constants. Revelation of a Tree, one of the largest sculptures in the exhibition, consists of a substantial cast bronze tree branch, on which brass claw-like rods are arranged in a circle. Their formation suggests that the claws both embrace and protect the tree branch. Horn’s references to nature and her lyrical mark making—gestural actions determined by the artist’s physical reach—are evident throughout the major paintings on paper in the exhibition, such as Moon to a Vertebrae Oracle.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a poem of the same name that Horn composed for her friend, Meret Oppenheim, in honor of what would have been Oppenheim’s 100th birthday in 2013. Horn explains that “Meret had this lightness, so that a poetic wind could open up the bones of her spine to leave behind messages in her world.”

The individual elements that comprise Horn’s creative output—poems, drawings, paintings, sculptures, and films—are all evinced in the exhibition. Science and alchemy, the rational and the intuitive, and the mechanical and the sensual have characterized her work over the last four decades, resulting in one of the most important and distinct oeuvres in the world.

Horn’s work is included in major public collections worldwide including: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin; the Tate Gallery, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven and many others. She has participated in Documenta and the Venice Biennale on a number of occasions; she has been the subject of a major retrospective at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and was awarded Japan’s prestigious 2010 Praemium Imperiale Prize in Sculpture and the Grande Médaille des Arts Plastiques 2011 from the Académie d’Architecture de Paris.

This spring, Hatje Cantz will publish a monograph of Horn’s selected poems and texts from 1972 to 2013. The book will be presented for the first time at the opening reception of Horn’s exhibition in New York.

On November 16, 2014, the Busch-Reisinger Museum will unveil a site-specific sculpture by Horn in the Harvard Art Museums’ new facility designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

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Forms of Attraction
Kjaerholm, Tenreiro and Selected Works

Sean Kelly announces Forms of Attraction: Kjærholm, Tenreiro and Selected Works. This exhibition includes iconic pieces by furniture designers Poul Kjærholm (Denmark) and Joaquim Tenreiro (Brazil) alongside works by significant modern and contemporary artists such as Edgar Degas, Los Carpinteros, Olafur Eliasson, Ellsworth Kelly, Iran do Espírito Santo, Donald Judd, Pietro Roccasalva, and Frank Thiel, amongst others.

This is the gallery’s third exhibition featuring Kjærholm and the first time that it has shown pieces by Tenreiro. Forms of Attraction... provides the viewer an opportunity to establish correlations between the two designers’ unique approaches to form and materials which, together with the carefully curated selection of fine art, creates a compelling dialogue between furniture, art and
installation.

This exhibition is co-presented with R & Company.

Forms of Attraction: Kjærholm, Tenreiro and Selected Works will run concurrently at Sean Kelly with Rebecca Horn: The Vertebrae Oracle.

About the designers:

Poul Kjærholm (1929-1980) was the final major figure to emerge from the Danish furniture tradition and one of the most profound furniture designers of the 20th century. Originally trained as a cabinetmaker, Kjærholm studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen, where he developed a vision of modern furniture that combined craft techniques with industrial production. After a series of experiments with molded materials, Kjærholm developed his mature method: treating steel construction with the delicacy and precision of traditional woodworking techniques. Kjærholm's aesthetic revolved around open modular structures in which ornament and historical references were stripped away to reveal the beauty of the materials and the quality of the construction.

Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992) was the pioneer of modernist Brazilian furniture making. A forerunner in the use of rediscovered raw materials as well as the creator of a new formal language in 20th century Brazilian furniture design, he drew on the lessons of past furniture making as a vital source, not only in the mastery of technical and constructive solutions, but also in the aesthetic experience, craftsmanship, and the cultural meaning of his production. His exquisitely crafted pieces evoke a refined coexistence of traditional values and modern aesthetics, strongly bound to the Brazilian cultural milieu.

Image: REBECCA HORN, Revelation of a Tree, 2014. Branches cast in bronze, steel, brass, motor, electronic device, 57 1/8 x 90 1/2 x 59 1/16 inches (145 x 230 x 150 cm) © Rebecca Horn. Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York

For media inquiries, please contact:
Concetta Duncan at Sutton PR at 212.202.3402 or concetta@suttonpr.com.

Opening: Friday, May 9, 6 – 8 PM

Sean Kelly Gallery
475 Tenth Avenue - New York NY 10018
Sean Kelly is open Tuesday - Friday, 11am to 6pm and Saturdays from 10am to 6pm.

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