A solo exhibition of new work
A solo exhibition of new work
Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a solo exhibition of
new work by Allan McCollum.
Working over the past few years, McCollum has designed a new system to produce
unique two-dimensional "shapes." This system allows him to make enough unique shapes
for every person on the planet to have one of their own. It also allows him to keep
track of the shapes, so as to insure that no two will ever be alike.
For the time being, around 214,000,000 of the shapes have been set aside for
creative experimentation. These can be used for many different purposes - not only
for fine art and design projects, but also for various social practices: as gifts,
awards, identity markers, emblems, insignias, logos, toys, souvenirs, educational
tools, and so forth. The shapes can be printed graphically as silhouettes or
outlines, in any size, color or texture, using all varieties of graphics software to
build, carve, or cut the shapes from wood, plastic, metal, stone, and other
materials.
The basic system for making the shapes is now complete, but the project of actually
constructing all of them is much too large for McCollum to finish by himself, or in
his own lifetime. For this reason he is organizing it in such a way that others may
continue completing them in his absence. He is also making shapes available to
others, with the hope that people will come up with many interesting ways to use
them.
Allan McCollum was born in California in 1944, and lives and works in New York. He
has spent over thirty years exploring how objects achieve public and personal
meaning in a world constituted in mass production, focusing most recently on
collaborations with small community historical society museums in different parts of
the world.
McCollum has had over 100 solo exhibitions, including retrospectives at the MusAoe
d'Art Moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Lille, France (1998); the Sprengel Museum,
Hannover, Germany (1995-96); the Serpentine Gallery, London (1990); the Rooseum
Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden (1990); IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia,
Spain (1990); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (1989), and
Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (1988). He has produced public art projects in the
United States and Europe, and his works are held in nearly seventy major art museum
collections worldwide.
To introduce his project in New York, McCollum will be exhibiting over 5000 unique
monoprints along with a series of wooden sculptures produced in collaboration with
Graphicstudio and The Institute for Research in Art.
Image: Allan McCollum,
The Shapes Project,
2006,
Small framed monoprints,
4.25 x 5.5 inches,
10.8 x 14 cm
Opening Reception: Friday, November 3rd, 6-8 pm
Friedrich Petzel Gallery
535 West 22nd Street - New York